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years at military and civilian schools and blogs at Bracing Views. He can be reached at [email protected]. Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Read more by William J. AstoreInstruction manuals for video games are seen as less of a necessity these days, but they still can give a game a bit more soul, even today. Katherine Cross explains.
Nostalgia over the contents of once-bountiful video game boxes and jewel cases is nothing new. One of my favorite gaming memories involves The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind’s beautifully detailed map of Vvardenfell (pictured above) spread out beside me to help me navigate every enchanted path of this world.
It was as if this bit of Tamrielic errata had magically materialized in real life; a bit of the world I could actually hold and use.
The instruction manual was nothing to write home about, but that wasn’t true for other games I grew up with--consider Homeworld, recently re-released in a remastered special edition, whose manual was mostly written in-universe as a historical, political, and tactical guide for the future commander of the Mothership (i.e. you).
Replete with detailed descriptions of the ships at your command, the histories of every clan on your planet, and even a debate between two fleet officers (which taught me the useful insult “Your Kiith Matron!”) it’s a master class of instruction manual design. I’d pore over it even when I wasn’t actively playing, reading for fun, as surely as I would my Star Wars novels.
It’s something of a miracle that my copy of the manual, entitled “Historical and Technical Briefing,” is so pristine considering how well-loved it was. But as I unearthed it from my piles of game manuals and D&D books, I got to thinking about the connections between the two and how there’s something more to our love for these lovingly-written manuals than mere nostalgia; rather, they may be a game mechanic unto themselves.
***
The basic purpose of an instruction manual--to teach players the basic controls of the game--is increasingly being fulfilled by ever more sophisticated tutorials in modern games that attempt to teach the player by doing, surely a more durable instruction method. Even Collector's Edition game boxes, that last bastion of stuff-laden video game packaging, usually don’t include manuals.
But there was always more to it than teaching you which buttons to press when in these older manuals. They bridge the gap between the player and the game environment, and provide developers with numerous ways to enrich their narrative and setting without impinging on the elegance of certain parts of their game--especially important when you’re making something besides an RPG where space for narrative is at a much greater premium.
Some manuals, however, truly rise to the level of my old Morrowind map. A piece of the world sprung to life. The instruction manual for Wing Commander was an on-board magazine entitled Claw Marks, filled with set-dressings for the game’s universe--and it should be no surprise that its author, the late Aaron Allston, was a roleplaying game designer in addition to a sci-fi writer.
The Claw Marks magazine, still much beloved among fans, was rich with lore. From the news briefs about a USO-style show, to a guide that actually teaches useful tactics for the game in an in-character/in-universe voice, to the profile of ‘by the book’ Captain Jeannette “Angel” Devereaux (who I suspect would’ve been my role model had I played this game as a child), it all lends meaning to what happens in the game, investing the player in the events and actions on-screen.
The original Fallout’s 50’s-ish nuclear fallout survival guide [PDF here], which treated some game instructions as if they were teaching an in-universe reader how to play through a simulation, is another classic in this vein, but so too are more recent entries. Halo 2’s twin manuals, one each for the regular and special editions, provided players with tactical guides written from the perspective of the humans and the Covenant, respectively, the latter elevating the series villains above mere plot-necessity [PDF].
Manuals of this nature seem to wear the powerful influence of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, which helped shape early video gaming in a number of ways; they are the inheritance of PnP RPGs’ tomes of in-universe data that, in spite of their intimidating length, draw you in as surely as a finely crafted novel.
The “authoritative voice” of the tabletop roleplaying sourcebook has featured prominently in my academic writing as a wellspring of inspiration for players. In spite of the proliferation of home-brewed rules, the books set a tone that retains an indelible influence on almost every gaming table. They provide the inspiration that makes meaning of play.
The sourcebooks’ content stimulates creativity and investment; it is often the dark matter of what makes a game more than “just a game,” and instruction manuals are quite capable of doing the same.
***
One of the issues with Civilization: Beyond Earth, the spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, was that its lore felt disjointed for want of a corral of wider significance that could motivate emotional investment. There were flashes of hope buried deep on the Civilization website, however, in the form of interviews with each of the major faction leaders that lent them desperately needed personality and emotion. Yet that material would have been better suited to, at the very least, a PDF that came with the game as a free download.
This would not have fixed all the problems with Beyond Earth’s presentation of its lore, but it would’ve helped give players more of a reason to care about the factions they chose.
The best instruction manuals, past and present, are themselves part of the game, to be revisited again and again. Taggart’s Tactical Guide in the middle of Claw Marks would definitely be an on-hand reference, even in the midst of intense play. They turned pixels into majestic ships and striking characters, adding narrative in a way that would have been ponderous had it been integrated into the full game.
They are also an expressive mechanic that seamlessly conveys the game’s spirit, its ideas, and the feelings it is meant to inspire through a narrative exploration of the world and-- sometimes-- the controls.
A sneaker spider of sorts, from Minkomora
A prime example of this can be found in Kikopa Games’* Minkomora instruction manual, teaching you to play its serene exploration game. Through its warm writing and art you are introduced to the basic controls of the game and to its cast of Yellow Submarine-style creatures. One of them is the Kotnakon, a sneaker spider of sorts that can act as a mount for your character; the manual explains that it will need to rest after carrying you for a while. Simple enough data for the player. But the manual goes on to say:
“Are you working too hard for another? It’s easy for many of us to lose ourselves in giving to those around us. But we have to remember to take stock of our own needs and wants too.”
Each creature’s blurb seems to reach across the divide between game and life.
The manual becomes, here, another vector for expressing Minkomora’s aesthetics and sensibilities, conveying the game to you as you read it. Simple though it may be, lacking my beloved appendices and subsections, it still effectively conveys a strong sense of what Minkomora is and means, lending character and colour to the game world before you even set foot in it. Minkomora's contemplative embrace, embodied by its denizens who teach you something about yourself, is expressed through the manual.
It also shows a path to digital distribution for cost-conscious developers; you no longer need to expensively print copies of a manual in order for it to perform these functions.
Digital distribution may not quite replace the wonderful tactility of our older manuals, maps, and books, but they still can still do their job quite ably. The Wii U’s digital manuals, integrated into the console’s home screen also provide fertile ground for experimentation here; if we have to have digital manuals, developers can find a way to make them do something a physical manual couldn’t. Video clips, simple mini-games, spoken-character bios or other voice overs. Imagine, for example, a cyberpunk themed game where the manual was a digital newspaper that the player could flip through at will, setting the stage for their game.
Civilization’s Civilopedia provides another model here, as does the late Warhammer Online’s Tome of Knowledge which was a brilliant in-universe way of tracking achievements, collectibles, and organising tutorial data along with a host of other features. If one’s company has an allergy to printed matter, there’s plenty of possible avenues to explore.
Warhammer Online's in-game Tome of Knowledge (source)
***
We should remember why this is worth doing in the first place.
Manuals can do more than instruct; in games, they express. They begin the process of surrounding the player with the game world and making it mean something. There are countless ways to do this, but the role played by manuals has been unique because they often reached out into the world outside the game--giving players something to psychically or even physically hold on to. They provide a way to extend the game’s universe of meaning in a way that makes few if any demands on the content of the game itself.
It may be time for the game industry as a whole to revisit the concept of the manual, even as game developers find other innovative ways to teach players how to play. If games need a bit more of that ever elusive quality known as “soul,” this is surely one place to begin.
Katherine Cross is a Ph.D student in sociology who researches anti-social behavior online, and a gaming critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications.
*I recently appeared in a book edited by Merritt Kopas, one of the devs behind Minkomora.Guatemala consumes 1 percent of her forest cover each year, and in 2010 it fell to only one-third of her territory. These figures spurred Gremial Forestal and other organizations to create a private solution in 2016: Reforestemos Guate. The comprehensive project promises sustained reforestation via creative strategies and operations.
Guatemalans use many forest-sourced products without replacing them. Around 60 percent of the population, for example, still produce heat and cook with wood. Erosion from human activity also disrupts natural ecosystems and contributes to the annual loss of 38,000 soccer fields of woodlands.
Although there are plenty of reforestation volunteer programs, most fail to garner results of any meaningful magnitude. They consist of one day of planting trees in a specific plot. That doesn’t address the need for ongoing care, nor does it provide reliable data for accountability and feedback on success. Gremial Forestal Executive Director Francisco Escobedo says there needs to be a minimum of six years of aftercare.
Gremial Forestal, with 67 years working in forest conservation, became aware of the shortcomings of come-and-go planting days and sought to offer a superior alternative. Beyond a different strategy of Reforestemos Guate, they approached prominent stakeholders and allied organizations, such as the Association for the Protection of Renewable Natural Resources.
“Reforestemos Guate is a national project that does not wear any particular colors and is a non-profit organization,” says Escobedo. The platform has two specific goals: (1) to reforest in a sustainable manner, and (2) to promote a culture that respects forestry. The plan also has four underlying pillars: strategic partnerships, population engagement, environmental awareness, and, above all, documented reforestation.
The funds from the first sponsors paid for the web platform, advertising, and promotional stands throughout the country. Escobedo shares that “the first year was not easy.” However, successful advertising support from Guatemala’s leading brands produced positive results.
“You need a tree more than you believe” was the tagline of the first publicity campaign, and it raised people’s awareness regarding their daily usage of forest-based products.
Escobedo explains, with some irony, that the campaign responded to the ever-present “someone should do something” comment. Meanwhile, people continue to “use wood-made products without noticing.” He believes this savvy marketing has been a key tool in promoting heightened concern for forestry conservation.
Large Guatemalan enterprises have endorsed the project, which has had a domino effect on productivity. Now purchasing a tree is as easy as going grocery shopping at Supermercado La Torre, recharging a Movistar phone, or filling the fuel tank at Gasolineras Don Arturo. By adding 25 quetzales (US$3.44) to your bill, you can pay for one tree and make reforestation your habit.
At least for now, Reforestemos Guate works exclusively on public lands, since that has proved more cost effective. In 2016, “we entered into an agreement with the Villanueva municipality,” says Escobedo, “so we replanted in the Amatlitlán Lake Basin.”
They intend to expand the planting throughout Guatemalan territory, once more people purchase trees and other businesses join to the cause. The financing strategy has no borders, and one plan they are working on is matching funds from foreign donors.
However, the main objective for the second year is to build partnerships with schools to introduce forestry awareness to children. His concern is that if too few people care, the project will fade away and fail to reverse a rising and ominous tide.
The long-run vision is for the citizens to be accustomed to replenishing the forest cover that they annually consume. “Reforestation is a preventive action,” Escobedo explains, and “it is cheaper than recovering an eroded soil.”
Reforestemos Guate, like other startup initiatives in the region, merits support. They offer innovative alternatives for social and environmental problems, and unlike reliance on public policies, they take action and involve individuals as active agents for solutions.For decades now, Nintendo has had an enormous presence in the consumer electronics market. The Big N has also had a strange and complicated relationship with advertising their products, taking on many forms over the years, some successful and others not so successful. Over the course of the coming weeks, I plan to write several articles about some of Nintendo’s most disastrous and most successful ad campaigns, beginning with the creepiest commercials of the bunch.
****
Video games are growing in popularity every year, rivaling movies and TV, and in many ways, coming out on top. They are ingrained in our culture and driven by some of the most innovative minds working in the tech sector. Artists and creators continue to push the entertainment envelope, and with so much competition, developers and publishers desperately try to find every way possible to get their product into the hands of consumers.
According to statistics from the Entertainment Software Association, 59 percent of all Americans play video games, with sales that generate billions in revenue. Not surprisingly, marketing plays a critical role in building the awareness of a new product – but reaching gamers is about more than just targeting a specific demographic. Publishers need to produce bold creative campaigns that will persuade customers to spend their hard earned cash. As you might expect, video game marketing is largely about the trailer, but it takes more than just a video to capture the attention of gamers, especially in the digital age, when millions of videos are uploaded online every day.
From the days of the Nintendo’s Seal of Quality campaign to the Now You’re Playing With Power movement, to the Play It Loud era, Nintendo has produced an abundance of commercials and marketing concepts ranging from family friendly ads to R-rated material. Here is a list of the most bizarre, and sometimes unsettling ads they’ve released over the years.
1 – Virtual Reality
The Virtual Boy proved to be a dismal failure for Nintendo. It was an absolute bonafide disaster and supposedly forced the retirement of creator Gunpei Yokoi, the brilliant mind behind the once successful Game & Watch (not to mention legendary producer of such games as Metroid, Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros.). It didn’t take long before Nintendo realized their mistake, and just months after its release, Nintendo decided to pull the plug. One could blame the controversial LED (Light Emitting Display) technology which rendered the visuals in monochromatic red on black, but some of the commercials Nintendo created also didn’t help to get the product into the hands of consumers. While there is one amazing ad for the Virtual Boy (that will appear in my next article) the following commercial is in my opinion, a terrible way to advertise your gaming console.
2 -The Twilight Zone
Perhaps the creepiest Nintendo commercial I’ve seen features a poorly-animated CGI businessman and 3D recreations of some of Nintendo’s most iconic characters from the 8-bit era. The ad was released in Austrailia and New Zealand, and issues consumers a direct challenge, as opposed to say, explaining why they should buy Nintendo products. One should never underestimate the power of a good theme song, and the creepy music and hypnotic voice-over of this ad somewhat recall the opening of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. I’m pretty sure this commercial left quite a few viewers confused and bewildered. Watch, and you’ll understand why.
3 – The Witch doctor song and dance
Super Mario has taken on many occupations over the years, and after his initial success as a plumber, Mario looked to medicine as a practice. When Dr. Mario was released in 1990, it was one of many games riding on the heels of the success of Alexei Pajitnov’s puzzle classic, only Dr. Mario turned out to be the best of the many Tetris clones by combining easy game mechanics, colorful graphics, and a great soundtrack.
In Dr. Mario, the player assumes the role of a doctor and is tasked with eradicating deadly viruses, so what better way to market the game than to include a witch doctor in your commercial? Unlike the previous commercial, this ad is actually quite good – maybe even brilliant – and a lot brighter underneath than its surface gloss would suggest. The witch doctor himself is fun to watch onscreen, and the catchy theme song will stick in your head long after the commercial ends.
4 – Stick it where the sun doesn’t shine
On its own merits, Super Mario Sunshine is a fun game with some great levels, but it just wasn’t enough to satisfy fans who waited so long for a follow-up to one of the greatest games ever made. It wasn’t even enough to outdo the superior Luigi’s Mansion released a year earlier. Super Mario Sunshine was a disappointment, and the following commercial for Super Mario Sunshine made me embarrassed to be a fan of Nintendo. We’ve seen some truly odd commercials over the years, but this has to be the worst of the bunch. At an egregious 9o seconds, the ad feels like it was conceived by people who were born yesterday, lacking any awareness of its triteness. I mean seriously, who is this ad aimed at – toddlers? If there is a special hell for Nintendo fans, it probably has the following commercial on continuous rotation.
5- Rape?
After years of living in the shadow of his older brother, 2013 marked the year of Luigi and continued in 2014 in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Luigi’s debut in Mario Bros. Luigi was finally lifted into the spotlight, starring in several games and also in the most troublesome ad Nintendo ever made. I’m not sure what message Nintendo was trying to get across here, but I’m not the first to think that it seems to suggest Luigi is raping Peach. This is an ad without a shred of artistic distinction. It lacks even simple craftsmanship. There is no possible motive for exhibiting it, and worse, the problem could have been easily solved had Peach called out to Luigi for help, and not Mario. Instead, we see a frightened Peach and Luigi’s reflection in her eyes and she trembles in fear as if to suggest Luigi is terrorizing the poor princess.
6- Walking Dildo
Unlike most Kirby games, Kirby: Canvas Curse allows players to control Kirby with the stylus and touch screen of the DS instead of the usual directional pad, face buttons, or shoulder buttons. It is one of the best games released for the DS and a good demonstration as to how good a DS game can be when it utilizes all of its features. Nintendo really wanted to emphasize this feature and so they decided to create an ad which stars what looks like a giant penis accompanying Kirby throughout his day. Obviously, Kirby’s companion is a stand in for what is supposed to be the player’s finger, only, unfortunately, it looks like a walking dildo. Perhaps, though, the ad is fitting given that the alternate title for the game is Touch! Kirby’s Magic Paintbrush. Enough said.
7- Gluttony
Nintendo took a radical step with Super Mario World 2 Yoshi’s Island, opting for a prequel, not a sequel, and a completely different style of gameplay. In Super Mario World 2, the game casts players as Yoshi as he escorts Baby Mario through 48 levels in order to reunite him with his brother Luigi, who had been kidnapped by Baby Bowser’s minions. The boss battles are the best part of Yoshi’s Island, with each of them being unique in their own way and each presenting a different layout and strategy. Most notable is Burt the Bashful.
To defeat Burt, Yellow Yoshi must hit him with eggs six times; with each hit, Burt’s pants continue to fall off. When he is defeated, his pants entirely fall off and, ashamed, he turns red, eventually imploding. Nintendo tried to find a way to represent Burt in the commercial for Yoshi’s Island, and they did this by including a middle-aged bowling instructor stuffing his face at a fast food restaurant until he literally explodes. The idea was to emphaize that Yoshi’s Island is crammed with so much exciting content that players just can’t get enough. Apparently, parents were appalled by what they saw and demanded it be taken off the air, but as strange as it is, this ad is amazing! Not only does the commercial immediately grab your attention, but it is something you won’t soon forget. Surreal and visually striking, the commercial is at times graphic, but it creatively touches on disturbing subjects with imagination and wit. The gluttonous climax produces nightmarish horror and formal beauty in surreal, American pop visuals. Parents hated this ad back in the 90’s, but the kids loved it!
8- TransAmerica
Have you ever caught your parents cross-dressing? Well if you ever do, Nintendo thinks it’s a great way to blackmail them into buying you a Nintendo console. For what was supposed to be a family-friendly console, the N64 has several R-rated commercials, most memorable being the commercial for Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
Nintendo decided that the best way to push its line of games for the Nintendo 64 was to release a commercial featuring a young boy walking in on his father dressed in drag. The commercial begins with a tracking shot through a suburban home as we hear the narration of the father’s voice, accompanied by sentimental music, explaining to his son that money isn’t the most important thing in life, unless of course you need to bribe your son to keep your secret hidden from your wife. It’s a farce with heart, a meditation on identity, family and gender politics and a great way to grab a viewer’s attention.Hot Shot in Top Gun
It has been three years since Tom Cruise made his starring debut as Joel Goodsen, the awakening young capitalist in Paul Brickman’s “Risky Business.” The movie was a perfect showcase for Cruise’s style – equal parts comic vulnerability and dramatic strength. When the family egg tumbled through the air at the end of “Risky Business”, audiences everywhere felt the full weight of Joel’s predicament. By the time it landed, Cruise had arrived.
Now 24, Cruise has worked steadily since that memorable turn, but due to a combination of lengthy schedules and production delays, he hasn’t been seen since 1983’s “All The Right Moves.” That hiatus is about to end. This year will see the release of three high-profile Cruise releases. First comes Ridley Scott’s long-awaited “Legend.” The summer blockbuster, “Top Gun” will hit theaters this month, and due in December is “The Color of Money,” Martin Scorsese’s sequel to “The Hustler.” Cruise stars as the pool playing protégé/nemesis of Fast Eddie – Paul Newman.
I spoke with Tom Cruise at the Columbus Dynasty Restaurant on New York’s Upper West Side. A model of manners, Cruise rarely missed an opportunity for a “sir” or “ma’am.” When our talk was over, he thanked the waitress, hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders and disappeared into a crowded subway, looking a lot like Joel Goodsen a long way from home.
Cameron Crowe: You’re someone who is associated with a lot of people’s adolescent thoughts and fantasies…
Tom Cruise: Yep, I’ve been laid just about everywhere. On the train, in the bedroom, on the stairs….[laughs]
CC: What was your own adolescence like?
TC: I’ve had such extremes in my life. From being this kind of wild kid, to one year studying to be a Franciscan priest at the seminary….I was very frustrated. I didn’t have a lot of friends. The closest people around me were my family. I think they felt a little nervous about me because I had a lot of energy and I couldn’t stick to one thing. If I worked in an ice-cream store – and I’ve worked in a lot of them – I would be the best for two weeks. Then I was always quitting or getting fired, because I was bored. I feel good about the fact that I finally found something I love. I never lived in one place for very long – that’s the way my whole life has been. I was always packing and moving around, staying in Canada, Kentucky, Jersey, St. Louis – it all helped because I was always learning new accents, experiencing different environments.
CC: How close did you come to becoming a Franciscan Priest?
TC: Not too close. I was there for one school session. I remember we used to sneak out of the school on weekends and go this girl’s house in town, sit around, talk and play Spin the Bottle. I just realized I loved women too much to give that up.
CC: What was the turning point, when you decided on acting and moved to New York?
TC: I was 17 and started in a school musical. Guys and Dolls. And I just loved it. At the schools I grew up in, sensitivity was something that was not accepted. Especially being the new kid. I felt vulnerable a lot of the time, constantly having to put up these guards to take care of myself. You didn’t sit around with the guys and talk about, “God, that really hurt my feelings, what you said.” It was more like, “Yeah, let’s go out, have some beers and kick some ass.” That was really frustrating to me. So the first time I did the play, all the guys came and saw it and said, “Whoa, we didn’t know that you could do that.” I felt good about it. Not just the fact that they saw it, but I felt good about it in my heart. My mother taught creative drama, so I’d always enjoyed it. I told my parents I was going to New York. I never really planned on going to college anyway. I had saved money and I was going to go to Europe and find the “big picture” there.
CC: Does your rebel side ever come out in the movie-making process?
TC: Like getting into a fistfight on a movie set? No. But I am very aggressive. You’ve got to be aggressive; there’s too much responsibility not to be. When you look at Taps, a lot of that character was my childhood. I wasn’t intense like that, but the character is just fear. That’s what he does when he’s afraid – he fights. I have an aggressive side, absolutely. I need a creative outlet. Now I work out every day. I get up and work out 45 to 60 minutes. And that’s how I start my day. Discipline is very important to me.
CC: How did you learn to deal with the constant rejection of going out on readings?
TC: I felt that the people rejecting me were there to help me in the long run. Sometimes it hurts, but I truly believe that there are parts I’m supposed to get and parts I’m not supposed to get and something else is going to come along.
I remember being flown out to Los Angeles to read for a series. I didn’t know anything – I didn’t know how touch it was. I went in to read and this director was sitting there in his office – he thought he was the coolest thing happening. I read, and I knew I was terrible. And he said, “So, how long are going to be in California?” And I’m thinking, “He’s probably going to want me to come back and read again with someone else”. I said, “Well, just a couple of days.” He said, “Good. Get a tan while you’re here.” [laughs] I couldn’t help it. I walked out, and I thought it was the funniest damn thing. Tears were coming out of my eyes,, I was laughing so hard. I thought, “This is Hollywood. Welcome, Cruise.”
CC: Your first major role was in the film Taps. Did you feel like you were on the ground floor of something special, working with Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton?
I felt like it was a chance for me, and a beginning. Me and Penn, I really don’t know if we ever slept during that movie. We’d stay up all night and just talk about the film and about acting. And Hutton was working every day, so he couldn’t hang out that much except on the weekends. We were really scared and nervous and excited – we didn’t know what was going to happen. It was a special time in my life because it was my first movie, and it was Sean’s first movie. Hutton had just won the Academy Award and he was all excited. You felt that something special was happening.
I didn’t know anything about agents and business or scripts. Coming off Taps, I felt like, hey, everyone wants to make a great movie. Everyone who’s doing this loves their work. It’s too hard a line of work to not love it. You work as hard as you can and you get everything and something has to work out. Then I did a film they titled Losin’ It. When I first read it, it was worse than the released film. I had this small agent at the time who said, “Do it, do it.” I worked hard, but it was a terrible time in my life.
CC: How did you make the transition from Losin’ It to working with Francis Ford Coppola on The Outsiders?
TC: I learned the things I wanted, and the things I didn’t want. I got a new agent and thought, “I have to work with good people and good directors and grow.” I heard about the movie, and I came out to Los Angeles and stayed at Emilio’s [Estevez] house over Christmas. And I stayed at the Penn’s house in the summer. That’s when Sean was doing Fast Times. I just went to Francis and said, “Look, I don’t care what role you give me, I really want to work with you. I want to be there with all these young actors. That was a hell of a good time. I just wanted a wide body of work. After Taps came out I was offered every horror film, every killer-murderer part. I told this one agent that I wanted to work with Francis. He said, “Francis! He’s not going to pay you anything!” It was never a main role, but I created something. That was where I learned I had a sense of comedy. I still wanted to work with Francis again.
CC: In Risky Business, Paul Brickman took the youth-oriented genre and really opened it up visually and musically. It’s been very influential. Were these elements part of the movie from the beginning?
TC: Yes. Francis offered everybody a change to go on and do Rumble Fish the same week I was offered Risky Business. I thought Paul Brickman was a very bright man with great taste. He knew exactly what the movie was going to be.
CC: What was your audition like?
TC: I was doing The Outsiders in Tulsa, and I had to come back to Los Angeles for a day for some reason. Originally, Paul had seen Taps and said, “This guy for Joel? This guy is a killer! Let him do Amityville III!” Somehow, my agent, without me knowing, arranged to have me just drop by the office to say hello. So I went in wearing a jean jacket, my tooth was chipped, my hair was greasy. I was pumped up and talking in an Oklahoma accent, “Hey, how y’all doing?” Paul just sat there, looking at me. He said, “Let’s just read a little bit.” I’m not a very good cold reader. What I do is start with a line and go off and ad-lib and kind of find my way down the script. I started reading the thing, and they were ready to say, “Okay, thank you.” I didn’t know. I cut them off and said, “let me try it this way.” I started from the top again and I did it another way and we ended up reading through half the script. It was fun, we were all laughing.
Then I came back later and tested for it at six in the morning. I was shooting nights and so I flew in late, got in at 1:00 A.M. and I had to leave at 10:00 P.M. to shoot the rumble scene in The Outsiders that night. Here I was again. My hair was greasy and I was heavy, but now I was wearing this preppy maroon Adidas shirt. My arms were huge. I walk in and see this stunningly gorgeous woman sitting there looking at me and I’m thinking. “Oh my God.” Rebecca [De Mornay] had already been cast. They wanted to see the two of us together. I tested, and to make a short story long, we didn’t test that well. Paul just believed in me. I told him exactly what I was going to do. We talked about it for a long time and he trusted me.
CC: A lot of people have ideas about what the movie is about. What’s your theory?
TC: It’s about today’s capitalistic society. Do the means justify the ends? Do you want to help people, or do you just want to make money? Joel is questioning all of that. So am I. Today the thinking of young people is so linear and non-creative. It’s all about money. Unfortunately, we need something like Vietnam to force people to deal with political issues. I’m not saying I’m some erudite political figure – but it bothers me. At least I’m asking the question. The movie is Joel’s exploration of society, how he gets sucked into this wild capitalistic ride.
CC: Supposedly there was a major battle over the ending.
TC: Yes. We had to change the ending to make it more upbeat and commercial. Geffen Films felt it was too…basically they felt it was a bummer, okay? [laughs] At one point, Paul said he wouldn’t direct the new ending. They were going to hire another director to direct it. Paul really fought it. We all did. We all loved the piece so much. I didn’t want to sell Joel out. In the end, I think we got across the same point, though. Joel knows in his heart that this women is more important than money. That’s what I wanted to get across. A lot of people, when I discuss the ending of the film with them, say Joel didn’t sell out – some say he did. It’s a subtle film and you walk out with what you want to walk out with. It has so many different levels.
CC: What was the original ending?
TC: It was this great, emotional scene in the restaurant. Instead of the scene outside where Rebecca says, “Do you want to come over?”, she sits on my lap in the restaurant and it just ends on the sunset background coming up and me stroking her hair with her head on my shoulder. It cuts back and forth and then I say, “Isn’t life grand?” It was really nice. They felt it was too sardonic. So we made it more specific and upbeat.
CC: Whose idea was it to do the dance in your underwear?
TC: Brickman’s idea. What he did was he set up the frame of the shot. He showed it to me and said, “Let’s really play it and use the whole house.” We had talked earlier and he said, “Look, I want Bob Seger’s ‘Old Time Rock & Roll’ or maybe some Elvis, but if you can come up with something else, great.” I went through tape after tape. In the end, nothing beat Bob Seger. So I took the candlestick, and I said, “How about making this the audience?” And then I just started ad-libbing, using it as a guitar, jumping on the table. I waxed half the floor and kept the other half dirty, so I could slide in on my socks. As we went along, I threw more stuff in. Like the thing with the collar up, jumping on the bed. Originally, it was only one line in the script: “Joel dances in underwear through the house.” We shot it in half a day.
CC: Have you ever been close to marriage?
TC: No.
CC: How private do you feel about your girlfriends?
TC: I don’t hide from cameras or anything. It doesn’t bother me. I don’t seek our press for the women I’m dating, but if it finds me, it finds me.
CC: You were close to Rebecca De Mornay for several years. How hard is it for you to balance your career with your relationships?
TC: It’s not easy. I spend a lot of time alone. I mean a lot of time alone. But I’ve spent time alone my whole life and it doesn’t bother me. I feel lonely at times, but I don’t want to get into a relationship with someone if it is not right. I’m not the type of person who just does things to do them. It takes time to get to know people.
CC: With the success of Risky Business, how quickly did you start to feel the room tip toward you when you entered it?
TC: I’m really very private, in my own world. Suddenly I was someone walking on the street and people were looking at me and I was thinking, “Jesus, is something hanging out of my nose?” It took time to get adjusted to it. It was such a perfect time to do Legend in England. Everyone is looking at you and somehow just moving your hand seems so much more exaggerated.
CC: Why was Legend delayed so |
–and that we imagine that with a little more effort on our part, we could be just like them.
To be sure, there have been plenty of other wealthy presidential candidates. But few, if any, have made their wealth so central to their candidacy, citing personal fortune as a primary qualification. Trump repeatedly sells himself as being worthy specifically because he is worth, he claims, “more than $10 billion.” Smith argues that this kind of wealth, especially in ostentatious display, garners wide admiration. In this view, Trump’s populist statements are mere window-dressing for his greatest asset: his assets.
Smith did not consider this admiration for the rich to be a virtue. Indeed, he worried that an instinctive love of the wealthy was “the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.” He argued that it fuels the already substantial vanity of the rich and the unmerited shame of the poor. This vanity would persuade the rich that they were above the laws, which could inspire the poor to abandon their admiration for the rich and take up arms against them.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was never under the impression that the poor would adore the rich. For him, rich and poor reside rather uncomfortably next to one another. Society is itself born in divisions between rich and poor. The rich only invent government to escape from a world of violence and instability, as he writes in his celebrated, “Discourse on the Foundation and Origin of Inequality Among Men,” and to forever fix “the Law of property and inequality” – that is, to ensure that they keep their wealth and privilege while the poor acquire nothing.
As such, Rousseau would see Trump “adoration” as yet another sordid chapter in a long history of the wealthy tricking the poor into handing them political power. Commercial society, he believed, would invariably be run by a few titans who take what they please while the poor are forced to find some way to scrape out a living. Rousseau’s poor fundamentally despise the rich, because the success of the wealthy is a direct reminder of their own failures.
Rousseau’s view would suggest that Trump would repel voters. So what could explain Trump’s support from those who reside well below his tax bracket? We might turn to his concept of amour-propre, which literally translated means self-love but mostly has to do with feelings of self-worth.
For Rousseau, amour-propre results in part from social class divisions, with those on the lower end of the class structure experiencing alienating feelings of shame, envy, and spite for those above while those near or at the top feel arrogance and contempt for those below them.
Rousseau’s lower classes are helpless and unable to lash out at those who demean them. They suffer silently. Rousseau might argue that Trump’s bullying of the other candidates, especially Jeb Bush, might be interpreted by his supporters as a means to alleviate the frustrations associated with amour-propre—that he does for them what they cannot do for themselves.
After all, Trump has a voice that can be heard whereas they do not. And in denigrating those of wealth and power, he makes many others of comparatively less status feel better about themselves. (For example, “At least I’m not low-energy, like Jeb!” or “At least I don’t have a face like Carly Fiorina.”)
What of Trump’s populist celebration of the middle class and apparently egalitarian proposals to tax hedge fund managers and other Wall Street types? Rousseau’s answer would be very simple: Don’t trust someone like this. He will say what he needs to gain power and once he does, you can be sure he will look out for one set of interests: his own. Sure enough, there is some evidence that Trump’s populism is something of a Trojan horse; his tax plan contains numerous giveaways to the upper classes.
Of course, Smith and Rousseau don’t explain everything about Trumpism, but these two Enlightenment philosophers foresaw at least the appeal of his boastful wealth and his denigration of others with privilege.
Can Trump sustain the Smithian benefits of being admired for his wealth, or will that admiration revert to Rousseauean disdain? That’s something we’re not enlightened enough to answer.
David Lay Williams is professor of political science at DePaul University and the author of “Rousseau’s Platonic Enlightenment” and “Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’: An Introduction.” Michael Locke McLendon is professor of political science at California State University, Los Angeles and the author of numerous essays on 18th century political philosophy and moral psychology.Transcript for Marvel superheroes battle to turn the tide against Hydra in 'Secret Empire' issue 9
Hello and welcome to inside novel from ABC news I'm your host Baltic he. Today we are talking about the penultimate issue the big one issue number nine. Of secret empire this whole summer long arc of Marvel Comics and the looking at. Today we have a lot of the minds behind this comic book with estimated that a lot of Smith for Marvel Comics Tom reap record who is discreet. We reading issue number ten out. So thanks. That's an of course Mike Rothman from ABC news the mind behind him yeah. The art to be emperor so we got against those EPA to number ten yeah it ends this is this is this. It ends with an ad for MMM this is a. Yeah Alan meaning a marketing campaign is yeah. Isn't it Taylor Swift is. Then got to get his back on the list. You're Democrat and kind. It's Hitler's they insert today so let's go through one by one egg and we've been leading up to this so very long. Look Michael can you just give his a glimpse of what we've had over this past eight issues proceed S. OK lieutenant general down which I'm not good at doing. We kept America's bad hydra you know that. That it to basically on the country the country's followed certain vendors have followed him as well. 12 plane in addition nine Oden son has been very torn long most others than we've had the champions and other vendors who have. Kind of led an underground charge against that people that are outside the planet. There's a shield has been built up and. Yes and we lead into this there that the ship was down and then there's always coming in that at least he's coming olestra to win the dragons there are NN newsroom here. Some big battle which yes will we finally get the point where Captain America aides. Being forced to account for a lot of the stuff so. We start off with Kobe can cap. In the trees hit a lot of we talk a lot about this last. At those so now you finally know what's up but I can stop being king. Because he he's spelled out in this issue that it that he is basically public's memory of the person she changed. So he's kind of been in the this. Like huge state of of called X fractured mind the whole time. Which is why he's kind of been seen fractured versions of his own memories as he travels through this place just a Q do things if you do is keep tap. But it really nice chest and suggests yes. I think we all fondly remembers the writers' cuts of let. You cannot be spooked and appreciating questions we asked them to be behind us count put me there is disease response. If he or want to FaceBook please drop any questions that you might about this ascent if Hudson. He did it collected this is this fascinating character his gain it's cosmic cube meet real bomb and so what kind of powers does she hat. Like it now that she has realistic image of this Fella. She Andy Sheehan the cosmic cube she can rewrite reality on a whim which we've seen too devastating effect in the under the at an eerie because they're they're trying to corral it throughout the whole thing and she's like I'm I'm a toddler like and do whatever I want. But it you know at this point me you know she had been shattered into multiple pieces and scattered throughout the world but now those pieces are coming and other. She might be able to do a little more than she's been able if she's kind of been it's trapped news Steve has been in this whole thing it is. You know has been starting to doubt her role in this than what she did for the red skull and whether or not she should trust of the red scholar and it's it's been a rough time there or cut it cut. The key was coming back together to great effect we'll see children hidden bombs over this get alerts rest of this particular book right now is this that that's let's say it's a real. State and -- couple moments again we have a few of them I know you really stand out Ausmus who did the art institute most of the issue was. Leo you. Food have done four and six. Their a couple of sections that were by Joseph Bennett in me and I got robbed right arrested that although of the conflict cube sequences as he has since the beginning in. But most of this particularly the big action sequences are only now. That's really impressive so again we had big battle everybody kind of shows up to the plate on those who were in space on the books were under the dark horse dimension. All the folks who were hanging out and that everybody's there everybody's there exit champion Oregon and shouldn't. We have a couple of really be character moments again like you were talking earlier about how Fuller was kind of very divided over the certainly make the change she's been following well let me make it look cap. You calf has has lifted north hammer we still don't know how he did it early on. He's had followed him and then yes panels is that. The State's version of him saying no more and done and he's an energy he's done with Steve you know they're they're the romance is over. Radio the try to do it and say look look split in hopes Letterman just this flu and we had we had miles throughout the entire time and also an assignment that what do I. He's been busy division Stanley has a lovely moment and again Texas is sitcom this these characters have their vision was introduced a little while ago he had the vision a vision sole book yet and so she she comes in and out of that yeah. News Barea and very from you know. In the we've got other characters scarlet witch I know is another one of those who have had a mildly controversial. Stated we have Anheuser avengers and she it's like them that night. Thorpe other tour and that that actually gets a little bit you know in source older and so are sold by doctor hearings there's little effect is happening in the background is and right. And for Thor has to go running off Chris just never hammer hit. We get to again we love Watson we'll have seen him do what he does great Bucky is fighting in the. And handing me on that wouldn't you. The very first question that we have replaced Craig to help is about. It's necessary personal why is what does that what does that honest anyway. Surplus for calendar Philly it's. And Italy you know but those exit does it. And I got angry since. His assassins but he is alive are the thunderbolt coming back. I. Me you can. Well there is this not. Summer cold spring and specifically right now but there are Bucky planes and we have not reveal them yet but I think they will make. Fans about thunderbolt series very happy. But at Tyler this is what we in the business called great opportunity for a follow up question. It so bad team goes down thanks to the wonderful islands of Bucky Barnes and so we're just seeing every Imke all these remarks are paying off in this one netherlands' is. We see Sharon Carter and Sharon Carter. Hey you know drop on doctor fastest he had talked to 'cause this is my favorite parachute and look. A he had so if she gets the drop on him and finally get to see this great character moment it's been leading up for quite some time she's just been putting up with quite a lot yeah over the course FaceBook. And hit the girlfriend from yeah. He's GAAP net. Get worse. Today the key that we're. Certainly isn't he talking about people who follow what's going moments with that it appears that that Steve Rogers has obtained some sort of power from Ervin Zola yeah. Seoul. He put the humans and that's going to be a problem with her feet all. Begins you know he couldn't really use it as much when it was fragment applicants as we discussed in the series they can kind of make wishes and hopes for things and so any influence in their favor. But now he's literally got like 90% of it in Ann Arbor seeing the great are. Apparently alienated genius X yeah argued about the number means but but we nick. Nick prevailed the point now I saw Captain America aren't you. Calmly got the resurgence of the evil hots up which at least. Sound yeah. That's our strength. And it looks like we planned it yes. Easy for. Indicates this is it that we went over to this we're gonna talk all about eight what's coming up next in the marvel universe to be what we are soldiers and assumptions behind scene stuff. Is this was originally one issue this in the fall and number ten. Com and you just had so much going on in this that you wanted to bring it up they and any behind as he simply it would look to get into but we just want a look at that one last seen. That that one last shot of Captain America. About ready to go in caused some minor difficulties for everyone involved. That's a look. Close with a guy like Tony Parker actor in the senate and execute but in the it's oh is that lineup that's that they found the components of the suit in Stark's lab so it's all who can tall Iron Man stuff. Adapted to these the cube as a power source. All right so. We're of this whole art there's been put to with a major streets we want to know about what is likable who is Captain America in these kind of opportunities are great whittled Teradata Carriker through its basis form. This version idea. Was a real way to can't get at who this guy it's it's so as the folks who have been at the in this book. What easing we can't take away about Captain America from the story to look for ways when you boil it down do something. I think I mean it figured it would take more away once we get to ten in early in the week. Or today in court where I guess if you're very fast food I'll let. But. You know throughout the entire. Story you know we've sort of seen what happens when you take all of the the aspects of all the things that Captain America stands for and you shift of just a few degrees. And they become not so good anymore. The and at sort of by eight by contrast but here that that shows you a EU we now. Howell how virtuous or how righteous those things are. Most of the time. Opera also you know kind of illustrates how shortest deputies from one side of that divide to the other how easy it is to go over that line intent let. You know patriotism become dogma or let. Allies and need for justice and righteousness become need for. Control and and totalitarianism. Men. These sorts of things it's a very theme divides. Between that the good part of the field and of that part of. And I think if if this issue is the big hero vs here are here are vs hydra a fight further you know the country. Like the next issue is very much the fight for healing the soul of Captain America and he Captain America is going to be going forward. Mom so so that's part of the reason I think that we did split in detail issues was because they were too. Like they're two separate things in markets like I have to take the country back but it. There's also Captain America to feel like what is that character going to eat and so so that this is that a Tennessee issue where we will see that unfold. We talked about this and even prior issues and then and sent it's. I hadn't seen G10 yes I can't say Atlanta or know this but the play but it's obviously it isn't evident even apply until I have. I'm like yeah. Yeah. I'm. Kate. The fact that obviously the fans can expect an and we it's not going to be it's the simple walk away solution no matter what happens in ten. And it's going to be a long rebuilding process if it as a rebuilding process in general and that's fascinated C. That's more true to life that you can't just at something like this happen. And then it's all forgotten because people found out even though we live in fact it wasn't his fault now. We'll let people have been saying Aaron review of Nyhan just yesterday. That again in the middle there view satellite it's great it's not just like house of them we don't the end it's all gonna be kind of washed away but but it's really great experience. And we've been sent from the beginning I'll say again. That's not gonna happen that's not in this guy so none of this game races is not only dream it is not. Dream big and small house acute back into everybody doesn't pop up and go to will be right back in the thunderbolts on going. Yeah expect another number that you as a place it's if that's the thing your hold on to win. With hope it's time Politico he's you you have to relax that's not where where were on the philosophical food. Yeah that once it so the idea is that yes Captain America it did not choose this sketch in America it did not. Opting to become an height right. But a lot of people optimism coming highs early on it again we we had just had a face that was about frank castle so it's going frank castle what we see him again suit. Now want to get to the part where I wrote his proteges a lot is a lot of ways frank castle. Is that isn't. Is it kept merit of a different kind shirt made Sandra they have Howard those characters and ideally storm has obviously the face here in this episode but right. Hey it's a ritual that his motivation for going Haider like beauty collaborators. Yes yes and Alice characters have to deal with that you know both internally and externally. We see frank again in the secret empire Omega that the aftermath issue so we do deal with you know what's happened where he is now how he withdrawal that how he feels about all the things that happened. Does this not just you know brushed away then but I think given who that character is and the things that drive him particularly since. You know way out of good date he wages. 01 man gun toting war against people he doesn't like this unless. Happened to be bad people also it's all right. It's very easy to go to to to see how. Yeah being presented with these opportunities by cap. Might go along with that in that department that's not really that different things that that that the publisher does. On a Tuesday. Urged the ended in tax hydra America aren't really that different than what he did on Monday in. Actor out he goes out he shoots back people. It's just that that young now the bad people are being more sanctioned by by cap and by extension. That's sort of moral authority puts hockey pants on one leg at a time yes he does is he's. And so so you know yes we're gonna see more of him. You know will will follow up more on on out and sun and twist to a more limited degree that the scarlet witch you'll see some of that in K avengers and the division and and their aftermath of these experiences. Yeah that they particularly were not really can control of their faculties it doesn't mean that it go through all that stuff. So what Ahmanson I know we have the allies in the followers. I've always I think that's you know going all long and this is very prevalent as she nine Xena. The manipulation with Captain America almost like a Bucky cap in their relationship and very good friends very close on. People had on wielding support for for cat. And now he almost I think if if things go the way that we hope they go from how things hurt and that you know he loses best friend noticed years. Currently fifty feet ahead of him mr. I'd bet that. I don't think evil was. It was more relatable in the sea areas where Catholic you know he. Seems like an actually that still bad guy right left friend he's very supportive when you know each. Yes I mean I think one of the most interesting things that makes them zeman here is that can't remember all the things heidrick cat. Told him like the scene was like hey we were best friends and we have held we grew up together and all this happened. The lake teach host to believe and he bought in. 100%. Eat he drank the cool laid in a way like Blake he puts Bryant and this reality kind of speaks to the VP. Yawning chasm the absence that's kind of at the heart of the lowest Carriker he doesn't how. Of that thing and he's in east he's desperate for something anything to feel that that that that whole that gap that needed him and whether yacht to this point in his dad. He has really had anybody like this he really he really wants to have a brother in cap it turns out and so probably he's headed for fall. If I get like supposedly that don't victories often in the marketers but what about it experts. Is one don't that would look and Indians like you can take. Somebody who is unambiguously evil character and regulate these pieces back and it's a lightweight no. They've motivations I just yes not the site is danger right. And so people cannot walk back and in kind of through with zero in this book is less than an opportunity and I get our witness that's yes just to some degree at certainly you know where he goes from here having had this having lost it again. What does that do to him where does he go next. Odyssey how does well let's not go pores not quite yet you're sneezing. He is now. He thought I mean let's. This your breath and express could Clinton. But but yeah this is something that definitely changes the relationship and is is potentially go to gonna affect every Captain America is the most story that coasts while Orton has. They know how this relationship but as they haven't out of certain sense. In the same sort of way that when Lou winter soldier came back. Caps hold. That journey there wasn't just a fight to stop the winter soldier was I need to pay to bring him back ready to turn it back into the Bucky I knew the -- I'd love him. Nazr post got kinda got that with cash. I I don't need to just kill them I turning backing that the guy who was my my friend. That's what sort of rule here and taking that same kind of idea and turning outs head and that's kind of interest thing. It doesn't like me you. If you needles of the publisher and every time. They thought that you want to bring up that or or or or run out of out of punishing hits. Eventually he'd shoot somebody that that would shoot back. With lasers Vietnam. I do want to a little bit about so much of this stories and hold it through a lot of different lenses. People who were close to cap people who learned a lot from him. It's a specific cases like books about the mental like and eight other case like Bucky uses like. Longtime friend. In other cases at folks like hawk who it really was treatment yet wrote and option and Sharon and all these folks like. How's it been telling this story from all these different achieve some perspective. Yeah. And you know and they don't its egg and it's it's good because cap visit as its story character has all these connections to all these other characters and again in recent years to go to has always been. Now capped Tony Stark partly because civil war with such a big thing right everybody really remembers that it and we do a lot of cap Tony stuff in in secret empire don't get me wrong. But there are a lot of other characters in caps orbit that he hasn't equally strong relationship with Rick Jones. Com yeah I'll be or beyond and and share and Bucky. And likes a hawk on the Tosh and these characters that have just as much of a history and just as much of a a relationship with cap. As asked Tony if they they go back Justise fall our aunt and the bonds are just as tight and so being able this sort of shift the focus. Young tells you of a bit more about them is different perspectives. And I like the fact that different people in the room could have different opinions on what they should do what how they should grapple with that said. You can't really say of that. Necessarily that you are hawkish point of view is right in the touches is wrong or Tonys is right that is correct. That always it always works out for. We are extremely biased that it's never ever talk anyway so who did this clubs above Marvel Entertainment and ABC's are owned by the Walt has become one of full disclosure won't gotten yet. You know checks rooms in place I don't actually it's. I wanna talk a little bit about where we go from here is we've got one big issue look you can imagine that it's a lot about this'll get married yes following that you've got Omega. Yes which is a little is him like a little but the truth and reconciliation. Yeah it's it's the fallout it's the it's the epilogue. It's a fairly substantially if it's it's and yep alive you you really if you've read through the ten issues you're gonna wanna do the Omega as well to real the bring all the themes all the characters to two finale doesn't say yeah we get back to the publisher -- we get back a couple of the characters we find out what happens with. The beat the X-Men in the new homeland. We see some stuff you see the funeral the black widow. And and so yeah there's a lot of a lot of business think it's dealt with there but it's a very personal story in the same way that a lot of the aftermath to our. Big events are are really personal stories. Yeah I like it hit the most to is that the civil war confession book that we did after us. About the C we've got pretty panels and I mean donation advertising you'll see those Mike utility coming at a question. You mentioned fuel Blackwood the question of how my head on is she's. Not going back intense. She's gone guns are she sure looks bad. It sure looks the edge just moments. Yeah hit me until I thought I want to look at those that missile preview again because this is an extremely dangerous shot and arrested what what are we looking at here it looks news prints well this is this is quite. This is yes evil. In his it past the Cuban powered. Armor and the you know the world he is creating weather and so this is the the history oath of you know Hydro world. Tiger cap world where got doctor doom. Went up in space with the fantastic four aren't. Professor expect veto were were hung his revolutionaries. At a bunch of other stuff I got to meet Paige to be his. It was actually produced by two separate artists at the lead figure that mean. Cap figure is is David mark has figure. But the background to kind of make you feel more authentic. Ron lamb who did an artist for Barbara for many years did all of the it to drop and are there so it's it's it's kind of a nice bashing of these two different you're listed how to make it feel more legitimate. Pencils as well her colors and lake took a look at the pencils and was like I could color over those and make it look like. This moment is being written right yeah secondly that's and because Matt Wilson is a genius that looks great and so ethical page. A lot we love hearing about paddies were made and are told diesel of about how it's been. Oh that was magazine we were tells us we what you were just getting ten to the printer and I've been working on an event of this kind of scale will listen to tell the story what are some adjusting but what's it like work with Spencer all mullets. It's very tiring. I'm. How did you and it's a lot. You know with anything that's based on you have to have a bunch of artists and you have to have a budget. Moving pieces going back forth even get mapping out the dollar fare so like that's been a lot to deal with this issue specifically was hard because it's the big fight and we are getting paid as an in house like oh crack cannon balls and that paid in he's supposed to be dead in space flick can't be there in the you know Halloween we intend graphically. It is just think use of vendors are being a problem like we sent wrath of those an end. Daniel cage Captain America. From the first arc ended up in an eyewitness she's gone like to put an end so you know not useful to all but he's did you really Karen days here. So the poor guy had to keep going back like Alice sorry for plot reasons that person out there either in the Atlantic the other bad guys. And then all of went with three other out about it. You know that that part of it is is always. Really tricky. Indians and I'm sure somewhere we screwed up muscle that summer mostly salute. Somewhere the fan yells at him right in the concert hall and they were in a room. Both those prison doing here Nasser enactment old agenda and it looked so much more relaxed. Problem the company coming out last. Is it less than it was in Geneva Monday. It was Monday yeah so so here in new really funny. And then were working on legacy next week's so we're only free for a short amount this is that this is the desired things are there screen for coming on his show right now we go back and couldn't be. An ambulance and got all very easy books this week in the next if legacy so there just get this issue that split up what what was that this is me behind that and. That was just I got a certain point that we started out with its nine issues and it kind of broadly used wheeled out the night issues Anis tends to happen with these. As they got written they expanded you can see there physically I think the page counted the is the most most readers don't stop and think to count the pages because why would you. But all of these are bigger than an ordinary size is running the smallest of the August 27 eighth infantry you know and that the bigger ones are verging on forty so so there ya for all that there. Yeah they carried the hefty cover price of a Marvel Comics. They are they are much worse a sizable sandwich then this than the normal book. And it just there was there were too many balls in the effort to many different threats that had to be addressed and we could go on from a effectively into the beginning of ten. But all that stuff that happened there all of move the of the the bringing together of the threads of Sheridan doctor Kostis that Bucky and and the panther and and CMO and all of these things either would have been a panel or we're just gotten. You know brushed by there's wasn't enough space to do everything at a certain point it just became apparent OK we got a rather than doing nine we have to. We have to go back to ten. With these it however they were doing ten and we have to take that although the press that are gonna come this know these guys to get their act together at a good cattle are all going to be. Super late again isn't always in Berlin when they have an issue and at least this time we actually got to get done. Got to work right and what's your take where are right I. But here to show is actually really yeah. Yeah a little about it looked just a copy of night with a ten cover eyes it has surely there has doubled on the net yes. More so a so. Yet we enter we are very determined to ship this one on time for each issue and that has been part of what is needed such an exhausting yet. I think through his is. You know it'll be Wednesday it will be like we don't have anything we have nothing nothing but you know half currently you know half the stuff is missing and you're trying to get -- from artists the colors nearly everything you. So and so you know that French has been. I challenge. And we did it which is pretty satisfying. If it's definitely anti government. I want we have. Some generations covers to show this is generations is is one of the forthcoming arcs of what we're really looking forward to hear that technically it's it's either forthcoming the generations books have started to come out now. I'm and they all each one individually is a single sort of self contained story that unites. One of the modern day marvel legacy heroes. With the the character that inspired them. In in the adventure set in sort of a strange place at a strange time. And that you are the kick off the key moment that sets all of those up is actually in secret empire don't pretend. Mom so so it is actually kind of an outgrowth of secret empire even though. It's a it's already going on and the it's it's sort of side you're only to pick up any of these individual books. And just you know read them if you if you miss Tony Stark is Tony Stark fact corporal guy to pick up the generations. Iron Man and see him and and now iron heart. Have an adventure or. You know if you want to see yeah novel about pick on all Brian's books into NC you know miles around us hang out with young Peter Parker high school. Now there's is that there's a generous Spiderman. So there's like tendencies that started this month that will run next month and that if that's sort of is the bridge. That carries us from the end about secret efforts at the globe the sorbet and probably that's it is legacy and sort of the next cycle of marvel stories. It's a lot of we have coming up with that as well. For generation generates Selig would of these stories will all the generations stories as Thompson there mountain. You know the legacy characters meaning their heroes basically at a time in their life when they never got to note. I am so. So it's leaning especially for like greenery who dribbles and a Tony for all the minute before he got out of my a coma. And you know she actually gets to talk to him about what she's been going through she's been experience seeing and you know we see Sam Wilson also go. I into the you know World War II era cap and get to meet that guy is just starting out is it Captain America day. On because you know kept an act as such alleged ever but he there's very few people who got to know him when he was just starting and wasn't you know the public he is now. And the so that'll be very valuable to stand going toward determining. Like cool he's going to be after all these events and link. What kind of person he wants to be kind of superhero he wants to be so that's what allow these books eyes is. Legacy like where we're trying honor legacy characters and show that you know they can form legacies of their own one day in day they get to decide. What that is and and what they want it to. With. Q have some kind of factor into having he's very possible. Oh yeah there could. You they say that became an important issue ten and also this ends up on your senators and beyond me it doesn't look much more important for Sam let I was and asked us and we'll certainly well I think even before in general anything. And he really has been kind of hero and inspiration in this series. Coming out of nowhere and now he's kind of like his idol is. Looking for rebrand I guess me and Ryan Wright incidentally it's anything that kind of you know do team. Issue nine is on shelves right now right now and out next week we also right there. And so yet thank you so much for joining us is that I haven't have you. Through politically. Everywhere a lot of that from marvel of course might profit from ABC news money so fraught inside marble will be back to cover issue number ten. I am Walt sticky from 538 and Vickie some opportunity and.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.Metrolinx is thinking about the future — at least as far as 2041.
The board released their Draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area at their Sept. 14 meeting, with the intention of gathering feedback over a 90-day public consultation period. The information they get will be considered for use in the final draft, which will be available in December.
By 2041, Metrolinx says over 10 million people will live across the Golden Horseshoe Area. The new transportation plan will move beyond The Big Move.
The report reads: “We need to plan for a future characterized not only by continued population and employment growth, but also by changing demographics (including an aging population), the changing nature of work, new transportation technologies and services, and the impacts of climate change. In short, we cannot stop.”
There are five different aspects of this new transportation plan.
Completing delivery of current regional transit projects: Metrolinx is in the midst of increasing their Rapid Express Rail, working on the Hurontario, Eglinton, Hamilton, and Finch Light Rail Transit, as well as the York VIVA. Delivery is expected by 2025. Connecting more of the region with frequent rapid transit: The goal is to create 15-minute all day service so that people can get around the region without delay. Optimizing the transportation system to make the best possible use of existing and future transit assets: Metrolinx has determined that fares by distance is the most efficient structure. It also wants to ensure that more people take alternative modes of transportation on their way to use the transit system. Their goal will be to increase the number of people who bike, walk, or carpool from 38 per cent to 62-64 per cent. Integrating land use and transportation: This strategy will help create mobility hubs and new developments, with the goal of intensifying certain areas so that transit becomes more accessible. The designs wil encourage cycling and walking as primary modes of transportation. Preparing for an uncertain future: The plan encourages a regional approach to transit planning as opposed to municipal or private enterprises. Metrolinx will also continue to study new technologies to help reduce greenhouse gasses.
The public will be able to provide feedback at six regional roundtables prior to the final draft.A new survey of the Wisconsin Senate race from Public Policy Polling (D), where Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl is retiring, gives the potential Democratic candidates consistent leads over any Republican who isn’t named Tommy Thompson — and even Thompson, the former four-term governor and Bush-era Health and Human Services Secretary, would face a close race.
Several different potential Democratic candidates were tested out against several Republicans, in a swing state that has become the center of a polarizing political debate over labor unions in the wake of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation.
“Russ Feingold’s going to start out |
),ka(I),kb(I),kg(I),kh(I),ki(I),kj(J),ke(F),kf(F),kc(I),ks(S),kd(I),kz(F),kt(I),sd1(I,K(*)(I)),dl(V*f,I), knk(I,...),kp(S),ja(K*,V*),js(K*,S),jk(K*,K),jv(K*k,K),k(I,const S,...),xT(K),xD(K,K),ktd(K),r1(K),krr(const S),orr(const S),dot(K,K),b9(I,K),d9(K); #ifdef __cplusplus } #endif // nulls(n?) and infinities(w?) #define nh ((I)0xFFFF8000) #define wh ((I)0x7FFF) #define ni ((I)0x80000000) #define wi ((I)0x7FFFFFFF) #define nj ((J)0x8000000000000000LL) #define wj 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFLL #if WIN32 || _WIN32 #define nf (log(-1.0)) #define wf (-log(0.0)) #define isnan _isnan #define finite _finite extern double log(double); #else #define nf (0/0.0) #define wf (1/0.0) #define closesocket(x) close(x) #endif // remove more clutter #define O printf #define R return #define Z static #define P(x,y) {if(x)R(y);} #define U(x) P(!(x),0) #define SW switch #define CS(n,x) case n:x;break; #define CD default #define ZV Z V #define ZK Z K #define ZH Z H #define ZI Z I #define ZJ Z J #define ZE Z E #define ZF Z F #define ZC Z C #define ZS Z S #define K1(f) K f(K x) #define K2(f) K f(K x,K y) #define TX(T,x) (*(T*)((G*)(x)+8)) #define xr x->r #define xt x->t #define xu x->u #define xn x->n #define xx xK[0] #define xy xK[1] #define xg TX(G,x) #define xh TX(H,x) #define xi TX(I,x) #define xj TX(J,x) #define xe TX(E,x) #define xf TX(F,x) #define xs TX(S,x) #define xk TX(K,x) #define xG x->G0 #define xH ((H*)xG) #define xI ((I*)xG) #define xJ ((J*)xG) #define xE ((E*)xG) #define xF ((F*)xG) #define xS ((S*)xG) #define xK ((K*)xG) #define xC xG #define xB ((G*)xG) #endifAs forecasted by Forrester, the total sales of B2B E-Commerce will exceed $1 trillion and account for 12% of all B2B sales in the US by 2020.Recent years, more manufacturers and wholesalers are looking for the right B2B E-Commerce platform that will provide them with the best shopping experience. Actually, B2B customers expect the same intuitive shopping experience they obtained from B2C shopping and it would be much more important to them since they are placing large quantities of goods, high value orders with a much higher risk.
The first step is finding the B2B e-commerce platform that best fits your industry, whether you’re in fashion, food and commodity industry. For example: if you are selling industrial products on Amazon, it will be odd if your product click is high. Go to JumoreGlobal.com, it’s the wise choice if you are in industrial products, machinery, chemical, coal… and other commodities industries.
Once you’ve found the platform that’s right for you, you could start to create a personal shopping experience for each customer and visitor.
Here are some tips to make sure the experience you create for customers is tailored to their specific needs:
1.Order History
Buyers are used to place order on the items list their order history. Your B2B storefront should offer customers the ability to edit their orders – update quantities, change shipping addresses and more.
2.Customer-oriented Pricing
Customers would be happy to see their own negotiated prices. Look into the best-selling products to see pricing flexibility, offer special discounts and promote popular product of the month for certain customer groups.
3.Personalized Product Group Setting
Create customized product group is crucial for increase the possibility of customer searching. Also, customers are delighted to see your online shop set the product groups based on their preferences which help them save a lot of time in filtering other unfavorable products.
4.Search Capabilities
In this age of instant gratification, sifting through web pages and products is simply not an option. Set up navigation filters with your product categories and most common attributes so customers can find the products they’re looking for quickly. Implement a search bar with “auto complete” functionality to allow buyers to hone in on products whose name they already know.
5.Brand Promotion
Always remember, you are not only selling your products but also your brand. You should personalize your shop via editing your brand logo, latest photo, add your own name or use a good-looking template in other words……In other words, making B2B e-commerce shop uniquely yours.
6.Diverse Pricing Strategy
Cross-sell and upsell are two major methods for suppliers to induce buyers to purchase additional products or pay the same product with extra money. It’s the battle of consumer psychology based on the algorithm of the platform to analyze buyer’s previous purchase history. However, in B2B e-commerce platform especially in commodity industry, the unstable pricing would bring uncertainty to buyers, be cautious when using those pricing strategies.
7.My Favorites
My Favorites function enables buyers to quickly and easily mark their favorable items to a list that they may purchases in a near future, all at the click of a button. My Favorites can improve order efficiency by providing a way for buyers to organize the items they are interested in. The buyer can create different favorites list which can be renamed based on content.
Worthy Membership Package
You would probably consider to be a paid member after joining one platform for months. Paid membership packages offered by different platforms are all claim that they can remarkably boost users’ sales volume. You’d better carefully select the package offer the benefits of what you need and avoid to waste of money on an expensive but comprehensive package. If you are bothered to access to more buyers, you should choose a membership package specifically focusing on connecting you with other platform users like the Premium Membership launched by JumoreGlobal.com.
To summarize, B2B e-commerce has become a vital sales channel for suppliers and buyers. Optimizing the platform to best accommodate users, increases convenience, decreases order errors, improves customer service, and increases conversion… which translate into increased sales.Reuters. Timo Soini, the charismatic leader of the True Finns.
“I’m not a bad person,” says Finnish politician Timo Soini, a populist who could come to block EU efforts to bail out debt-ridden Portugal the way it has aided Greece and Ireland.
“I’m just saying that bailing out these countries is not going to function,” the chairman of the EU-Skeptic True Finns party says.
Since the last election in 2007, he has managed to transform a marginal party into a major political force to be reckoned with ahead of Finland’s general elections on April 17.
As Finland heads to the polls Sunday, a rise in popular support for opposition parties could jeopardize the country’s support for euro zone policies and hamper efforts to approve more sovereign bailouts and stabilize economies in the bloc.
Recent polls suggest the populist True Finns party is gaining traction among the electorate, benefitting from disquiet among voters who remain concerned about Finland’s participation in sovereign bailouts in the euro zone.
In theory, a new Finnish government that is opposed to further bailouts of euro-zone countries could prevent new rescue loans, since they have to be agreed unanimously by all euro members.
[Read more over the jump]The Obama administration continues to aid illegal immigrants after they cross the border, allowing them to take up residence throughout the states under the pretense that these persons ultimately await a deportation hearing in the offing. And despite promises that the Obama administration’s immigration apparatus would focus on the criminal element, this administration is also failing to deport criminal aliens when they are released from U.S. jails.
The administration’s current refusal to enforce the law resembles amnesty for all, much like the amnesty proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Yet the liberal media deliberately fail, time and again, to report the truth about how many illegal aliens are entering the U.S. Actually, they fail to report on illegal immigration at all—unless it is in the context of undermining Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump or praising Mrs. Clinton.
For example, Bloomberg’s Alan Bjerga reports that Trump is leading an “immigration backlash” that is hurting farmers and causing crops to “rot.”
Bjerga quotes a farmer, a son of Mexican immigrants, as saying, “The rhetoric that’s getting preached is pushing xenophobia…You can’t call an immigrant a murderer. You can’t paint them with that brush.”
We have long reported that mainstream media pundits prefer to describe the immigration debate in terms of illegal immigrants’ humanity, evoking sympathy for the downtrodden. However, the Obama administration continues to fail to deport dangerous criminals.
As we have reported, Government Accountability Office data shows that approximately 250,000 illegal aliens in the United States committed nearly three million crimes. “Roughly 50 percent were arrested at least once for either assault, homicide, robbery, sex crimes or kidnapping,” wrote James Simpson for AIM.
Mrs. Clinton has committed to not deport illegal immigrant children from the United States, nor would she deport any illegal immigrant without a criminal record. “That’s what, that’s what I’m telling you,” she said in March. “I do not want to see them deported. I want to see them on a path to citizenship. That is exactly what I will do.” The message she’s sending is, if you can make it across our porous Southern border, we won’t send you back.
“Clinton was one-upping the Obama administration’s policy of letting illegal immigrants who claim to be ‘children’ and their parents remain in the United States indefinitely,” writes Michael Barone for RealClearPolitics on June 7. “In effect she is calling for open borders, something that goes even beyond Barack Obama’s executive action, which has been ruled illegal by a Texas federal judge and appeals court.”
This, ultimately, is a false dilemma. Open borders are almost here. After all, the Obama administration is not deporting some of those who have committed crimes, and it is busy busing illegal aliens without paperwork. Judicial Watch reports that Border Patrol sources have told it that “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents…”
“They’re telling us to put them [the illegal immigrants] on a bus and let them go,” a law enforcement official recently told Judicial Watch. The non-profit watchdog organization reports that “Outraged Border Patrol agents and supervisors on the front lines say illegal immigrants are being released in droves because there’s no room to keep them in detention.”
The administration’s failure to deal with the criminal aspect of illegal immigration also threatens the safety of average Americans throughout the country. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) told Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon that “the administration is trying to suppress information about the release of some 86,000 criminal illegal immigrants who have committed 231,000 crimes in just the past two and a half years.” The administration is not deporting these criminals after they are released from U.S. prisons, reports Kredo.
These lax border policies come as the Obama administration has even more money to spend combatting illegal immigration than ever before. According to Kredo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 410,000 aliens in 2012 on a budget of $2.8 billion. With $3.5 billion in funds, ICE deported nearly half as many illegal aliens—just over 235,000 aliens in 2015.
Breitbart’s Katie McHugh outlines some of the human cost exacted by criminal illegal aliens during the Obama administration:
“Two illegal aliens bound and beat an elderly Minnesota farmer to death after he hired them to paint his house last April.”
“Six MS-13 gang members murdered three and dismembered them in Virginia parks between 2013 and 2014.”
“Another, grinning illegal alien stabbed a father of two to death and ripped out his liver for police to see.”
“Yet another illegal alien struck a young Texas woman riding her bike in March, dragging her for nearly 2,000 feet while ignoring her screams, leaving her disfigured and permanently disabled as he fled the scene.”
This is all occurring in conjunction with two other matters that are both lawless and very disturbing. One is the effort by the administration to enable non-citizens to vote in this year’s presidential election. The other is the absolute lying to and defiance of a federal judge’s orders to stop processing DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) applications, pursuant to a lawsuit brought by 26 states against the Obama administration’s executive actions. The federal judge, Andrew S. Hanen, initially required as part of his ruling that Department of Justice lawyers receive ethical training, but now has ruled that the department has “a chance to suggest its own punishment for having repeatedly misled the federal court,” according to The Washington Times.
In the meantime illegal immigrants may be taking advantage of Obama’s lax, pro-family immigration policies by kidnapping children to bring along with them across the border, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Leon Fresco recently said. By appearing as families these illegal immigrants hope to receive a free pass into the continental U.S. Neither Fresco, ICE, nor Customs and Border Protection would answer The Washington Times’ questions about this matter.
As the Obama administration pursues an open borders policy the mainstream media continue to look the other way no matter how many Americans are at risk. Or, like Univision’s Jorge Ramos, pundits push for the candidates to agree to lax immigration policies that harm America’s future.WASHINGTON — If history is any guide, governments around the world are now receiving reports about the implications of potential regime-change in Canada following Monday’s election.
A fascinating peek into such diplomatic reporting is readily available now, courtesy of Wikileaks having dumped more than two million U.S. diplomatic documents onto the Internet since 2010.
The cables reveal detailed U.S. analysis the last time polls suggested a change of government in Canada: the electoral calculations, the constitutional rules following the election, strategies for engaging the next government, and the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the party entering power.
The ambassador who signed off on those cables for the last change of government in Canada says it’s a basic responsibility of diplomats to map out likely post-election scenarios.
David Wilkins was the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa when the Tories toppled the Liberals in 2006. Contacted by The Canadian Press, the George W. Bush envoy would not speculate about the current election or current embassy operations.
But he did share some thoughts about what goes on in the days before an election.
“The one thing the U.S. embassy is good at is preparing ahead of time — and getting ready for different scenarios,” said the former ambassador.
“So they’re most likely doing that. I don’t have first-hand knowledge of that, but it’s the same exercise we went through in ’05, ’06…. You make sure you’re prepared to work with whoever is elected — period. That’s the bottom line.”
His decade-old messages offer a glimpse into the dynamics of Canada’s most important foreign relationship, and all the ways a new government might lead to some remodelling of policies, without shaking the basic edifice of a relationship that includes $750 billion a year in trade and myriad social ties.
The current American administration will not comment on the contents of old Wikileaks, as a general principle, nor on what preparations might be taking place in advance of Monday’s election.
But one Washington insider said the embassy is certainly mapping out two potential implications of a Liberal government: tighter co-operation at the Paris climate talks, yet concern about the Liberal level of commitment to the anti-ISIL mission and to the international F35 fighter-jet program.
Then there’s softwood lumber.
Last week saw the expiry of an agreement that allowed a decade of peace on a perennially problematic file. Wilkins pushed for that agreement in a cable he sent on the morning of the 2006 election.
“Canada’s New Government: Opportunities and Challenges,” was the headline of his dispatch on the morning of Jan. 23, 2006, predicting the Conservative election victory hours later.
Wilkins suggested delivering a couple of early wins to help this potentially friendly new government — to give Stephen Harper a “bilateral success story,” either on softwood or the Devil’s Lake water dispute.
At the same time, Wilkins was preparing to advance American priorities. They included closer co-operation on national security, including more information-sharing at the border and integrated maritime patrols which have since been realized.
The over-arching strategy was: tread lightly.
“Relations with the U.S. will be tricky for Harper, who along with many members of his caucus has an ideological and cultural affinity for America,” said the cable, the last of many sent during the election.
“But as he has done already with many of his core social and fiscal values, he will simply have to sideline this affinity in order to not be painted as ’selling out to the Americans’ to a skeptical Canadian public.”
Wilkins predicted Harper would be warm and cordial in his dealings with the U.S., but would also have to demonstrate an ability to get results from Washington. Unlike predecessor Paul Martin, Harper had “very little foreign experience” and would likely focus at first on close-to-home bilateral issues like softwood lumber and the border.
A recurring concern in different dispatches was whether Canadians would stay committed to the Afghanistan mission when it became clear this wasn’t peacekeeping but “a long, hard slog … (with) a share of bloodshed.” A Canadian diplomat, Glyn Berry, had been killed that week.
Harper quickly signalled his intentions. He made Kandahar his first foreign visit. Canada remained there a few more years. The U.S. has just announced it’ll be there for a few more.
Cables predicted all sorts of post-election outcomes: one said Canada’s budget surplus might be imperilled by a minority government, as opposition parties demanded spending measures.
The Martin and Bush administrations had co-operated well, in some areas. One cable described a “good cop, bad cop” Canada-U.S. routine in pushing for reforms at the United Nations.
But there were obvious public tensions. During the campaign, Paul Martin scolded the U.S. on climate change. Wilkins publicly criticized the anti-Bush tone of Martin’s campaign.
In private, the dispatches to Washington suggested the Liberal strategy might be failing — while the Liberals tried tying Harper to a scary “right-wing American agenda,” some ads were judged over the top and one had to be pulled.
But one of the clearest signs the Liberals were headed for defeat, according to a Jan. 13 cable? Some staffers had already started looking for jobs in the private sector. Others were talking about what their party needed to do to regain power.
Most American predictions were bang-on.
The first Harper minority lasted a few months longer than American diplomats expected — 33 months, compared to a Jan. 13 cable that predicted another election between 12 and 24 months.
There was an incorrect prediction that Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Frank McKenna, would return home to lead the Liberal party, and that Peter Harder might soon become head of the Canadian federal civil service.
But they got the basic call right.
“A few are beginning to speculate about a possible Conservative majority,” said the Jan. 13 note.
“Comment: unlikely.”Media playback is not supported on this device Pro12 highlights: Scarlets 51-5 Treviso
Pro12: Scarlets v Treviso Scarlets (30) 51 Tries: van der Merwe 3, Evans 2, Owens, Price, Davies Conv: Jones 2, Thomas 2 Pens: Jones Treviso (0) 5 Tries: Minto
DTH van der Merwe scored a hat-trick as Scarlets ran in eight tries to thrash Treviso and move up to fourth in the Pro12 table.
Canada international van der Merwe crossed to give Scarlets an early lead while Steff Evans scored soon after.
Van der Merwe scored his second of the evening before Ken Owens crossed over on his 200th Scarlets appearance.
Evans and Tom Price touched down either side of the break while van der Merwe completed his hat-trick late on.
Captain Owens enjoyed the perfect return from his 200th Scarlets game as he sealed their bonus point in the first half, almost 11 years after making his debut appearance for the region.
Van der Merwe, who will move to Newcastle Falcons next term, capped off a fine return to the starting line-up with his three-try haul while Evans' brace of tries helped ensure Scarlets leapfrogged Ulster into fourth in the Pro12.
Francesco Minto scored a second-half consolation for the Italians, who were comprehensively outplayed on a warm spring night at Parc y Scarlets.
Treviso's task got even harder when they had Federico Zani, Minto and Edoardo Gori sent to the bin within six minutes just after the hour mark.
Scarlets made their three-man advantage count as van der Merwe scored a third try before Aled Davies joined an burgeoning scoresheet.
Scarlets: Johnny Mcnicholl, DTH van der Merwe, Hadleigh Parkes, Scott Williams, Steff Evans, Dan Jones, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Ken Owens (captain), Samson Lee, Jake Ball, Tadhg Beirne, Aaron Shingler, James Davies, John Barclay
Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Wyn Jones, Werner Kruger, Tom Price, Josh Macleod, Aled Davies, Aled Thomas, Liam Williams
Treviso: David Odiete, Angelo Esposito, Tommaso Benvenuti, Alberto Sgarbi, Luca Sperandio, Ian McKinley, Tito Tebaldi; Federico Zani, Luca Bigi, Tiziano Pasquali, Filippo Gerosa, Dean Budd (captain), Francesco Minto, Marco Lazzaroni, Robert Barbieri
Replacements: Ornel Gega, Alberto Porolli, Simone Ferrari, Marco Fuser, Teofilo Paulo, Abraham Steyn, Edoardo Gori, Luke McLean
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistants referees: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU), Gareth Newman (WRU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU).SAN BERNARDINO — A new type of emergency personnel wearing blue helmets will be added to the ranks of the San Bernardino County Fire Department as the department’s first class of Ambulance Operator Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians comes into the department.
County Fire officials say the program is the first of its kind and is designed to increase staffing levels by putting licensed medical responders in the field so that firefighters can return to service.
“(SBCFD) is the second largest provider of paramedic ambulance transport in the county, with response to over 47,700 emergency medical calls last year,” Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said in a news release. “The Ambulance Operator Program is a more effective use of our resources and will greatly benefit our outlying communities.”
Firefighter Paramedics and EMTs currently respond to medical service calls, and with the increase in wait time at hospital emergency rooms it is not uncommon for firefighter paramedics to spend extended time at a hospital caring for a patient while waiting for the ER to take over patient care. This program will allow for these firefighters to return to the firefighting field and be readily available to respond to fires, rescues and traffic collisions.
Forty-two Ambulance Operators will start serving their communities on Oct. 11, according to the release, including stations in Lucerne Valley, Phelan/Pinon Hills and Wrightwood.
Officials say funding for this program is provided through the department’s current budget and at no additional cost to taxpayers.The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen narrowly failed to win a parliamentary seat in the Pas de Calais last night, adding to a triumphant day for François Hollande's Socialists.
Two other National Front candidates won seats in the National Assembly for the first time since the mid-1980s. They included Ms Le Pen's 22-year-old niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who becomes the youngest parliamentarian in French history.
The former Socialist celebrity lawyer, Gilbert Collard, 64, won a seat for the far right in the Rhône delta.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Ms Le Pen saluted an "enormous success" for her party in ending what she called its "illegitimate 25-year absence" from parliament. She suggested that she might bring a formal complaint today about "suspicious" circumstances in her razor-thin, 114-vote defeat in the Pas de Calais by a local Socialist, Philippe Kemel.
Overall, President Hollande's moderate left won a decisive victory in the second round of the parliamentary elections and will have a clear majority to pursue his promised policy of "growth with discipline". His former partner, the 2007 presidential candidate Ségolenè Royal, lost her so-called "tweetgate" battle against a renegade Socialist in La Rochelle.
Official estimates suggested that President Hollande's Socialists would win 313 seats – substantially more than the 289 seats that they need for one-party control of the lower house of parliament. With about 20 Green deputies, far more than ever before, Mr Hollande and his Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, should have an overwhelming majority in the 577-seat assembly for the next five years.
President Hollande will be able to pursue his experiment in growth promotion coupled with budgetary discipline, including as yet ill-defined cuts in the sprawling French state.
Since a Hollande victory was almost assured after the first round of voting last weekend, the suspense of France's fourth election night in two months focused on a series of high-profile local races. The xenophobic and anti-European National Front was hoping to break into the assembly for the first time since 1986-88, with a victory for its leader, Marine Le Pen, in the depressed former mining town of Hénin-Beaumont in the Pas de Calais.
Early counting suggested that she had won but the final count put her Socialist rival 114 votes ahead. Election officials refused a recount.
The two victories for the far right elsewhere were hailed by Ms Le Pen as a vindication of her policy of "de-demonising" the NF by excluding overtly racist supporters and language. Tactical manoeuvring between the two rounds of the election breached the barrier between far right and centre right – offering encouragement to Ms Le Pen's plans to redraw the map of party politics.
Mr Collard won a nasty three-way contest, with accusations of violence on all sides, in the "Petite Camargue". In Carpentras, in the Rhône valley, Marion Marechal-Le Pen the grand-daughter of the party's founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won a seat in a triangular contest forced by the refusal of a Socialist to withdraw. In Orange, nearby, an independent far-right candidate also won a seat.
Ms Royal failed to save her political career in a two-way fight with a rebel Socialist candidate in La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. This contest was promoted to the status of global, political soap opera last week by a tweet from the French First Lady, Valérie Trierweiler, publicly encouraging the rebel candidate, Olivier Falorni.
Ms Royal is the mother of the President's four children.
The nationwide turnout fell to a new low of 56 per cent, below the disappointing 60 per cent registered in the first round and far below the 80 per cent of the presidential elections. After four election days in two months, France was evidently suffering from voting fatigue.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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Subscribe nowEvery year, without fail, the president dies all over again. For a few days every autumn, the entire media is overwhelmed by those haunting photos from Dallas. Those cruelly happy and innocent pictures of a young president smiling and waving at bystanders, the first lady clutching a bouquet of roses. With their soft, prelapsarian colors, they seem to hail from another universe—one that has been stolen from us.
Perhaps it is that feeling of loss that explains the lingering sense of grief over John F. Kennedy’s assassination year after year, when the anniversaries of other, equally shocking events—from Pearl Harbor to 9/11—are generally quieter affairs. But there is also something unfinished about Kennedy’s death, a lingering suspicion that no one has ever been able to banish.
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For the public has never embraced the official verdict, handed down by the Warren Commission in September 1964. After less than a year of hearings and deliberations, the team—led by Chief Justice Earl Warren—concluded that President Kennedy had been shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine portrayed by the Commission as a shiftless loner with communist sympathies. But they could not explain why.
The most obvious question about the murder was also the one that could not be answered. Not only had Oswald been murdered in police custody two days after the assassination, but the Commission had been unable to find a single person who remembered Oswald criticizing Kennedy. On the contrary, Oswald had frequently expressed his admiration for the president. The Commission interviewed at least six witnesses who remembered Oswald praising Kennedy.
Faced with a substantial hole in their case, the Commission tried to plug it by filling the report with airy speculation about Oswald’s tormented psyche. Oswald, they insisted, was someone who had been driven by “resentment of all authority,” “antagonism toward the United States” and an “urge to try to find a place in history.” Perhaps he had shot the president, the Report blandly suggested, because of his “inability to enter into meaningful relationships with people.”
But this conclusion was not reached in a vacuum. From the moment it was established, the Warren Commission was under tremendous pressure to calm a hysterical public and quash the widespread rumors of a conspiracy that exploded across the country in the days following the public killing of the president’s accused assassin. As Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach put it in a memo written hours after Oswald’s death, “We need something to head off public speculation or Congressional hearings of the wrong sort.”
That “speculation” never went away. In 1966, the first national poll taken on the subject found that 46 percent of Americans believed that JFK had been struck down by a plot. Last year, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 62 percent of the public rejected the idea that a single man had killed the president.
The Post reported this development with a palpable sense of bafflement, for the mainstream media has always treated skeptics of the official account with impatience, even scorn. For them, the Kennedy case was cracked and closed long ago. Last year, Jill Abramson blithely informed readers of The New York Times that “the historical consensus seems to have settled on Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin,” dismissing the wealth of information about the assassination that can be found online as “unfiltered and at times unhinged musings.”
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As far as the vast majority of the American press is concerned, critics of the Warren Commission are in a class with the paranoids who doubt that the moon landing occurred, that President Obama was born in the United States, or that al Qaeda was responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks. They insist, as Adam Gopnik did in a meandering New Yorker essay last year, “that the evidence that the American security services gathered, within the first hours and weeks and months, to persuade the world of the sole guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald remains formidable,” and that anyone who differs with this assessment is an “obsessive” or a “buff” with no life. Some defenders of the Warren verdict sound as passionate as any conspiracy theorists: Chris Matthews, an admirer of Kennedy, once told his audience that assassination skeptics cling to conspiracy theories “because they cannot bear the suffering that truth brings to the heart and to the mind.”
It can be shocking, after reading such dismissive remarks, to learn that some of the most powerful people in the United States expressed skepticism about the official account of JFK’s death. John Kerry might have startled some people when he admitted last year that he entertained “serious doubts” about the Warren verdict, but he was far from the first member of the political establishment to say so.
President Lyndon Johnson, who commissioned the Warren Report, was never satisfied by its conclusions. “I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever been completely relieved of the fact that there might have been international connections,” he told Walter Cronkite in 1969, adding that Oswald was “a mysterious fellow” whose motivations remained uncertain. “I never believed that Oswald acted alone, although I can accept that he pulled the trigger,” he told another journalist in 1971. Senator Richard Russell, a member of the Warren Commission, disagreed with the final report, particularly the controversial claim that JFK and Texas Governor John Connally had been struck by the same bullet—a conclusion that Connally himself doubted.
While the Kennedy family has been guarded in its public statements on the subject, they privately expressed doubts that Oswald had acted alone. A week after the assassination, Robert and Jacqueline Kennedy sent a back-channel message to Soviet leaders, telling them that they believed that “the president was felled by domestic opponents.” In 2013, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. revealed that his father had dismissed the Warren Report as “a shoddy piece of craftsmanship.”
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Other Washington bigwigs have given voice to similar suspicions. In his memoirs, former House Speaker Tip O’Neill recalled that JFK aides Kenneth O’Donnell and Dave Powers—both of whom had been riding in JFK’s motorcade at the moment of the assassination—once told him that they had heard two shots coming from the grassy knoll, across the street from where Oswald is alleged to have fired all of the shots. CIA Director John McCone told RFK that he believed two gunmen had been present in Dealey Plaza. In 1992, both Al Gore and Bill Clinton expressed guarded doubts that Oswald had acted alone.
In short, even as the media strained to portray the Warren Commission’s verdict as unassailable, some of the most powerful figures in Washington, past and present, publicly and privately admitted that they found it hard to swallow. None of these people were flakes, none were easily fooled, and none could be considered “obsessives” or “buffs.” Why did they feel, instinctively, that something was wrong in the Kennedy case?
The answer lies not in the much-debated minutiae of the case—in how many shots were fired, the order in which the wounds were inflicted, and the reliability of each witness. The real mystery lies not in the facts that are disputed, but in the facts that are known. There is something profoundly strange about the story of Lee Harvey Oswald as it was presented by the Warren Commission.
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In 1956, at the age of 17, Oswald quit high school to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He was no ordinary Marine: From 1957 through 1958, he was assigned to work as a radar operator at Atsugi Naval Air Base in Japan. Atsugi was not only a major CIA station, but also the home base of the top-secret U-2 spy plane, used to conduct reconnaissance missions inside the Soviet Union. While working at Atsugi, Oswald—as his commanding officer told the Warren Commission—“had access to the location of all bases in the West Coast area, all radio frequencies for all squadrons, all tactical call signs, and the relative strength of all squadrons.”
In 1959, Oswald abruptly quit the marines and traveled to Russia, where he declared his intention to defect to the Soviet Union. He subsequently turned up at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, where he dramatically announced that he intended to spill all of the secrets he had learned as a marine to his new country’s government. He even bragged that he “might know something of special interest” to the Soviets.
This should have set off alarm bells in every corner of the U.S. intelligence community. Defections to the Soviet Union were rare enough; a former marine who had access to top-secret, highly sensitive information was something else again. When the U-2 plane was shot down by Soviet guns in May 1960, Oswald might well have been considered the most likely culprit. The young defector should have been poised to be condemned as the Edward Snowden of his day.
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But he was not. The vast U.S. national-security establishment showed virtually no interest in Oswald. When Oswald decided to return home in 1962—two years after openly declaring his intent to betray his country to its deadliest enemy—he received a warm welcome. He faced no investigation and had no trouble obtaining a new passport; the U.S. State Department even lent him $435 for his traveling expenses. Upon returning home, Oswald began noisily campaigning in support of Communist Cuba, again without attracting the attention of the intelligence community.
Why was Oswald treated so lightly? As Sylvia Meagher put it in “Accessories After the Fact,” her groundbreaking 1967 critique of the Warren Report: “There is a consistent pattern of unusual and favorable treatment of Oswald by the State Department. Decision after decision, the Department removed every obstacle before Oswald—a defector and would-be expatriate, self-declared enemy of his native country, self-proclaimed discloser of classified military information, and later self-appointed propagandist for Fidel Castro—on his path from Minsk to Dallas.”
At the height of the Cold War, when tensions with the Soviet Union were at an all-time high, this professed traitor was apparently not even debriefed by the CIA upon his return to the U.S. In 1975, the CIA’s then-director William Colby insisted that the CIA had never had any contact at all with Oswald, either before or after his defection.
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movement, with Ava DuVernay directing. This was the project that Lee Daniels tried unsuccessfully to make with an all-star cast. We’ve seen how important Winfrey’s involvement can be, as evidenced by the outsized gross of the film Daniels did make, The Butler, which grossed $168 million worldwide. I’m told that a big catalyst in keeping that project together has been David Oyelowo, who has long wanted to play King Jr onscreen. He had worked with DuVernay on Middle Of Nowhere and lobbied for her with Pathe and Plan B and Christian Colson. Oyelowo did the same with Winfrey when he played her son in The Butler. That is the best way to get to play a role you feel is your destiny.
There are still two other feature projects. One is at DreamWorks, which has rights to Dr. King’s copyrighted speeches but which recently lost Oliver Stone as director. The other is Memphis, a Paul Greengrass script that he hopes to direct in the next few years with Scott Rudin producing. I expect the Simon deal to make soon, and finally some headway on movies about the seminal Civil Rights figure of the 20th Century. Simon’s repped by CAA.5. Go solo
Stepping out into the big wide world can be a scary thought. So why, why, why would you want to do it alone? Well, flying solo means there’s only one person to please (that’s you). It also forces you to think on your feet; only you can decide where to go next, or how you’re going to handle tricky situations.
Best of all, travelling alone makes it easier to find friends. A good tip is to start backpacking in the country that you feel most comfortable with and then move on from there – that first stop could be a place with the same language you use at home, or a country that already attracts a steady stream of backpackers, such as Thailand or Peru.
6. Find yourself
Despite talk of "finding themselves" or "going on a spiritual journey", plenty of backpackers wind up drinking beer in the safety of their hostel bar. There’s no need to be teetotal, of course – but there are places and experiences that will help you learn more about yourself.
Try rock climbing in Thailand, go free-diving in the Maldives, or just get lost in downtown Tokyo – anything that puts you a little outside your comfort zone will help make your journey richer.
7. Avoid flying
Instead of splashing your cash on a round-the-world plane ticket, consider an overland trip instead. That doesn’t mean you have to be stuck on air-conditioned buses for weeks on end; you could try cycling from London to Rome, or joining a hare-brained adventure such as the Mongol Rally, which sees people driving 10,000 miles across Europe and Central Asia in clapped-out old cars.
8. Get cold
Just because most of the world’s backpackers head to tropical idylls, that doesn’t mean that you have to follow the herd. Cold countries are no less beautiful than hot ones, and most have the added bonus of being relatively crowd-free.
How about hiking in Sweden, watching the northern lights in Russia, or even polar bear spotting in Svalbard, Norway?
9. Follow the food
From Portugal to Papua New Guinea, people love eating. So instead of doing the usual tour of museums and landmarks, why not fit your trip around food? You could spend years getting to grips with the street food scene in Southeast Asia, for example, and that’s before you even start on the restaurants.
10. Take a minibreak
Maybe the thought of leaving your home comforts behind for months on end makes you feel a little edgy. The good news is: there are no rules about how long you have to go away for.
To get your backpacking career off to a soft start, try a few days of camping and hiking near home, or maybe do a week or two of hostelling in a country with a culture similar to your own. If things work well – and you don’t drive yourself too crazy – you can start planning a bigger adventure.
Compare flights, find tours, book hostels and hotels for your trip, and don’t forget to buy travel insurance before you go.150 female inmates in California coerced into illegal sterilization
By Jake Dean
12 July 2013
A new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has found that doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have sterilized nearly 150 female inmates without state approval from 2006 to 2010. There are also perhaps another 100 women who have undergone the same illegal process from the late 1990s.
Female inmates who were pregnant and had at least one Caesarean section in the past and are deemed most likely to return to prison were targeted for the surgeries by the medical staff of the prisons. Some women were pressured during labor to agree to the operation.
Both federal and state laws ban inmate sterilization. Since 1994, however, state funds can be used for the surgery only if they acquire approval from top medical officials on a case-by-case basis.
All of the female inmates that were sterilized in violation of the law were held at either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla.
Christina Cordero, a former inmate, explained how Valley State Prison’s OB-GYN, Dr. James Heinrich, pressured her into having the surgery, “As soon as he found out I had five kids, he suggested I look into getting it done. The closer I got to my due date, the more he talked about it. He made me feel like a bad mother if I didn’t do it.”
Now living in Upland, California, Cordero regrets having ever accepted the surgery, an operation that is considered by some doctors to be permanent, having a low success of reversibility. Female sterilization reversal is generally not covered by health insurance and can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000.
Crystal Nguyen, a former inmate who worked in the Valley State Prison’s infirmary, said that she had repeatedly overhead medical staff asking inmates to accept the surgery, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not right.’ Do they think they’re animals, and they don’t want them to breed anymore?”
In an interview with CIR, Dr. Heinrich declared that he has provided a service to these women who possibly faced health risks because of past C-sections.
Doctors such as Heinrich were paid $147,460 to perform the surgeries between 1997 and 2010. In an attempt to justify his actions on a budgetary basis, Dr. Heinrich described the payment as being minimal compared to welfare:
“Over a 10-year period, that isn’t a huge amount of money, compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children-as they procreated more.”
The surgery can only take place if a formal request is sent to the Californian Prison Health Care Receivership Corp. (CPHCRC), the committee that is ultimately responsible for approving or denying such procedures.
According to Dr. Ricki Barnett, who tracks medical services and costs for CPHCRC, the committee has received no request for tubal ligations.
The CPHCR oversees all medical care of the 33 state’s prison when in 2006, the United States District Judge, Thelton Henderson ruled that the state’s healthcare violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
More recently, the state was found in violation of the Bill of Right’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling in Brown v. Plata. the state was ordered to reduce its prison population by 30,000 inmates from the level of 144,000.
Though no requests were sent before the committee, the CPHCRC was aware that sterilizations were being performed, “Everybody was operating on the fact that this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do,” stated Dr. Barnett.
At Valley State Prison, Daun Martin, a licensed psychologist and top prison medical manager from 2005 to 2008, stated that five years ago, after her staff discovered that forced sterilization was illegal, she began to find ways around the restriction.
Both Martin and Heinrich would classify these procedures as “medical emergencies.” According to Heinrich, she would approach Martin and request a tubal ligation by saying: “Mary Smith is having a medical emergency ‘kind of thing,’ and we ought to have a tubal ligation. She’s got six kids. Can we do it?” So long as these procedures were classified as medical emergencies, they would proceed with the surgery.
While serving as top medical manager, Daun denies approving any such surgeries, though according to the state contracts database, at least 60 operations occurred at Valley State while she was medical director.
Heinrich continues to defend himself, claiming that these medical emergencies were only offered to pregnant inmates who have had at least three C-sections, explaining that additional pregnancies would cause scar tissue inside the uterus to possibly tear.
Michelle Anderson, a former inmate at Valley State Prison, was one of those inmates that were harassed by medical staff to be sterilized. Having had only one C-section, she has provided medical files to the CIR showing that on two separate occasions she had rejected such a request for tubal ligation and that at no time was medical reasoning offered.
However, while sedated and strapped to a surgical table for a C-section in 2010 at Valley State Prison, Kimberly Jeffrey was pressured into a tubal ligation.
Kimberly explains her story, “He said, ‘So we’re going to be doing this tubal ligation, right?’ I’m like, ‘Tubal ligation? What are you talking about? I won’t want any procedure. I just want to have my baby.’”
After lawsuits in Alabama and New York, the United States Supreme Court created new requirements in the 1970s requiring doctors to fully inform patients on health risks. Since that decision, it has been illegal for any patient to be sterilized or to be asked to undergo the procedure during childbirth.
These testimonies, as well as the attempts by Dr. Heinrich and Martin to justify their illegal actions, ultimately shows the state’s inability to provide basic social services to women and their children.
Men’s prisons are as well facing horrendous conditions, and California is in its fourth day of its largest hunger strike. There are currently 30,000 inmates on strike protesting the deteriorating conditions and the state-sanctioned torture of solitary confinement. Those placed in solitary confinement are held indefinitely, and kept alone for 23 hours with only one hour of exercise in a 16 by 25 foot room infamously known as the “dog run.”
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30,000 inmates take part in California's largest hunger strike
[11 July 2013]The National Park Service’s announcement this week that it would change the names of some iconic Yosemite National Park places left many stunned.
The decision was driven by a trademark dispute with the company that will run concessions at the park until a new company takes over in March. But the disagreement is likely to continue. Here are some questions and answers to help you understand what is taking place.
Q: Who decided to change the names?
A: The National Park Service, though many people were involved in the decision, including top officials of the Department of Interior, which is responsible for the parks. Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Friday that “it was the attorneys, mostly.” They included the park service’s solicitors’ office, which initiated the name-changing consideration more than a year ago. Discussions were held as well with National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and officials at Interior Department headquarters.
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Q: What names are changing?
A: The Ahwahnee hotel, which earned its name in 1927, will be recast as The Majestic Yosemite Hotel. Curry Village, which opened in 1899, will become Half Dome Village and the Wawona Hotel will become Big Trees Lodge.
The popular Badger Pass Ski Area, which became California’s first ski resort in the 1930s, will be renamed the Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area, and the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls will be reconfigured as the Yosemite Valley Lodge.
All we want in this is fair and just treatment from the National Park Service and for it to follow the letter of our contract. DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc.
Q. This sounds like a pretty big deal. Is it?
A: Potentially, it’s huge.
At the very least, it’s drawing a lot of attention. Gediman noted that he has conducted “over 50 interviews” since Thursday, including with media outlets from England, Japan and Canada. Beyond the immediate buzz, the name changes will define the memories of the roughly 4 million visitors who pass through Yosemite annually.
The circumstances surrounding the name changes, moreover, could well color relations between the park service and the Delaware North concession company, which is leaving Yosemite but still has contracts at the Grand Canyon, Kings Canyon and other parks.
Q. What will the changes entail, and what will they cost?
A: Building signs will have to be changed, as well as directional signs throughout the park. Websites, brochures and other materials will likewise have to be updated. Ripple effects could spread widely, as gateway communities and others that rely on Yosemite tourism adapt new nomenclatures.
“We have gotten an estimate that it’s going to cost well over $1 million,” Gediman said.
Q: When will the change take place?
A: March 1. That’s the date that the new concession company, a subsidiary of Aramark called Yosemite Hospitality Inc., is slated to take over for the next 15 years.
Q: Are the name changes irrevocable?
A: Not necessarily. Gediman said Friday that “if there is a resolution to the current dispute, it’s the park service’s intention to retain the original names.”
Q: Why is this happening?
A: That depends on whom you ask.
Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher said in his statement Thursday that the names were changing to eliminate potential trademark infringement issues with the current concessionaire, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite Inc. The Delaware North subsidiary, in a move that park officials called a surprise, obtained trademarks for the names in question.
The concession company countered, in its own statement, that the name change was being proposed “as a bargaining chip” in the legal dispute. The company added that it had offered the park service free use of the trademarked names to avoid name changes “while this dispute is being settled by the courts.”
Of course, it’s possible that both perspectives may be correct. Whatever the reason for the move, for instance, the park service certainly scored some points against the company in the court of public opinion. Media outlets were deluged with an unusual volume of calls and emails blasting Delaware North.
“It is shocking that they can claim to own names that were present prior to their involvement with the park,” Fresno resident Erin Lynn Cook wrote.
Q: What happens next in the legal dispute?
A: The Delaware North firm filed suit last September in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the Justice Department filed the park service’s response in early January.
The likely next step is for Chief Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith, appointed to the bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama, to issue a so-called “scheduling order” in the next several weeks, spelling out various hearing dates and document deadlines.Are unmanned drones now flying over brooklyn? That’s the story of at least one commercial airliner crew.
CNN reports that the crew of Alitalia Flight 608 reported seeing a drone over Brooklyn on Monday. The unmanned drone came within 200 feet of the commercial jet, and a collision could have caused a major disaster.
The FAA and FBI are now both investigating the incident. The latter is asking for information on who the owner of the unmanned aircraft is, and where it came from. The agency said its main concern now “is the safety of aircraft passengers and crew.”
Drones are increasingly being used in overseas combat operations, but there’s not been many in use in the in the U.S. The most common use comes in the form of hobbyist unmanned flying machines. These machines are heavily regulated by the FAA, however, and are only allowed to fly up to 400 feet. The one that almost hit the commercial jet was flying at 1,750 feet.
This most recent incident will most likely cause more people to question the use of drones in domestic air space. Some have already expressed concerns over privacy violations related to the use of drones, but the potential for mid-air collisions may ignite more discussion on the topic.21 SHARES Facebook Twitter
Oh, Mel Gibson! The actor/director has been positioned on the comeback trail for a while now —2016 is supposed to be a big moment as such, with his starring role in the B-movie “Blood Father” (which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival) and his recently Venice Film Festival-premiered “Hacksaw Ridge” (our review). But it seems like it’s always one step forward and one step back with the embattled Gibson. During a recent chat with Deadline, he couldn’t help but put Hollywood on blast for its big spending on terrible blockbusters. But… come to think of it, he’s not entirely wrong.
READ MORE: The 20 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Venice Film Festival
“I look at them and scratch my head. I’m really baffled by it. I think there’s a lot of waste, but maybe if I did one of those things with the green screens, I’d find out different. I don’t know. Maybe they do cost that much. It seems to me that you could do it for less,” Gibson said. “…if you’re spending outrageous amounts of money, $180 million or more, I don’t know how you make it back after the tax man gets you and after you give half to the exhibitors.”
It’s true that the risk/reward on mega-movies can seem mind-boggling and would make most accountants faint. When it comes to the reported $250 million budget of “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” Gibson is hardly impressed.
“What did they spend on ‘Batman v Superman’ that they’re admitting to?” Gibson asked. When told the amount, he quipped about the movie, “And it’s a piece of shit.”
As for whether or not he’d do one of those Marvel or DC flicks, his answer isn’t surprising, coming from the guy who turned down playing Odin in “Thor.”
“I’m not interested in the stuff. Do you know what the difference between real superheroes and comic book superheroes is? Real superheroes didn’t wear spandex. So I don’t know. Spandex must cost a lot,” Gibson said.
So there you go: Gibson unfiltered. “Hacksaw Ridge” opens on November 4th.A senior bitcoin developer has declared the cryptocurrency a failed experiment, blaming the end of the currency on the refusal of the community to adopt new standards which would allow it to grow consistently while maintaining stability.
Mike Hearn, a longtime senior developer on bitcoin and the former chair of the bitcoin foundation’s law and policy committee, announced in a blogpost that he would be selling his coins and quitting development on the project. “Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly,” he wrote.
Hearn’s objections to the current state of bitcoin are varied and frequently technical in nature, but at heart there are two failures: the section of the bitcoin community with power over the future of the currency is overly centralised and overly resistant to change.
Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto denies being Craig Wright (maybe) Read more
Hearn writes that: “What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked ‘systemically important institutions’ and ‘too big to fail’ has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people.”
There are two important bottlenecks in bitcoin’s organisational structure: the developers and the miners.
The former group are those people with the authority to make changes to the released version of bitcoin (the “core”). Although bitcoin is open source software, meaning anyone is free to use it or tweak it into a new system, there is still only one official release of it.
Anyone can propose changes to that release, but only five people have the authority to actually put those changes into the released version – and those five have been hopelessly split for the past six months about how to deal with bitcoin’s capacity problems as it grows.
The split has become so bad that Gavin Andresen, the most senior of the developers, paired with Hearn in August to attempt to launch a “hard fork” of bitcoin, which would use the same basic code but fix some of the capacity constraints. That launch merely exacerbated the split, however, with people who supported the new version (dubbed bitcoin XT) being blacklisted by the supporters of the old version.
But the main reason why XT never took off was the failure of the other major bottleneck: the miners.
Bitcoin is supposed to be a decentralised currency. Anyone can download the entire history of bitcoin transactions, and devote computing power to verifying future transactions (called mining). For a change such as the switch to XT to succeed, more than half of the computing power on the bitcoin network has to support it by updating their own software accordingly.
But very few people bother to mine for bitcoin. It’s expensive in terms of computer hardware, time and electricity so it is very difficult to beat professionally equipped outlets in the race for rewards. Those amateurs who do mine largely do so as part of pools, who share both computing power and rewards. Those pools, however, are also centrally controlled. As a result, Hearn points out, just two individuals control more than 50% of the power of the network. He adds that “over 95% of hashing power was controlled by a handful of guys sitting on a single stage” at a recent bitcoin conference.
For their own reasons, the miners, who are largely based in China, are reluctant to switch to a competing implementation of bitcoin, or push for changes.
As a result, Hearn writes, bitcoin is seeing ever greater congestion in the network, which it is unable to cope with in its present form. And the institutional failure to accept changes means that confidence in the currency is declining. “The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards”, Hearn writes.First, they occupied the factory to get their wages from the bosses that owned the machinery. Then, they occupied their factory to keep the second bosses from shutting down their machinery. And, now, they are on their way to owning and running the machinery.
The group of workers who occupied their Chicago factory in 2008 and again in 2012 incorporated a worker-run cooperative on May 30, 2012. The factory window makers will take over was formerly owned by Republic Windows and Doors and then Serious Energy, and will now be run by New Era Windows, LLC.
Their battle to win wages and back pay from Republic Windows and Doors by occupying the factory is often mentioned in the same breath as the occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union bill as a flash point of progressive struggle since the recession took hold.
Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical Workers Local 1110, said that the school of struggle the workers went through with both factory occupations helped them win the confidence to take over their factory.
"We learned how to fight against the bosses and now to negotiate contracts with the owners of Republic and Serious Energy, how to negotiate in contract negotiations and how to make escalating actions before going on strike."
The story began in 2008, when the Republic Windows and Doors Factory shut its doors without paying workers their severance pay or accrued vacation time in "a perfect parable of all that was wrong with the financial crisis."
"Just a few days after receiving $25 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, Bank of America cut off the company's credit line, leading Republic's management to immediately and unceremoniously fire all 250 workers without providing the 60 days' notice or 60 days' pay required of them by the federal WARN Act," reported Salon.
In response, they called for an occupation. The workers spent six days barricaded inside the factory before Bank of America was pressured into agreeing to reopen the company's line of credit, and the workers were paid their due.
"Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be paid?" asked Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers, in 2008. "The taxpayers would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.'s."
When Serious Materials (now Serious Energy) bought they company, it promised to hire all of the fired workers. But in February 2012, it also fell victim to a continuing economic downturn, and announced it would be closing immediately.
In response, the workers occupied again. In the rain and cold, and with the support of Occupy Chicago, they won a temporary reprieve after only 12 hours. Serious Energy promised to sell the business and keep the factory open for 90 more days.
"When we found out nobody is going to buy the company we started this idea [to form a cooperative] and brought it in proactive," said Robles. "We started having meetings about it."
The next step for the workers, whose business in now incorporated with the State of Illinois, is to raise the investment money to start the cooperative and buy the machinery from their former employer.
Robles says they are working on getting the money together - about $2 million to purchase the machinery - and have already started building the structure of the cooperative:
"we already have a steering committee, we have two treasurers. We will keep doing forward."
They expect to start producing windows in two or three months, said Robles, and running their unionized cooperative.
reproduced via - http://truth-out.org/news/item/9500-republic-windows-and-doors-serious-materials-workers-form-cooperativeDespite the fact Roma beat Chelsea on the way to topping their qualifying group, the Italians are not considered as dangerous as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Inter Milan.
They do go into the knockout stages in great form, though, after winning their final three matches in this season's competition.
Roma will look to Francesco Totti and in-form midfielder Matteo Brighi to lead them to the final in their own stadium.
However, Fiszman said: "I think it is a good draw for us. We have stayed away from the favourite of the moment (Barca) and we have also stayed away from Panathinaikos, which meant a long trip.
"We have a good record against Roma, we are pleased with the draw.
"I think it is the old cliche, there isn't an easy game, but it is an exciting draw, exciting for the fans.
"Our fans will have the chance to go to Rome and hopefully we will do it twice."An article written by LEON TROTSKY, exposing the hypocrisy of world powers towards national minorities and oppressed peoples, translated into English for the first time
Continuing our series to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the first world war we are printing an article written by LEON TROTSKY, exposing the hypocrisy of world powers towards national minorities and oppressed peoples. It was first published in Nashe Slovo (Our Word), a Paris-based newspaper for Russian revolutionaries, on 13 July 1916. This is the first time it has been translated into English – by Pete Dickenson.
Almost no news has penetrated the French press about the recent Lausanne Congress of Small and Oppressed Nationalities. If you consider that the Allies are fighting for ‘the national principle’ – in case they had forgotten, Mr Sazonov (1) again reminded the Americans about it – at first sight such inattention to the Lausanne congress could get confusing. But actually... it is very clear.
Those, however, who still persist in their misunderstanding, should poke their noses in the new issue of L’Éclair [The Spark]. This strange newspaper, combining attention to the celestial dogma of Catholicism with the progressive aspirations of French industry – neither are platonic – gives space from time to time to reports and articles where, to a significant extent, an element of genuine truth sticks out.
First of all it turned out – what a surprise for Plekhanov (2) who lives near Lausanne! – that, at the congress of oppressed people, "among the 23 nationalities were representatives of almost all the national minorities of Russia: Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, Georgians, etc, etc", (the author, obviously from Allied tact, breaks off the list here). There were also representatives of the Irish people, Albanians, Egyptians and Tunisians. There was even Mr Aberson, representing the Jews as a nationality.
Concerning the congress resolutions recognising each nation’s right to self-determination, L’Éclair candidly observes: "The difficulty in the practical implementation of this programme is that everyone readily acknowledges the freedom of their enemies’ national minorities, but not their own or those of their allies. In the Allied camp, for example, they demand the freedom of non-German nationalities, subjugated by Germany and Austria, and non-Turkish ethnic groups, subjugated by Turkey, but would like to give Russia the opportunity to exercise discretion regarding her minorities".
Even in the atmosphere of the obligatory lie we have been breathing for two years, these are not, God knows, new or daring thoughts, revealed in a ‘big’ French newspaper, in some way refreshing to the soul. And to think that there are Russian socialists, Russian revolutionaries, Russian migrants who, before the congress in Lausanne, where the Kyrgyz came to complain about the tsarist yoke, continue to join in the chorus of Mr Sazonov about the liberation objectives pursued in this war by Russia. No one demands of these people internationalism, but if they were just honest patriotic democrats, they would burn with shame!
To avoid embarrassment, however, they always have in reserve a reference to the Allies. Russia, of course, is an oppressive country, but with the help of the ‘western democracies’ it will, through victory, deliver all the internal and external miracles that Germany must come to through defeat.
How are things really with the Allies on this issue? Leave alone for now the Far East where Russia, in alliance with Japan, is going to implement in the coming decades ‘the national principle’ on the back of China. It will be time to think about the half-billion Chinese, when Plekhanov and Kuropatkin call for the freedom of Schleswig-Holstein! (3) Let us confine ourselves to the ‘western democracies’. But we will not raise the Irish question, because it is well known how magnanimously Britain is implementing home rule in Dublin. However, Connolly and the other rebels who have been hanged or shot will not be able to enjoy an Irish parliament, since they themselves are now being enjoyed by a parliament of worms underground. But let’s leave Ireland. Let’s leave Britain entirely. What is the situation in France?
For the colonial powers like France or England, says L’Éclair, the question of the ‘natives’, which was looked into at Lausanne, is of particular interest. The Lausanne congress resolution does not want to recognise the separation of the races into ‘lower’ and ‘higher’, since this is the philosophy of colonial domination that, in general, they rely on most. L’Éclair, on this account, calls for colonial ‘democracy’, justice and... caution, at the same time noting with satisfaction the moving of a bill during the Lausanne congress by deputy Doazi, by which Algerians would be given ‘serious’ representation in the institutions that discuss their interests. This is very comforting.
But the fact is that, at the same time – ie almost during the sessions of the Lausanne congress – in the Far East, in French Indochina, an event took place significantly less favourable from the point of view of ‘the national principle’. In Annam (4), which was set up in 1884 as a French protectorate, ie actually a French colony, an uprising took place under the banner of national independence. The French press was allowed to write about it for a few weeks after the event, but the patriotic and right-thinking papers did not avail themselves of the opportunity. Of course, L’Humanité (5) – this organ of bigotry, hypocrisy and lies – did not even hint at an event vitally linked to the destiny of five-and-a-half million Annamites. And if we have now a ‘censorship beating opportunity’ to give readers information, albeit scant, about the Annamite rebellion, then it is again thanks to the same reactionary organ L’Éclair.
The young emperor of Annam, Duy Tan, who was essentially only a native-royalist ornament fronting the colonial domination of the [French] republic, entered into communication with a national revolutionary organisation of his subjects. By agreement with them, he escaped from his palace to the country and addressed the nation with a revolutionary appeal, declaring the independence of Annam. But the government of the Third Republic turned out to be master of the situation. The rebel was caught, brought back to ‘their’ capital of Hué, deposed and locked up in a fortress, where he now has enough leisure time, not only to learn by heart the Declaration of Rights, but also to read the full set of L’Humanité for the duration of the war (if, of course, the deposed emperor is allowed to read newspapers in prison).
In these far-off countries – we take a sample quote from Revue Hebdomadaire (6) to show the distance between reality and official ideology – "in these distant countries, the soul of the people trembles as one with the soul of the French people; in the Far East, which seemed (!) almost hostile to us, we see a moving picture of how thousands of priests offer prayers to Buddha for the victory of our arms", etc, etc. This was written in the autumn of last year... But in approximately a month, when the Far Eastern ‘emperor’ – who was recently organising preparations for the day of the ‘75’ gun (7), which was written about with emotion as well – will be eating his prison rations for the 30th day; in France they will have forgotten about the rebellion and the few who know about it – the patriotic and social-patriotic scribblers – will again begin to write emotionally about the ‘trembling’ Annamite soul. Not only that. Every time the Indochinese soldiers who have been brought here catch the eye of Renaudel [editor of L’Humanité], he will remind the workers of France that the republic incorporates their lesser Annamite brothers in the great struggle for ‘the national principle’.Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) The U.S. military is in the process of evacuating about 100 Special Operations forces members from the Al Anad airbase in Yemen due to that country's deteriorating security situation, sources in the region familiar with the situation told CNN.
Those being evacuated are the last American troops stationed in the Arab nation, which is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group also known as AQAP. The United States closed its embassy in Sanaa last month, after Houthi rebels took over the Yemeni capital. And hundreds of al Qaeda members escaped two Yemeni prisons Thursday and Friday, raising further security questions.
For years, the U.S. military has worked closely with Yemen's government to go after AQAP, together carrying out numerous attacks like the 2011 drone strike that killed prominent al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki. And U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed this cooperation as a pillar in his anti-terrorism campaign.
"Yemen has never been a perfect democracy or a island of stability," Obama said in January, promoting the policy of "partnering and intelligence-sharing with that local government" as the best approach in a bad situation.
"The alternative would be for us to play whack-a-mole every time there is a terrorist actor inside of any given country," the President said.
These include the rise of the Houthis, their battles with forces loyal to ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the presence of not only al Qaeda fighters but other militants. But while there have been drone strikes as recently as last month, these cooperative efforts have been hampered by Yemen's growing difficulty in maintaining unity and peace.These include the rise of the Houthis, their battles with forces loyal to ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the presence of not only al Qaeda fighters but other militants.
On Friday, for instance, ISIS purportedly claimed responsibility for bombings at two mosques in Sanaa what, if true, would mark that group's first large-scale attack in Yemen. The claim came in a statement posted on a site that previously carried ISIS proclamations, but couldn't be immediately authenticated by CNN.
Those blasts killed at least 137 people and wounded 357 others, according to Yemen's state-run Saba news agency.
While ISIS and al Qaeda are both Sunni groups that espouse extreme versions of Islam and violent opposition to the West, that doesn't mean they will be working together anytime soon. In fact, AQAP strongly rebuked ISIS in a video released in November, characterizing its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's declaration of an Islamic caliphate as illegitimate.
More than anything, the idea of the group calling itself the Islamic State violently flexing its muscles speaks to the chaotic situation there. With no one really in control, that means numerous groups -- including those with a history of killing civilians and lashing out at the West -- have been more room to operate and a better chance potentially to take over.
Photos: Yemen mosque attacks Armed men inspect damage after an explosion at Al Badr mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday, March 20. Deadly explosions in Yemen's capital rocked two mosques serving a minority Muslim group that recently conquered the city. The mosques serve members of the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, which is followed by the Houthi rebels who recently took control of the capital. Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Yemen mosque attacks A casualty is wheeled to a hospital after the bombing attacks in Sanaa on March 20. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Yemen mosque attacks Houthi fighters stand near a damaged car after bombings in Sanaa on March 20. The attacks started with suicide bombings inside the buildings, followed shortly by explosions outside, two senior Houthi leaders said. Hide Caption 3 of 8 Photos: Yemen mosque attacks The body of a person killed in the attacks is carried to a hospital in Sanaa on March 20. Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Yemen mosque attacks Men carry |
and move into the future?
Photography liberated painting from the existential burden to depict. With the advent of photography, painting was finally able to move sideways and forward, blossoming in all kinds of directions. Who - or what - is going to do that for photography? (more)
Photography has finally arrived at its own existential crisis. It is far from being over - no medium is ever over as long as there is just an ounce of creativity left on this planet. But photography has long been running in a circle. Over the past ten years, it has increasingly become dominated by nostalgia and conservatism. Even the idea that we now need editors or curators to create meaning out of the flood of photographs ultimately is conservative, looking backwards when we could, no we should be looking forward.
Who - or what - can move photography forward, looking forward?
Ironically, it is digital photography that has resulted in the current stasis of the medium. Given the possibilities, it is quite amazing to see how little digital photography has qualitatively changed photography. Quantitatively, oh sure. The number of photographs taken has exploded, especially since there are now cameras in places where there weren’t any before. You wouldn’t have a rotary phone with a camera in it or attached to it. Now, everybody has at least one camera, so we’re all photographers - or so we are being told.
There’s a lot of talk how making photographs has become so much harder given the state of things, given there are cameras everywhere. But then, if you are complaining about that - doesn’t that show the limitations of your own creativity? What can you photograph when every picture has already been taken? Well - isn’t it liberating to know that every photograph has been taken already, so now you can really take your photographs?
It’s one of those circles we’re running in.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain how the whole idea of using archives, of editing and/or curating is ultimately not moving photography anywhere at all. It’s stasis. I’m sure curators will disagree - but what would one expect to hear from someone paid to do those things? As much as I personally enjoy creating meaning out of an archive - in whatever way - it is not moving the medium itself forward, unless the curation is done in ways that were not possible before. And what we’re seeing, so far, is just that: Statis, doing what people have done before.
Even looking at Google Street View (GSV): Here we have something that is very different from what people in, let’s say, the 1970s had at their disposal. But all the work coming out of GSV essentially is just what people were doing before. Except that now it’s done on the computer, whether it’s creating your haha street photography, your bleak and utterly predictable view of the declining America, or whatever else. It’s all fine, but it doesn’t move photography forward one inch. It only looks new. But just because it looks different, because your haunted poor figures crossing some road in Detroit are pixelated doesn’t mean that there is a qualitative difference. It’s like the “new” soap that’s new because it says so on the box.
In fact, I think that it’s actually in the analog area where artists are producing the most interesting work right now, where artists are attempting to move if not forward then at least sidewards. Whether it’s Marco Breuer’s Condition, evoking Gerhard Richter style abstractions, whether it’s Matthew Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs, these kinds of artists are trying to escape the narrow photographic confines we’ve built around ourselves1.
The digital equivalent of Breuer’s or Brandt’s work is whatever is being created on “smart” phones, using “apps” - fake analog images. But the digital world falls crucially short here, for more reasons than one. First, there really is nothing at stake. There is no artistry here other than the application of some software filter that in a very deterministic way makes your new digital photograph look old. So there is no chance. Art without a trace of chance, a trace of an accident isn’t art. No artistic risk, not art (just ask William Wegman’s dog). What is more, it’s deeply reactionary, but in an uncommitted way. You could, for example, buy a real old camera and stuff film into it, to create your genuine old-timey photographs, but that effort isn’t even made. It’s a pointless nostalgia, where you’re yearning for just that one aspect of the past without all the rest. In contrast, Breuer and Brandt really break down their images. It’s real, there is no going back.
So where does that lead us? I don’t know. How do we get to use all these new tools to create photography that is not just some new looking variant of the old but, instead, something different, something genuinely new?
Painting erupted once its burden of depiction was lifted. Maybe as photographers we can do our own lifting, realizing what it means, for example, to say that every photograph has already been taken. Seen in that sense, photography could maybe be the first medium to move forward because it has made itself obsolete, at least to some extent.
Now that we’ve done all that stuff that you can see in history-of-photography books, now that we’ve become obsessed with re-creating that past over and over again - how can we turn around, to look at and move into the future?
1 The irony here is, of course, that the art world has a much easier time to understand this kind of work, because it more obviously looks like art than a simple photograph. Add to that the irony that in Breuer’s case, it’s a photographer now emulating a painter - the latter having successfully navigated the possibilities of a medium vastly changed by the former’s progenitors.
Update (13 June 2012): Having seen various people think that I’m singling out photography, presumably somewhat unfairly, it’s time to make this very clear. Photography is a form or art. Any art form needs to evolve. Otherwise, there’s stasis, and stasis in art is death (just ask any jazz musician). These kinds of debates are being held in other art forms, too - it’s not just a photography thing.
The one thing that seems unique to photography (maybe this is just me not being familiar enough with other art forms) is that its practitioners for the most part are incredibly conservative as far as the medium is concerned. So I could have also asked whether photography will survive the conservatism the vast majority of its own practitioners have come to embrace. I currently doubt it will. To use jazz again, with its current wave of nostalgia photography is at risk of becoming the Dixieland of the visual arts.Hello! Finally, the Super Sentai icon pack is here! There are icons from Goranger to Kyoryuger, and Akibaranger is also included.
For other genres icons, see the links at the bottom.
This pack includes:General Super Sentai iconGeneral Tokusatsu iconGorangerJAKQBattle Fever JDenzimanSun VulcanGoggle 5DynamanBiomanChangeman (2 versions)FlashmanMaskman (2 versions)LivemanTurborangerFivemanJetmanZyurangerDairangerKakurangerOhrangerCarrangerMegarangerGingamanGoGo 5TimerangerGaorangerHurricangerAbarangerDekarangerMagirangerBoukengerGekirangerGo-OngerShinkengerGoseigerGokaigerGo-BustersKyoryugerAkibarangerIcons are in ICO format, for Windows, and PNG, for Mac and general purposes.Windows users:Since there are some differences on how to change icon folders between Windows versions, google something like "how to change icons in windows [insert your version here]", the version being XP, Vista, 7 or 8. By the way, Windows 7 and 8's way to change icons is the same, so don't worry if you don't find a tutorial for 8.Mac users:Download the software "Img2icns". After installing it, drag and drop the PNG file to the software and choose to save it as a folder. If you're not sure where to download this software, just google "Img2icns" and you'll find it.The images used to create these icons are their respective owners properties.The folder template was made by paulodellvalle (deviantart.com/paulodelvalle).Icons were made by Time Pink and Thiago Legionário ( www.jlyrics.com.br ).Other icon packs:Kamen Rider icon pack: fav.me/d6qxnqz Ultraman/Ultra Series icon pack: fav.me/d6vuo12 Other Hero icon pack: fav.me/d6xikwl Metal Hero icon pack: fav.me/d6z9v28 Power Rangers icon pack: fav.me/d6yh43x Other west heroes icon pack: fav.me/d6yh5be TV series icon pack: fav.me/d6qjd6wWASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s online voter-turnout operation suffered a meltdown on Election Day, resulting in a crucial 90-minute “buckling’’ of the system
in Boston and the inability of some campaign workers across the country to use a vital smartphone program, according to campaign officials and volunteers.
Code-named ORCA, the program was kept secret until just before the election in order to prevent hacking of the system. It was then trumpeted by Romney’s aides as an unrivaled high-tech means of communicating with more than 30,000 field workers who were stationed at polling places on Election Day. Those volunteers were supposed to track who voted and to alert Boston headquarters if turnout was lower than expected at key precincts.
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But at Boston’s TD Garden, where 800 Romney workers were staffing phones and computers in coordination with the field workers to oversee the turnout, the surge in traffic was so great that the system didn’t work for 90 minutes, causing panic as staffers frantically tried to restore service. Some campaign workers also reported that they had incorrect PINS and had not been informed that they needed certification to work at polling places.
“The Garden definitely kind of buckled under the strain,’’ Zac Moffatt, the campaign’s digital director, confirmed in an interview. “The system wasn’t ready for the amount of information incoming.’’
Despite the problems, Moffatt said, the campaign had reports by the end of the day from 91 percent of counties, with information about 14 million voters, and he discounted speculation from frustrated campaign volunteers who worried the problems might have cost Romney the election.
“I definitely understand the frustration of people,’’ he said, while adding that the problems were not “election determinative.’’
Romney himself trumpeted the program shortly before Election Day in a video message to volunteers. Titled, “Thank you for your help with Project ORCA,’’ the video showed Romney saying he was “encouraged to hear how well it is coming along. As part of this task force, you’ll be the key link in providing critical, real-time information to me and to the staff so that we can ensure that every last supporter makes it to the polls. With state-of-the-art technology, and an extremely dedicated group of volunteers, our campaign will have an unprecedented advantage on Election Day.’’
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But the technology did not live up to Romney’s billing, at least during the crash. The campaign did not respond to a question about whether a particular contractor was primarily responsible for the program but said it was overseen by staff.
While campaign workers in Boston struggled on their end to get the system back online, volunteers across the country reported a variety of problems, some of them unrelated to the issues at the Garden.
John Ekdahl Jr., a 34-year-old Romney campaign worker and Web developer from Jacksonville, Fla., said in a telephone interview Friday that he was sent a 60-page document by the campaign Monday that included instructions on how to use the program and a list of voters at his polling place. That sent him on a frantic run to find a store to print out the documentation. Still, as a web developer, he felt comfortable with the ORCA program, which is actually a webpage and not a typical smartphone app.
Ekdahl’s instructions were to go to his polling place with the list of voters, use the secure campaign web page, and push a virtual “slider’’ on his phone to alert Boston that an individual had voted. In theory, this was a 21st century equivalent of the traditional “strike list,’’ in which campaign workers check off names of voters on reams of paper so that headquarters can know who cast ballots. The idea was to make everything happen instantaneously, with the names sent via the ORCA application to headquarters, where workers would try to track down likely supporters who had not turned out.
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But when Edkahl went to his polling place with the document and his smartphone, he was told that he needed a certificate to allow him to work there. Checking his document, he found that he was not told about the certification. He spent several hours trying to tell the campaign about the problem but got nowhere. He gave up at 2 p.m., depriving the campaign of data at his station. He said he heard from a number of other volunteers across the country who had the same problem.
“I’m hearing almost universal condemnation of the thing,’’ said Ekdahl, who first wrote about the “unmitigated disaster’’ of ORCA on his personal blog. “It seemed like the basic coordination between ground ops and overall team was lacking.’’
As problems continued throughout Election Day, Romney volunteers took to their Twitter accounts and blogs to seek help or express frustration. One volunteer wrote on his blog that he was told that he couldn’t use a smartphone with a camera at the polling place, making it impossible to use the application.
A number of deeply upset volunteers wrote on a Romney campaign message board that they could not get the program to work and were unable to get through to technical support, either receiving a busy signal or a recording that said try again later.
“I have called the ORCA helpline. It was supposed to be live at 5 a.m.... still getting a recording. Com on Boston we can’t help Mitt if you won’t help us.!!!!!’’ one volunteer wrote.
Some volunteers apparently did not understand how to access the ORCA application, mistakenly thinking they had to download it for their phone. But the application wasn’t in iTunes or the Android store; it was a “web application,’’ requiring the field workers to access it via a secure Internet connection.
There were reports that volunteers in some states could not get the security code supplied by the campaign to work on the web page. An anonymous campaign official was quoted on the conservative website, Breitbart.com, as saying that hundreds of volunteers in Colorado had called to report problems.
“The user names and passwords were wrong, but the reset password tool didn’t work, and we couldn’t change phone PINs,’’ the official was quoted as saying. “We were told the problems were limited and asked to project confidence, have people use pencil and paper, and try to submit again later. Then at 6 p.m. they admitted they had issued the wrong PINs to every volunteer in Colorado, and reissued new PINs (which also didn’t work).’’
Moffatt, asked whether there was a problem with PINs that made it impossible to use the application, said he did not know.
Moffatt is the cofounder of Targeted Victory, a Virginia-based consulting firm that has a contract to work for the Romney campaign, according to the company’s website.
It is not clear if the reported problems with the PINs happened as a result of the crash at TD Garden or were a secondary failure.
A senior official in President Obama’s campaign said it had experienced problems when it first used a similar system in 2008. The official said the campaign had learned from that experience and, after two dry runs earlier this year, had no significant glitches in its Election Day program that also relied on a smartphone program. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk about the matter on the record.
Romney campaign officials had expressed great confidence in the program. In an interview aired on Monday on PBS, campaign spokesman Gail Gitcho gave what appears to be the first extended preview of ORCA, describing it as a revolutionary tool to help the campaign boost turnout.
“At 5 o’clock when the exit polls come out, we won’t pay attention to that,’’ Gitcho said. “We will have had much more scientific information just based on the political operation we have set up.’’
Despite months of preparation for obtaining the needed Election Day bandwidth, the crash apparently occurred because of the strain of so much Internet traffic in the Romney operation in a short period of time, campaign volunteers said.OTTAWA — Industry Minister James Moore may be offering a conciliatory gesture to Canada’s big cellphone providers after a nasty fight by promising the federal government will not loosen foreign ownership rules any further.
Speaking to The Huffington Post Canada on Monday, Moore said the Conservative government is focused on fostering competition in the wireless market, but only to a certain degree.
An "absolutely free market" will not get Canadian cellphone customers what they want, and neither will imposed price controls, he said.
“I just don’t think it would serve the Canadian industry,” Moore said. “I think it would upset a balance that I think we have achieved.”
Moore has been locked in a war of words with Canada’s large industry players – Bell, Telus and Rogers – over its decision to allow only small players and new wireless entrants, including potentially Verizon, to bid on an additional block of spectrum in the 700 MHz range, a highly valued signal wavelength that allows for faster and better coverage.
The three incumbents are worried that U.S. wireless giant Verizon may potentially outbid one of them on one of the blocks of spectrum both can bid on. Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed warned Monday that millions of Canadians could face slower traffic speeds if one of the big three is left without a block of spectrum because of the government’s decision.
Moore told HuffPost it was a “falsehood” that the government had courted Verizon, as some news reports implied. Bureaucrats at Industry Canada had met with the company after it requested basic information about the upcoming auction, he said.
In order to foster competition, however, the Tories have allowed foreign-owned companies to enter Canada’s mobile market but only if they hold less than 10 per cent of the market. Moore told HuffPost that he has no plans to further relax those rules, saying it would be bad for Canadian business.
“We don’t want to, obviously, damage and hurt Canadian companies, we just want there to be effective competition,” Moore said.
If it were an absolutely full free market, he said, the different regions of the country would not have comparable service.
“I don’t think that can be achieved in an absolute free market."
“You would be well served in a large city centre … but I don’t think all Canadians would necessarily be well served.”
But speaking about Verizon’s potential entry into the marketplace, Moore suggested there are ways of regulating the industry to ensure that rural and underserved areas are connected by newcomers. He said it would be difficult, however, because it would take time for new players to expand their networks.
Moore said the government’s goal is to lower Canadians’ cellphone bills, but he acknowledged there is no way the federal government can guarantee that an entry by Verizon would mean lower prices.
He insisted competition is healthy and pointed to the entrance of smaller players in the market, such as Wind and Mobilicity in 2008, as key drivers in lowering mobile bills by 20 per cent.
Moore also nixed any idea of imposing price controls, telling HuffPost: “I don’t foresee that being an option. No.”
He said he had no intention of mandating consumer-friendly policies, such as country-wide local calling or capping roaming rates.
“These aren’t Crown corporations; these are businesses, and they’ll engage the marketplace as they choose,” he said. “We’ll observe and we’ll see what happens.”
Liberal deputy leader Ralph Goodale suggested Moore might be trying to placate the big three after their big public dispute.
“He’s probably trying to offer an olive branch to people he has otherwise disturbed in the course of the discussion,” Goodale said.
Moore told HuffPost the big three have brought their problems on themselves.
If the broadcasters hadn’t used their wireless divisions to compensate for lesser performing parts of their businesses, and if they had been more sensitive to customer complaints, he said, they would not be as vilified by the public.
“You know, had the money that they clearly have at their disposal to invest in this campaign (against Verizon), if that money had been used to engage consumers in service standards, people might feel differently,” Moore said. “All of these Canadian companies are doing extraordinarily well. The analysis that I saw, that was done by my department, shows that Canadian telecommunications profits are incredibly healthy and they are doing very well and they are not under threat from a lack of prosperity in the status quo.”
Moore has been engaged in a heated public relations battle after Anthony Fell, Bell Canada’s BCE director, shared a letter in the Financial Post last week that he had written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In it, he called Moore “disrespectful” towards the CEOs of Bell, Telus and Rogers Telecommunications for granting them only 30-minute meetings to make their case about the upcoming spectrum auction.
“For Minister Moore, after less than a month in office, to suddenly become an expert on major telecom policy and make grand pronouncements on this decision without far more detailed analysis, discussion and understanding is quite unseemly,” Fell wrote in the letter published on Aug. 13.
BCE’s attempt to bring the public onside in the battle against Verizon backfired, McGill University political scientist Richard Schultz, a telecom specialist who has consulted for Bell, Telus and the CRTC, told HuffPost.
“It was foolish, stupid, arrogant,” Schultz said of Fell’s letter.
Not one to back down from a fight, Moore shot back at Fell in a letter published on his website saying, the big three telcos were being “dishonest” and “misleading” in their media campaigns.
He also took Fell to task for suggesting that the Tories’ policy was merely “‘a political populist initiative to capitalize on a misinformed public view” of Canada's telecommunications industry. He then embarked on a cross-country tour to sell the public on the government’s plan to increase competition in an effort to lower prices.
“The big three’s interest, that’s not our interest,” Moore told HuffPost. “Our interest is consumers and just defending the policy over overheated energy that is being put out there against [it by] … those who are criticizing it because of the threat to them,” he said.
“Nobody believes that the incumbents want robust aggressive competition,” Moore added.specy is a program which displays your computer's specifications (thus the name specy) which was inspired by the package archey. It is implemented in bash.
Features:
* Adapt to size of terminal to show minimal or full display
* Customizable colors through command arguments
* Easily add new information to the output
* Displays dynamically updating values including drives, swap, RAM, window manager, and packages installed
* Configure what is displayed upon execution
Dependencies:
* ncurses
specy is available in the AUR here.
The git repository is available here.
Here is an example of the program running in a large terminal:
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8572/164 … cb7e_o.png
Here is an example of the program adapting to a smaller terminal:
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/164 … 8d49_o.png
This is my first PKGBUILD I have created and uploaded to the AUR. Please contribute, criticize, and comment.
Thanks.
-- mod edit: read the Forum Etiquette and only post thumbnails http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … s_and_Code [jwr] --
Last edited by wm (2015-02-07 05:54:26)The Miami Dolphins have released their first depth chart of the year as part of their preparation for their first preseason game, a Thursday night contest in Miami against the Atlanta Falcons. The depth chart does not yet include the newly added Jay Cutler, who has not yet officially signed his contract. And, while this is still extremely early and things will obviously change, it does give us a quick look at what the coaches are seeing.
The starting offense does not have any real surprises to it. Two of the starters, quarterback Ryan Tannehill and left guard Ted Larsen, have suffered injuries that are expected to keep both of them out of action for a lengthy period of time, possibly for the year. The defensive starters include rookie Raekwon McMillan as on of the three linebackers - and assuming the Dolphins listed the linebackers in the formation in which they will play despite not including “MLB,” “WLB,” or “SLB” designations, he is listed as the starting middle linebacker.
The second team is a little more interesting. The second-string wide receivers are Leonte Carroo, Jakeem Grant, and Drew Morgan. Carroo and Grant are not really surprises in those two spots, but undrafted rookie Morgan taking the second spot on the depth chart as the “slot” receiver could be a sign that the coaches are impressed by a player who was flashing throughout the offseason program.
The full depth chart is:Half-century old warplanes have been tested on Islamic State targets, as the military determines whether they should become a permanent addition to their arsenal for fighting insurgencies. Proponents say the Vietnam-era jets do more for less.
The OV-10 Bronco turbo-propeller plane, first flown in 1965, is one of the “light turbo-prop aircraft” being considered for counterinsurgency operations, a US Central Command representative told CNN.
Captain Bryant Davis, a spokesman for US Central Command, said one naval aviator and one flight officer make up the entire crew, adding that the OV-10 had conducted 120 combat missions during its try-out period.
What makes the OV-10 attractive is not its speed, but lack thereof. Faster planes like the F-15 or F-35 travel much faster, but the OV-10’s cruising speed of 223 mph is better suited for supporting ground troops, especially when the enemy doesn’t have advanced anti-aircraft weaponry. The State Department has previously used the plane in drug war missions, according to The OV-10 Bronco Association.
Not only would the OV-10 allow pilots to fly lower and see the target area better, it would also save the military some money. An F-35, part of the most expensive US military weapons program in history, costs about $150 million, and to fly one for just an hour could cost around $45,000, retired naval aviator Commander Chris Harmer told CNN. An OV-10 flight is estimated to cost under $5,000.
Shooting down US ‘stealth’ jets not that hard, expert warnshttps://t.co/RT5CKlj3uXpic.twitter.com/k25WlPSzbd — RT America (@RT_America) 26 февраля 2016 г.
Davis said that the results of the experimental flights have been passed on to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Requirements Oversight Council.SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, the country's conservative ruling party, stepped up their battle cry at the National Assembly this week: It's time for South Korea to man up and make its own nuclear weapons, they said.
“The only way to defend our survival would be to maintain a balance of terror that confronts nuclear with nuclear,” said Representative Shim Jae-cheol at a National Assembly meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, as quoted in the Joongang Ilbo.
Lawmakers also called for greater measures in launching preemptive strikes on critical targets and lifting the maximum limit on South Korean ballistic missiles as mandated by law.
The proclamation comes in response to North Korea's third nuclear test on Feb. 12, sparking a war of words between the divided peninsula.
Some analysts are speculating that North Korea could carry out a fourth test soon as a show of strength. The allegation isn't certain despite satellite imagery of increasing activity at the Punggye-ri test site, in the country's far north.
KBS reports:
"The images KBS secured from US-based Digital Globe show signs of snow being removed and materials being transported around key facilities and roads along the site’s southern tunnel. Snow on the road along the perimeter of the site also appears to have been cleared."
Government officials in Seoul, however, do not believe North Korea will carry out another test soon.
That's not reassuring for regular South Koreans. Two-thirds of the country supports the creation of a nuclear program in response to the North Korean threat, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
The popular sentiment comes at a touchy time for president-elect Park Geun-hye, who is set to take office on Monday. Park has promised to warm ties with the hermit kingdom, hoping that tit-for-tat gestures from both sides will improve relations on the peninsula.
But Park condemned the nuclear test, saying her incoming government would not tolerate a nuclear-armed North.
The US has taken its usual role, urging restraint from Seoul after a provocation from the North. The US ambassador to South Korea, Sung Kim, said that the country developing its own nuclear capability, or the US redeploying tactical nuclear weapons, would be a "huge mistake."
Fearing a peninsular arms race, Washington has sought to limit South Korean military capabilities since the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.LIVERPOOL Football Club will open its newest international academy in New South Wales, the Premier League club has announced.
To be primarily based at Southern Cross University (SCU) in Lismore, the program will give young footballers aged 5-17 the chance to learn to play ‘The Liverpool Way’.
Sessions will be designed to develop “technical, tactical, physical and social” aspects of the game and be delivered by a team of Liverpool FC and local coaches.
Round 29 Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre Visit Match Centre
Programs including ongoing player development sessions, holiday soccer schools, youth tournaments, coaching career opportunities and a football specific diploma will be delivered in conjunction with the university.
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is the club’s most famous academy product.
Liverpool FC and SCU will deliver the sessions at the Southern Cross Football Centre and other key locations across the state of New South Wales.
Ian Rush, Liverpool Football Club Ambassador said: “We have a huge number of fans in Australia, so setting-up a fulltime coaching program in the country is a great opportunity for those youngsters to learn to play the Liverpool way through this partnership.
“The enthusiasm and passion for LFC in the country is amazing, so I’m sure this initiative will be a huge success.
“On all the LFC International Academy projects around the world we aim to develop players both on and off the pitch and this will be no different.”
Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Robbie Fowler are all products of the club’s academy. Source: News Corp Australia
Scott Collis, the General Manager of the Southern Cross Football Centre, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for young players across the North Coast, and will provide a major boost for Lismore.
“Southern Cross University is proud to be partnering with one of the most recognised and prestigious names in world sport. Liverpool Football Club has a glorious footballing tradition and an exciting future.
“We are enthusiastic about being part of that future. Our recognised expertise across the health and sports disciplines, both in research and teaching, will complement the delivery of Liverpool Football Club International Academy programs in New South Wales.”Much like season one did with Ned Stark’s tragedy, season two of HBO’s Game of Thrones gives us another example of a plot that was changed to carry a different meaning to its book version, and again it was a tragedy. In the show, Renly is a benevolent political force and apparently the best king of all the contenders, cut down in his prime by his ambitious, malevolent brother, just before he could reach an agreement with the Starks to join forces and crush the Lannisters. Book!Renly would love this sort of PR (except the part where he died), but the truth is that he’s selfish and vain, his bid for the throne an ideologically void ego trip intended to help Renly and the Tyrells and only Renly and the Tyrells.
But to make the show version of this story work means that Stannis in turn must also be changed to provide the needed contrast. Where book!Stannis has always had his good points hidden in his resentment and lousy social skills - a wide meritocratic streak and a belief in good governance, for instance - show!Stannis is fuelled by ambition, grasping on to a foreign religion of obvious evil to gain political power. Just as Renly’s flaws, large and small, were edited out to facilitate this tragedy, Stannis’ virtues were systematically removed. On a macro level, the show’s treatment misses huge points of GRRM’s genre criticism, both regarding the duties of a king and the specific character types Stannis and Renly subvert.
The Good Brother
Let’s start with Renly.
The show’s take on Renly Baratheon is almost unrecognisable from the book version. Renly is introduced early in A Game of Thrones as an idealised version of Robert - younger, handsome, charming, and with an enthusiasm for martial pursuits. But where GRRM is clear that this is the image of Renly, the show has mistaken it for the substance of Renly (and removed his apparent pleasure in war sports). Even in book one it’s clear that underneath the surface Renly is quite the unpleasant individual: he mocks his niece’s looks and his brother’s marriage, he endorses Daenerys’ assassination without hesitation, and though he knows about Cersei’s illegitimate children, he doesn’t inform either Robert or Jon Arryn in favour of using the information to advance himself and his lover’s family, and the last time we saw him in AGoT, he proposed that Ned take Cersei’s children hostage and rule in Joffrey’s name.
Renly makes his first on-page appearance in A Clash of Kings in Catelyn II, watching a tourney, and again Catelyn immediately notes that “he is Robert come again” insofar as appearances go. His initial conversation with her there, in public, is indeed all graciousness. The first hints that this is only surface come as Catelyn is shown to Renly’s lavish pavilion, which is far too well-stocked with all Renly’s toys for his army to march effectively. The food porn of this chapter likewise shows that the primary concern is not with fighting but with feasting. Once Renly is in private with Catelyn, matters change. The first item on his agenda is to show her the size of his army, and immediately to compare it to the size of Robb’s forces. The implied threat is not very subtle. Then he moves on to threatening all the rest of Westeros: “He swept a hand across the campfires that burned from horizon to horizon. ‘Well, there is my claim, as good as Robert’s ever was.’” (Catelyn II) In other words, Renly intends to make war on Westeros until he becomes king, because he wants to be king. Conspicuously lacking is any talk of duty or merit - Renly speaks of duty not at all and merit only once Catelyn starts to believe Stannis might be right about the incest, and hence Stannis’ legitimacy.
Episode 2.03 (“What Is Dead May Never Die”) likewise brings us a pair of public/private chats between Renly and Catelyn, though the second is very different to the book. Again, in public, Renly is all graciousness, accepting of Brienne as a warrior. A significant argument about protocol was edited out, however; when Catelyn refuses to address Renly as “your grace” and kneel, she argues when called on it, while Renly stays out of the dispute to take Catelyn’s measure. In the show, Renly further demonstrates his graciousness and approachability by short-circuiting the argument himself, saying “there’s no need for that.” The more private discussion between Renly and Catelyn provides no contrast, as Renly addresses a smallfolk worker by name and inquires after a specific injury. There are no threats made, just a moment of kindness and concern for social inferiors.
The show also adds several scenes between Renly, Loras, and Margaery, focused on Renly’s sexuality and the challenge of posing as straight. These are meant to engage audience sympathy for Renly and are indeed quite successful in their task. Furthermore, Renly’s defense of Brienne as “a very capable warrior” is a long way removed from his book version’s private mockery of her. In 2.04 (“Garden of Bones”) we see Renly express his dislike and distaste for the treacherous Littlefinger: “I don’t like you, Lord Baelish. I don’t like your face. I don’t like the words that come oozing out of your mouth. I don’t want you in my tent one minute more than necessary.” The intent is to depict Renly as a good and open-minded man. It’s successful, and these scenes are well-written and acted, even if they miss the larger point of Renly’s character in the books.
The Storm’s End parley (2.04 still) between Renly and Stannis is subtly different to how it went down in the books, reflecting the changed characters of the men negotiating. In an obvious visual signifier of this, Renly’s party shows up on white horses, whilst Stannis’ party shows up on black (or dark brown) horses. (Ten-gallon hats of the appropriate colours would not be period-accurate.) Strangely, the till-now unfailingly polite and charming Renly reverts to something more like his book self for a minute or two, insulting Stannis repeatedly. In the case of the book, Renly’s rudeness was intended to destroy the talks, as he offered Stannis Storm’s End in the most insulting fashion he could think of, followed by repeating the rumour that Stannis’ daughter Shireen was fathered by the fool Patchface. At the opening of discussions in the show, Melisandre does a lot of the talking, again emphasising that Stannis’ faction is controlled by a scary foreign religion. Stannis’ revelation about the incest is edited out, since this information reveals to Catelyn that, if true, Stannis is no rebel by the laws of the land, and Renly alone is the usurper. Again, the show wants us to believe that the kingship has nothing to do with law or the rule thereof, but is a personality competition between the Baratheon brothers. We the audience might not believe in rightful kings, but Stannis and |
used a bullhorn to encourage infantrymen to change sides. This much is certain, and it is also certain that the two men -- the impulsive Kremlin dictator Nikita Khrushchev and the calculating founder of the German Democratic Republic, Walter Ulbricht -- were never overly fond of each other.
Nevertheless, during the decade in which they simultaneously shaped the fates of their respective countries, Khrushchev and Ulbricht were close allies. But which of the two men was responsible for the construction of the Berlin Wall on Aug. 13, 1961? Whose idea led to a 165.7-kilometer (103-mile) bulwark -- a monstrous barrier of concrete and barbed wire, surrounding the western section of the city, armed with watchtowers and booby traps?
Never before had a regime locked up its own population. The border between the two Germanys had been sealed off for some time, but when the Wall went up, the loophole into West Berlin, through which East Germans had been able to flee to West Germany, was also closed.
From then on, anyone who wished to leave East Germany was risking his or her life. At least 136 people died in the attempt to surmount the Berlin Wall. They were shot by border guards, ripped to shreds by landmines or they drowned in the Spree River.
Was this sinister method of border control created at the urging of Ulbricht, because his state of workers and farmers was threatened by a brain drain, as former Soviet diplomats claimed after German reunification? Or did Khrushchev order the Wall's construction, as former senior members of the East German communist party, the SED, claim?
For years, historians have been trying to clear this contradiction, and now an answer may be in the offing. It appears in a Soviet document that Matthias Uhl of the German Historical Institute in Moscow has discovered: a previously unknown record of a conversation that took place between the two leaders on Aug. 1, 1961.
By that time, the preparations for building the Wall were well underway, and the initiative apparently came from Khrushchev, as he said himself in the August meeting with his East German counterpart. A short time earlier, according to the document, Khrushchev had sent the Soviet ambassador in East Berlin to Ulbricht in order to "explain to him my idea of taking advantage of the current tensions with the West and laying an iron ring around Berlin." In the conversation, Khrushchev pointed out that "many engineers" had already left East Germany, and that something "had to be done."
Of course, Khrushchev had little difficulty convincing his visitor, at least according to the minutes of the Moscow meeting. Indeed, Ulbricht was in favor of walling in the East Germans because, as he said, "there are many issues that cannot be resolved with an open border."
It was the height of the Cold War, and the comrades believed that the conflict between socialism and capitalism would be decided in Germany. For that reason, they wanted to make sure that East Germany would economically outpace its West German rival. But Ulbricht's planned economy failed to gain momentum, and in 1960 alone, roughly 200,000 East Germans fled from empty supermarket shelves -- and the Stasi secret police -- to West Germany. At the Aug. 1 meeting, a furious Khrushchev told Ulbricht: "When I attended your party convention two years ago, everything was fine. What happened? You wanted to pull ahead of West Germany by 1961/62."
Ulbricht responded candidly to Khrushchev's accusation, saying: "The population is making demands that cannot be met."
Ulbricht, a Leipzig native who had been trained as a carpenter, shifted the blame to his comrades from Poland and Bulgaria, who -- contrary to all agreements -- were supplying neither steel nor coal. But most of all, he said, it was the fault of the West German government. Ulbricht made the audacious claim that Bonn was even "preparing an uprising" in East Germany, which was to "take place in the fall of 1961." His somewhat naïve host appears to have believed this nonsense.
Khrushchev, at any rate, stepped up the pace. "We will give you one or two weeks to make the necessary economic preparations," he told Ulbricht. "Then you will convene the parliament and issue the following communiqué: 'Beginning tomorrow, checkpoints will be erected and transit will be prohibited. Anyone who wishes to cross the border can do so only with the permission of certain authorities of the German Democratic Republic."
Khrushchev wanted to convince the East German population that the wall being built would protect them from Western spies, and he said that the Germans would understand.
But even Khrushchev didn't appear to totally believe his own propaganda. When Ulbricht told him, during the August meeting, that he wanted to bring his economic experts into the loop, Khrushchev advised him otherwise. "You should not explain anything before the introduction of the new border regime," he said. "It would only strengthen the flow of people leaving."
If word got out about the wall construction, the Kremlin director recognized correctly, there could be "traffic jams" on Berlin's access roads. Such forms of traffic obstruction would constitute "a certain demonstration," he said.Reaching the final four of the College Cup is no easy task, but Jamia Fields and her Florida State squads did just that all four years she was in Tallahassee. The Lady Seminoles were unlucky in her first three years, getting bounced in the semifinals twice, and then losing in the championship her junior year. It was a lot of heartbreak, but in 2014 Jamia and the Florida State women’s soccer team were on a mission, and thanks to Jamia’s championship clinching goal in the 83rd minute against Virginia, the three years of heartbreak turned to unparalleled joy.
Since that day in December the happiness has continued. In January, Jamia was drafted in the second round (14th overall) by the NWSL’s Boston Breakers, giving her the chance to live out her childhood dream of playing professional soccer.
Nicknamed "Ms. November-December" by her coach Mark Krikorian, Jamia was an immediate contributor her freshman year, earning a spot on the 2011 ACC All Freshman team. Her development continued throughout her college career where she then became the College Cup’s Most Outstanding Player on Offense in 2013. Fields scored three goals and added two assists in the College Cup tournament and she was also named Second Team All ACC in 2014 along with being on the 2013 and 2014 All Tournament teams.
After recieving a better opportunity for a contract with the Western New York Flash, Jamia now lives in the Northeast and is enjoying every moment with her teammates. Without further adieu, here are 18 questions with the National Championship hero and Western New York Flash forward Jamia Fields!The Houthi group is prepared to hand over the body of slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh to his family, Sputnik Arabic reported.
Media reports claimed that the Houthi group are only prepared to hand over the body if only a small funeral is held, but this was denied by a member of the Houthi Political Bureau.
“There have been no statements regarding the refusal to hand over his body. This is a new issue. Maybe his relatives will ask for his body and it will be done. We have no conditions,” Halima Jahaf said.
Saleh was killed by gun shots as he attempted to flee from Sana’a to Mareb province as the Houthis began raiding the capital in seaabrch of him.
Saudi Arabia has since supported the uptick in conflict dynamics in the capital, by executing air strikes. The Kingdom today continued to support the remaining Saleh loyalists in Sana’a.
The killing took place after Saleh severed ties with the Houthis. The Houthis deemed the severance treachery, as Saleh looked forward to open talks with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of Arab states which were invited by internationally recognised President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in March 2015 to neutralise threats from the Houthis.
Some media outlets reported yesterday that Saleh’s son said he will “lead the battle until the last Houthi is thrown out of Yemen.” A letter produced by Saleh’s son however did not mention Iran or the Houthi group, which resulted in sending mixed messages.
Yemen’s conflict continues without any clear positions taken by the parties to the conflict. There is currently no word on Saleh’s funeral.
Profile Ali Abdullah Saleh (21 March 1942 – 4 December 2017)UPDATE 3 (2/11/17): We reuploaded most of the talks separately and have made a playlist. Also see below for links to the content in the agenda!
UPDATE 2 (11/3): YouTube Support is still working on the flash talk archive and we are waiting with baited breath! An archive of the slides is now available. The tutorial session archives are available for the Morphozoic tutorial and the Cell Modelling tutorial.
UPDATE (10/25, 3:30pm ET): We have successfully concluded the Open House. The current links to the main session are private right now until we are done editing the video, but will be released again once that is finished. Thanks for all the support!
Hello Everybody!
We want to announce our first Open House for 2016 that will happen on October 25th from 10:30am to 4pm EST (UTC-4) (check here for your timezone), so mark the date on your calendars! The main event will be live streamed at this link and the tutorials will be streamed as well in separate links listed below.
If you were waiting for an opportunity to look at the recent progress we’ve made across all the projects, this is your chance. During the meetings many contributors will present a number of flash talks and various demos, so if you are interested to hear the latest about PyOpenWorm, c302, Sibernetic, Geppetto, Analysis toolbox or any other thing happening under our roof, don’t miss this opportunity!
After the flash talks, join us for your choice of tutorials on more in depth topics related to either simulating the development of the worm, or simulating the functioning of its cells. If you sign up in advance, a limited number of folks can participate live in the tutorial hangout session and ask questions of the presenter. Otherwise, everyone is welcome to view the live stream of the tutorials, linked below.
Click below for the complete schedule of events.
Schedule
Oh and bring along your nerdy friends, the more the merrier!
Hope to see you there!
The OpenWorm teamWe all love it when the Internet tries to scare us, especially when it taps into our imagination and lets us do most of the work of scaring ourselves. Whether you call those stories “urban legends” or “creepypasta,” there is a quality to them that mainstream horror doesn’t quite provide.
10 Broadcast Interruption
In Seneca, South Carolina, an unnamed viewer is channel surfing. He stops on a broadcast of one of his old teachers reading a poem on public television. As he watches, the teacher’s poem is interrupted by a cartoon, which features a typical, middle-class family on a typical day. It is drawn in an overly detailed but choppy style of the sort fashionable in America in the early ’90s.
As the family makes small talk, a broadcast comes on the radio about how mutations are occurring, flesh is melting, and monsters are emerging from the sea. The family ignores this, despite the fact a green light is coming in through the windows and their skin is becoming jaundiced. They go about their day, absorbing more and more of the green glow, which is making them more and more like mutant blobs. The cartoon ends with white text that reads “Report to the nearest shelter immediately. Remaining at private residences is strictly prohibited.” The date of November 17, 2017 is stated in the cartoon, giving the experience a sense of being prophetic. The author of this story is unknown, and the tale itself seems to have emerged sometime around 2011.
As bizarre as the cartoon and its predictions are, real life has shown it’s not as far-fetched as you might initially believe. After all, the American Broadcasting Channel, certainly a much bigger target than any public television channel, was once hacked by a man in a Max Headroom mask. The man left behind a much more cryptic message than the one featured in this story. And if this Seneca, South Carolina broadcast were real, it still wouldn’t be quite as gory as a network television broadcast called “A Short Vision” (from 1956, of all times). There has been some weird stuff broadcast over the nation’s airwaves, legitimately or otherwise.
Keep the lights on! Horror fans will love the terrifying short stories in Nightmare Machines at Amazon.com!
9 Woman In The Oven
This story seems to date back to at least 2008. Unfortunately, the name of the original author is lost in the ether. Pity. Someone that can come up with such a bizarre and disturbing story and keep the tone so under control that it stays intriguing and believable deserves more credit.
In a mundane farm house, a woman is found burned to death in an oven. A camera is pointed at the oven, but there is no tape inside. However, a tape seemingly from the camera is discovered by a well behind the house. It shows the woman coming into the shot, setting the oven, climbing inside, and then closing the door after her. After some time, violent banging and shrieking happens inside the oven and smoke begins to emerge. But analysis of the woman in the video and the woman discovered in the oven concludes they are not the same person, based on height and stature. Cremating a human being takes two to three hours at 312 degrees Celsius (593 °F), so it can be reasonably assumed that a commercial stove would leave her sufficiently intact for such analysis. How any of this came to be is left for the readers to attempt to imagine in their nightmares.
8 Barbie.avi
Dating back to at least August 9, 2009, Barbie.avi is the story of a young man who goes to a party in a largely abandoned industrial neighborhood. After being awoken early in the morning by something being thrown into a dumpster, he finds a discarded computer tower that he hopes to restore. Looking through the hard drive, he finds a video file labeled “Barbie.avi.” It’s a video of a woman apparently being interviewed, but it’s impossible to hear what she’s saying over the static. It seems the woman is being verbally abused, with “skin” being the only word the protagonist thinks he can read on her lips.
After 40 minutes of watching, he’s convinced something horrible happened to her. In a shot lasting a few seconds at the end of the video, there’s an abandoned home near some railroad tracks a few miles away. He and a friend go to investigate. They don’t find any trace of the woman in the building. However, more significantly, they do realize that there is running water at this decrepit house out in the middle of nowhere. What could have been covered up?
As hard as it is to believe that people might leave evidence of a murder on their computers before carelessly throwing them out, there are cases of people apparently being even more actively self-destructive with their murder evidence. For example, on Thanksgiving in 2012, a man in Little Falls, Minnesota outfitted his house with a large array of cameras and microphones to capture him tormenting and then murdering two young people that broke into his house. Barbie.avi with its ambiguity and subtlety is actually much more believable than real incidents like that.
7 Sudden Onset
Author theLittleFears is one of those horror writers who really know how to use novel terrors from real life to enhance a horrifying story’s effect. Sudden Onset’s story is simplicity itself. A 14-year-old boy with strep throat participates in a “Bloody Mary” ritual during a sleepover. He and his friends gather in front of a mirror, turn the lights off, and then say “Bloody Mary” into the mirror three times, hoping that a ghost will appear. We don’t know what happens during the ritual, but we are told the aftermath is that the boy is now afraid of mirrors, feels fingers brushing against him at all times, and consequently lives a life of fear.
What allows this to transcend being a regular spook show is that theLittleFears explains that the boy was diagnosed with pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder—a real condition where children with strep throat suddenly begin to have horrible hallucinations. Thus, this creepypasta straddles the line between the horrors of fact and fiction (and paranormal and normal) to an unusual degree. Does it really matter if there’s actually no ghost of “Bloody Mary” haunting you when your nerves keep telling you she’s got you in her fingers anyway?
6 Dear Abby
Kyle Mangione-Smith’s story from 2012 is about a guy’s descent into madness, and how he mistakes obsession for love. It’s told as a series of letters that a grocery store employee writes to “Abby.” He goes from stealing surveillance tapes of her to breaking into her apartment and destroying photos of her boyfriend. His final stroke is to kidnap her, shortly after she’s gone to the police and starts packing up to move out. The man locks himself, Abby, and a knife inside a rented storage garage. As he lays dying, he is comforted to know that whether she kills herself or dies of dehydration, they’ll be together in death in a way they would never have had the chance of being in life.
While it’s an elaborate and cruel way to kill someone, it’s not much more horrifying than the real story of Roger Troy. Roger stalked and murdered Alissa Blanton in 2010, because he’d become obsessed with her while she was a Hooters server. Such are the threats that could enter an attractive person’s life at any time through no fault of their own.
5 Burial On Box Hill
TheLittleFears returns to this list with a story that takes curious but real historical facts and asks a rather creepy question. The first section is about historical novelty deaths, like Jim Fixx—the man who popularized jogging—dying while jogging in 1894. The story seems to be included to get the audience’s defenses down. The history lesson then transitions to the unusual life and the even more unusual burial of Major Peter Labelliere. Labelliere was buried in a grave 100 meters (330 ft) deep, facing downward, and he insisted that children should dance on his grave. He is also said to have prophesied his own death and had his coffin sprinkled with twigs and leaves that were traditionally used to aid the transition to the afterlife.
After Peter Labelliere’s odd passing, the story describes the burial arrangements for American general Anthony Wayne, known by the nickname “Mad Anthony.” TheLittleFears mentions that both men were present at the obscure Battle of Paoli, then informs us that Anthony Wayne’s bizarre funeral and burial arrangements called for his bones to be removed and for him to be buried in two parts. She concludes by asking us what these two figures saw at the Battle of Paoli that forced them to arrange burials that would prevent them from ever returning to life.
4 Ickbarr Bigelsteine
Written by Stephan D. Harris in 2012 (apparently a bumper year for Internet horror stories), this tale is about a kid using an imaginary friend to keep the darkness at bay. The imaginary friend is a sock puppet–like being that the child sews himself—at best an ugly-cute creation that you would expect a six-year-old to be able to make. It does keep the darkness at bay, until the day the kid loses his first tooth. His doll says he wants it, and the kid is happy to oblige. Apparently, Ickbarr Bigelsteine is very fond of the teeth. He wants the kid to keep providing them. When the kid runs out of his own teeth, he has to get more if he doesn’t want Bigelsteine to bring him into a nightmarish world.
Seemingly about a person suffering from schizophrenia, the story has an especially unpleasant resonance for many parents. This is because children with imaginary friends often say things their parents really don’t want to hear. Yet they should definitely pay attention to what their children say. Take January Schofield, who claimed that her imaginary friends—“400 the Cat” and “Wednesday the Rat”—were telling her to kill the family dog and to jump from buildings. Ickbarr Bigelsteine and his equivalents aren’t real, but the danger they represent is.
Read more creepy horror stories in the Kindle version of Disequilibria (A Book of Horror Stories) at Amazon.com!
3 The Red Army
The Red Army is a story of the Russo-Finnish front during World War II. Actually, logically it should be a story of the Winter War of 1939–1940. Despite the opening line saying it happened in 1942, the descriptions of the Soviet Army being repulsed by the Finns and the mentions of Finnish snipers (probably meaning figures like the remarkable Simo Hayha) make it clear the author meant to describe that war instead of World War II.
That pedantry aside, The Red Army is a brief but frightening anecdote of mass cannibalism. Finnish troops overrunning Soviet camps find them either abandoned or having skins hung inside them. Due to a food shortage, the Soviets apparently had no alternative but to resort to the ultimate taboo. The story is accompanied by a photo of what’s purported to be a Red soldier’s flesh, which is presumably all that remains of the man. However, soldiers inspecting the camps find that despite what they’ve been told, the food supplies are fine. Rumors also circulate about some creature stalking the forests.
Untrue as that story might be, there was in fact a considerable amount of cannibalism on the part of the Soviets during the war, although poor logistics were not the cause. It was among Soviet prisoners taken during the Nazi invasion. They were so horribly treated by their captors that only one in five survived imprisonment. SS Colonel Rudolf Hess described in his journal that cannibalism was not uncommon at a camp he visited. Hess claimed that he personally saw a body he was sure had been gutted for the purpose. Also, there was the city of Leningrad, where a million Russians died from combat, disease, and starvation during a 900-day siege. Declassified documents revealed that 260 people were arrested for cannibalism.
As for the creature stalking the forests, real Soviet forests actually had some rather frightening creatures doing rather horrifying things. For example, a spate of wolf attacks occurred in Kirovskaya Oblast in 1944. Children became primary targets, including a group of four girls that were attacked by a pack. With all those problems facing them, Soviet citizens probably would have come to consider a monster stalking the forests as merely another horrible fact of life.
2 Ted The Caver
Dating back to 2001, Ted the Caver may be the first creepypasta the Internet has ever produced. It is certainly one of the longest and most exhaustively photographically detailed. Ted and his friend “B” (all names of persons and locations are said to be withheld) decide to explore a deliberately unidentified cave. They dig their way into a narrow opening, which they believe to be about 18 centimeters (7 in) tall—barely tall enough to crawl through. When they begin crawling into this narrow confine, they find hieroglyphics, hear strange noises, and feel the presence of something seemingly malignant. Much of this happens while they’re about as trapped and helpless as they can possibly be. The author writes and posts this account of what happened but then insists he feels compelled to return to the cave. That’s the last we hear from him.
Assuming that Ted and B are not dealing with anything supernatural in the story, real spelunkers have been known to have severe hallucinations. They are among the few people that often explore in absolute darkness and are exposed to other forms of sensory deprivation. As illustrated by the very uncomfortable photo taken by the story’s author, being all but trapped in rock is surely one of the most hellish times to experience hallucinations.
1 Autopilot
In this popular story by Skarjo, a man deeply locked into his routine is thrown off a little by the fact that he forgot his cell phone. This distracts him on his way to work and to drop off his daughter at the daycare on a hot day. After a seemingly typical day at work, he drives home with a bad smell in the backseat—probably something spilled in the back and has spoiled in the heat. When he gets home, he realizes he forgot to pick up his daughter. But when he gets to the daycare, he finds he was too stuck on disrupted autopilot to notice that he didn’t drop his daughter off there. Gradually, he begins to understand what the bad smell coming from the backseat is. His autopilot disengages, probably never to engage in quite the same way ever again.
Autopilot is almost more of a tragedy than a horror story, but it’s certainly not a fanciful story by any means. There are numerous terrible stories of parents leaving their young children in vehicles. And it’s certainly not limited to negligent parents—a hospital administrator once forgot a child in the car seat, where she perished. As such, this story may just be the worst of all. It tells us that the most horrible things don’t happen because of mysterious malignant intent, psychopathy, or anything paranormal. They happen because we’re fallible human beings.
Dustin Koski also has a list of creepy stories in Listverse.com’s Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Lists.Warning: The following may contain images and messages which are troublesome to those who suffer from cognitive dissonance and corporate media group think.
In Arizona, FEMA roundups have already been practiced in the rural White Mountains. I have had 5 reports like this one from the White Mountains area in Arizona:
In Part One, I asserted that the Deep State was closing in on removing Donald Trump as POTUS. I further claimed that the following would take place in the following order:
A coup to remove Trump A purge of high profile dissidents (e.g. Pat Buchanan, anyone in the Independent Media) and these people would just “disappear” and death squads would be involved. A much bigger purge of the supporters of various movements (e.g. gun rights, anti-abortion, Christian, pro-Constitutionalists, etc.).
I cited 2 unnamed sources in support of these claims, but I promised that in Part Two, I would present government documents which stood in support of the claims made in Part One.
ARSOF and Jade Helm
A relatively obscure document, U.S. Army Special Operations Command “ARSOF Operating Concept” was the blueprint for Jade Helm. Jade Helm practiced political dissident extractions and activities in support of massive roundups which would be conducted in a time of national emergency/martial law.
This ARSOF document does not boldly use phrases such as “extracting political dissidents”, but it does use “legal language” to basically communicate the same messages that many in the Independent Media have been telling the public about for years, namely, that ARSOF is going to be used to extract political dissidents and then enforce martial law.
Key phrases and terms of the ARSOF document are presented here so as to have no misunderstanding as to meaning and intent. Other relevant military documents are mentioned in order to reinforce the interpretation of the ARSOF, Jade Helm inspired document.
ARSOF 1-4. Sustaining and Enabling ARSOF: The Operating Concept
A global network including joint, interagency, and International partners will enable these capabilities, but that network itself is not enough. The U.S. military must place supreme value in its operators, who will be constantly challenged through the most demanding education, training, and developmental assignments. Our operators’ capabilities also rely on strong and healthy families, supported by the broader ARSOF and Army community.
Why do the deep, dark forces behind the planning of Jade Helm need to have foreign mercenaries involved with Jade Helm? The answer is simple, they cannot fully trust that American soldiers will participate in the long-term subjugation of American citizens. This is forecaasting the beginning of civil war in America. There will be US military defectors vs. loyalists and foreign, UN sponsored troops And who would these shadowy forces behind Jade Helm be? We cannot be 100% sure, but my bet is on the CIA. From former ARSOF officer, Scott Bennett, we know that the CIA is funding ISIS through Swiss bank accounts and they have been involved in nearly every nefarious activity connected to this government from Iran-Contra to the JFK assassination. The CIA is a very safe bet. that they will serve in a coordinator’s role with the coming subjugation of the American people.Where to eat? Flying Fish Café Chef's Counter at Walt Disney World's Boardwalk Resort
For me, the Holy Grail of Disney dining experiences always will be the Chef's Table at Victoria & Albert's. The Five-Diamond-rated restaurant's ultimate meal is quite possibly the hardest advanced dining reservation (ADR) to grab in all of Walt Disney World. Not only is the table immensely popular, but there is only one party booked at the table each night. Every time my wife and I travel to Orlando, we have always tried to book this exclusive experience with no success. For those interested in trying, bookings begin 180 days in advance, and V&A's has its own reservation number. However, if you book an on-site hotel, you can begin booking 180 days in advance of your check-in day (so if you book a 10-day stay, you can book ADRs 190 days in advance). V&A's does have a wait list that you can be placed on in the event that the party booked at the table happens to cancel, but you probably have a better chance of being handed a free admission ticket than getting the Chef's Table off the wait list. In response to the incredible popularity of the Chef's Table, V&A's unveiled the Queen Victoria Room that is essentially the same experience as the Chef's Table without the one-on-one interaction with Chef Scott Hunnel.
Now, we always try to have one really nice meal on our trips to Walt Disney World. We typically visit in October, during EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival, and last October's trip was no different. As we usually do, we attempted to book a reservation at V&A's Chef's Table, but once again we were forced onto the waitlist. When the signature dining experiences were announced in July for the Food and Wine Festival, there weren't any dinners that really interested us. We strongly considered booking V&A's Queen Victoria Room, but discovered that another highly respected Disney restaurant also had a chef's table experience.
Flying Fish Café, located at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, specializes in American seafood cuisine in a lively dining room. The Chef's Wine Tasting Dinner experience accommodates up to 6 guests with two seatings each night (5:30 PM and 8:15 PM). For $129 per person plus tax, guests are served a five-course dinner paired with wine. Guests are seated at a counter right in front of the kitchen, with a great view of the action. As a person who's a bit of a foodie and always interested in the workings of the kitchen, the seating location is unmatched, but my one complaint would be that it did get a bit hot with a sear station a few feet away from my face.
Like most chef's table experiences (not only Disney, but most high-end restaurants), the evening opens with an introduction by a member of the kitchen staff, review of the evening's menu, and verification of allergies and significant distastes.
Our meal started with an amuse-bouche course consisting of a boule of dill-cured Norwegian smoked salmon and herb-laced Jonah crab garnished with sweet-sour fennel and heirloom radishes, kaffir lime-chive oil, and mote marine Siberian sturgeon caviar. The saltiness of the caviar and salmon was perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the oil and vegetables. The subtle taste of the crab was the star, and was not overpowered by any of the more powerful ingredients.
The amuse was paired with a Chandon extra dry riche champagne, which was an appropriate pairing to awaken the palate and open all of the senses. The sparkling wine had just enough sweetness to match the dish, and allowed the delicate taste of the crab to linger.
The first course was then presented, featuring crispy kuri squash and duck confit arancini with duck prosciutto, cucamelons, tiny greens, and piquant preserved lemon remoulade. For me, this was a combination of very unusual ingredients that I would never think to put together. The duck prosciutto was not as salty as I had expected, but the cucamelons were quite a unique experience, reminding me a bit of gherkins in texture without the potent, overpowering flavor. The remaining flavors on the plate were a bit bland, but this dish was really about the textural experience contrasting the crispiness of the arancini (like a fritter), the crunchiness of the cucamelons, and almost creaminess of the duck prosciutto. This course was paired with a Torres Esmeralda Catalunya (2010) that became the real highlight. The soft tannins and very forward dark cherry aroma helped to lift the dish and enhance the subtle flavors of the squash and duck.
The second course followed with frutti di mare-laced garganelli pasta served with calamari, Penn Cove mussels and Pine Island shrimp. The pasta also had tiny leeks, braised artichokes, and a lobster roe butter-enhanced artichoke crema. This was one of those dishes that I could eat all day every day. I'm a huge fan of seafood pasta, and this was by far one of the best I've ever had. The pasta, which looks like penne, is actually a sheet pasta that is hand-rolled into a tubular shape, instead of extruded. I could definitely tell the amount of care and effort that went into making the pasta as it was perfectly al dente, and absorbed the flavors within the sauce without losing its texture. I wished this course could have been a bit larger, but paired with a glass of Sauvia Soave Classico DOC Veneto (2010) and its citrus aroma and dry finish, I was more than satisfied.
Our palates were then given a bit of a break with an “Intermezzo” consisting of a Meyer lemon sorbet and limoncello. Even my wife, who tends to dislike limoncello, enjoyed this course. The chef noted that many guests like to mix the two components to make a slush, but I enjoyed each component separately.
After the brief break, the main course was presented -- a Tazmanian pepper and lemon thyme-scented Marcho Farms veal tenderloin served with tiny brussel sprouts, fava beans, porcini mushrooms, and celery root with a truffle, port wine, and veal reduction. The veal was incredibly tender, with an intense but not overpowering reduction that was like liquid gold. The vegetables served with the veal would not have been my first choice, but were perfect for the season and complementary to the veal. I'm not a huge fan of fava beans, but enjoyed their textural contrast to the bright sprouts and earthy mushrooms. The main course was paired with a glass of Frescobaldi Castiglioni Chianti Firenze (2010), and. yes, I had to comment to the chef that the combination of fava beans and Chianti made me feel like Hannibal Lecter.
The meal was completed with a wonderful dessert course of decadent dark chocolate and drunken raspberry creation served with chocolate panne cotta and salted chocolate caramels. Paired with a glass of Pacific Rim Framboise, the course was a chocolate/raspberry lover's dream. For me, the star of this course was the salted chocolate caramels. Sweet and salty desserts have become more prevalent on menus recently, but these delectable, chewy delights were a perfect end to the meal.
After a little over two hours and five amazing wine-paired courses, we reached the end of a delicious meal. While I felt some of the courses were a little lacking in portion size, I was more than satisfied when we reached the end of the meal. I've had other multi-course tasting menus where I was stuffed two or three courses before the end and felt guilty sending plates back to the kitchen with delicious food remaining. It was refreshing to be able to reach the end of a multi-course meal and not feel engorged. The progression of courses was well executed, and hit on all corners of the palate. Textures sometimes took precedent over flavors, but overall, I felt that the menu was well executed. For guests looking for that extra special dining experience at the Walt Disney World Resort, and who cannot book or afford the V&A's Chef's Table or Queen Victoria Room, I highly recommend the Flying Fish Café Chef's Counter. It's a fine dining experience in an energetic setting with a highly satisfying and well-executed menu, but also accessible in both price and availability.
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This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Sixteen years later, let's finally heed the call of the 9/11 Commission Schumer urges GOP to reject Trump's 'destructive' national emergency MORE (R-Fla.) is back in the spotlight, with lawmakers in both parties wondering whether he’ll break with Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE and vote against the president-elect's pick to lead the State Department.
If Rubio votes against Rex Tillerson in the Foreign Relations Committee, it would prevent the GOP from moving the nomination to the floor with a favorable recommendation.
That risks a confrontation with Trump, who disparaged Rubio in the most personal of terms in the GOP presidential primary last year.
Rubio declined to say Thursday how he would vote or even when he would make a decision.
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“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he told reporters.
Fighting with Trump over Tillerson gives Rubio, who many think could run for president against some day, a chance to stand out against his colleagues.
Every other GOP senator is expected to vote for Tillerson, who has backing from some of the most influential Republican voices on international affairs: former Secret |
a parallel beam of collimated light does not lose any of its brightness travelling through empty space. Here on earth, the atmosphere has enough density to diffuse and weaken a collimated beam. But on a clear day or at night, a small bright spot from a well-collimated laser will remain a small bright spot for distances of hundreds of meters.
The solid-state revolution that replaced vacuum tubes with silicon chips had a similar effect on lasers. Solid-state technology allowed lasers to become smaller, more efficient, and much cheaper. Useful new industries emerged, such as laser printers and laser-scanning at supermarket checkout counters. Useless ones appeared as well, such as cheap home laser light shows and laser pointers.
Laser pointer like this can be found for $1 on the Web
Laser pointers represent a case study of what happens when technological advancement and high volume production reduce costs so much that a product simply happens, regardless of need or utility. Laser and other light-based pointing devices were originally made to help a lecturer highlight something on an accompanying projection screen. So in theory, there need not be more pointers in the world than lecterns or projection screens (or lecturers). But because laser pointers could be made and sold for a few dollars, they found a market as a novelty item. Red laser pointers can be bought on the Web today for $1 or $2 each, while green ones are much more expensive ($200-$400) and blue ones are still in commercial development.
Today lasers come in extremely wide varieties of type, wavelength, and power. (Everything one would ever want to know about lasers can be found on the Web at Sam's Laser FAQ.) They range from lasers capable of destroying missiles to tiny lasers that create images directly on the human retina.
Laser Safety
Though lasers are often associated with danger (think Goldfinger), their hazard level is related to power, wavelength, and concentration, but primarily to power. Lasers are classified into four classes (two of which have sub-classes). These range from "Class I" lasers which are deemed never harmful (e.g., laser printers), to "Class IV" lasers that can blind, burn, and sometimes cut through steel. The big dividing line lies between Class IIIa and Class IIIb lasers, with the major criteria being whether or not the laser emits more or less than 5 milliwatts. Class IIIb and Class IV lasers must be registered in many countries, though a casual Web search suggests it's pretty easy to buy serious Class IV lasers if one desires.
All off-the-shelf laser pointers are Class IIIa lasers, emitting light from 1 - 5 milliwatts. The official view is that they cannot burn or damage skin, but can produce "spot blindness" under the right conditions and should have a "danger" label attached. Spot, or temporary, blindness can indeed be hazardous, for example, while driving a vehicle. But, contrary to the popular belief, not a single instance of permanent eye damage from laser pointers has been recorded anywhere, according to a report published in the Industrial Safety and Hygiene News in May 2000.
In addition to spot blindness, laser pointers can get people into other kinds of trouble. Today, many sports arenas and concert halls ban laser pointers. Various direct and indirect laws can be used to cite irresponsible use of laser pointers as a misdemeanor. And since the beam from a laser pointer looks the same as the beam from a laser-sighted firearm, you don't want to aim your laser pointer at someone carrying a weapon. In June 2000, LAPD booked an unarmed juvenile, who aimed a laser pointer at an officer's torso, for "602 WIC 417.26 (c) P.C., (Laser Scope Pointed at a Police Officer)."
HISTORY
Art and Activism
Using bright light as an aggressive tool goes back to ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and the legend that he burned invading Roman ships with large mirrors and reflected sunlight. The activist art group, Rtmark (pronounced "arteemark"), inspired by the Archimedes legend, distributed 1,000 hand-held mirrors to protesters at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, to use against the police by spot blinding them with sunlight.
The proliferation of surveillance cameras has increasingly become a topic of concern in the arts and activist communities. Rtmark has a Web guide to closed circuit television destruction. (Though the guide includes laser pointers as a method, it is not recommended, in part because it doesn't leave any visible sign of inoperability. They prefer plastic bags, paint guns, axes, and rocks to make their point.)
Community-made maps showing the locations of surveillance cameras in public spaces are appearing on the Web. For example, the NYC Surveillance Camera Project has mapped over 2,000 surveillance cameras in Manhattan through a network of volunteers. The artist/activist group Institute for Applied Autonomy created a web-based application allowing New Yorkers to find walking routes to avoid surveillance cameras.
Other forms of artist activism against surveillance cameras are more light-hearted. The Surveillance Camera Players, a New York based group, perform unannounced street theater "for the entertainment, amusement and moral edification of the surveilling members of the law enforcement community." The SCP organized a protest against surveillance held on September 7, 2001, with 22 participating organizations in 6 countries. Currently the SCP has several satellite groups, including in Italy, Sweden, and Lithuania.
Anti-Surveillance Products
Detecting and stopping cameras turns out to be fundamentally difficult. Cameras don't emit anything (e.g., the way cellular phones do). With a great deal of surveillance and anti-surveillance products on the Web, virtually none could be found to simply detect and stop cameras. (Cameras connected to transmitters, perhaps, but cameras alone, no.) [October 2002 update: see Laser Dissuader below.]
A Google search of "anti paparazzi device" yielded two hits, both about near-identical devices called "Eagle Eye" and "Backflash" (and both unfindable as actual products). These devices apparently couple a light sensor to a flash unit: when a flash of light is detected, the devices instantaneously flash back. They're both small, made to be worn, and claim to obscure a portion of the photographic image near them whenever a flash is used (ostensibly as protection against intruding photographers). If these devices work, they obviously would only work for still, flash photography.
Military
The gold vein of camera zapping material can (or could) be found in the military literature. Indeed, the race to build the first laser (built in 1960) was fueled by DARPA funding. During the Cold War, both the Pentagon and the Kremlin spent billions of dollars developing high-power laser weapons, which continued during Reagan's "Star Wars" initiative in the 1980s and continues today. But as the silicon revolution made lasers smaller and more efficient, the international military community looked into additional opportunities. Two such opportunities were "antisensor" and "antipersonnel" weapons.
Antisensor lasers are capable of scanning a region looking for "glints" of reflected light coming from lenses aimed at them, then switching to a high energy laser capable of overloading or destroying the sensor (or whatever) behind the lens. The U.S. developed such a system called the Stingray and deployed two tank-based prototypes in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War (they allegedly were not used). The Stingray's range of operation is claimed to be several kilometers. It's not clear if (or how) the Stingray could discriminate between lenses and eyeballs, or between sensors behind a lens and human eyeballs behind a lens.
Antipersonnel lasers are made to "dazzle" (the technical term for spot-blindness plus its effects, such as disorientation and delay). One such system developed by the U.S. Air Force is the Saber 203. It's designed to fit in the grenade launcher of an M-16 rifle and emits a beam in-line with the rifle's scope, with an effective range of 300 meters. Its 28 milliwatt laser is considerably more powerful than the 5 mw laser pointers, but it is claimed to be below the threshold of eye damage.
The line between antisensor and antipersonnel lasers is vague, since there is nothing preventing a soldier from using a Stingray to permanently blind soldiers in the battlefield. The Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross led a campaign for a United Nations ban on blinding laser weapons, which was adopted in 1996. Some believe this only drove such development further into secrecy. Rumors persist that Israel acquired U.S. Stingrays after the ban, and that China has been making a cheap version of the Stingray called the ZM-87 that can blind soldiers 2 miles away and disable soldiers 7 miles away.
At the same time, at least two companies are marketing commercial versions of the laser dazzler developed for the U.S. Military. The "Laser Dissuader" and the "Laser Dazzler" both claim to be safe, and better alternatives than bullets. [October 2002 update: The Laser Dissuader link has changed since last summer to include "SpyFinder," a new product that appears to detect cameras by aiming a small laser and detecting the retro-reflection from the lens.]
It remains uncertain whether any 100% successful antisensor detecting system actually exists.
FIELD TESTS AND PROTOTYPES
First field tests were conducted simply with an inexpensive laser pointer aimed into the lens of a video camera. At close range (1 - 5 meters), the beam was easy to aim by hand. The laser beam almost completely obliterated the image, covering it with a red starburst.The effect completely disappeared when the laser was aimed away, leaving no trace of any permanent damage.
Inexpensive laser pointer (1 mw, 650 nm red)
Laser pointer aimed at video camera from 3 meters away.
This cheap laser pointer emitted an oval-shaped beam (as is often the case) that was about 2mm by 4mm in diameter at very short distances, and expanded to over 5cm by 10cm at 100 meters (due to cheap collimating optics). In medium and bright light, it was difficult to see with an unaided eye. The obvious solution was to couple the laser to an optical scope and pre-calibrate them.
Telescopes and binoculars generally do not have cross-hair reticules built in, but rifle scopes do. Rifle scopes are available at prices upwards of $2,000, but like handguns, most of the market appears targeted at lower-income customers, and cheap rifle scopes can be found for under $10. All rifle scopes have built-in reticules with some form of cross-hair or dot at the center, which are internally adjustable with set screws. The only problem is that, unlike telescopes, rifle scopes are made to be viewed with the eye several centimeters from the rear optics, since they are mounted in front of the operator's face. (This distance is specified as "eye relief," and is typically 2 - 5 inches but is never zero.)
A simple prototype system was built with a $30 mail order 5mw red laser (635 nm wavelength, which appears much brighter than 670 or 690 nm red) and a $10 rifle scope with a 4X magnification (Tasco Rimfire, made for small game hunting). The laser and scope were secured together and the cross-hair adjusted to center on the laser beam at 100 meters.
Simple laser / rifle scope system
Telephoto view from 100 meters, cloudy day (video)
Wide angle view from 100 meters (video)
Through the rifle scope, the glint reflected from the lens was indeed apparent, particularly when the camera lens was zoomed in. It was easy to intermittently hit the lens but difficult to maintain aim by hand.
A second prototype expanded in several directions. First, it is tripod-based, with a precision head allowing independent adjustment of its 3 axes (Bogen/Manfrotto "Junior Geared Head," complete system costs around $200). Then, a larger rifle scope was used for a bigger, brighter image (Tasco World Class 3-9x zoom, $70). Finally, the cheap laser pointer was replaced with a laser gun sight, which has the same Class IIIa power rating but much better optics, resulting in a more circular and collimated beam (Beamshot 1001 for $110). These gun sights also have adjustment screws to align the beam, durable metal cases, and many options of mounting hardware. So, for under $400, a rather serious camera zapper can be assembled.
Laser gun sight, zoom rifle scope, 3-axis adjustable tripod head
Camera Zapper in window approx. 200 meters from camera, early evening (video)
Telephoto view (video)
The system was portable and could be quickly deployed. Aiming was extremely critical, and at long distances, very careful fine tuning was necessary. But when the camera was aimed in the direction of the zapper and zoomed in, the glint reflected from the lens was very obvious. This system can work well for cameras which are visible and stationary.
If either the camera, or target, is moving, then some form of aiming and dynamic tracking is required. One solution is to do it ourselves. A third prototype was built to be small and hand-held for near and medium range moving cameras.
Hand-held unit with laser gun sight and golf scope
The result was made with a Beamshot 1001 laser gun sight and a small monocular made for golf range finding (Tasco Golf Scope, $20), basically a small telescope with a grid-like reticule inside. Unlike a rifle scope, its eye relief distance is zero, which makes it comfortable to use hand-held. This new system could fit in a pocket and was very easy to use. It turns out that precise calibration was not necessary, since the beam is easily visible in the scope at near and medium range distances. If one wanted to scare away a news cameraperson, this system would be ideal.
LIMITATIONS AND APPLICATIONS
It would indeed be a achievement to be able to wear a small device that prevents your image from ever being seen by a camera. (I once recklessly predicted such a device myself.) And though it may be possible, it would not be without limitations.
One limitation of using lasers to zap cameras is due to their purity of color, which makes it possible to filter out. Filtering can be done either optically (e.g., using a special green filter to filter a red laser) or electronically, downstream from the camera sensors. Neither are perfect solutions, and at best, filtering may provide a recognizable image but without full color.
Original image, zapped, and filtered (and readjusted by hand) to show green channel only
Filtering can also be counter-measured. The best method is to use 3 lasers (e.g., red, green, and blue). The next best method is to use a green laser, since most of the signal coming from a color camera sensor is from the green element, the color to which our eyes are most sensitive. The military solution is to use "wavelength-agile" lasers that can randomly change color, rendering any filtering useless.
Another limitation is how to track a moving camera automatically. In the long term, this is (arguably) solvable using computer vision techniques. The problem is more solvable if a human operator first constrains the range and an automated system does the fine tuning.
The biggest limitation - and this is where things ultimately get depressing - is detection. Look out any window and ponder that cameras can be the size of buttons. Cameras don't even need lenses; they can use "pinholes." It's my conclusion that the problem of detecting cameras is ultimately unsolvable: if someone wants to hide a camera, they can hide a camera.
There is good news. Long, telephoto lenses, whose powers are greater than human vision and therefore of special concern, are detectable. At least for the foreseeable future, cameras that see far away can also be seen.
So in the end, two applications of camera zapping are immediately possible. If a camera's location is known, and can be seen, and is stationary, a tripod/rifle scope/gun sight laser system can successfully zap it, even at distances greater than 100 meters. If a camera is roving, a golf scope/gun sight laser can intermittently zap it by hand with little effort.
DE-PRESENTATION
The umbrella issue, on top of camera zapping, is perhaps most provocative of all: how does one stop, or at least gain control of, representation of oneself? Suppose, for example, you wanted to eliminate every instance of your name that appears in a Google search. You could, in theory, contact each website and demand they remove your name (though it's not clear what, if any, leverage you might have). And of course, it would be naïve to assume that every database with your name in it will be found with a Google search.
One approach is simply to not care about one's representation.
Another approach is to go through life avoiding cameras, never submitting your name on any form, and only using cash. (I know of at least two people like this.)
Whatever alternative or optimal approaches may exist, it's clear that "de-presentation" is as fundamental a force as re-presentation as we approach the brave new world of massive databases and cameras everywhere. Some new and difficult issues need to be addressed. Camera zapping may provide a robust metaphor for these deeper issues and help to stimulate and provoke solutions."Leveraging wealth earned from advertising on the tube sites, Manwin has amassed a porn empire that includes popular properties like Brazzers, Digital Playground and managing Playboy TV's online and video properties. But... many industry insiders... believe the company pillaged the industry by flooding the market with free, sometimes pirated porn..." (Gawker)
DOES THIS PRIVATE COMPANY MAKE ITS MILLION$ FROM ADS, OR DOES IT RECEIVE A SECRET SUBSIDY TO GIVE ITS PRODUCT AWAY?
By Joe (Fmr. porn producer & author of "No Glamor in Porn Biz")
(henrymakow.com)
Back in 2006/2007, a company called Manwin with tens of millions of dollars in financing from still mysterious sources set out to dominate the porn industry and they have achieved this goal by putting many porn companies out of business due to making everything free.
Even if Manwin does not own a particular tube site, they created the current model of selling advertising for products such as online dating, models on webcams, viagra etc etc.
Manwin either started or bought out most of the biggest free porn tube sites that exist today. Who funded them? I have no idea but they came out of nowhere and took over the porn industry in just a few years. They had DEEP DEEP pockets and not only spent tens of millions of dollars on their own content but bought out other huge companies.
They tried to recruit me away from another company and told me their plans. I thought they were just full of testosterone but it turns out they did exactly what they said they were going to do and more.
They got a lot of death threats because they destroyed the income stream so many newly rich people had acquired. The top guys at the company hired 24-hour armed guards.
The "front man" for several years was Fabian Thylmann. He was born in Germany but have no idea of his background. F abian recently resigned but like i said everyone has always known he was just a front man.
These tube sites are set up so that anyone can upload videos to share with other people as in Youtube. Other porn companies accuse Manwin of uploading their competitors content and pretending it was uploaded by some guy sitting at his home computer. Some of the companies take legal action to get the videos removed and it works but then the videos often just go back up and they have to start the legal action all over again. Many smaller companies never bother to police the tube sites to get their content taken down.
Manwin is also a producer of original content so while they are (allegedly) destroying their competition by making it freely available and at the same time they are branding a new generation of porn watchers with the "Brazzers" name as well as the other brand names they have acquired.
As far as all the free porn on torrent sites like Pirate Bay, it is uploaded by single individuals just wanting to share porn with other people or it is competing companies trying to burn each other by offering all their competitors content for free.
SEX TAPES
D-list celebs who have home made sex tapes that are "stolen/hacked/leaked" are completely phony Their story is always, "My ex boyfriend leaked the tape and I cannot stop it from being released therefore I am cooperating with the company who is going to release it so that I have some control over HOW it is released. This is bogus because anyone who tries to release a sex tape will be put in prison if they do not have an adult model release signed by all people appearing in the pictures/videos. Google "2257 regulations" if you want to confirm this.
(l. Paris Hilton. Sex tapes encourage girls to enter porn world.)
It all started with Pamela Anderson and then of course Paris Hilton and the Kardashians because Kim Kardashian was "victimized" with the release of her sex tape. These women are using their phony victimization to propel themselves into fame and fortune.
They are doing more damage than any porn producer or porn actor. Young women see these celebs achieve even higher levels of fame and fortune after doing porn. Many too pretty for porn" young women move to Los Angeles not to become actresses but to enter the porn industry!U-23 MNT
CHICAGO (Aug. 28, 2015) – U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team head coach Andi Herzog has called 24 players to England for a final preparation camp before the 2015 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament in October.
The camp will run in Manchester, England, from Aug. 30-Sept. 8 and will feature friendlies against England on Sept. 3 at Deepdale Stadium in Preston, and Qatar on Sept. 8 at Gigg Lane in Bury. Fans can follow the action live via Twitter through @ussoccer.
"These are two important games here because they are our last before the Olympic Qualifying tournament,” Herzog said. “We have a strong group of players that we believe in, and now we are able to look as some of the guys who did very well with our U-20 team. This is really the last chance for all of the players to make an impression before we select the final roster for qualifying.”
The U-23’s were last in Europe in June, where they competed in the prestigious Toulon Tournament. With group stage wins against Netherlands and Qatar, the team advanced to the tournament’s third-place playoff, where it defeated England and matched its best ever finish in the tournament. The U-23’s are 5-3-0 in 2015, having also logged wins against Bosnia in March and Mexico in April.
The 2015 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship will be played across the United States from Oct. 1-13. The U.S. was drawn into Group A and opens with a pair of games at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, against Canada on Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. CT and Cuba on Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. CT. The U.S. will conclude group play at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on Oct. 6 against Panama at 7:30 p.m. MT. [TICKETS]
Roster By Position: Detailed Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): Cody Cropper (MK Dons; Maple Grove, Minn.), Ethan Horvath (Molde; Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Zack Steffen (Freiburg; Downington, Pa.).
DEFENDERS (8): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham Hotspur; Westcliff on Sea, England), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls; Clifton, N.J.), Eric Miller (Montreal Impact; Woodbury, Minn.), Boyd Okwuonu (Real Salt Lake; Edmund, Okla.), Shane O’Neill (Apollon Limassol; Boulder, Colo.), William Packwood (Unattached; Concord, Mass.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif).
MIDFIELDERS (8): Gboly Ariyibi (Chesterfield; Arlington, Va.), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Emerson Hyndman (Fulham; Dallas, Tex.), Benji Joya (Club Necaxa; San Jose, Calif.), Marc Pelosi (San Jose Earthquakes; Sunnyvale, Calif.), Matt Polster (Chicago Fire; Milwaukee, Wisc.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio), Gedion Zelalem (Rangers; Bethesda, Md.).
FORWARDS (5): Alonso Hernandez (C.D. Juarez; El Paso, Texas), Jerome Kiesewetter (VfB Stuttgart; Berlin, Germany), Mario Rodriguez (Borussia Mönchengladbach; North Hollywood, Calif.), Rubio Rubin (Utrecht; Beaverton, Ore.), Maki Tall (Scion; Washington, D.C.).
Roster Notes:For all the negativity in Europe these days, the terms used in the euro-crisis debate have been surprisingly optimistic. Across the common currency zone, all anyone seems interested in talking about is a "solution" to the crisis while those public figures who would openly suggest that the euro zone might soon lose a member are roundly criticized. It has become bad form to wonder what Europe might look like if no solution is found.
For companies struggling to survive in the increasingly challenging European marketplace, however, there is little room for such niceties. Realism is the name of the game and some, such as the multinational consumer goods giant Unilever, have begun to adjust.
"Poverty is returning to Europe," Jan Zijderveld, Unilever's top manager in Europe, told the Financial Times Deutschland on Monday. As a result, the company has begun offering smaller, less expensive packages so as not to put too great a strain on increasingly limited budgets. It is, Zijderveld noted to the paper, a strategy the company learned by doing business in the developing countries of Asia.
"In Indonesia, we sell tiny packages of shampoo for two to three cents and still earn decent money," he says. "We know how to do it, but in the European boom years prior to the crisis we forgot."
Preparing for Leaner Times
Unilever is best known through the myriad popular brands it owns, including Knorr instant soups, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Lipton teas, Hellmann's mayonnaise and many more. But it also owns several local brands that are only known regionally. In Greece, for instance, the company sells low-priced olive oil and tea under a local brand and also offers tiny packages of mashed potatoes or mayonnaise. In Spain, the company sells small packages of washing powder good for only five loads of laundry.
The strategy would seem to make sense. According to the most recent European Commission review of the employment and social situation in the EU, the share of households in the Europe saying that they are having increased difficulties making ends meet has shot upward since the end of 2011. Many of them are having to rely on savings or are taking on debt just to meet the requirements of day-to-day life -- perhaps no great surprise given the deep austerity measures implemented in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Unilever, of course, is not the only company trying to prepare for leaner times ahead in Europe. German exporters are focusing more heavily on doing business in developing countries in Asia and South America, giant multinationals like Shell are beginning to shy away from investments in Europe and banks on the Continent are avoiding anything that smells of risk and developing a more regional focus.
But for Unilever, the point is not so much to limit risk as to increase turnover even as consumers have less to spend. And it would appear to be working. After years of stagnation, the company's sales in Europe climbed by 1.1 percent in the first six months of 2012.Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a system that can simultaneously deliver watts of power and transmit data at rates high enough to stream video over the same wireless connection. By integrating power and high-speed data, a true single "wireless" connection can be achieved.
"Recently wireless power as re-emerged as a technology to free us from the power cord," says David Ricketts, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the work. "One of the most popular applications is in wireless cell phone charging pads. As many know, these unfortunately often require almost physical contact with the pad, limiting the usefulness of a truly 'wireless' power source. Recent work by several researchers have extended wireless power to'mid-range' which can supply power at inches to feet of separation. While encouraging, most of the wireless power systems have only focused on the power problem -- not the data that needs to accompany any of our smart devices today. Addressing those data needs is what sets our work apart here."
Wireless power transfer technologies use magnetic fields to transmit power through the air. To minimize the power lost in generating these magnetic fields, you need to use antennas that operate in a narrow bandwidth -- particularly if the transmitter and receiver are inches or feet apart from each other.
Because using a narrow bandwidth antenna limits data transfer, devices incorporating wireless power transfer have normally also incorporated separate radios for data transmission. And having separate systems for data and power transmission increases the cost, weight and complexity of the relevant device.
The NC State team realized that while high-efficiency power transfer, especially at longer distances, does require very narrow band antennas, the system bandwidth can actually be much wider.
"People thought that efficient wireless power transfer requires the use of narrow bandwidth transmitters and receivers, and that this therefore limited data transfer," Ricketts says. "We've shown that you can configure a wide-bandwidth system with narrow-bandwidth components, giving you the best of both worlds."
With this wider bandwidth, the NC State team then envisioned the wireless power transfer link as a communication link, adapting data-rate enhancement techniques, such as channel equalization, to further improve data rate and data signal quality.
The researchers tested their system with and without data transfer. They found that when transferring almost 3 watts of power - more than enough to power your tablet during video playback -- the system was only 2.3 percent less efficient when also transmitting 3.39 megabytes of data per second. At 2 watts of power, the difference in efficiency was only 1.3 percent. The tests were conducted with the transmitter and receiver 16 centimeters, or 6.3 inches, apart, demonstrating the ability of their system to operate in longer-distance wireless power links.
"Our system is comparable in power transfer efficiency to similar wireless power transfer devices, and shows that you can design a wireless power link system that retains almost all of its efficiency while streaming a movie on Netflix," Ricketts says.
###
The paper, "Ultra-high Data-rate Communication and Efficient Wireless Power Transfer at 13.56 MHz," is published in the journal IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. Lead author of the paper is Jordan Besnoff, a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State who is now at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The paper was co-authored by Morteza Abbasi, a research assistant professor at NC State.I have been very struck by the overwhelming Whiteness of support for the candidacy of the archeo-socialist Bernie Sanders to the presidency of the United States of America. This support even extends into Europe among young, hip, English-speaking watchers of the Daily Show.
This Whiteness has been evident in polls and voting. Sanders has done consistently poorly with Black and Hispanic voters as compared to Whites — which does not bode well for him when the primaries shift to states with large non-White populations. Blacks and Hispanics support Hillary Clinton more than two-to-one over Sanders, while Whites are almost evenly split between them. Sanders is absolutely dominating among the young, winning 84% of votes from 17 to 29 year-olds in Iowa. (Feminist Hillary supporters have tried to drive to a wedge between White women and Sanders with the so-called “Bernie bros” meme, but it really has not worked.)
The stark Whiteness of Sanders support was also extremely apparent his “America” campaign ad:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwRiuh1Cug]
The ad does not present any political arguments as such, but summons a compelling feeling of home: Rural farms, renewable energy (wind), organic stuff, wholesome families, happy White people, coffee shops, laptops, hipster glasses, old folks dancing, etc, to the tune of Jewish folk rock stars Simon & Garfunkel’s 1960s hippie song of the same name. “Welcome home,” the ad seems to tell its well-thinking White viewers. Yes, welcome to the Whitopia of Organic Communism.
(Incidentally, the obscene comedy show South Park has also been pointing out this White liberal longing for an authentic “home,” which is simultaneously nice and superficially multicultural/multi-class.)
The Sanders ad really struggles to include non-Whites in it (you can only make out a couple of people of color out of hundreds of faces). In response, the Clinton campaign predictably accused Sanders of racism: “From this ad it seems Black lives don’t matter much to Bernie Sanders.”
Ads are projections of what campaign consultants think potential supporters want. And I think they achieved that brilliantly in this ad. (Of course, very few Sanders supporters are aware of just how implicitly White their dream of “organic communism” is...) All this very strongly recalls the recent visit California commercial almost exclusively featuring attractive White people doing White people stuff like biking, rock-climbing, camping, and snowboarding.
The Sanders ad very clearly highlights both the idealism and decadence of the more dedicated White liberals. There is an unbearable softness to it all, a world in which everyone will be nice, no one’s feelings will ever be hurt (even by reality...), no hard decisions will be made, and everyone will be both physically and economically secure to enjoy their lattes and free WiFi. The world would be so safe everyone may as well be high on marijuana (and many would be).
Of course, Black murderers and Muslim gang-rapists simply do not exist in this mental universe. Neither, for that matter, do Jewish power brokers. (Jews, 2% of the U.S. general population, astonishingly make up all seven of Hillary’s top seven campaign contributors, the odds of this occurring by chance being absolutely infinitesimal.) There is a hopelessly naïve and infantile quality to Sanders supporters.
Also compare Sanders’ ad to Hillary’s repulsive campaign launch ad, an ode to hollow post-menopausal ambition and rejection of Core Americans in general.
So what is going on?
Interestingly, Pew Research points out that while Democratic Party supporters are becomingly increasingly “liberal,” Whites are much more likely to use the term than Blacks or Hispanics. There has been an astonishing increase in the proportion of self-described liberals among White Democratic voters, from just 28% in 2000 to 50% in 2015, whereas the proportion has remained basically unchanged among Blacks and Hispanics. More generally, youth and education correlate with liberal identification.
I suggest that the support for Sanders reflects the rise of a new generation of sheltered (often superficially) idealistic young White people who have been raised on Jon Stewart Liebowitz and Noam Chomsky. They are soft by temperament, pushovers even (see how two loud Black women were able to simply shout Sanders offstage), eager for the nanny state’s protective embrace. They have grown increasingly dissatisfied by the contradiction between, on the one hand, their soft personality and the egalitarian ideals promoted in their universities and TV sets, and, on the other hand, the increasingly plutocratic and ethnically-chaotic reality that is twenty-first century America. Sanders embodies their striving to make reality conform to their ideal, whereas the warmongering shill Hillary is deeply unattractive to them.
Sanders’ brand of ideological and moralistic politics does not resonate with Blacks or Hispanics. There is a big difference in quality between White and Black or Hispanic support for the Democrats. For Blacks or Hispanics, this is relatively rational, as the Democrats promise a softer approach to crime and ever increasing wealth transfers from the White majority. For Whites, this support, I believe, is more ideological and idealistic. Many Democrat-supporting Whites are in tax brackets which might not economically benefit from liberal tax policies. (Then again, many of these Whites are likely to be in education or government, and thus benefit.)
The Whiteness of #FeelTheBern is unbearable precisely to these same White liberals, who quite self-righteously think of themselves as the least racist of all people. (Try googling “unbearable Whiteness” to witness all the different issues that guilt-ridden White liberals have wrung their hands over.) But the reality is that support for Sanders to a large degree reflects a particular White subculture. Both the Trump and Sanders campaigns are examples of implicitly White identity politics — but of radically different kinds.
Therefore, if Whites (as Paul Krugman urges) were to be reduced to a minority in America and the country were to be transformed, in Barack Obama’s words, to “a hodgepodge of folks,” we can be sure that Sanders’ latte liberalism will be politically impossible. I doubt this reality will convince very many Sanders supporters to embrace White identity. But they must know, somewhere in their lower brain centers, that their dreams are much more likely to be achieved in a country with the demographics of (pre-invasion) Sweden rather than those of Brazil.
There is no getting around it: Any kind of authentic social justice and social cohesion is only possible in a ethno-culturally cohesive and solidary nation."In 2012, the data broker industry generated 150 billion in revenue that’s twice the size of the entire intelligence budget of the United States government—all generated by the effort to detail and sell information about our private lives." — Senator Jay Rockefeller IV
"Quite simply, in the digital age, data-driven marketing has become the fuel on which America’s free market engine runs."
— Direct Marketing Association
* *
Google is very secretive about the exact nature of its for-profit intel operation and how it uses the petabytes of data it collects on us every single day for financial gain. Fortunately, though, we can get a sense of the kind of info that Google and other Surveillance Valley megacorps compile on us, and the ways in which that intel might be used and abused, by looking at the business practices of the "data broker" industry.
Thanks to a series of Senate hearings, the business of data brokerage is finally being understood by consumers, but the industry got its start back in the 1970s |
.
"SO GAY"
James ran through a series of scenarios designed to teach kids how to act as strong allies, defending LGBTQ people from harassment or discrimination.
James played a homophobic character talking about a hypothetical administrator who had caused a scheduling snafu.
"That's so gay," he said. James used the word over and over until he eventually coaxed his students into articulating why he shouldn't talk that way.
"'Gay' doesn't mean stupid," one student finally blurted out. "People take offense to it."
James' character insisted on using the word, forcing the student to stand up to him.
"You should stop," the student declared. "The words you say have effects on other people."
LOCKER ROOM
One male student brought a real-life scenario into the mix: In his previous school, kids had to change in the locker room for swim class, he said. One of the boys was gay. In order to avoid that boy "checking me out," the HSC student said he used to change in the bathroom stall.
James turned the scenario into a role play, debated with words as students sat around the table. He cross-examined the student on why he felt that the gay student was checking him out.
One student called the reaction a double standard: Why doesn't it bother you when a girl checks you out, but when it's a guy, you hide?
The student who had come out to her peers as a "dyke" piped up.
"Just because we're in there, we're not looking at you," she said. "We have to change, too."
The student was unconvinced. He said he simply felt uncomfortable with the gay student there.
James raised the question from another perspective: Did you ever consider how that gay student is feeling? That the student may be even more nervous and paranoid than the other students, James contended.
Despite James' best efforts, he failed through the role-play to convince the student to change his views.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'COME OUT OF THE CLOSET'?"
At the end of the discussion, James took another tack, a personal one.
James, a 23-year-old math teacher who just graduated from Yale in May, said he'd been in the locker-room scenario before.
"This hit home," he said.
Then he made a rather nonchalant announcement.
Back in high school, he said, he was captain of the wrestling team. Locker-room dynamics were a big concern, he said, "when I made the decision to come out of the closet" during junior year.
The student who had expressed discomfort in the locker room sounded confused.
"What do you mean "come out of the closet"? he asked.
James referred to the earlier vocab lesson: "Reveal to others that I was gay."
Shortly after, the bell rang, bringing the session to a rather abrupt end.
THE GODFATHER SPEAKS
The revelations continued in James' next workshop.
James dived right into a role-play where he disparaged someone by calling the person "gay."
This time, James didn't have to coax a condemnation from the crowd. He immediately got an earful from first-year student Matthew Santiago.
"If you didn't have hate for gay people, you wouldn't use those words," said Matthew. James remained stubborn, and the two got into a heated back-and-forth.
Debriefing after the role-play, Matthew confessed he was getting worked up by James's intolerant rant.
"I was kind of offended by it," he explained, "because I know gay people myself." He said his godfather, who was present at his baptism, is gay.
Another student, Kumal Troutman, mentioned that he has a gay cousin who dresses in drag when he hits the nightclubs. He said he accepts his cousin for who he is.
Tyshawn Lowery, a senior, added that he has a good friend who is transgender.
Their revelations emerged as no big deal--signifying, James later reflected, that perhaps times have changed in the eight years since he entered high school. Or in the very least, liberal New Haven was proving to be a more LGBT-friendly climate than his Louisville, Kentucky high school.
The three young men didn't let James get away with homophobic diatribes when James launched into a locker-room role-play. This time, James played the student afraid to change near the gay kid, "Tony."
"What makes you sure he's checking you out?" said Tyshawn.
"Put yourself in Tony's shoes," he advised. Tony "bleeds the same blood. He breathes the same air."
When James refused to accept Tony, Tyshawn shut him down.
"You really have problems," Tyshawn said.
"I'M BI"
James again took the opportunity to share his personal story.
"This hits home for me pretty hard," he told his students. After starting wrestling in 6th grade, "I ended up coming out as gay my junior year."
He noted that Kentucky is a pretty anti-gay state. "I was really paranoid" in the locker room, he recalled, especially because there have been cases of anti-gay violence among young men.
His announcement met a small dose of surprise from one kid who had had his head down on the desk.
"What?" the student asked quietly to the student next to him. "Teacher gay?"
Without a script or a make-believe scenario, Matthew stuck with the part of strong ally.
"You can be gay, you can be whoever you want," Matthew said. "I'm not going to judge you."
His steadfast acceptance set the tone for another confession.
"I'm bi," piped up a young woman who had kept quiet during the discussion. "It's not that we're different. We're still human," she said.
"You go girl!" called out a friend.
The bell rang, social justice lesson concluded.CLOSE Florida manatees are massive slow-moving marine mammals that populate coastal waters and delight Sunshine State visitors. From pristine natural springs to warm power plant waters, here's where to spot these gentle giants. Kelly Jordan, USA TODAY
As I quietly lowered myself into Kings Bay in Crystal River, Florida, I couldn’t help but let out a brief squeal when the 72-ish-degree water trickled down my back, underneath the 3mm wetsuit I’d squeezed into. Kings Bay was a bit cold for me, but I knew it was just right for the hundreds of manatees who migrate to winter in the bay and its natural springs.
Crystal River is the only place in the world where it’s legally permissible to swim with the manatees, and Captains John, Ed and Rob and the entire team at the Plantation Adventure Center, based at the Plantation on Crystal River, encourage a passive approach when observing the gentle giants. The wetsuits that are provided by the center to snorkelers on each of manatee tours not only keep swimmers warm, but keep them buoyant, too – there’s little to no chance of diving below the water’s surface, which is good for the manatees.
Joining the group of eight other nature lovers, including a couple from L.A., another from Toronto, a family from Maine and guided by Captain Ed, we donned our masks and snorkels and quietly started swimming towards Three Sisters Springs, part of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, to see manatees in their natural, underwater world.
Because manatees cannot tolerate water temperatures below 68 degrees for long periods of time, they make an annual migration (typically November – March) from their seasonal homes in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and even as far away as Texas and Virginia, to Florida’s warmer waters and natural springs; the springs maintain a steady 72 degrees (or so) year-round. Once manatees find “their spot,” they return to the same place year after year.
Our snorkeling tour was in the afternoon, which meant many of the manatees had left the warmth of the refuge in search of food – they can eat 10-15% of their body weight daily. With an average adult manatee weighing in between 800 and 1200 pounds, that’s a lot of plant life: Manatees are herbivores.
Silently, our group floated in the water, legs kicked up behind us and arms below, our hands propelling us forward below the water’s surface, much like the way a manatee swims. And then there they were – the first two manatees we spotted were inside a roped-off sanctuary; no one except manatees is allowed within any of the designated manatee sanctuaries.
After observing the two manatees for a few minutes, we left them and made our way into Three Sisters, which is closely monitored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), who keep an eye on the manatees and people both above the water on the boardwalk that encircles Three Sisters, and in kayaks on the water. The FWC and FWS have the discretion to open and close the springs to snorkelers, keeping the manatees’ well-being top of mind.
Inside Three Sisters, the water became crystal clear and we spotted a few manatees resting. A mother and calf followed us into the springs and swam into a sanctuary, where the calf began nursing; it was a magical sight to see. Our group floated in the springs for about 15 minutes before making our way back out towards the boat.
On our way out, it seemed to be time for the manatees to come back into the springs for the evening and we passed a handful going in to find their spots for the night. While we floated on top of the water and skirted to the sides to make way, the manatees swam gracefully below us, seemingly unaware of our presence, just the way that it should be.
For more on manatees and conservation efforts surrounding these gently giants, please visit the Save the Manatee Club website.
Where to See Manatees in Florida
While Crystal River is the only place to swim with manatees, there are plenty of natural spots throughout Florida to observe the animals from above the water’s surface.
Blue Spring State Park, Orange City (between Orlando and Daytona Beach) - Check out the park’s webcam to see if the manatees are in the springs. During manatee season (mid-November through March), the spring and spring run are closed to all water activities, including swimming and boating.
Manatee Lagoon, West Palm Beach - The 16,000 square foot education space features hands-on exhibits to learn not only about manatees who winter here, but other natural wonders in the area. Take a look at the Manatee Cam to see if manatees are in the area today.
Manatee Observation & Education Center, Fort Pierce (between Cocoa Beach and West Palm Beach) - In addition to an observation deck from which to view manatees, the center includes touch tanks, interactive displays and aquariums for visitors to learn more about the area’s ecosystems and their inhabitants.
Manatee Park, Fort Myers - Manatees are more apt to be in the park late-December through February.
TECO Manatee Viewing Center, Apollo Beach (south of Tampa) - An observation deck and boardwalk provide terrific vantage points for viewing manatees in the waters warmed by the neighboring Big Bend Power Station. Webcams to the east and west provide different vantage points, right on your screen.
Three Sisters Springs, Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, Crystal River (about 90 minutes north of Tampa) - If you’d rather stay dry than swim with the manatees, the observation boardwalk that encircles Three Sisters provides terrific viewing areas. Though the most manatees can be found in Three Sisters and Crystal River during the winter months, a resident population of around 80 manatees call the area home year-round, providing the chance to swim with them year-round, too.
Fast Facts About Manatees
Manatees are mammals and are prone to symptoms similar to frostbite and hypothermia, called cold stress, hence the need to be in water that is 68 degrees or higher in temperature.
Manatees are herbivores, or vegetarians, and get their fresh water from seagrasses and other aquatic vegetation.
Manatees do not have any natural predators.
It is estimated that modern manatees have been in Florida’s waters for more than 1 million years.
Under the Endangered Species Act, harassing or interfering with manatees can lead to heavy fines and even jail time.
Manatee Manners
Look but do not touch – manatees are wild animals, after all!
Never enter designated manatee sanctuaries, for any reason.
Avoid making noise or splashing when manatees are nearby.
Use snorkeling gear when observing manatees; SCUBA gear may scare them.
Never feed manatees or give them water; they are wild animals.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1p4HaIwWomen’s March in Washington: White Women told to “Check Your Privilege” Before Event
Thousands of women are expected to converge on the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington on the day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration.
It didn’t take long for radical feminists and race warriors to morph this protest into a Social Justice Warrior sh*tshow.
White women are being told to “check their privilege” before the march.
Hah-Hah!
This ought to be nuts.
The same women who hate Trump who promoted women his entire and career forgave Bill Clinton for raping women are showing their true liberal colors.
Lol! At DNC white reporters were sent to back of line. I reported on this (with video) but fake news media covered it up. https://t.co/fB3oOjJZbb — Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) January 10, 2017The whole Harvey Weinstein fiasco has been bad for Hollywood: the ripple effect seems inclined to rip the entire entertainment industry apart.
Through it all, however, we can trust BuzzFeed to keep things in perspective for us. In this case, the real problem seems to be Harvey Weinstein's preference for assaulting white actresses.
Seriously:
The elephant in the room in discussions about the alleged crimes and misdemeanors of Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein looks eerily similar to an elephant of the past. It is the Race elephant. And among the allegations, the question of race is one that we are not really looking to engage with, because it is knotty and gnarly. But it bears talking about, because there are black women in Hollywood, and not talking about it does us all a disservice. In Hollywood, where both racism and sexism are rampant, what can look like a sort of mitigated blessing ends up highlighting another insidious problem in (the societal microcosm that is) Hollywood: Black women do not often come up for the kind of prestigious high-profile and award-winning roles that a producer with Weinstein’s power could offer.... If we are to discern a general message about black women (and other women of color) from the product churned out by Hollywood, it is that they are not seen as leading role material, and that is intertwined with the idea that they are not desirable “trophies.” At the very least, their near-absence in starring roles suggests a deep disinterest. After all, dominating and “winning” a trophy depends on the idea that other people want to win it too. Repeatedly questioning Okonedo’s “fuckability” was a clear view into Weinstein’s mind, not just as a film producer but as a man. Looking at the list of women who have accused him of harassment and assault, it’s clear he was going after not only culture-certified “trophies” but also those he felt he could suppress or control. Their fuckability was the currency he wanted, regardless of their consent. It’s important to note whom Harvey Weinstein allegedly went after, and by extension, those he did not.
So, the problem is that Harvey Weinstein didn't harass minorities? His crime is that he raped Asia Argento instead of Sophie Okonedo, whom a previous director wanted for the same role? That's your takeaway?
Look, I'm not oblivious to Hollywood's issues with race. I won't say they're real, but I won't claim they're not, either. I don't delve into the seedy underbelly of the movie business often enough to know one way or the other. I will say that some damn good actors don't seem to be working nearly as often as you would think, but that may also be my personal preference.Once upon a time, rally-bred Japanese performance cars like the Subaru WRX STI had a comfortable little niche all to themselves. With turbocharged engines, four-wheel drive and affordable prices, they were an all-weather alternative to conventional European road rockets.
But over time, the popularity of cars like the WRX STI has waned. Tighter emissions laws made them more expensive to run, they kept getting more expensive to buy and then the Europeans started making more and more four-wheel drive hot hatches like the Volkswagen Golf R and Ford Focus RS.
Even so, the WRX STI is still with us and now costs a similar amount to the aforementioned Golf and Focus. For the asking price, you get plenty of equipment, 297bhp and a truly permanent four-wheel drive system that promises to make the WRX STI even more capable.Following last week’s announcement of Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp and Michelle Yeoh officially being cast in Star Trek: Discovery, it now appears that set construction for the new series will be completed next month and shooting will begin sometime in January.
As we’ve previously reported, the CBS All Access series will film at Toronto’s Pinewood Studios and is scheduled to begin airing next spring.
The first episode of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere with a broadcast TV special on CBS in May. That episode and all subsequent episodes will be exclusively shown in the U.S. on the video streaming service CBS All Access.
Alex Kurtzman, Bryan Fuller and Rod Roddenberry will act as executive producers, with Nicholas Meyer (director of The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country and co-writer of The Voyage Home) and Kirsten Beyer serving as a writers and consulting producers. Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have stepped into the role of show runners, which Fuller vacated in October. Akiva Goldsman will serve in a “top creative role” on the series.
Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery. Follow @TrekNewsnet on Twitter, TrekNews on Facebook, TrekNews on Instagram and TrekNewsnet on YouTube.
via CBRFish face end of the line, says director
Updated
The director of a new documentary on overfishing says Australia needs to act now to protect its fish stocks or it will suffer dire consequences.
Rupert Murray is in Sydney to promote the film The End of The Line, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and opens to Australian audiences in April.
The film warns that 70 per cent of global stocks are now in trouble and there could be no seafood by the middle of the century unless practices change.
He says the depletion of fish stocks worldwide is a major environmental problem.
"The reason why I made the film is I love eating seafood," he said.
"I want the oceans to be full of fish and [be] healthy and beautiful. I want there to be a viable fishing industry as well. I want there to be recreational fishing.
"But if we continue on the way we're going, all of that is going to end."
Murray says Australia must keep watch, with 16 species already overfished.
"Overfishing is one of the biggest environmental problems, but it's the one that people know the least about," he said.
Government action
The Federal Government is considering setting up marine sanctuaries along the Australian coast, which Murray says are urgently needed.
Only 5 per cent of Australia's coastline is protected and environmental groups want the Federal Government to take note of Murray's message.
WWF biologist Gilly Llewellyn says the Government must act now.
"This year, this is the time that we need the Government to put its hand up to be a leader in marine conservation and put in large networks of no take zones for that region, and for the whole of the rest of Australia," she said.
The seafood industry acknowledges the problem, but warns the documentary focuses on overfishing in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Brian Jefferies from the Commonwealth Fisheries Association says there is no doubt that many countries are facing overfishing problems.
But he says Australian fisheries are much better run.
"The issue in Australia is fisheries management has been around for a lot longer - over 50 years," he said.
"In Europe it's been there for three or four years - that's the difference. And we've got into a position in Australia where things are stable and improving all the time."
Audiences can make up their own minds when the film opens in Australia in April.
Topics: documentary, arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, environment, conservation, environmental-management, australia
First postedJust another excuse for Sweetie Belle to start singing.Yay it's finally done! Been working on this on and off for what... 3 months? almost 4? I mean one of those months I did literally no work on it at all but still it's been a trip! About 50 or 60 hours invested in this piece so I'm glad to finally be done. And I think it looks pretty good! I think it's probably my best piece so far and that's pretty gratifying. Lots and lots of fiddling and finagling and teeny tiny edits and details and gah went into this one. There's little critters all over the place! I think that's my favorite bit of it, it's got lots of life! Oh and Scootaloo is staring at rainbows. heh. Scoots and dash. heh. I'm so artsy. I didn't realize until later that it's got a total lion king vibe. I've never actually seen that movie (I know I know a lot of people find that pretty shocking) but I learned amidst this drawing that they have some singing on a log in front of a waterfall thing and I shook my fist at Disney for a second. I think it's definitely different enough though. Hope you guys like it!Anyways have some adventuring fillies.Follow me on twitter for doodles, art teasers, and more! twitter.com/bobdude0Easily Manage Your Smartwatch with Android Wear Tools
Android 5.0 has undoubtedly been the main topic on every Android fanboy’s mind ever since its completed source release just six days ago. That said, there’s still quite a bit going on in the Android world aside from Lollipop. Last week, we talked a little bit about the open source CASUALWear watch face tool that lets users customize their Android Wear smartwatches to a great degree. Now, we’re here to share another tool for Google’s wearables platform.
Android Wear APK Tools by XDA Senior Member nagasgura is a GUI-based app that allows you to install APKs and uninstall any non-protected package directly from your computer. This works through ADB, and as such, it is much more convenient than using the actual command line if you’ve got a lot of installing and uninstalling to do.
The tool works on Windows, Linux, and Mac. And usage is as simple as you’d expect. Once ADB is enabled and the device is connected, the app shows you a list of installed apps and allows you to uninstall them with just a few clicks, or optionally install new APKs.
If you’ve got an Android Wear and you do a lot of app installation and uninstallation via ADB, optimize the process by visiting the Android Wear Tools application thread."You are a man of your word...." ―Trelak's final words upon being killed as Teal'c had promised.[src]
Trelak was the First Prime of the Goa'uld Ares. When the System Lords were losing their war against Ba'al in 2005, several of them decided to retreat to worlds formerly under their control. One of them was Ares, who decided to retreat to Arkhan's World, which at this time was the home of Harold Maybourne. SG-1 traveled to the planet to bring him back, but before they could do so, Trelak and a patrol of Jaffa came through the Stargate to prepare the planet and its citizens for the coming of Ares. Trelak ordered Maybourne, now King Arkhan I, and the people of the planet to accept Ares as their god, and although Maybourne played along, the citizens refereed to a prophecy that Ares would be defeated.
Trelak thus ordered his men to search for the ruins containing this prophecy. When this men were killed by SG-1, Trelak quickly realized that the weapons used were that of the Tau'ri, which led to Dr. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c being captured by Ares' Jaffa. Trelak threatened Teal'c with a slow death (With Teal'c promising a quick one for the First Prime) but the arrival of a Time Jumper, piloted by Brigadier General Jack O'Neill gave Daniel and Teal'c time to fight against the Jaffa. Trelak himself fought against Teal'c but was stabbed by him with his own knife. Shortly thereafter Ares himself was killed within his Ha'tak by just two Drones fired from the Jumper by O'Neill. (SG1: "It's Good to Be King")Breaking Bad’s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman have one of the more complicated and intense relationships on television: Jesse is a sweetheart on-again-off-again drug addict with authority issues, while Walter is a suburban dad who developed lung cancer with a side of short temper. Put these two together, sic the DEA and scary drug kingpins after them, and, well, things get tense. Which is to say, there is a lot of yelling between these two. Much of it deserved (Jesse screws up often), but sometimes it feels as though Walt just likes to rip into Jesse to help him feel better about all the other shitty things going on in his life at the moment. As Breaking Bad returns to the airwaves Sunday night for its fifth season premiere, we’ll be looking to see whether Walt pulls back on some of the “junkie idiot” talk. Until then, watch four seasons’ worth of Walt’s insults and lectures, right here in our very non-spoilery video.North Korea unilaterally disclosed the contents of inter-Korean military meeting that happened Wednesday and the process in which the secret talks were realized.North’s official Korean Central News Agency published an article Thursday night entitled, “Revealing the truth about the unfair treatment which casts a dark shadow over the improving atmosphere of North South relations,” disclosing the allegedly inappropriate measures of the South Korean towards Pyongyang.The 9,700-character article said that Pyongyang proposed a meeting with Kim Kwan-jin, chief of the National Security Office and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, but the South Korean side refused the proposal. Instead, Seoul sent Lt. Gen. Ryu Je-seung, head of the National Defense Policy Office, as the representative on the southern side, downgrading the talks.The article said further alleged that it was the South who proposed a secret meeting and then leaked parts of the talks to its news media, while claiming it was the full story.The two Koreas held a military meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom on Wednesday, and the North’s delegation was led by North Korean Gen. Kim Yong-chol, director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau.This was the first time in three years and eight months that their military officials sat down at a negotiation table, but the Park Geun-hye administration didn’t announce it in advance and remained tight-lipped on what was discussed afterwards.A South Korean government official called the article “a means of applying pressure ahead of the second round of high-level inter-Korean talks.”This marks the first time that Pyongyang has revealed talks that occurred between the two Koreas in such a unilateral manner since the Park Geun-hye administration took place.BY JEONG YONG-SOO [[email protected]]With Windows 10's launch little more than a week away, Microsoft kicked off its marketing storm last night with the first commercial for the new OS. It's a bit more direct and human than the company's infamous Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads, with a focus on children and how they're growing up with touchscreens and a wealth of new tech. As with any major product launch, Microsoft is planning a huge multi-million dollar media blitz for Windows 10. The big theme this time around is "people who make a difference," reports ZDNet. The software giant will likely have a much easier time pushing Windows 10 on consumers since it steps back from some of Windows 8 more dramatic (and controversial) interface changes. And of course, making Windows 10 a free upgrade for Win 7 and 8.1 users will also be a big help. The new OS will land on July 29 for Windows Insiders and will roll out to others afterwards.As Motorola’s most successful handset of all time, the Motorola Moto G is one phone that Motorola should be following up, and they seem to be with leaks for the Moto G2 seeping out over the last couple of months. Now the Moto G2 has shown up in the inventory system of an Australian retailer and is expected to launch this month.
Though listed as ‘Coming Soon’ we’ve been advised that the phone is set to launch ‘mid-August’ in Black, but with no events scheduled by Motorola for this month as yet, it’s uncertain whether this is a solid date.
Specs listed for the phone in the system show that previous leaks were quite accurate with the listing showing a 5″ Display, 1.2GHz Quad-Core processor, 8GB on-board storage with microSD card slot and 8MP camera. It seems that just as we saw the Dual-SIM version of the Moto G, we will see the Dual-SIM Moto G2 here in Australia as well.
From the listing it can be assumed that just as the Moto G was released as a 3G only device, the Moto G2 will also arrive with only 3G radios. A follow-up device with LTE could be in the offing down the track though, if Motorola’s release schedule is anything to go by.Aggressive behavior in dogs poses public health and animal welfare concerns, however the biological mechanisms regulating dog aggression are not well understood. We investigated the relationships between endogenous plasma oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP)—neuropeptides that have been linked to affiliative and aggressive behavior in other mammalian species—and aggression in domestic dogs. We first validated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the measurement of free (unbound) and total (free + bound) OT and AVP in dog plasma. In Experiment 1 we evaluated behavioral and neuroendocrine differences between a population of pet dogs with a history of chronic aggression toward conspecifics and a matched control group. Dogs with a history of aggression exhibited more aggressive behavior during simulated encounters with conspecifics, and had lower free, but higher total plasma AVP than matched controls, but there were no group differences for OT. In Experiment 2 we compared OT and AVP concentrations between pet dogs and a population of assistance dogs that have been bred for affiliative and non-aggressive temperaments, and investigated neuroendocrine predictors of individual differences in social behavior within the assistance dog population. Compared to pet dogs, assistance dogs had higher free and total OT, but there were no differences in either measure for AVP. Within the assistance dog population, dogs who behaved more aggressively toward a threatening stranger had higher total AVP than dogs who did not. Collectively these data suggest that endogenous OT and AVP may play critical roles in shaping dog social behavior, including aspects of both affiliation and aggression.
Introduction
Aggressive behavior in dogs is a serious concern for reasons related to both public health and animal welfare. In the United States it is estimated that dogs bite ~4.5 million Americans annually, with approximately half of these bites directed toward children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003; Gilchrist et al., 2008). In addition to this impact on human lives, aggression (toward humans or other dogs) is also one of the most common reasons that dogs are relinquished to animal shelters (Salman et al., 1998), with ~2 million of these dogs being euthanized every year (Patronek et al., 1996). Despite these widely recognized concerns, we know relatively little about the psychological and biological factors underlying dog aggression.
Aggression is an adaptive—but occasionally pathological—form of social behavior which can be motivated by a wide range of psychological states. Dog aggression may result from cognitive appraisals of the social environment which result in fear, anger, or, predatory motivations, and individuals may differ in their tendency to express or inhibit behavioral responses to these emotions. The biological mechanisms which facilitate aggressive behavior are diverse, and different forms of aggression may be mediated by different neurobiological substrates (Panksepp and Zellner, 2004).
Previous studies on the biology of canine aggression have focused predominantly on the role of androgens and the serotonergic system. Although, testosterone is positively associated with aggression in many species (Archer, 1988), studies of androgens and aggression in dogs have been largely inconclusive. For example, in some studies gonadectomy (which yields decreased androgen production) has been linked to a mild reduction in male dog aggression toward both other dogs and people (Neilson et al., 1997), whereas in others neutered dogs were found to be more aggressive (Guy et al., 2001). Findings on the serotonergic system have been more consistent than those for androgens. Specifically, some dogs with a history of aggression are characterized by low levels of serotonin or serotonin metabolites—in both blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)—and this finding is especially pronounced in lineages prone to aggression (Reisner et al., 1996; Haug, 2008; Rosado et al., 2010; León et al., 2012; Amat et al., 2013). Because of the inhibitory effect of serotonin on aggression, one common intervention for aggressive dogs has been to increase serotonin availability through selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs; Haug, 2008). Although, testosterone and serotonin may both have important roles in regulating aggression, research with other mammalian species indicates that oxytocin and arginine vasopressin also play major roles in the inhibition and facilitation of aggressive behaviors (Carter, 1998; Caldwell et al., 2008; Albers, 2012). However, few studies have investigated the links between these neuropeptides and aggressive behavior in dogs.
Oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) are closely related nonapeptides with wide ranging effects on social behavior, cognition, and stress responses (Carter, 1998; Goodson and Bass, 2001; Carter et al., 2008; Donaldson and Young, 2008). Although, the biological effects of OT and AVP can be similar in many cases, in others they are antagonistic (Neumann and Landgraf, 2012). With respect to affective states and social behavior, OT inhibits the sympathoadrenal axis, reduces anxiety, and can promote affiliative behavior. In contrast, AVP increases sympathoadrenal activity, is anxiogenic, and in some cases facilitates aggression (Ferris, 1992; Carter, 1998). However, both peptides can have effects that are sex- and species-specific, and depend on site of action in the brain, as well as characteristics of the receptor (Kelly and Goodson, 2014). Moreover, both peptides are capable of binding to one another's receptors, and the dynamic balance between OT and AVP is hypothesized to mediate a wide spectrum of emotional states and social behaviors (Neumann and Landgraf, 2012).
Recent studies with dogs have highlighted the role of OT in affiliative behavior and positive affective states. For example, dogs exhibit an increase in OT after friendly interaction with a human (Odendaal and Meintjes, 2003; Rehn et al., 2014; Nagasawa et al., 2015; MacLean et al., 2017b), or other pleasurable experiences (Mitsui et al., 2011; Beetz et al., 2012). Recently, polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) have been linked to human-directed social behavior in dogs (Kis et al., 2014; Oliva et al., 2016b), and dogs treated with intranasal OT have been documented to exhibit increased affiliative behavior toward both humans and other dogs (Romero et al., 2014; Nagasawa et al., 2015; but see Hernádi et al., 2015). Lastly, OT administration has been documented to enhance some aspects of dog-human communication (Oliva et al., 2015), including cognitive skills that may be convergent between humans and dogs (MacLean and Hare, 2015; MacLean et al., 2017a). Thus, current data suggest that OT both facilitates and responds to some types of affiliative and cooperative social interaction in dogs.
Although, no studies have investigated the role of AVP in dog aggression, data from other mammalian species suggest that AVP plays an important role in regulating aggression toward unfamiliar individuals. For example, early studies on AVP and aggression revealed that microinjection of AVP into the hypothalamus of golden hamsters led to increased aggression toward unfamiliar conspecifics, whereas hamsters receiving an AVP antagonist displayed a dose-dependent decrease in biting and latency to attack unfamiliar individuals (Ferris and Potegal, 1988; Ferris, 1992; Ferris et al., 1997, 2006; Albers, 2012). Although, these findings have been replicated in several other species (Bester-Meredith et al., 2005; Gobrogge et al., 2007), other experiments reveal that AVP can both facilitate or inhibit aggression, depending on the site of action in the brain or sex-specific factors (Kelly and Goodson, 2014; reviewed in Albers, 2015), and AVP may be critical for some forms of affiliative behavior (Carter et al., 1995). In contrast to these rodent studies which have addressed localized functions of AVP, human studies have measured AVP in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or the periphery to assess potential links between overall circulating levels of AVP and social behavior. With |
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Aegis of the Legion
Now builds out of Negatron Cloak + Ruby Crystal + Rejuvenation Bead + 600g = 1900g
Total cost lowered to 1900g from 1950g
Armor reduced to 0 from 20
Magic resist increased to 20 from 0 (total of 40 MR including aura)
Aegis and Talisman are being changed to be predominantly MR items instead of trying to be catch-alls. This is pretty nice, as it makes the items better overall and also gives us another option for MR itemisation, which is something the current game is lacking.
Face of the Mountain
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Recipe cost increased to 385 from 185
Health Regeneration per 5 decreased to 20 from 25
Health increased to 500 from 375
All of the support gold income items are having their prices increased to 2200 and their stats buffed up to try and reflect the change. Face of the Mountain got a small buff overall in terms of gold efficiency.
Scrying Orb / Greater Orb / Farsight Orb
Scrying Orb (tier 1)- reveal range increased to 2500 from 1500
Greater Orb (tier 2)- reveal range increased to 3500 from 2500
Farsight Orb (tier 3)- reveal range increased to 4000 from 3000
The oft-forgotten blue trinket is still very rarely picked up. Maybe if we buff it enough, people will want to buy it.
Feral Flare, Wriggle’s Lantern
Feral Flare is back in the game! It hasn’t actually been changed since pre-patch 4.4, so hopefully it will be on live this patch. Have a look at my last article for analysis and stats, if you haven’t seen them already.
Frost Queen’s Claim
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Recipe cost increased to 515 from 315
Ability power increased to 50 from 40
Given the cost increase, this is a pretty neutral change.
Frozen Heart
Total cost lowered to 2600g from 2900g ( due to Glacial Shroud Change )
Recipe cost increased to 650 from 550.
Armor increased to 100 from 95
Aura Attack Speed reduction lowered to -15% from -20%
Frozen heart is getting a pretty nice buff. This is great, in my opinion, as it’s a great item, but often hard to pick up because it doesn’t offer any HP, and its high cost make it tough to build anything else. Hopefully this will make it more available to a wider range of champions.
Iceborn Gauntlet
Total cost lowered to 2900 from 3300 ( due to Glacial Shroud Change )
Recipe cost lowered to 750 from 1100
Armor reduced to 60 from 70
This is another one that might look like a nerf but is actually a buff. IG is a very expensive item, so it’s nice to see it get a bit cheaper.
Glacial Shroud
Now builds out of Cloth Armor + Sapphire Crystal + 250g = 950g
Total cost lowered to 950g from 1350g
Armor reduced to 20 from 45
Mana reduced to 250 from 300
Glacial Shroud is being reworked a bit to be easier to get earlier in the game. This should really help out some of the more mana-dependant tanks, as they can get their hands on Glacial Shroud’s 10% CDR and improved stats a lot sooner.
Lich Bane
Now builds out of Sheen + Aether Wisp ( new item ) + 1000 Gold.
Total costs lowered to 2900g from 3000g
Locket of the Iron Solari
Now builds out of Kindlegem + Aegis of the Legion + 50 gold = 2800 gold
Total cost increased to 2800 gold from 2550g
Health increased to 400 from 300
Armor reduced to 0 from 20
Magic resist increased to 20 from 0.
Morellonomicon
Now builds out of Fiendish Codex + Forbidden Idol ( new item ) + 630g.
Total cost still 2200g
Spirit of the Elder Lizard
Butcher – monster damage bonus reduced to 20% from 30%
Lizard is season 4’s golem, it seems. It’s strong enough that most current junglers will pick it up. This will nerf the clear speed from it a little bit, and maybe also make junglers like Kha’zix and Vi a little less strong at taking barons and dragons.
Talisman of Ascension
Now builds out of Nomad’s Medallion + Forbidden Idol ( new item )
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Mana regen per 5 increased to 15 from 10
Once again, the change to Talisman is pretty neutral. The build path is much nicer though, as the Forbidden Idol gives 10% CDR early on.
Twin Shadows
Now Builds out of Aether Wisp ( new item ) + Fiendish Codex + 780 gold
Total cost still 2400 gold
Ability power increased to 80 from 50
Magic resistance reduced to 0 from 40
Now Grants 10% Cooldown reduction
New effect: If a ghost cannot find a target, it tries to return to the caster. Ghosts that successfully return in this way reduce the item’s cooldown by 40 seconds ( 120 second cooldown )
Twin Shadows is no longer defensive in any respect. Instead, it does its job of catching enemies better. The increased AP and newfound CDR will be nice to have, and the build path includes Aether Wisp, so 5% movespeed is gained early on. The new behaviour of the ghosts is nice as well, since a failed use of TS won’t be nearly as punishing.
Warden’s Mail
Now builds out of Chain Vest + 280g
Recipe cost lowered to 280 from 400
Total cost still 1000g
This is mostly a response to the Glacial Shroud changes. While its total cost is unchanged, the fact that Warden’s Mail builds out of a chain vest makes it so that the armour builds up a little bit smoother.
Will of the Ancients
Now Builds out of Hextech Revolver + Fiendish Codex + 480 gold = 2500 total gold.
Total cost increased to 2500g from 2000g.
Ability power increased to 80 from 50.
Mana regeneration per 5 lowered to 0 from 10
Vladimir players rejoice! WotA is being brought back to its roots as a caster item for champions that may or may not have mana instead of the useless quasi-support item that it’s been for the last few months.
Boot Enchantments:
All of the boot enchantments are getting changed around in an effort to make the ones that aren’t homeguard a bit more interesting. Overall, I like the direction that the enchantments are headed in. I’ve always found them interesting, but never quite felt like they were worth the gold investment until the very end of the game (besides homeguard). We don’t think that these changes will actually be in patch 4.5, so we may have to wait on these for a bit longer. Here’s a post by Xypherous explaining the changes.
Alacrity
Movement speed increased to +20 from +15
Captain
Movement speed bonus to nearby approaching allied champions increased to 10% from 8%
Price decreased to 600 from 750
Distortion
Teleport, Flash, Ghost cooldown reduction lowered to 20% from 25%
Now adds extra effects to summoner spells: Ghost – grants 40% movement speed from 27% Flash – 20% movement speed bonus for 1 second Teleport: 30% movement speed bonus for 3 seconds after use.
Furor
Price reduced to 475g from 650g
Homeguard
No longer fully renegerates you upon activation and instead now restores 35% of missing health and mana per second while at fountain
Other Balance
Dragon
Damage reduced to 110 from 145.
Debuff from attacks no longer slows attack speed, now reduces healing.
These changes were on the PBE before patch 4.4, but weren’t included in the patch.
Vision Bugfixes
Apparently, some bug fixes are in place to fix issues where blind spots would occur in some bushes. I hope they work, I hate that bug.
Masteries
Feast
Health restore from killing a unit increased to 3 from 2
This change is merely to compensate for the nerf to lifesteal runes.
Runes
Greater Seal of Armor
Armor Reduced to 1 armor from 1.41 armor
Greater Seal of Scaling Armor
Armor at level 18 increased to 3 from 2.7
Greater Seal of Health
Health increased to 8 from 5.35
Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Health increased to 24 at 18 from 19.44
Greater Seal of Health Regeneration
HP5 increased to.56 f rom.43
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 1.67 at 18 from 1.11
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
MR increased to 3.0 at 18 from 2.7
Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration
Mp5 increased to.33 from.31
Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration
Mp5 increased to 1.20 at level 18 from.99
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 2.5% from 1.67%
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 5% at 18 from 2.5%
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed
Attack Speed increased to 4.5% from 3.4%
Greater Quintessence of Life Steal
Life steal reduced to 1.5 from 2%
Rather than tackle this myself, I’m going to refer you guys to Fridgecake’s article on the rune changes. Check it out if you have time.
Summoner Spells
Xypherous’ post that I linked earlier also gives some rationale behind the changes to summoner spells.
Exhaust
Movement Speed Reduction: 30% –> 25%
Damage Reduction: 30% –> 50%
Cast Range: 550 –> 650
Exhaust should now be more easily castable at the champions you want to exhaust; namely, marksmen hanging out at the back of the teamfight. This will probably make Exhaust a bit more of a viable spell and maybe see it crowded out a bit less by ignite in the bottom lane.
Heal
Targets Affected: 5 –> 2. Cooldown: 300 –> 240 Now only affects you and the target nearest your cursor (within 700 range). If it can’t find anything near your cursor, it’ll affect the most wounded nearby allied champion instead.
Heal Amount: 90-345 –> 90-495 (Scales non-linearly with level, more at higher levels)
Additional Effect: After healing the target, it then removes any healing reduction effects the target suffers.
Additional Effect: Targets healed also gains 30% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
Heal is being reworked to only be a two-target spell rather than a full-team spell. This makes it a lot more balancable around the bottom lane without having to worry about late-game teamfight impact being too high. The movement speed buff and increased healing in late-game is making it a more attractive option for late-game peeling and initiating assistance.
Ignite
Additional Effect: Now also grants vision of the target over the duration (Non-Stealth only)
This is a small change aimed at focusing ignite’s purpose onto being a kill-securing spell.
Cosmetic Changes
Atlantean Syndra
Syndra is getting an awesome new aquatic skin, but it’s been pulled from the PBE for more work.
Night Hunter Rengar
Rengar is getting a new skin, too, which is reminiscent of a certain superhero. The skin looked great, but has been pulled for more work after people suggested that Rengar put up his hood when he uses his ultimate. Good job listening to your players, Riot. Now if only I could convince them to make it go “Bamf!” when he stealths…
Super Galaxy Rumble
Rumble is getting one hell of a skin this time around. I wish they’d give him a few buffs to go with it, though. Check out Moobeat’s post for a better list of pictures.
Void Fizz
Who knew Fizz could look so evil? I especially love the ultimate for this skin. Here’s the report over at [email protected]
Malphite Splash Art
This new splash looks so much better than the one on live. I especially love the archers getting wrecked in the corner.
Riot Logo Ward Skin
The latest ward skin is coming to LoL, this one based off the fist in Riot’s company logo.
Floating Combat Text
The floating text animations for gold and critical damage are getting updated. The gold one shows a coin and the crit one shows an impact graphic.
Gragas Animations
Gragas has received a host of new animations for his reworked attacks. More bubbles!
Barrier
Barrier has been recoloured to be white following criticism that it looked too much like Kayle’s ultimate. Hopefully it’s a bit easier to tell apart now.
That’s all for now, everyone. Check back in a few weeks for more PBE coverage! As always, thanks very much to Moobeat over at [email protected] for his excellent patch notes, images and video footage from the PBE.Al Gore recently stated that he believes “our country would be stronger and better if it went according to the popular vote.” Gore, who won the popular vote during the 2000 election, lost the Electoral College and, thus, lost the election to George W. Bush. At the time of his loss, Gore supported the Electoral College as “it knits the country together, prevents regional conflicts, and it goes back through our history to some legitimate concerns.” But as Former Vice President Gore seems to have realized, any system created to manage past concerns may become antiquated due to technological, economic, or social changes in a country.
In all but two states, Electoral College votes are allocated on a winner-take-all basis, meaning that the candidate that wins the plurality of votes in one of those 48 states will receive all the electoral votes from that state. This means that a vote for a Republican candidate in Massachusetts and a vote for a Democratic candidate in Alabama are essentially meaningless, while the votes of certain influential demographics in large swing states are disproportionately important. For example, black voters will be extremely important in Ohio during the November election, as nearly all of Ohio’s 1.5 million eligible African American voters are expected to vote for Barack Obama. With Obama currently leading Romney by only 3.5% in Ohio polls, the voting turnout of African Americans in Ohio will be more crucial than any other demographic in deciding which candidate receives the state’s 18 electoral votes.
As a result, the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature has enacted voter identification laws, which require Ohio residents to show valid identification before casting a vote. Though the law will not have a significant effect on the majority of white voters, roughly 370,000 eligible black voters will be essentially disenfranchised, as around one quarter of eligible African American voters do not currently have valid identification. Ohio, however, is not alone in its voter identification laws. Other large swing states with Republican-controlled legislatures, such as Pennsylvania and Virginia, have also enacted their own voter identification laws that are projected to discourage black and minority voting.
Republicans in the Ohio legislature have stated that the purpose of the voter identification law is to curtail voter fraud, but since 2000 there have been only ten cases of documented voter fraud in the entire country. In other words, hundreds of thousands of people are being denied suffrage in order to prevent the incredibly unlikely and largely insignificant possibility that an illegitimate vote is cast during the election.
In an election determined by a popular vote, one vote would never be more valuable than another; an African American vote from Ohio would be no different than a white vote from Nevada. Thus, the near disenfranchisement of a minor voting demographic, such as black citizens without valid identification, could not drastically shift the outcome of an election and would be considered an act of willful discrimination, rather than just a slimy political strategy.
There was once a time when the Electoral College was a practical solution to some of the many problems created by issues such as the inaccessibility of information, the three-fifths compromise, and transportation time. Fortunately, we live in a decade where information about presidential candidates is easy to come by, everyone has a right to vote, and travel is exceedingly fast. Designed to manage problems that are largely nonexistent in the 21st century, the Electoral College now serves only to tarnish the integrity of our electoral system.
America was founded on the principle that all people are created equal; it is time that all votes be created equal, as well.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
At least 11 people have stumped up $1,000 (£684) each to buy a hyper-realistic sculpture of a human foreskin - designed to raise awareness about the "true cost" of male circumcision.
The artwork - called HUFO (Human Foreskin) has been created by Vincenzo Aiello, who believes that circumcision is an unnecessary mutilation that diminishes sexual pleasure later in life.
Whe he's not making art, Aiello is also the founder of Foregen, an organisation that plans to use stem cell technology to regrow foreskins lost through circumcision.
HUFO is being sold through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise money for Foregen research. And so far, 11 people have forked out for the silicone sculpture. But who are they?
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"There are a lot of people who are waiting to have foreskin regeneration. Most of them I know already as they’ve already contacted us in private,” Aiello told Mirror Online.
"All the people that are interested in [foreskin regeneration] feel they've been cut without good reason and without consent," he said.
One supporter of the project, called Lawrence, described it as a "fantastic idea", adding: "Genitally mutilating men without informed consent should be illegal. It is a human rights abuse, just like female genital mutilation. It is not a medical procedure, it is an ancient blood sacrifice intended to suppress male sexuality. It destroyed my life."
Another, Kyle, said: "The success of Foregen will ensure that my one dream will become a reality. The dream to be an intact and natural man!"
More than 130 people have supported the crowd funding campaign, with others pledging anywhere between $10 and $10,000 to the cause. Aiello is hoping to raise at least $40,000, and has already raised more than $35,000.
The foreskin sculptures themselves have been designed after extensive research by Aiello.
He scoured text books, urology videos and anatomical drawings, and he was shocked by the amount of tissue that is affected by circumcision. "I never considered the fact that it’s a bi-layer piece of skin," he said.
Aiello made a clay penis and started to cover it with early prototypes of HUFO.
Once the shape was finalised, he created a relief sculpture - a mould that could be filled with silicone and resin.
“Then I started to work with silicone and resin and painted the blood vessels nerve endings, frenulum… all the different details.”
The money raised through the project will go towards an experiment to build a biological scaffold onto which stem cells can be transplanted in order to build a new foreskin.
“I want to spread awareness. Millions of men are circumcised without a reason," he said.
You can support Foregen and HUFO on the Kickstarter page.Three games is an extremely small sample size, so let’s consider today Freaky Friday. What stats are great to look at but have no chance of being sustainable?
Jared Goff is currently averaging 10.14 ANY/A; no player has ever reached double-digit ANY/A over the course of a full season. If Goff were to miss the rest of the season, he would actually break the record for most attempts in a season with double digit ANY/A.
Alex Smith has a 132.7 passer rating over 84 attempts; no player has reached such lofty passer rating levels over a season with even 34 attempts. Smith is also completing over 77% of his pass attempts: no player has done that in a season with even 40 attempts.
Another Chief, rookie RB Kareem Hunt, is having a remarkable season, too. He’s averaging 133.7 rushing yards per game, which would rank as the 2nd best in NFL history if he maintained that average. Hunt is also averaging 179.3 yards from scrimmage per game, more than 15 yards per game higher than any player has ever produced in a season. Among players to average at least 45 receiving yards per game in a season, Hunt is also the leader in rushing yards per game by a wide margin.
And here’s one from Adam Harstad: Redskins RB Chris Thompson is averaging over 30 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards per game; that’s probably not sustainable. Another unsustainable Thompson stat: among players with at least 12 receptions and 12 rush attempts, Thompson would be just the 5th player since the merger to average 8 yards per rush and 16 yards per reception.
Perhaps more sustainable is what Antonio Brown is doing. In 2015, he averaged 114.6 receiving yards per game, the 9th best mark in league history. Right now he is at 118.0 yards per game, which would land in 6th place over the course of a full season.
Patriots addition Brandin Cooks is averaging 25.6 yards per catch through 10 catches. If that holds, he would be just the 4th player since 1990 to do so (minimum 10 receptions), and none of the first three had more than 16 receptions.
Jadeveon Clowney has three fumble recoveries in three games. The record for fumble recoveries by a defensive player is 9, set by Don Hultz with the Vikings in 1963.
Dallas DE Demarcus Lawrence has 7 sacks through three games, which is another unsustainable pace. The record, of course, is 22.5* sacks, set by Michael Strahan in 2001.Jason Momoa gained fame in his breakout role as Khal Drogo, the powerful and skilled horse lord of the Dothraki in "Game of Thrones".
While his character was a fan favorite, poor Khal Drogo met an untimely fate at the end of the first season of GoT. Drogo has joined the ranks of Ned and Robb Stark, characters that have left us far too soon.
Luckily for us though, Jason Momoa is still alive and kicking. He is even starring in DC's upcoming film, "Justice League", as Aquaman!
During Momoa's time as Drogo he spoke very little English, in fact he only spoke a few lines in the language. The bulk of his dialog was spoken in Dothraki, the language of his people.
Momoa didn't just learn his lines in Dothraki though, he learned the entire language to prepare for his part!
Check out this awesome interview on "The Graham Norton Show" of him showing off that skill!
Can that be anymore cool? Who wouldn't love to have the Khal Drogo speaking to you in his own language? Momoa recently reunited with many cast members of GoT near the location of filming, so could he be returning as the horse lord for a cameo in season eight? Only time will tell!
Catch Jason Momoa as Aquaman in "Justice League", coming out in only a few days!
"Several problems that have emerged during the current crisis illustrate the negative consequences of blurred representation. Taxpayers are represented by elected officials in the legislative and executive branches. Accountability for elected representatives is the heart of all democratic ideals. Yet this issue of accountability posed a serious threat to the financial rescue, as taxpayers became understandably furious when the Treasury Department asked for $700 billion to rescue failing financial firms while ordinary citizens faced home foreclosure, dramatically reduced retirement and college savings, and the loss of home equity during the collapse. The first vote on the financial rescue failed, imperiling a fragile global financial system, until a series of compromises and arm-twisting allowed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to pass into law on the second try.
But the failure to impose accountability has led to its own problems. Taxpayers understand that it is their money being used to support these companies, so when the executives who lead these firms make decisions that are objectionable to the average American, there is understandably a public outcry. At the same time, corporate managers have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, whose interests are often contrary to those of the taxpayer. The current situation is the worst of all worlds, because there is a total lack of certainty, and major stakeholders--shareholders, managers, and taxpayers--all believe that their interests are being un- or under-represented."TBS is proving to be a very welcoming new home to American Dad!, which moved to cable last fall after nine seasons on Fox. Ahead of the Season 11 premiere, TBS has ordered two more seasons – 12 and 13 — of the animated comedy. This marks the second time in less than year that the Turner network has renewed the series, which it shares with sister net Adult Swim. American Dad!, which aires an encore of each new episode on Adult Swing after its TBS premiere, has been picked up for 44 more episodes – 22 each for seasons 12 & 13. TBS last November announced a 22-episode order for season 11, which is set to air on TBS and Adult Swim in early 2016. 20th Century Fox TV is the studio.
Created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, American Dad! joined the TBS slate in October 2014 with the start of the show’s 10th season. Since then, it has ranked as basic cable’s #1 scripted series in the Monday 9 PM time slot with adults 18-34 and #2 with adults 18-49. Overall, American Dad! reaches an average of nearly 4 million viewers per episode through its telecasts on TBS and Adult Swim, as well as through TBS’s on-demand, digital and mobile platforms.
“American Dad! has thrived since coming to TBS and Adult Swim, demonstrating the Turner portfolio’s ability to build enduring hits through a combination of smart programming, savvy promotion and extensive multiplatform distribution,” said Deborah Bradley, EVP of networks optimization and content commercialization for Turner Broadcasting. “We look forward to keeping the crazy-but-lovable Smith family around for a long time.”
American Dad! is executive-produced by co-creators MacFarlane and Weitzman, along with co-showrunner Brian Boyle.
Adults Swim previously helped another MacFarlane/20th TV animated comedy that originally launched on Fox, Family Guy, come back from the dead. The strong ratings for the reruns in the cable animated block were a factor in Fox’s decision to order new seasons.Jetstar website users were last night greeted with the option of flying from Sydney to... Sydney.
Spotted first by users of the social news website reddit.com on which users can post links to content on the internet, the cost of the flight was supposedly $179.
“I wonder how far you make it before turning back,” joked reddit.com user netshroud. “Wow that's gonna make it so much easier in the daily commute,” joked another, adamd84.
After contacting Jetstar, spokesman Simon Westaway said that the offer was “completely unintentional” and an “oversight which has been recitified”.
A before and after screengrab shows that it was likely the flight was meant to be from Sydney to Auckland as opposed to Sydney to Sydney.
Although listed on its sale page, users could not purchase the Sydney to Sydney flight.
This reporter is on Twitter: @bengrubb1 In principio creavit Deus cælum et terram. 1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 1 God, at the beginning of time, created heaven and earth.
2 Terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebræ erant super faciem abyssi: et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas. 2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. 2 Earth was still an empty waste, and darkness hung over the deep; but already, over its waters, stirred the breath of God.
3 Dixitque Deus: Fiat lux. Et facta est lux. 3 And God said: Be light made. And light was made. 3 Then God said, Let there be light; and the light began.
4 Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona: et divisit lucem a tenebris. 4 And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. 4 God saw the light, and found it good, and he divided the spheres of light and darkness;
5 Appellavitque lucem Diem, et tenebras Noctem: factumque est vespere et mane, dies unus. 5 And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day. 5 the light he called Day, and the darkness Night. So evening came, and morning, and one day passed.
6 Dixit quoque Deus: Fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum: et dividat aquas ab aquis. 6 And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. 6 God said, too, Let a solid vault arise amid the waters, to keep these waters apart from those;
7 Et fecit Deus firmamentum, divisitque aquas, quæ erant sub firmamento, ab his, quæ erant super firmamentum. Et factum est ita. 7 And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so. 7 a vault by which God would separate the waters which were beneath it from the waters above it; and so it was done.
8 Vocavitque Deus firmamentum, Cælum: et factum est vespere et mane, dies secundus. 8 And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day. 8 This vault God called the Sky. So evening came, and morning, and a second day passed.
9 Dixit vero Deus: Congregentur aquæ, quæ sub cælo sunt, in locum unum: et appareat arida. Et factum est ita. 9 God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. 9 And now God said, Let the waters below the vault collect in one place to make dry land appear. And so it was done;
10 Et vocavit Deus aridam Terram, congregationesque aquarum appellavit Maria. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum. 10 And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 10 the dry land God called Earth, and the water, where it had collected, he called the Sea. All this God saw, and found it good.
11 Et ait: Germinet terra herbam virentem, et facientem semen, et lignum pomiferum faciens fructum juxta genus suum, cujus semen in semetipso sit super terram. Et factum est ita. 11 And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. 11 Let the earth, he said, yield grasses that grow and seed; fruit-trees too, each giving fruit of its own kind, and so propagating itself on earth. And so it was done;
12 Et protulit terra herbam virentem, et facientem semen juxta genus suum, lignumque faciens fructum, et habens unumquodque sementem secundum speciem suam. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum. 12 And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 12 the earth yielded grasses that grew and seeded, each according to its kind, and trees that bore fruit, each with the power to propagate its own kind. And God saw it, and found it good.
13 Et factum est vespere et mane, dies tertius. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 13 So evening came, and morning, and a third day passed.
14 Dixit autem Deus: Fiant luminaria in firmamento cæli, et dividant diem ac noctem, et sint in signa et tempora, et dies et annos: 14 And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: 14 Next, God said, Let there be luminaries in the vault of the sky, to divide the spheres of day and night; let them give portents, and be the measures of time, to mark out the day and the year;
15 ut luceant in firmamento cæli, et illuminent terram. Et factum est ita. 15 To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done. 15 let them shine in the sky’s vault, and shed light on the earth. And so it was done.
16 Fecitque Deus duo luminaria magna: luminare majus, ut præesset diei: et luminare minus, ut præesset nocti: et stellas. 16 And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. 16 God made the two great luminaries, the greater of them to command the day, and the lesser to command the night; then he made the stars.
17 Et posuit eas in firmamento cæli, ut lucerent super terram, 17 And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth. 17 All these he put in the vault of the sky, to shed their light on the earth,
18 et præessent diei ac nocti, et dividerent lucem ac tenebras. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum. 18 And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 18 to control day and night, and divide the spheres of light and darkness. And God saw it, and found it good.
19 Et factum est vespere et mane, dies quartus. 19 And the evening and morning were the fourth day. 19 So evening came, and morning, and a fourth day passed.
20 Dixit etiam Deus: Producant aquæ reptile animæ viventis, et volatile super terram sub firmamento cæli. 20 God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven. 20 After this, God said, Let the waters produce moving things that have life in them, and winged things that fly above the earth under the sky’s vault.
21 Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem, quam produxerant aquæ in species suas, et omne volatile secundum genus suum. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum. 21 And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 21 Thus God created the huge sea-beasts, and all the different kinds of life and movement that spring from the waters, and all the different kinds of flying things; and God saw it, and found it good.
22 Benedixitque eis, dicens: Crescite, et multiplicamini, et replete aquas maris: avesque multiplicentur super terram. 22 And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth. 22 He pronounced his blessing on them, Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea; and let there be abundance of flying things on earth.
23 Et factum est vespere et mane, dies quintus. 23 And the evening and morning were the fifth day. 23 So evening came, and morning, and a fifth day passed.
24 Dixit quoque Deus: Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo, jumenta, et reptilia, et bestias terræ secundum species suas. Factumque est ita. 24 And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done. 24 God said, too, Let the land yield all different kinds of living things, cattle and creeping things and wild beasts of every sort; and so it was done.
25 Et fec |
him, he would return the compliment, Republican outrage has not abated.
Arriving on Capitol Hill to repair ties between Trump and party elites, Gov. Mike Pence was taken straight to the woodshed.
John McCain told Pence that Putin was a "thug and a butcher," and Trump's embrace of him intolerable.
Said Lindsey Graham: "Vladimir Putin is a thug, a dictator...who has his opposition killed in the streets," and Trump's views bring to mind Munich.
Putin is an "authoritarian thug," added "Little Marco" Rubio.
What causes the Republican Party to lose it whenever the name of Vladimir Putin is raised?
Putin is no Stalin, whom FDR and Harry Truman called "Good old Joe" and "Uncle Joe." Unlike Nikita Khrushchev, he never drowned a Hungarian Revolution in blood. He did crush the Chechen secession. But what did he do there that General Sherman did not do to Atlanta when Georgia seceded from Mr. Lincoln's Union?
Putin supported the U.S. in Afghanistan, backed our nuclear deal with Iran and signed on to John Kerry's plan have us ensure a cease fire in Syria and go hunting together for ISIS and al-Qaida terrorists.
Still, Putin committed "aggression" in Ukraine, we are told.
But was that really aggression, or reflexive strategic reaction?
We helped dump over a pro-Putin democratically elected regime in Kiev, and Putin acted to secure his Black Sea naval base by re-annexing Crimea, a peninsula that has belonged to Russia from Catherine the Great to Khrushchev. Great powers do such things.
When the Castros pulled Cuba out of America's orbit, did we not decide to keep Guantanamo, and dismiss Havana's protests?
Moscow did indeed support secessionist pro-Russia rebels in East Ukraine.
But did not the U.S. launch a 78-day bombing campaign on tiny Serbia to effect a secession of its cradle province of Kosovo?
What is the great moral distinction here?
The relationship between Russia and Ukraine goes back to 500 years before Columbus. It includes an ancient common faith, a complex history, terrible suffering and horrendous injustices — like Stalin's starvation of millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s.
Yet, before Bush II and Obama, no president thought Moscow-Kiev quarrels were any of our business. When did they become so?
Russia is reportedly hacking into our political institutions. If so, it ought to stop. But have not our own CIA, National Endowment for Democracy, and NGOs meddled in Russia's internal affairs for years?
Putin is a nationalist who looks out for Russia first. He also heads a nation twice the size of ours with an arsenal equal to our own, and no peace in Eurasia can be made without him.
We have to deal with him. How does it help to call him names?
And what is Putin doing in terms of repression to outmatch our NATO ally, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and our Arab ally, Egypt's General el-Sissi?
Is Putin's Russia more repressive than Xi Jinping's China?
Yet, Republicans rarely use "thug" when speaking about Xi.
During the Cold War, we partnered with such autocrats as the Shah of Iran and General Pinochet of Chile, Ferdinand Marcos in Manila and Park Chung-Hee of South Korea. Cold War necessity required it.
Scores of the world's 190-odd nations are today ruled by autocrats. How does it advance our interests or diplomacy by having congressional leaders yapping "thug" at the ruler of a nation with hundreds of nuclear warheads?
Where is the realism, the recognition of the realities of the world in which we live, that guided the policies of presidents from Ike to Reagan?
We have been told by senators like Tom Cotton that there must be "no daylight" between the U.S. and Israel.
Fine. How does Israel regard Putin "the thug" and Putin "the butcher"?
According to foreign policy scholar Stephen Sniegoski, when Putin first visited Israel in 2005, President Moshe Katsav hailed him as a "friend of Israel" and Ariel Sharon said he was "among brothers."
In the last year alone, Bibi Netanyahu has gone to Moscow three times and Putin has visited Israel. The two get along wonderfully well.
On the U.N. resolution that affirmed the "territorial integrity" of Ukraine, Israel abstained. And Israel refused to join in sanctions against a friendly Russia. Russian-Israeli trade is booming.
Perhaps Bibi, who just got a windfall of $38 billion in U.S. foreign aid over the next 10 years from a Barack Obama whom he does not even like, can show the GOP how to get along better with Vlad.
Lindsey Graham says that the $38 billion for Israel is probably not enough, that Bibi will need more, and that he will be there to provide it.
Remarkable. Bibi, a buddy of Vlad, gets $38 billion from the same Republican senators who, when Donald Trump says he will repay personal compliments from Vladimir Putin, gets the McCain-Graham wet mitten across the face.
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his books State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, and Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? are available from Amazon.com. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.“The white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend that resulted in a deadly attack, has sparked a heated national discussion over neo-Nazism and racism in this country. On Thursday, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California called for the House Judiciary Committee to take a long, hard look at current state of affairs.
“We have a duty to more fully understand what led to these terrible events and the persistence of these hateful, extremist ideologies,” Issa said in a letter to Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
Issa noted that the DOJ is looking into the Charlottesville incident itself, and the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing next month to examine it in the context of domestic terrorism. But that’s not enough, according to Issa:
As members of the committee of jurisdiction on issues related to civil rights and democracy, we too have a unique duty to examine the impact recent displays of hatred from white supremacist groups have on civil rights in America,” he said. … While Congress cannot legislate respect, decency, or acceptance of others, we have an obligation to use our platform to lead our country forward on these matters.
The GOP representative called for the House Judiciary Committee to conduct a hearing in September, when they return from recess.
Hearing Letter – Charlottesville (FINAL) by LawNewz on ScribdBritain faces the threat of a Sydney-style ‘lone wolf’ attack at any moment, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday, after a 16-hour siege at a cafe in the Australian city in which two captives were killed.
Britain raised it terrorism alert to the second-highest level in August and last month said it was facing the biggest terrorism threat in its history because of radicalized Britons returning from fighting in Syria and Iraq.
“The threat we face definitely includes those sort of self-starting, sometimes quite random attacks that could happen at any moment in Britain,” Cameron told a committee of lawmakers when asked how close Britain was to a Sydney-style attack.
“People who are self-radicalized on the Internet who then suddenly do appalling things, that is much more difficult to prevent.”
Last Update: Tuesday, 16 December 2014 KSA 21:54 - GMT 18:54They say that imperial wars come home in all sorts of ways. Think of the Michigan that TomDispatch regular Laura Gottesdiener describes today as one curious example of that dictum. If you remember, in the spring of 2003, George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of that country’s autocratic ruler, Saddam Hussein. The invasion was launched with a “shock-and-awe” air show that was meant to both literally and figuratively “decapitate" the country’s leadership, from Saddam on down. At that time, there was another more anodyne term for the process that was also much in use, even if it has now faded from our vocabularies: “regime change.” And you remember how that all worked out, don’t you? A lot of Iraqi civilians -- but no Iraqi leaders -- were killed in shock-and-awe fashion that first night of the invasion and, as most Americans recall now that we’re in Iraq War 3.0, it didn’t get much better when the Bush administration’s proconsul in Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer III, disbanded the Iraqi military and Saddam's Baathist Party (a brilliant formula for launching an instant insurgency), appointed his own chosen rulers in Baghdad, and gave the Americans every sort of special privilege imaginable by curiously autocratic decree in the name of spreading democracy in the Middle East.
It now seems that a version of regime change, Iraqi-style, has come home to roost in parts of Michigan -- but with a curious twist. Think of Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, as the L. Paul Bremer of that state. He’s essentially given himself regime-change-style powers, impermeable to a statewide recall vote, and begun dismissing -- or, if you will, decapitating -- the local governments of cities and school districts, appointing managers in their place. In other words, his homegrown version of regime change involves getting rid of local democracy and putting individual autocrats in power instead. What, you might ask yourself, could possibly go wrong, especially since the governor himself is going national to limn the glories of his version of austerity and autocratic politics?
As it happens, TomDispatch dispatched our ace reporter, Laura Gottesdiener, who has been traveling the underside of American life for this site, to check out what regime change in Michigan really looks like. As with all her reports, this time with photographer Eduardo García, she offers a grim but startling vision of where this country may be headed. Tom
If you’re thinking, "Who cares?" since what happens in Michigan stays in Michigan, think again. The state’s aggressive balance-the-books style of governance has already spread beyond its borders. In January, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appointed bankruptcy lawyer and former Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr to be a “legal adviser” to Atlantic City. The Detroit Free Press described the move as “a state takeover similar to Gov. Rick Snyder's state intervention in the Motor City.”
One city neglected to inform its residents that its water supply was laced with cancerous chemicals. Another dissolved its public school district and replaced it with a charter school system, only to witness the for-profit management company it hired flee the scene after determining it couldn’t turn a profit. Numerous cities and school districts in the state are now run by single, state-appointed technocrats, as permitted under an emergency financial manager law pushed through by Rick Snyder, Michigan’s austerity-promoting governor. This legislation not only strips residents of their local voting rights, but gives Snyder’s appointee the power to do just about anything, including dissolving the city itself -- all (no matter how disastrous) in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”
A Magical Mystery Tour of American Austerity Politics One State’s Attempt to Destroy Democracy and the Environment By Laura Gottesdiener, with photos and reporting by Eduardo García
And this spring, amid the hullabaloo of Republicans entering the 2016 presidential race, Governor Snyder launched his own national tour to sell “the Michigan story to the rest of the country.” His trip was funded by a nonprofit (fed, naturally, by undisclosed donations) named “Making Government Accountable: The Michigan Story.”
To many Michiganders, this sounded as ridiculous as Jeb Bush launching a super PAC dubbed "Making Iraq Free: The Bush Family Story.” Except Snyder wasn’t planning to enter the presidential rat race. Instead, he was attempting to mainstream Michigan’s form of austerity politics and its signature emergency management legislation, which stripped more than half of the state’s African American residents of their local voting rights in 2013 and 2014.
As the governor jaunted around the country, Ann Arbor-based photographer Eduardo García and I decided to set out on what we thought of as our own two-week Magical Michigan Tour. And while we weren’t driving a specially outfitted psychedelic tour bus -- we spent most of the trip in my grandmother’s 2005 Prius -- our journey was nevertheless remarkably surreal. From the southwest banks of Lake Michigan to the eastern tips of the peninsula, we crisscrossed the state visiting more than half a dozen cities to see if there was another side to the governor’s story and whether Michigan really was, as one Detroit resident put it, “a massive experiment in unraveling U.S. democracy.”
Stop One: Water Wars in Flint
Just as we arrive, the march spills off the sidewalk in front of the city council building.
“Stop poisoning our children!” chants a little girl as the crowd tumbles down South Saginaw Street, the city’s main drag. We’re in Flint, Michigan, a place that hit the headlines last year for its brown, chemical-laced, possibly toxic water. A wispy white-haired woman waves a gallon jug filled with pee-colored liquid from her home tap. “They don’t care that they’re killing us!” she cries.
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A Flint resident at the march demanding clean water. Photo credit: Eduardo García
We catch up with Claire McClinton, the formidable if grandmotherly organizer of the Flint Democracy Defense League, as we approach the roiling Flint River. It’s been a longtime dumping ground for the riverfront factories of General Motors and, as of one year ago today, the only source of the city’s drinking water. On April 25, 2014, on the instruction of the city’s emergency manager, Flint stopped buying its supplies from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and started drawing water directly from the river, which meant a budgetary savings of $12 million a year. The downside: people started getting sick.
Since then, tests have detected E. coli and fecal bacteria in the water, as well as high levels of trihalomethanes, a carcinogenic chemical cocktail known as THMs. For months, the city concealed the presence of THMs, which over years can lead to increased rates of cancer, kidney failure, and birth defects. Still, it was obvious to local residents that something was up. Some of them were breaking out in mysterious rashes or experiencing bouts of severe diarrhea, while others watched as their eyelashes and hair began to fall out.
As we cross a small footbridge, McClinton recounts how the city council recently voted to “do all things necessary” to get Detroit’s water back. The emergency manager, however, immediately overrode their decision, terming it “incomprehensible.”
“This is a whole different model of control,” she comments drily and explains that she’s now working with other residents to file an injunction compelling the city to return to the use of Detroit’s water. One problem, though: it has to be filed in Ingham County, home to Lansing, the state capital, rather than in Flint’s Genesee County, because the decision of a state-appointed emergency manager is being challenged. “Under state rule, that’s where you go to redress grievances,” she says. “Just another undermining of our local authority.”
In the meantime, many city residents remain frustrated and confused. A few weeks before the march, the city sent out two notices on the same day, packaged in the same envelope. One, printed in black-and-white, stated bluntly: “Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard.” The second, in flashy color, had this cheery message: “We are pleased to report that City of Flint water is safe and meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines... You can be confident that the water provided to you today meets all safety standards.” As one recipient of the notices commented, “I can only surmise that the point was to confuse us all.”
McClinton marches in silence for a few minutes as the crowd doubles back across the bridge and begins the ascent up Saginaw Street. Suddenly, a man jumps onto a life-size statue of a runner at the Riverfront Plaza and begins to cloak him in one of the group’s T-shirts.
“Honey, I don’t want you getting in any trouble!” his wife calls out to him.
He’s struggling to pull a sleeve over one of the cast-iron arms when the droning weeoo-weeooo-weeoo of a police siren blares, causing a brief frenzy until the man’s son realizes he’s mistakenly hit the siren feature on the megaphone he’s carrying.
After a few more tense moments, the crowd surges forward, leaving behind the statue, legs stretched in mid-stride, arms raised triumphantly, and on his chest a new cotton T-shirt with the slogan: “Water You Fighting For?”
Stop Two: The Tri-Cities of Cancer
The next afternoon, we barrel down Interstate 75 into an industrial hellscape of smoke stacks, flare offs, and 18-wheelers, en route to another toxicity and accountability crisis. This one was caused by a massive tar sands refinery and dozens of other industrial polluters in southwest Detroit and neighboring River Rouge and Ecorse, cities which lie along the banks of the Detroit River.
Already with a slight headache from a haze of emissions, we meet photographer and community leader Emma Lockridge and her neighbor Anthony Parker in front of their homes, which sit right in the backyard of that tar sands refinery.
In 2006, the toxicity levels in their neighborhood, known simply by its zip code as “48217,” were 45 times higher than the state average. And that was before Detroit gave $175 million in tax breaks to the billion-dollar Marathon Petroleum Corporation to help it expand its refinery complex to process a surge of high-sulfur tar sands from Alberta, Canada.
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The Marathon tar sands refinery in southwest Detroit. Photo credit: Eduardo García
“We’re a donor zip,” explains Lockridge as she settles into the driver’s seat of our car. “We have all the industry and a tax base, but we get nothing back.”
We set off on a whirlwind tour of their neighborhood, where schools have been torn down and parks closed due to the toxicity of the soil, while so many residents have died of cancer that it's hard for their neighbors to keep track. “We used to play on the swings here,” says Lockridge, pointing to a rusted yellow swing set in a fenced-off lot where the soil has tested for high levels of lead, arsenic, and other poisonous chemicals. “Jumping right into the lead.”
As in other regions of Michigan, people have been fleeing 48217 in droves. Here, however, the depopulation results not from deindustrialization, but from toxicity, thanks to an ever-expanding set of factories. These include a wastewater treatment complex, salt mines, asphalt factories, cement plants, a lime and stone foundry, and a handful of steel mills all clustered in the tri-cities region.
As Lockridge and Parker explain, they have demanded that Marathon buy their homes. They have also implored the state to cap emission levels and have filed lawsuits against particularly toxic factories. In response, all they’ve seen are more factories given more breaks, while the residents of 48217 get none. Last spring, for example, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality permitted the AK Steel plant, located close to the neighborhood, to increase its toxic emissions as much as 725 times. The approval, according to the Detroit Free Press, came after “Gov. Rick Snyder’s business-promoting agency worked for months behind the scenes” lobbying the Department of Environmental Quality.
“Look at this cute little tree out of nowhere over here!” Lockridge exclaims, slowing the car in front of a scrawny plant whose branches, in the midst of this industrial wasteland, bend under the weight of white blossoms.
“That tree ain't gonna grow up,” Parker responds. “It’s dead already.”
“It’s trying,” Lockridge insists. “Aww, it’s kind of sad. It’s a Charlie Brown tree.”
The absurdity of life in such an environment is highlighted when we reach a half-mile stretch of sidewalk sandwiched between a massive steel mill and a coal-fired power plant that has been designated a “Wellness Walk.”
“Energize your Life!” implores the sign affixed to a chain-link fence surrounding the power plant. It’s an unlikely site for an exercise walk, given that the state’s health officials consider this strip and the nearby park “the epicenter of the state’s asthma burden.”
After a sad laugh, we head for Zug Island, a Homeland Security-patrolled area populated by what look to be giant black vacuum cleaners but are actually blast furnaces. The island was named for millionaire Samuel Zug, who built a lavish mansion there only to discover that it was sinking into swampland. It is now home to U.S. Steel, the largest steel manufacturer in the nation.
On our way back, we make a final stop at Oakwood Heights, an almost entirely vacant and partially razed subdivision located on the other side of the Marathon plant. “This is the white area that was bought out,” says Lockridge. The scene is eerie: small residential streets lined by grassy fields and the occasional empty house. That Marathon paid residents to evacuate their homes in this predominantly white section of town, while refusing to do the same in the predominantly African American 48217, which sits closer to the refinery, strikes neither Lockridge and Parker nor their neighbors as a coincidence.
We survey the remnants of the former neighborhood: bundles of ragged newspapers someone was once supposed to deliver, a stuffed teddy bear abandoned on a wooden porch, and a childless triangle-shaped playground whose construction, a sign reads, was “made possible by generous donations from Marathon.”
As this particularly unmagical stop on our Michigan tour comes to an end, Parker says quietly, “I’ve got to get my family out of here.”
Lockridge agrees. “I just wish we had a refuge place we could go to while we’re fighting," she says. "You see we’re surrounded.”
Stop Three: The Great White North
Not all of Michigan’s problems are caused by emergency management, but this sweeping new power does lie at the heart of many local controversies. Later that night we meet with retired Detroit city worker, journalist, and organizer Russ Bellant who has made himself something of an expert on the subject.
In 2011, he explains, Governor Snyder signed an emergency manager law known as Public Act 4. The impact of this law and its predecessor, Public Act 72, was dramatic. In the city of Pontiac, for instance, the number of public employees plummeted from 600 to 50. In Detroit, the emergency manager of the school district waged a six-year slash-and-burn campaign that, in the end, shuttered 95 schools. In Benton Harbor, the manager effectively dissolved the city government, declaring: “The fact of the matter is, the city manager is now gone. I am the city manager. I replace the financial director, so I’m the financial director and the city manager. I am the mayor and the commission. And I don’t need them.”
So in 2012, Bellant cancelled all his commitments in Detroit, packed his car full of chocolate pudding snacks, canned juices, and fliers and headed north to support a statewide campaign to repeal the law through a ballot referendum in that fall’s general election. For two months, he crisscrossed the upper reaches of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the part of the state that people say looks like a hand, as well as the remote Upper Peninsula that borders Wisconsin and Canada.
“Seven or eight hours a day, I would just knock on doors,” he says.
In November, the efforts paid off and voters repealed the act, but the celebration was short-lived. Less than two months later, during a lame-duck session of the state legislature, Governor Snyder pushed through and signed Public Act 436, a broader version of the legislation that was referendum-proof. Since then, financial managers have continued to shut down fire departments, outsource police departments, sell off parking meters and public parks. In Flint, the manager even auctioned off the plastic Santa Claus that once adorned city hall, setting the initial bidding price at $5.
And here’s one fact of life in Michigan: emergency management is normally only imposed on majority-black cities. From 2013 to 2014, 52% of the African American residents in the state lived under emergency management, compared to only 2% of white residents. And yet the repeal vote against the previous version of the act was a demographic landslide: 75 out of 83 counties voted to nix the legislation, including all of Michigan’s northern, overwhelmingly white, rural counties. “I think people just internalized that P.A. 4 was undemocratic,” Bellant says.
That next morning, we travel north to the city of Alpena, a 97% white lakeside town where Bellant knocked on doors and the recall was triumphant. The farther north we head, the more the landscape changes. We pass signs imploring residents to “Take Back America: Liberty Yes, Tyranny No.” Gas stations feature clay figurines of hillbillies drinking moonshine in bathtubs.
It’s almost evening when we arrive. We spend part of our visit at the Dry Dock, a dive bar overseen by a raspy-voiced bartender where all the political and demographic divides of the state -- and, in many ways, the country -- are on full display. Two masons are arguing about their union; the younger one likes the protections it provides, while his colleague ditched the local because he didn’t want to pay the dues. That move became possible only after Snyder signed controversial “right-to-work” legislation in 2012, allowing workers to opt-out of union dues and causing a sharp decline in union membership ever since.
Above their heads, the television screen projects intentionally terrifying images of the uprising in Baltimore in response to the police murder of Freddie Gray, an unarmed African American man. “The Bloods, the Crips, and the Guerrillas are out for the National Guard,” comments a carpenter about the unarmed protesters, a sneer of distain in his voice. “Not that I like the fucking cops, either,” he adds.
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The bartender of the Dry Dock plays pool with other regulars. Photo credit: Eduardo García
Throughout our visit, people repeatedly told us that Alpena “isn’t Detroit or Flint” and that they have absolutely no fear of the state seizing control of their sleepy, white, touristy city. When we press the question with the owner of a bicycle shop, the hostility rises in his voice as he explains: “Things just run the way they should here” -- by which he means, of course, that down in Detroit and Flint, residents don’t run things the way they should.
Yet, misconceptions notwithstanding, the county voted to repeal Public Act 4 with a staggering 63% of those who turned out opting to strike down the law.
Reflecting Bellant’s feeling that locals grasped the law’s undemocratic nature in some basic way, even if it would never affect them personally, one resident offered this explanation: “When you think about living in a democracy, then this is like financial martial law... I know they say these cities need help, but it didn’t feel like something that would help.”
Stop Four: The Fugitive Task Force
The next day, as 2,000 soldiers from the 175th Infantry Regiment of the National Guard fanned out across Baltimore, we head for Detroit’s west side where, only 24 hours earlier, a law enforcement officer shot and killed a 20-year-old man in his living room.
A crowd has already gathered near his house in the early summer heat, exchanging condolences, waving signs, and jostling for position as news crews set up cameras and microphones for a press conference to come. Versions of what happened quickly spread: Terrance Kellom was fatally shot when officers swarmed his house to deliver an arrest warrant. The authorities claim that he grabbed a hammer, prompting the shooting; his father, Kevin, contends Terrance was unarmed and kneeling in front of him when he was shot several times, including once in the back.
Kellom is just one of the 489 people killed in 2015 in the United States by law enforcement officers. There is, however, a disturbing twist to Kellom’s case. He was not, in fact, killed by the police but by a federal agent working with a little known multi-jurisdictional interagency task force coordinated by the U.S. Marshals.
Similar task forces are deployed across the country and they all share the same sordid history: the Marshals have been hunting people ever since the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act compelled the agency to capture slaves fleeing north for freedom. One nineteenth-century newspaper account, celebrating the use of bloodhounds in such hunts, wrote: “The Cuban dog would frequently pull down his game and tear the runaway to pieces before the officers could come up.”
These days, Detroit’s task force has grown particularly active as budget cuts have decimated the local police department. Made up of federal Immigration and Customs officers, police from half a dozen local departments, and even employees of the Social Security Administration office, the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team has nabbed more than 15,000 people. Arrest rates have soared since 2012, the same year the local police budget was chopped by 20%. Even beyond the task force, the number of federal agents patrolling the city has risen as well. The Border Patrol, for example, has increased its presence in the region by tenfold over the last decade and just two weeks ago announced the launch of a new $14 million Detroit station.
Kevin Kellom approaches the barricade of microphones and begins speaking so quietly that the gathered newscasters crush into each other in an effort to catch what’s he’s saying. “They assassinated my son,” he whispers. “I want justice and I’m going to get justice.”
Yet today, six weeks after Terrance’s death, no charges have been brought against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fired the fatal shot. Other law enforcement officers who have killed Michigan residents in recent years have similarly escaped punishment. Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley was videotaped killing seven-year-old Aiyana Jones with a submachine gun during a SWAT team raid on her home in 2010. He remains a member of the department. Ann Arbor police officer David Reid is also back on duty after fatally shooting 40-year-old artist and mother Aura Rosser in November 2014. The Ann Arbor police department ruled that a “justifiable homicide” because Rosser was holding a small kitchen knife during the encounter -- a ruling that Rosser’s family members and city residents are contesting with an ongoing campaign calling for an independent investigation into her death.
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Residents march during a #BlackLivesMatter protest on May 1, 2015, in Ann Arbor to call for an independent investigation into Aura Rosser’s death. Photo credit: Eduardo García
And such deadly incidents continue. Since Kellom’s death, law enforcement officers have fatally shot at least three more Michigan residents -- one outside the city of Kalamazoo, another near Lansing, and a third in Battle Creek.
Stop Five: The Unprofitable All-Charter School District
Our final stop is Muskegon Heights, a small city on the banks of Lake Michigan, home to perhaps the most spectacular educational debacle in recent history. Here’s the SparkNotes version. In 2012, members of the Muskegon Heights public school board were given two options: dissolve the district entirely or succumb to an emergency manager’s rule. On arrival, the manager announced that he was dissolving the public school district and forming a new system to be run by the New York-based for-profit charter school management company Mosaica Education. Two years later, that company broke its five-year contract and fled because, according to the emergency manager, “the profit just simply wasn't there.”
And here’s a grim footnote to this saga: in 2012, in preparation for the new charter school district, cryptically named the Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System, the emergency manager laid off every single school employee.
“We knew it was coming,” explained one of the city’s longtime elementary school teachers. She asked not to be identified, so I'll call her Susan. “We received letters in the mail.”
Then, around one a.m. the night before the new charter school district was slated to open, she received a voicemail asking if she could teach the following morning. She agreed, arriving at Martin Luther King Elementary School for what would be the worst year in her more than two-decade career.
When we visit that school, a single-story brick building on the east side of town, the glass of the front door had been smashed and the halls were empty, save for two people removing air conditioning units. But in the fall of 2012, when Susan was summoned, Martin Luther King was still filled with students -- and chaos. Schedules were in disarray. Student computers were broken. There were supply shortages of just about everything, even rolls of toilet paper. The district’s already barebones special education program had been further gutted. The “new,” non-unionized teaching staff -- about 10% of whom initially did not have valid teaching certificates -- were overwhelmingly young, inexperienced, and white. (Approximately 75% of the town’s residents are African American.)
“Everything was about money, I felt, and everyone else felt it, too,” Susan says.
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The smashed glass of the front entrance of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, which closed after students fled the charter school district. Photo credit: Eduardo García
With her salary slashed to less than $30,000, she picked up a second job at a nearby after-school program. Her health faltered. Instructed by the new administration never to sit down during class, a back condition worsened until surgery was required. The stress began to affect her short-term memory. Finally, in the spring, Susan sought medical leave and never came back.
She was part of a mass exodus. Advocates say that more than half the teachers were either fired, quit, or took medical leave before the 2012-2013 school year ended. Mosaica itself wasn’t far behind, breaking its contract at the end of the 2014 school year. The emergency manager said he understood the company's financial assessment, comparing the school system to "a broke-down car." That spring, Governor Snyder visited and called the district “a work in progress.”
Across the state, the education trend has been toward privatization and increased control over local districts by the governor’s office, with results that are, to say the least, underwhelming. This spring, a report from The Education Trust, an independent national education nonprofit, warned that the state’s system had gone “from bad to worse.”
"We're now on track to perform lower than the nation's lowest-performing states," the report’s author, Amber Arellano, told the local news.
Later that afternoon, we visited the city’s James Jackson Museum of African American History, where we sat with Dr. James Jackson, a family physician and longtime advocate of community-controlled public education in the city.
He explains that the city's now-failing struggle for local control and quality education is part of a significantly longer history. Most of the town’s families originally arrived here in the first half of the twentieth century from the Jim Crow South, where public schools for Black students were not only abysmally underfunded, but also thwarted by censorship and outside governance, as historian Carter Goodwin Woodson explained in his groundbreaking 1933 study, The Mis-Education of the Negro. Well into the twentieth century, for example, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were barred from grade-school textbooks for being too aspirational. “When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions,” Woodson wrote back then.
More than eight decades later, Dr. Jackson offered similar thoughts about the Muskegon Heights takeover as he led us through the museum, his bright yellow T-shirt reminding us to “Honor Black History Every Day 24/7 -- 365.”
“We have to control our own education,” Jackson said, as we passed sepia newspaper clippings of civil rights marches and an 1825 bill of sale for Peggy and her son Jonathan, purchased for $371 by James Aiken of Warren County, Georgia. “Until we control our own school system, we can’t be properly educated.”
As we leave, we stop a moment to take in an electronic sign hanging in the museum’s window that, between announcements about upcoming book club meetings and the establishment’s hours, flashed this refrain in red letters:
The education of
Muskegon Heights
Belongs to the People
Not the governor
The following day, we finally arrived back in Detroit, our notebooks and iPhone audio records and camera memory cards filled to the brim, heads spinning from everything we had seen, our aging Prius-turned-tour-bus in serious need of an oil change.
While we had been bumping along on our Magical Michigan Tour, the national landscape had, in some ways, grown even more surreal. Bernie Sanders, the independent socialist senator from Vermont, announced that he was challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic ticket. Detroit neuroscientist Dr. Ben Carson -- famous for declaring that Obamacare was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery” -- entered the Republican circus. And amid the turmoil, Governor Snyder’s style continued to attract attention, including from the editors of Bloomberg View, who touted his experience with “urban revitalization,” concluding: “His brand of politics deserves a wider audience.”
So buckle your seat belts and watch out. In some “revitalized” Bloombergian future, you, too, could flee your school district like the students and teachers of Muskegon Heights, or drink contaminated water under the mandate of a state-appointed manager like the residents of Flint, or be guaranteed toxic fumes to breathe like the neighbors of 48217, or get shot like Terrance Kellom by federal agents in your own living room. All you have to do is let Rick Snyder’s yellow submarine cruise into your neighborhood.
Laura Gottesdiener is a freelance journalist and the author of A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home. Her writing has appeared in Mother Jones, Al Jazeera, Guernica, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and frequently at TomDispatch.
Eduardo García is an Ann Arbor-based photographer and researcher focused on indigenous peoples in México, Mexican and Central American migration, disappearances, and social movements in Latin America.
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or early obituaries, or something else I’ve noticed: the tendency of people to say that it is time to give up because of the way, every so often, he seems to slide back to square one in a real-life game of snakes and ladders. Nobody said it was going to be easy, or that there wouldn’t be setbacks. It doesn’t work that way with addictions.
It rankles that to a lot of these people Gascoigne is the messed-up bloke who, coked off his head, took chicken and a fishing rod to the Raoul Moat police manhunt rather than how you or I might recall him, as the kind of footballer who made you quicken your step on the way to the ground. Because what a player that lad was. “He could head the ball, pass it, dribble with it, shoot and he’d train all day,” Sir Bobby Robson once said. “He drove his managers mad, of course, because he never lost that precociousness, his cocky stupidity, his willingness to do anything in search of a quick laugh. But he remained so popular because he was such an innocent.”
His behaviour crossed the line more times than anyone can possibly remember but, even then, Gascoigne always had that uncommon quality that even a mention of his name could make people smile. Indeed, it is not easy to think there have been many more popular English footballers. “There is something strangely appealing about him,” Ferguson wrote in his 1999 autobiography. “Perhaps it is his vulnerability. You feel you might want to be an older brother or a father to him. You might want to shake him, or give him a cuddle, because there is certainly something infectious that gets you involved with him.”
This was the player who injured himself – and this never came out at the time – by falling from one of the stands at White Hart Lane. He always thought he was invincible, Gazza, and he had climbed up with an air-gun over his shoulder to take aim at a pigeon in the rafters. Gascoigne didn’t just want to shoot that pigeon, he wanted to blow its head off. He was right by it when his finger moved to the trigger. It flew away – and he got such a start he dropped 20ft to the floor.
The most expensive footballer in Britain missed the next match with a wrecked shoulder and, going back to that night in Nottingham, he told another story that is worth recounting, about a day trip to London Zoo on one of his first adventures after moving south. Gascoigne, the big kid, was so excited he could not sleep the night before. He ended up stealing an ostrich, putting it in a Tottenham shirt (the No8) and driving to the Spurs training ground in Cheshunt with it in the back seat. “Can you imagine the looks we were getting at traffic lights?,” he wanted to know, and he was heaving with laughter again. “There’s kids pointing. ‘Mam, is that Gazza? It’s Gazza!’ Then they’d look in the back seat. ‘It’s Gazza – and he’s got an ostrich!’”
You have to laugh, even if you are left wondering what happened to the poor ostrich. Gascoigne always wanted to make people smile, to entertain and spread fun, and though he often got it wrong it is one of the reasons why it is so hard watching someone with all that precious magic locked in an illness that is always trying to pull him beneath the surface.
“I’ve done really well for 11 months,” Gascoigne said, in comments that didn’t make any front pages. “I have one blip and I get hammered for it.” Eleven months for someone that vulnerable is worthy of acclaim and I haven’t seen too much, even before he lapsed into old ways. “I am back on track now,” he added, and let’s hope he means it. Gascoigne was 33 when he was diagnosed as an alcoholic and 15 years later, no matter how rough it gets, he is still ours. Don’t give up on him.A US-made Egyptian army Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter hovers over Cairo’s Tahrir Square during a 26 July 2013 rally in support of the military coup. Ahmed Asad APA images
The Obama administration’s announced suspension of some military aid to Egypt is a sham.
Far from actually withdrawing significant US support for the Egyptian military dictatorship that overthrew the country’s elected president on 3 July, the package of measures is designed to reinforce and normalize US cooperation with the coup regime, secure Israel’s interests and US regional hegemony.
It also ensures that Egypt continues to help Israel to maintain the collective punishment of almost 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel lobby pressure
Obama has been under intense pressure from the Israel lobby to maintain US support for the coup regime.
This week, for instance, prominent Israel lobbyist Jeffrey Goldberg appealed to Obama to maintain the aid in order to benefit Israel and prop up Arab client regimes including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
Goldberg sees these Arab dictatorships as part of a region-wide sectarian confrontation with Iran, in which the Arab regimes are on the same side as Israel and the United States.
Goldberg was especially anxious that the Gaza siege continue:
Egypt is pressing hard against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, cutting off the flow of weapons and sealing smuggling tunnels. A weak Hamas is in the best interests of the US, Israel and, most important, the rival Palestinian Authority, with which Israel is currently negotiating under US supervision.
But, of course, the siege does not simply ensure a “weak Hamas.” While there’s no evidence any weapons supplies to the resistance have been disrupted, what have been choked are basic supplies for the population and the ability of Gaza students, patients and others to leave what is in effect a giant prison.
The Israeli-Egyptian siege imposes brutal collective punishment on the whole population of Gaza. Goldberg, as a former Israeli prison guard, clearly has no moral problem with this.
Goldberg’s demands are consistent with the messaging that has come from Israel and its lobby since the first day of the coup in Egypt.
They are also consistent with broader US “core interests” outlined by Obama in his UN speech of maintaining US regional hegemony and dominance, which means ensuring the existence of client regimes like Egypt’s.
Obama administration explains
On 9 October, the State Department released the transcript of a conference call between reporters and five unnamed senior US officials explaining Obama’s measures toward Egypt.
The officials explain that the measures will include delaying the deliveries of some major weapons systems, including Apache helicopters, Harpoon missiles and parts for M1A1 tanks.
They also include suspending direct cash assistance – about $260 million annually – to the “interim government.”
But a close reading of the 5,800-word transcript makes clear that the aid suspension is merely symbolic.
Most forms of US military support for the Egyptian army will continue and there’s no reason to believe the coup regime will be affected by the announced measures.
I will excerpt some of the key passages that indicate just how hollow and cyncial Obama’s move is.
Critical of Morsi but not of massacres
It is notable that the Obama administration is still far more critical of Egypt’s deposed elected president Muhammad Morsi than it is of the military regime.
“Senior Administration Official Number One” repeatedly criticized Morsi, effectively providing justifications for the coup. For example:
Now since then, we recognize, and the President [Obama] noted this in his remarks to the General Assembly a couple of weeks ago, that Muhammad Morsi was democratically elected, but he proved unwilling or unable to govern in a way that was fully inclusive.
But look how the same official characterizes the actions of the military regime headed by General Abdulfattah al-Sisi and fronted by a puppet civilian “interim government”:
Now since then, the interim government that replaced him [Morsi] last summer, we recognized had the support of millions of Egyptians who believed that that revolution had taken a wrong turn. But we think that it too has made decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy, which sort of leads us to where we are now.
First, the Obama administration still seems attached to the dubious claim that the coup had the support of “millions.”
Is this based on anything other than fabricated and unrealistic crowd figures?
But more important at this moment: think about the phrase “decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy.”
In fact, what the coup regime has done in Egypt since 3 July is perpetrate repeated massacres of unarmed civilians unprecedented in Egyptian history, leaving thousands dead and injured. The most recent massacre of more than 50 people occurred on 6 October.
The coup regime has carried out a brutal political crackdown, pursuing and arresting thousands of people for their political views or perceived political views.
None of this is mentioned by the US officials.
It’s still not a “coup”
“Senior Administration Official Number One” was also careful to emphasize that: “Nothing has changed in terms of approaching what you called the coup restriction.”
The Obama administration still “didn’t make a determination, haven’t made a determination, don’t think we need to make a determination, are acting consistent with the provisions of the law and we’ll continue to do so.”
US law requires that military assistance to a foreign country be suspended when a “coup” takes place in that country. By refusing to call what happened a coup, the Obama administration aims to get around the law and ensure that it can continue to support the Egyptian dictatorship.
Obama loves Sisi
So there’s no mention of the Egypt coup regime’s massacres or mass arrests – unless we consider these to be covered by the absurd euphemism “decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy.”
And it’s still not a coup. But also, check out the ongoing love affair the US has with Egyptian coup leader al-Sisi and his clique.
Here’s how “Senior Administration Official Number Three” characterized US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s telephone conversation with al-Sisi:
It was very friendly. In fact, Secretary Hagel noted that he had spoken with Minister al-Sisi more than any of his other counterparts, actually. I think they’ve spoken with each other over twenty times in the last several months. And he said they’ve done so for a reason. It underscores the importance of the US-Egypt relationship. And Secretary Hagel stressed the long history and friendship between the United States and the Egyptian people, and Minister al-Sisi concurred and affirmed that as well.
These are not just formalities. As the same official stressed, the US would be doing nothing to freeze out al-Sisi and his clique:
General al-Sisi, as many of you know, is himself a graduate of the Army War College. And this week, right now in the United States, there are Egyptian military officers in classrooms, receiving training about counterterrorism, meeting shared security objectives, and really building those relationships that have been maintained for generations. And that will continue. And that was really the spirit of their call, that the ongoing important parts of the relationship are going on, and both Minister al-Sisi and Secretary Hagel committed to taking steps to continue that.
US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1939, “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”
The same logic clearly applies to al-Sisi and his accomplices in the massacres and arrests of thousands of Egyptians.
A slap on the wrist
Naturally, in keeping with this warm relationship, a careful reading of the transcript indicates that Obama’s measures amount to no more than a slap on the wrist.
For one thing, Senior Administration Official Number One had difficulty putting a dollar value on the supposed sanctions in response to reporters’ questions:
That actually does make it difficult -– and others will comment on this -– to give you specific answers on the numbers, because it’s not as if there’s some finite thing that has been stopped necessarily forever.
The official also assured that US “contractors” – the people who make and deliver the weapons, training and spare parts to the Egyptian military – will continue to be paid.
Another official was at pains to emphasize that “I think what we’re trying to make clear is this is not meant to be permanent…you’ll notice that it’s not being presented or announced in terms of definitive ends to any specific programs.”
That official also stressed that the measures “weren’t suggested or recommended in a punitive way or anything like that.”
Yes we noticed.
Aid to Egypt is aid to Israel
Throughout the transcript, the US officials emphasized that what will not be affected – even temporarily or symbolically – is the aid that helps the Egyptian coup regime besiege Gaza:
Secretary Hagel emphasized how important the US-Egypt relationship was to the stability and security for Egypt, but for the United States as well and the broader Middle East. And Secretary Hagel made the key point that the US-Egyptian security relationship and assistance relationship is continuing, and made the point, as Senior Administration Official Two said, that we are continuing to provide assistance on the issues that advance both our vital security objectives. That includes countering terrorism, countering proliferation, border security, ensuring security in the Sinai, working with peace with Israel, and includes things that include also spare parts, replacement parts, along those lines.
This was repeated:
first was to make sure that we were continuing the things that were immediately needed for the goals we talked about – counterterrorism, Sinai, borders, the peace treaty, and keeping the peace with Israel.
What matters to US is not the welfare of Egyptians
Last weekend I was a participant in the Istanbul World Forum meeting focusing on the coup in Egypt and its regional consequences, organized by Turkey’s SETA Foundation.
It was a rich set of discussions, but I want to emphasize two points, one I made myself and one made by other participants.
My own point: the only red line in US-Egyptian relations is maintaining the Camp David treaty with Israel and assuring Egypt’s ability to act as a security subcontractor for Israel.
Everything else – especially the lives, welfare and freedoms of Egyptians and consequently Palestinians besieged in Gaza – is subordinate. The Obama administration announcement about aid to Egypt clearly supports this view.
Secondly, a point made by several participants: the actual “security” situation in Sinai and along the border with Gaza does not justify by any stretch the Egyptian coup regime’s war footing in Sinai and against Palestinians in Gaza. Indeed the regime’s actions are fueling violence and disorder.
Rather, Sinai is being used as a pretext to justify the coup regime’s bloody crackdown and to incite the Egyptian population against supposed “foreign” enemies – Palestinians, Syrians and even Egypt’s own Muslim Brotherhood – while the regime consolidates itself in power.
Therefore, US insistence on playing along with the Sinai narrative helps the regime and does nothing to advance the supposed US goal of restoring democracy in Egypt.
That, after all, might well be the intent.Canadian racer Nicholas Latifi will join Tech 1 Racing’s Formula Renault 3.5 squad for WSR events at the Hungaroring and Circuit Paul Ricard.
The FIA F3 regular will race alongside the team’s full-time driver Marco Sorensen and will be the second newcomer to make his FR3.5 debut with Tech 1 in 2014 after the team fielded Mexican Alfonso Celis, Jr. at the Nurburgring back in July.
Latifi, 19, is in his third full-time year in single-seaters, racing for Prema Powerteam in European F3, where he sits tenth in the overall standings with one podium from the season opener at Silverstone.
He made his debut on the European single-seater scene in the now-defunct Italian F3 back in 2012 and finished seventh, securing a sole victory at Vallelunga.
In 2013, he raced in the newly-established FIA European F3 series with Carlin, taking 15th in the standings with a best finish of fifth. He then made the switch to Prema amidst a successful stint in the Ferrari-run Florida Winter Series where he won four of the 12 races.
“We’re delighted to welcome Nicholas Latifi to our team,” stated Tech 1 team manager Simon Abadie. “Nicholas won’t have much time to find his feet in the car and get used to the DRS, starting procedures and pit stops, but we’ve got every confidence in his ability to learn quickly. He’ll take advantage of every second to gain experience.”
Tech 1 have endured a trying year in Formula Renault 3.5 and currently sit 11th in the teams’ standings, having finished fifth last season. The French squad ran just one car for the first five rounds of the campaign and picked up their sole podium finish of the campaign in Monaco.GameGrin Wildstar Weekend EU Beta Giveaway
This Giveaway Has Finished
This week, we've teamed up with NCSoft to bring our readers access to the Wildstar Beta running from Friday 2nd May 2014 (at 14:00 BST) until Monday 5th May (at 07:00 BST).
For this test, the level cap has been raised from 20 to 25. Please be aware that the following giveaway is for EU codes only!
To receive your code, simply enter your e-mail into the widget below. It will ask you for your email twice. Once you've received your code, here's how to activate it:
Visit the NCSOFT account creation website and click the “Create NC Account” button.
Once created, log into the website and click "APPLY A CODE" on the red banner near the top of the page.
Paste in the code that you receive from us.
You should now get a success message. If not, please double-check your key is correctly entered.
Once you've gotten in, download the client by clicking "Manage" under WildStar Beta in your "My Games" list.
Please note: You have to put your e-mail in twice to verify you've typed it correctly.Posted by BlizzClaudio
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It is alright if a major patch that comes with a new hero comes with 1-2 updates to other heroes and leaves little room for tweaks
I think that other Balance notes/hotfixes need to come more regularly and hit more heroes
I would like to see the balance team return to having a balance patch every week instead of the Big Patch and the Balance Patch every 2 weeks. Instead of 1 and 1 a month, I would like to see 1 and 3.
There should be more information regarding if a hero is getting reworked. I dont know why the secrecy and saving it as a "Big wow moment" should be reserved to older heroes getting reworks. I would even prefere a more active test client then what we have with the PTR at moment, especially with HGC players,
use them.
Dont stop updating a hero after they have been reworked, there is always something that can be better.
It really means a lot to me, and the conversations get more interesting and difficult as it progresses.I tried to not call out the same hero twice, I enjoy playing ALL heroes from the hardcore Medivh and Lost Vikings to the simple and relaxing Raynor and Lili (except probius, I dont understand probius), what I want is attention to all heroes, especially heroes that are ignored, heroes with certain talents and talent builds that see no attention. My goal is in talent diversity even to "Balanced" heroes with those 50% winrates and 20% pickrates as they still have some issues with talent diversity.Interesting, Im not opposed to larger scale reworks, I just personally find them a hit or miss, but I dont really want to focus on reworks, I want to focus on what comes before and after. Lets focus on Chen and Artanis for example.https://heroespatchnotes.com/hero/artanis.htmlhttps://heroespatchnotes.com/hero/chen.htmlIt took 6-12 months where there were no balance changes (bug fixes and generic talent updates dont count) then we get the rework. Then in the next month after the rework hits, we get 1 balance update to both heroes, then after that we will not see any changes to them (or for older reworks like kerrigan who would not see balance updates until 7 months later).Lets focus on what happens before a rework. I dont think the "Tweaks" should stop before a rework. If blizzard has trouble balancing the current iteration of a hero, let the community know about the rework that is coming. It gives the hero a chance in the meta and prevents stagnation before a rework finally comes.What happens after a rework from what I understand is that heroes can be sometimes completely different like a new hero and there needs to be some time for people to adjust, but 1 balance change then we are done? I disagree, balance is...well a balancing act and is a constant iterative process, especially for a moba where stagnation can very easily set in.The issue is that there are 10-15 heroes in each patch notes (and some I cant even count as a legitimate change like medivh getting his ravens changed)there are 68 heroes and this is not getting close to that mark in terms of changes over the course of 2 months, let alone 100s of individual talent paths and directions specifically.Im not really interested in changing a hero fundamentally. I want to focus more on those simple tweaks and stat changes so that heroes have diverse and viable builds.An intriguing process, takes 9 to 21 weeks to do. However there are some heroes that go FAR longer without a tweak then 21 weeks. I do feel that the time it takes to rework a hero is quite lengthy but that is my personal opinion.I do want to state that a hero should not go more then 1 months without any tweaks, even if a hero is slated for a rework. Even a minor health change to raynors Banshees (level 10) or a damage change to Illidans Unending Hatred (level 1) would be welcomed.My question is this, what does it take to make minor tweaks like these? or a higher amount of tweaks to one hero like the 6 changes to Tyrande in the last patch?Curious, im generally in favor of only balancing around HGC except for extreme cases like the stealth issue. How much do these other factors weigh in? I wonder how fast tweaks would come if the game was balanced primarily around HGCOverall very interesting. My thoughts to summarizeAfter years of teasing, Valiant has announced specific details around it’s major crossover event “Harbinger Wars 2,” which starts in May of 2018, though will feature some build up in the months leading up to May. Helmed by writers Matt Kindt (“X-O Manowar,” “Mind MGMT”) and Eric Heisserer (“Secret Weapons,” screenwriter of Arrival) with art handled by artists Tomas Giorello (“X-O Manowar”) and Raul Allen (“Secret Weapons,” “Wrath of the Eternal Warrior”) “Harbinger Wars 2” will be used to reshape the landscape of the entire Valiant Universe in 2018, much like its predecessor “Harbinger Wars” did in 2013.
“Harbinger Wars 2” will serve as a direct follow-up to the publisher’s upcoming “Secret Weapons” event, which is set be released on June 28, 2017, and is also written by Heisserer with art by Allen. As per the latest teased images, “Harbinger Wars 2” will feature match-ups between some of Valiant’s most recognizable characters such as Livewire vs. Bloodshot and X-O Manowar vs. Harbinger’s Peter Stanchek. Livewire, the lead character in “Secret Weapons,” appears set to play a large part in “Harbinger Wars 2.” In addition, per the teaser, it appears that X-O Manowar will also be making his return to Earth after sometime spent off world, as in Kindt’s “X-O Manowar” series that began earlier this year.
“Harbinger Wars 2” should arrive a few months prior to the release of Valiant’s first feature film Bloodshot,which also will be written by Heisserer with first time direction provided by Dave Wilson for Sony Pictures. Sony’s five-film timeline of Valiant films, which includes both Bloodshot and Harbinger, is set to eventually culminate in an adaptation of Valiant’s original Harbinger Wars event that will crossover both franchises on the big screen.Japanese players embraced Nintendo’s colorful, team-based squid shooter Splatoon with open arms (or tentacles) in 2015. Featuring half-squid, half-human creatures who can swim through the ink that blasts from their guns, Splatoon is a fast paced and accessible game making a mark on Japanese esports.
Following its release in May, the game moved over 800,000 copies across the country and boosted Wii U sales. Japanese players are spending more and more time with these squids, too. In fact, many U.S. Splatoon players now express dread at facing off against competitors from across the Pacific because they are just too good to beat.
“I play Splatoon almost everyday,” admitted a Japanese player known as Ryo. “I can’t stop thinking about how to play on each stage or figuring out strategies for each weapon in my spare time.”
Now, Nintendo hopes to catapult Splatoon into the world of competitive gaming, by holding a series of tournaments dubbed the Splatoon Koshien (in reference to a famous Japanese summer baseball tournament.) Beginning this past September, they’ve already held competitions across the archipelago, leading up to the grand finals set for this January’s Niconico Tokaigi (“game party”).
The stakes are high for players: the Splatoon squad that wins will take home approximately one million dollars. But for a country that has been slow to embrace esports, it could also popularize a hobby usually thought of as niche.
Unlike other Asian countries, Japan has not fostered an avid esports community that regularly tunes into broadcasts of League of Legends tournaments and the like. The Japanese competitive gaming scene has centered mostly on console games, while esports elsewhere moved to PC titles. Existing tournaments tend to be smaller affairs held in arcades rather than big stadiums like LA’s Staples Center.
SPLATOON’S GAME WORLD IS POPPY AND BRIGHT
But Splatoon fostered an active community in Japan from the get-go. It’s an online community that player Nemu Nemu said flourished through a few small fan-organized tournaments prior to Nintendo’s official Splatoon Koshien. “I often Tweet to find people who I can play with and build my strategies from those experiences,” Nemu Nemu explained.
The announcement of Splatoon Koshien prompted extra excitement in the community, with players such as Nemu Nemu scrambling to find a team. He hooked up with a player named Mochi to join a team called YumeiiroBWI for the Kinki area competition in Osaka.
Ryo and his squad Ika Se No Gorilla’s origin sounds like a story worthy of a coming-of-age movie. “I grew up with our leader Shamoji, but I met our other members, Pushu and Amane, online. They’re the people I’ve always played the game with since I started.”
Despite feeling like they weren’t “skilled” enough to win, YumeiiroBWI entered the Tokai tourney held in Nagoya’s Hisaya Odori Park on October 11th.
To an extent, the excitement over Splatoon Koshien is helping to legitimize competitive gaming as a whole in Japan. Japanese esports needed a fun and accessible title that both avid players and non-players alike could enjoy watching.
“Splatoon’s game world is poppy and bright, I never feel unhappy while playing,” Nemu Nemu said, highlighting the game’s potential to become the country’s most popular esport. The rules of Splatoon are also much easier for casual spectators to pick up on, especially when compared to the complexity of a game like League of Legends.
THE STAKES ARE HIGH FOR PLAYERS
Of course, there are roadblocks in Splatoon’s journey to becoming a legitimate esport. Many point to the game’s lack of a voice chat, which makes it hard for team members to communicate, as well as the lack of a designated “spectator mode” for broadcasting tournaments.
But so far the Splatoon Koshien events, which are part of a larger tour with competitions for other games, have been held in more public and popular spaces, attracting solid crowds.
“The audience was so fired up, it felt like a festival,” Nemu Nemu said of the Osaka stop.
Japanese video site Niconico livestreamed some of the tournaments too, such as the Nagoya competition, helping to spread the burgeoning esport to even more viewers. Ryo, accustomed to online battles, initially felt overwhelmed by the live setting. “There was something, an energy, you can’t experience unless you’re at the actual venue.”
And, like all good competitions, Splatoon Koshien has had plenty of dramatic showdowns so far. Nemu Nemu’s team, which he joined specifically because he believed they had the best chance to take first place, has been challenged by equally strong outfits. They even lost a match.
“But we followed the strategies we trained with, and knew the worst thing we could do was become rushed and frustrated,” he explained. YumeiiroBWI went on to take first place in that competition.
Ryo and Ika Se No Gorilla’s run ended up being even more thrilling. “To be honest, we didn’t really have a strategy, beyond ‘let’s win,’” he said with a laugh. “We had moments where we struggled in every game.”
SPLATOON’S FUTURE AS A COMPETITIVE GAME LOOKS BRIGHT
But they managed to squeak through anyway, landing in the final game. There, they took advantage of a Splatoon rule where, by covering more of the stage in their ink, they eked out a win at the Tokai regional championship.
Both Nemu Nemu and Ryo’s teams are headed to the grand finals in Tokyo at the end of January. Both say they are practicing and preparing to compete in front of larger crowds than ever before.
Considering just how many people already love the game, Splatoon’s future as a competitive game looks bright. “I think there’s a big chance for Splatoon to become a popular esport,” Ryo said. “It has tons of users, the title is famous enough, and you can have fun and get excited by both playing and watching.”
Paint splatter image via Womb Gallery
Online play and Drawing images via Kana Natsuno[Author’s note: In this interview we use "Black” to denote "race.” This identification question is a complicated issue, and there’s usually disagreement among black people about what we call and how we define ourselves. The Urban Dictionary uses "Black” to encompasses all people of color as a race. To simplify matters, GEO capitalized Black in this interview and used it interchangeably with African American.]
[Edito[Editor’s note: Collective Courage by Professor Jessica Gordon Nembhard can be purchased online from PSU Press here. Use the code JGN14 at checkout to recieve a 20% discount. Please encourage your local libraries and co-ops to purchase a copy of this important resource. This is history that deserves to be shared.]/p> AJOWA NZINGA IFATEYO: Finally! This very important and much needed work [C[Collective Courage]nished. I see it as a very important work because it is the only book to chronicle the Black cooperative experience in the U.S. since W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1 study in 1907. Without being modest, Jessica, what do you see as the value of your work and the book specifically? JESSICA GORDON NEMBHARD: I was smiling when you said “finally” because I have been working on this a long time. I started out thinking it would be a two- or three-year project and now it’s actually like 14 or 15 years. I have been able to both compile and chronicle the major activities of African Americans in the United States who have been involved in some form of cooperative business development or collective economics. And, why is that important? Because when I first got interested in using cooperative models for community economic development, particularly in Black communities, everywhere I went people kept telling me that black people don’t do co-ops. And every time I went to a co-op meeting there was almost nobody else of color, particularly not African American, except sometimes there were the people from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives who were supporting mostly farm and agricultural co-ops in the South. So I wanted to promote the model because I had already been convinced that it was an important community development model, but I didn’t know how to get people on board, to get people excited about it. So thought, “Okay, we know that W.E.B. Du Bois promoted economic cooperation. We know that he was an editor of the NAACP’s magazine for 25 or 30 years, so he must have said something in his magazine about co-ops” — even though nobody really knows much about Du Bois’ work on co-ops. They know Du Bois for a million other reasons. AJOWA: Right. JESSICA: Luckily, at that point I was in position to have a graduate research assistant (TJ Lerman), and I said to him, “go look at every issue of The Crisis magazine, and every time there’s any mention of the word ‘co-op’, make me a copy.” And he did, faithfully. And I suddenly found out that over a period of about 25 years, starting around 1918, there were at least seven different articles about Black cooperatives or cooperative economics. DU BOIS PUSHED ” ECONOMIC COOPERATION” BECAUSE CAPITALISM FAILED US These articles mentioned actual cooperatives like one in Memphis, TN. He highlighted some co-ops. He talked about a meeting that he had that turned out to be the Negro Cooperative Guild that he started in 1918. Some of the articles were about how important it was to use economic cooperation. For example, Du Bois has the president of the Cooperative League of America (later becomes the Cooperative League of the USA and then known as the National Cooperative Business League), James Warbasse to write an article in The Crisis called “The Theory of Cooperation” where he explains that because Negroes are so exploited, cooperatives are an important strategy to pursue. AJOWA: Would you briefly summarize what Du Bois’ position was on cooperatives? W.E.B Du Bois, a fierce intellectual warrior, who pushed black people to develop cooperatives so that all black people could get rich together. photo by the National Park Service JESSICA: Du Bois’ position was that African Americans were discriminated against economically, that we were trying to become capitalists and gain individual wealth just like other Americans, however it wasn’t working because of racism and discrimination. He said that we should voluntarily form a group economy based on a sense of solidarity and use producer and consumer cooperatives to position ourselves to serve our economic needs separately from the white economy. This way we could control our own goods and services and gain income and wealth – stabilize ourselves and our communities. Then if we wanted to join the mainstream economy, we could join from a position of strength. Du Bois said this in various ways from about 1897 until the end of his life. Aside from doing the full study in 1907, he actually held a conference at Atlanta University that same year. He was holding annual conferences about African Americans during that period at Atlanta University, and in 1907 the conference topic was “Negro Businesses and Cooperatives.” Du Bois was among the speakers at that conference and he had other people talk about cooperative activity among Negroes. He said in one of my favorite speeches that “we unwittingly stand at the crossroads—should we go the way of capitalism and try to become individually rich as capitalists, or should we go the way of cooperatives and economic cooperation where we and our whole community could be rich together?” He was afraid that we were choosing the wrong path – individualism. AJOWA: Wow. Did you get a sense of what people’s reactions were at that time to what he was saying? JESSICA: He got the people who were at the conference to sign a resolution saying just that, but I never found out how many people actually attended that conference. It doesn’t seem to have been very well-publicized or remembered. In those days everyone was still making a big deal about what he said in 1903 which was “the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line.” So that was what everybody talked about. But four years after that he was saying the problem is that Black people are at a crossroad and we have to make a choice. If we make the wrong choice, it will mean that a few of us will get some wealth for ourselves, but would leave the whole rest of the group behind. And that’s exactly what happened. AJOWA: Yes, that’s interesting. It is also interesting that after he made that announcement that the “color line” was the problem, he came up with a solution. JESSICA: Right. And nobody talked about the solution. They all focused on the other pronouncement about the problem. And to this day that’s mostly all we teach about Du Bois — that he said that the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line — and that he focused on the race problem. But people do not talk about what he said about the economy and capitalism – or that the solution is cooperative economics! The whole [1907][1907] gave examples of what Du Bois called “economic cooperation.” It wasn’t just official, formal cooperatives, but any kind of economic cooperation. It is actually from his Economic Cooperation among Negro Americans book (1907) that I started learning about “mutual aid societies,” which I also discuss heavily in the early part of my book. I explain that those are precursors to cooperatives. They have a very similar structure and the same purpose. Mutual aid societies were also the precursors to mutual insurance companies which were really the first cooperatives. We have a long history of mutual aid societies, particularly coming out of fraternal and religious groups and benevolent societies. Those were the early co-ops. As soon as co-ops were officially recognized in Europe, after 1844, the U.S. started to embrace co-ops, and African Americans did too. We started using formal co-ops with some of the early integrated labor unions in the 1880s, and we created our own Colored Farmers Alliance and Cooperative Union in 1886, which also promoted cooperatives and credit unions |
greeting cards for Hallmark Cards.[11] After retiring from film work in 1968, Wong turned his skills to making colorful kites (usually animals such as pandas, goldfish, or centipedes). He spent his Saturdays flying his creations on the beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier.[11][12][13]
Some of his well-known paintings include Self Portrait (late 1920s), Fire (1939), Reclining Nude (1940s), East (1984) and West (1984). He told an interviewer that he was a "lucky artist".[14] Wong was featured in Mark Wexler's 2009 documentary How to Live Forever, where he discussed his daily lifestyle and his view on mortality, and in Pamela Tom's 2015 documentary Tyrus.[15]
Awards [ edit ]
In 2001, Wong was given a History makers Award (arts) by the Chinese American Museum and was inducted as a Disney Legend.[1]
In 2005, Wong received the Winsor McCay Award at the 33rd Annual Annie Awards. [16]
In 2015, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Diego Asian Film Festival.[17]
Exhibitions [ edit ]
The first solo exhibition of Wong's artwork, "Mid-Century Mandarin: The Clay Canvasses of Tyrus Wong," curated by Bill Stern, was organized by the Museum of California Design. It focused on his paintings on dinnerware for Winfield China of Pasadena, California, in the 1940s and 50s, and was presented at Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles, July 14 through October 31, 2004.[18]
The Tyrus Wong: A Retrospective exhibit at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, California showcased his work in October–December 2004. According to the museum:
This exhibit showcased the works of Tyrus Wong, who at the age of 93, is one of the earliest and most influential Chinese American artists in the United States. In his long, pioneering career as a local artist, Wong is a seasoned painter, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer, designer, and kite maker. The exhibit also featured Wong's imaginative kites, which he has been building and flying for the past 30 years. Drawn from public and private collections, several of the pieces chosen for this exhibition have not been shown publicly since the 1930s.[19]
In 2007, Wong was one of three illustrators featured in The Art of the Motion Picture Illustrator: William B. Major, Harold Michelson and Tyrus Wong, an exhibit in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills.[20]
Tyrus Wong is one of the founders of the otherwise all Black artists collective Eleven Associated Artists (later Art West Association). The short lived Los Angeles artists co-op included Wong and African American contemporaries Beulah Woodard, Alice Taylor Gafford and William Pajaud.[21][22]
Wong's work was featured in "Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980" an exhibition at the Hammer Museum, October 2011 – January 2012. The exhibition explored the work of African American art pioneers and the multicultural friendships and collaborations that helped define Los Angeles art and creative communities of the period.[23]
His work was also included in the Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles exhibit at the East Los Angeles College Vincent Price Art Museum, January–May 2012.[24]
From August 2013 through February 2014, Wong's work was exhibited at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California in a career retrospective entitled: Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art Of Tyrus Wong.[25] A hardcover book was published by the Walt Disney Family Foundation Press in conjunction with the exhibit.[26]
In 2015, Wong was featured in an eight-decade career retrospective, Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong, at the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan, New York City.[12][27]
Personal life [ edit ]
Wong met Ruth Ng Kim (伍梅珍), a second-generation Chinese American from a farming family in Bakersfield, California,[28] at Dragon's Den Restaurant in Los Angeles Chinatown, CA, where she was a waitress. They married on June 27, 1937, in Bakersfield, CA.
She worked as the secretary to Y.C. Hong, the first Chinese American immigration lawyer, and then became a homemaker after the birth of their children. The couple had three daughters: Kay (born 1938), Tai-Ling (born 1943), and Kim (born 1949) and two grandsons, Kevin Fong and Jason Fong.[29][30] Wong's wife, Ruth Kim Wong, died on January 12, 1995. She was 85. Wong died on December 30, 2016, at the age of 106.[1][9][31] He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
Legacy [ edit ]
In 2015, filmmaker Pamela Tom wrote and directed a film about Tyrus Wong's life, entitled Tyrus. The film was produced by Gwen Wynne, Tamara Khalaf and Pamela Tom. The film ended up winning Audience Awards at the 2016 Boston Asian American Film Festival as well as the 2015 Hawaii International Film Festival and the 2015 San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film had its national broadcast on PBS's American Masters on September 8, 2017.
On Feb 1, 2017, Wong was honored by Congressman Adam Schiff with a remembrance on the floor of the 115th United States Congress with Schiff's remarks read into the Congressional Record. [32]
On his would-be 108th birthday on October 25, 2018, Tyrus Wong's life and legacy were honored by an animated Google Doodle.[33]
Major works [ edit ]
Paintings [ edit ]
Deer on Cliff, 1960s [34]
The Cove, 1960s[35]
Ceramics [ edit ]
Winfield Pottery – Tyrus Wong Iris plate.
Winfield Pottery – Tyrus Wong California Pink HP flower.
Filmography [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]U.S. military spokesmen defend the use of defoliants in Vietnam at a news conference in Saigon, claiming that the use of the agents in selected areas of South Vietnam had neither appreciably altered the country’s ecology, nor produced any harmful effects on human or animal life.
However, a paper released at the same news conference by Dr. Fred T. Shirley, a U.S. Agriculture Department expert, suggested that U.S. officials in Saigon were underestimating the extent of ecological damage caused in Vietnam by defoliating agents and that they had caused “undeniable ecological damage” and that “recovery may take a long time.” Defoliation had been used in Vietnam since 1961 to reduce the dense jungle foliage so communist forces could not use it for cover, as well as to deny the enemy use of crops needed for subsistence. During a nine-year period ending in 1971, over 19 million gallons of three major herbicides (Agents Orange, White, and Blue) would be used in Vietnam. As part of Operation Ranch Hand, conducted from 1962 to 1970, specially equipped C-123 aircraft sprayed these herbicides in a 300-foot swath about eight and half miles long. It was also applied by helicopter, truck, and hand sprayers. The heaviest use of the defoliants was in the III Corps Tactical Zone north of Saigon and along the Cambodian and Laotian borders. The use of these agents was controversial, both during and after the war, because of the questions about long-term ecological impacts and the effect on humans who were either sprayed or handled the chemicals. Beginning in the late 1970s, Vietnam veterans began to cite the herbicides, especially Agent Orange, as the cause of health problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer and birth defects in their children. Similar problems, including an abnormally high incidence of miscarriages and congenital malformations, have been reported among the Vietnamese people who lived in the areas where the defoliate agents were used.
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ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website“In many ways, class differences have remained very stable over the last 20 years,” said Mike Savage, director of the Center for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the University of Manchester.
Mr. Cameron has done a good makeover job in some ways, starting with himself. Answering to “Dave” and wearing jeans and open-necked shirts, Mr. Cameron comes across as modern, sympathetic and approachable.
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He supports gay and minority rights, changes (or claims he does) the diapers of his young children and rides a bicycle around town (although his limousine was once spotted being driven behind his bicycle, carting his briefcase).
At the same time, Mr. Cameron cannot overcome the fact that his own background of easy privilege fits the classic Tory stereotype, Mr. Savage said. Among the most obvious issues, Mr. Savage pointed out, are that “he speaks with a posh accent and comes from the most elite school in the country.”
That would be Eton, the traditional finishing school for the aristocracy, and the alma mater of most members of Mr. Cameron’s inner circle. Mr. Cameron also went to Oxford, where he ran in rarefied company, enjoying shooting parties at the estates of his rich friends and joining the upper-crust Bullingdon Club, whose members like to put on white tie, get spectacularly drunk and destroy things like the insides of rural pubs.
Mr. Cameron also married well: Samantha, his wife, is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, Eighth Baronet and a descendant — reportedly in three different ways — of King Charles II; her stepfather is the Fourth Viscount Astor.
With all this as material, Labour cannot resist. Prime Minister Gordon Brown played to easy laughs in Parliament last year when he derided a Tory proposal to reduce estate taxes as having been “dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton.”
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The satirical magazine Private Eye’s regular cartoon about the Tories is titled “Dave Snooty and His Pals.” The anti-Cameron insult of choice for protesters at a recent Tory conference was “Eton boy.”
Mr. Cameron understands that this can be a problem.
“Look, if the next election is about, you know, ‘Let’s not have a posh prime minister,’ I mean, I’m not going to win it,” he said in a recent television interview.
In the eyes of many Britons, the Tories’ traditional social elitism is tied to another form of elitism — what they perceive as the callous policies of the haves toward the have-nots in the Thatcher era. That was when the Conservative government cut social spending and pursued an anti- Europe, anti- immigration, anti-union agenda.
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Mr. Cameron’s efforts to move past that, too, have been thrown off track by the financial crisis. Reacting to Britain ’s deficit last fall by preaching fiscal austerity, the Tories found themselves once more in the position of grim spoilsports eager to cut government programs.
Realizing how poorly that message was received, they have since softened their position about the speed and depth of the cuts; their indecision contributed to a recent fall in the polls.
Mr. Cameron faces opposition from within, too. Many members of the Conservative Party — “the nationalistic, right-wing Tories who like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’ ” as Anthony Seldon, a political commentator who is master of Wellington College, put it — admire its traditional image and its traditional policies, thank you very much.
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With the nationalistic United Kingdom Independence Party, not to mention the extremist British National Party nibbling from the right on issues like immigration, minority rights and Europe, Mr. Cameron is walking a fine line between embracing the new and alienating the old, including the old who are proud of their upper-class heritage.
Many old-time Tories are leaving Parliament this year, including the unrepentantly first-class-loving Sir Nicholas. But there are more waiting in the wings. Last year, worried about how an impeccably pedigreed Tory candidate named Annunziata Rees-Mogg would go over with hoi polloi, Mr. Cameron suggested that she might want to campaign under the name “Nancy Mogg.”
She refused, although, to be fair, another candidate, the spectacularly named Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, dutifully “de-toffed” himself by downgrading to “Richard Drax” on campaign posters.
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Meanwhile, Ms. Rees-Mogg’s brother, Jacob, a banker who is also running for Parliament and who appears to believe he belongs to the “Brideshead Revisited” era, having once taken his childhood nanny with him on the campaign trail, went on television to denounce Mr. Cameron’s plan to get more women and minorities elected as the triumph of “potted plants” over “intellectually able people.”
That presented more easy ammunition for Labour.
How can Mr. Cameron counterattack? Perhaps, said Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, he could use the country’s class confusion to his own advantage.
“If the Tories were a bit more agile,” he said, “they could kind of turn it back on Labour and say, ‘Well, hang on — it’s an equal society where everyone is the same, which means that people of all backgrounds are equal. So why do you care?’ ”The German leagues paused for the international matches. What’s the usual type of test matches teams are doing? Yes, against some lower league teams to try some players who didn’t get much time on the field so far, maybe an alternative system and to build up some confidence.
Not Fortuna Düsseldorf and VfL Bochum. They set up a friendly match for a good cause on saturday November 16th.
Despite all the rivalry between both teams, being direct opponents in the same league, and being only one position apart in the table, they decided to make this match happen for the Nordrhein-Westfalen region. After Opel and Nokia, which already released a lot of employes in Bochum and the surrounding area, the Finnish steel producer Outokumpu is now releasing 1000 employees in Düsseldorf and Bochum.
This caused the Bochum officials to go ahead and approach Fortuna to set up the charity match. Düsseldorf’s officials and coach Mike Büskens, who has been living in the area for twenty-one years now, were immediately delighted to participate. The early bird tickets sold really well. About 1000 Düsseldorf were expected. Even the employee organizations of Opel and Outokumpu bought 1500 tickets to support. The whole net income will be used for a good cause. In the end, a total of 3,548 people attended the match.
What was expected from the match from the sportive perspective?
Of course the match still had a test match character, so a lot of first-team players got minutes. On Bochum’s side it was especially good to see Felix Bastians and Heiko Butscher get some match practice after their injuries. Düsseldorf coach Mike Büskens said he wanted to give every available player minutes to play. For Düsseldorf there were four players on international duty: Aristide Bancé (Burkina Faso), Mathis Bolly (Ivory Coast), Giannis Gianniotas (Greece) and Cristian Ramírez (Ecuador) all missed out as they had the honor to play for their national teams. Piotr Ćwielong (Poland), Adnan Zahirović (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Fabian Holthaus (Germany U19) were the three Bochum players on international duty.
So lets wrap this up. Two good teams played in a nice atmosphere, with sunshine for a good cause. The final result, perhaps the most irrelevant point in the evening, was a 2-1 victory for Düsseldorf with two goals by Ben Halloran in each half sandwiching a first-half effort by Bochum’s Mirkan Aydın. Football heart what can you ask more for in the international match pause?Is it a genuine gesture or an attempt to buy the city’s good will?
The question was posed to Walmart spokesman Steve Restivo as the giant retailer pledged $4 million to the New York City’s summer youth employment program. Restivo said there are no strings attached to the pledge.
WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond In Brooklyn https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/diamond_walmart1w_pm_110705.mp3
Walmart is seeking approval to build its first New York City store in Brooklyn.
“[It’s] no secret that we’re looking for locations across the five boroughs — store sizes small, medium, and large. We don’t have any announced projects yet. We don’t have any leases signed in the city,” Restivo said.
Later, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer attempted to get Walmart representative Michelle Gilliard to answer the following question: would the retail giant’s generous pledge to create summer jobs for city kids soften resistance to its stores being built here in New York City?
That set Mayor Michael Bloomberg off and what followed was an at times terse back and forth with Kramer.
Mayor Bloomberg Quipped Back When Asked About Walmart’s Intentions. 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks Reports. https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/walmart-2-brooks-w41-soc-ebadia.mp3
“It won’t with me. This city’s open to everybody, period, end of story,” Bloomberg said.
Hizzonor was so agitated that he at first wouldn’t let Gilliard answer the question.
“I answered it for you. We’ve had enough,” Bloomberg said.
And away they went:
Kramer: “Mr. Mayor, I don’t understand why you’re not allowing Michelle …”
Bloomberg: “I’d be happy to allow Michelle … she says no.”
Kramer: “This is a press conference. We would like an opportunity …”
Bloomberg: “If Michelle wants to speak she’s welcome to speak.”
Kramer: “But you’re basically answering the questions.”
The mayor eventually let her take the floor, but Kramer couldn’t get an answer to the question.
Kramer: “Do you think that this donation of $4 million will help you or help your company on its attempt to build a store here?”
Bloomberg: “Let me answer that. I hope so. Why would anybody not hope so? You’re telling me that your company’s philanthropy doesn’t look to see what is good for your company?”
Walmart’s $4 million pledge should allow the summer jobs program to expand by up to 3,400 jobs.
“We’ve given close to $13 million in the last four years alone. So, today’s announcement really was a continuation of what our foundation has done over the past several years,” Restivo said earlier.
Walmart has been tight lipped about where it wants to build. One potential site is on Gateway Drive in Brooklyn. The location is just a few miles from the Pitkin Avenue Business District where local store owners are worried about their survival and furious at Mayor Bloomberg.
Mark Tanis, the general manager of Shopper’s World on Pitkin Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, told Kramer it’s clear to him why Walmart made the donation.
“I feel that Walmart is trying to buy its way into the community,” Tanis said. “I don’t know why the mayor would want to infringe on the small businesses. We are everyday small businesses, mom and pop trying to make it.”
Walmart said the city donation is part of a $25 million program to help kids have a better summer.
Do you think Walmart is trying to buy its way into NYC? Or do you think its intentions are genuine? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below.Synopsis: Quantum Circulators Simplified
A device that routes microwave signals could help researchers scale up quantum-computing architectures.
B. J. Chapman et al., Phys. Rev. X (2017)
The superconducting qubit is a leading candidate for building a quantum computer. So far, however, quantum circuits with only a small number of such qubits have been demonstrated. As researchers scale up the qubit number, they need devices that can route the microwave signals with which these qubits communicate. Benjamin J. Chapman at JILA, the University of Colorado, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, all in Boulder, Colorado, and co-workers have designed, built, and tested a compact on-chip microwave circulator that could be integrated into large qubit architectures.
Circulators are multiple-port devices that transmit signals directionally—a signal entering from port i will exit from port i + 1. This property can be used to shield qubits from stray microwave fields, which could perturb the qubits’ coherence. The device’s directional, or nonreciprocal, behavior requires a symmetry-breaking mechanism. Commercial circulators exploit the nonreciprocal polarization rotation of microwave signals in a permanent magnet’s field, but they are too bulky for large-scale quantum computing applications. Newly demonstrated circulators, based on the nonreciprocity of the quantum Hall effect, can be integrated on chips (see Synopsis: Quantum Circulator on a Chip) but require tesla-scale magnetic fields to operate or initialize them.
The team’s chip-based scheme can instead be operated with very small magnetic fields (10–100 μT). Inside the device, simple circuits shift the signals in frequency and time, in a sequence that is different for each input port. These noncommutative temporal and spectral shifts provide the symmetry-breaking mechanism that gives the device its directionality. Experimental tests prove that the circulator works at high speed and with minimal losses, while an analysis of the device’s noise performance indicates that up to 1000 of these circulators could in principle be integrated in a single-superconducting-qubit setup.
This research is published in Physical Review X.
–Matteo Rini
Matteo Rini is the Deputy Editor of Physics.Rep. Tom MacArthur will host a town hall meeting on Monday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in Waretown, a reversal from his past statements that he would not have a public meeting.
The meeting was announced Friday. It will be held at the Waretown Volunteer Fire Company, 117 Wells Mills Road, Waretown. Residents are asked to RSVP (click here) so they can try to accommodate demand for seating.
"Due to safety requirements, law enforcement officers will be in attendance and all personal items are subject to search," a statement on MacArthur's congressional webpage said. "No bags or signs will be permitted into the building and seating will be provided on a first come, first serve basis. RSVP does not guarantee you entrance to the building."
MacArthur, like many Republicans in both the House and Senate, has been under pressure to hold a public town meeting. Many of those meetings have been filled with angry constituents, prompting claims of paid protesters taking over events.
MacArthur has held two telephone conference calls, calling them tele-town halls. He also has had some impromptu meetings, including stepping in to a meeting of the Evesham Democrats. But those have not satisfied many, including a group who protested outside the offices of WOBM during MacArthur's monthly "Ask the Congressman" radio appearance. MacArthur met with a group of the protesters after the radio show, a meeting he called productive.
"I'm grateful for those who took the time to make me a better representative and I always welcome the opportunity to have productive conversations with my constituents," MacArthur said.
Photo via Rep. Tom MacArthur's officeGet the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Brendan Rodgers has implemented a “Spanish philosophy” at Liverpool FC, according to Suso.
The young midfielder explained how he enjoys training under Rodgers at Melwood, and likened his manager to the coaches he works with at international level.
“I look at him and I see him as similar to a Spanish coach,” Suso said. “All the work we do in training is with the ball.
“Every time he asks us to do something it’s with the ball. He wants us to play with the ball, never play a long ball and for me that’s really good because that’s my philosophy. When I go away with Spain it’s more or less the same.
“He has done really well since he came here. When he first came he had to change some things and improve the team, which takes a long time, but now we can see all the things he was working with in the past is working now.
“It’s a Spanish philosophy to play; you always want the ball, don’t lose it and give it to the opposition. It’s really good for me and the team.”
Suso, 20, is yet to feature in Liverpool’s first team this season, having returned to the club following a loan spell at La Liga side Almeria last term. He has made a total of 20 senior appearances for the Reds.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined at left by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, holds a news conference on Russian meddling in the U.S. election and other issues, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 29, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday fixed a popular measure that would slap economic sanctions on Russia and Iran, yet a long-awaited House vote won’t come until after Donald Trump meets for the first time as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the necessary repairs have been made to the legislation, a step the Senate approved by voice vote, and the next move is the House’s to make.
“We’ve done what we need to do,” Corker said. “The ball’s in their court.”
The technical changes that had stalled the bill in the House came as Republicans dismissed Democratic complaints that the delay was at the behest of the Trump administration and intended to weaken the legislation. Tempers flared among lawmakers over the lull, with each side blaming the other as lawmakers were poised to leave Washington for their weeklong July 4th recess.
The legislation cleared the Senate two weeks ago with 98 votes, an overwhelming margin that suggested the bill would speed quickly through the House and to Trump’s desk. But the measure hit headwinds almost immediately. House Republican leaders said the bill ran afoul of a constitutional requirement that legislation involving revenue start in the House.
Envoys from both chambers huddled behind closed doors to resolve the dispute as the recess loomed. The problems were technical not substantive, lawmakers insisted, yet Democrats accused Republicans of slow-walking the bill.
Speaking to reporters early Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., insisted the House was “protecting the Constitution,” not working behind the scenes on behalf of the White House.
“They wrote the bill incorrectly so we have told the Senate you’ve got to write it correctly to follow the Constitution,” Ryan said.
The sanctions targeting Russia seek to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 election and for its aggressive actions in Ukraine and Syria.
“I want to put the House on notice,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “If they water down the bill, weaken the sanctions, add loopholes to the legislation, they will find stiff resistance here in the Senate.”
Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called for House Republican leaders to pass the bill immediately, before Trump and Putin meet at an international summit in Germany next week.
But Corker denounced the stance the Democrats had taken as “silly” and “ridiculous.” He said they were attempting to dictate how the House should act before the Senate made the required technical repairs to the sanctions bill.
The changes to the legislation “should have been agreed to in about an hour,” Corker said, adding that he hoped the delay “doesn’t create mischief.” Congress doesn’t return from the recess until the week of July 10. He declined to be specific, suggesting that there are “certainly pro-Russia folks” and businesses that are opposed to stiffer sanctions and may use the intervening period to push for changes.
“I’m talking to Europeans on the phone,” Corker said.
The energy-specific sanctions against Russia generated sharp criticism from Germany and Austria, which said the penalties could affect European businesses involved in piping in Russian natural gas.
In a joint statement, Austria’s Chancellor Christian Kern and Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel cited a section of the sanctions bill that calls for the United States to continue to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would pump Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.
In addition to hitting Russia and Iran with additional financial penalties, the bill would strengthen Congress’ authority over Russia sanctions policy. The bill would require a 30-day congressional review period if Trump attempts to ease or end penalties against Moscow.
The Senate bill imposes mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country’s Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.
Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed Schumer’s concerns about substantive changes to the bill.
“I always say what is it that the Russians have on Donald Trump,” Pelosi said, “that we have to pussy-foot around when it comes to sanctions on Russia.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, said there should be no excuse for a delay of the sanctions legislation in the House.
“When the leadership has wanted it to happen, I’ve seen legislation move through these chambers so fast it would give you whiplash,” he said.
___
AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report.
___
Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardnerTHE TIMES HAS named Nigel Farage its ‘Briton of the Year’.
It follows a stunning performance from his UKIP party in 2014 — both at home, and in Europe.
Source: Empics Entertainment/EMPICS Entertainment
24 party MEPs were elected to Brussels back in May — more than any other political grouping in Britain.
That was followed in October by its long anticipated Westminster breakthrough, as Douglas Carswell was elected in a by-election, having left the Conservatives.
Another domestic success followed last month, as Mark Reckless — another defector from David Cameron’s backbenches — claimed a seat in Rochester and Strood.
A recent YouGov poll put support for Farage’s party at 28 per cent — ten behind the Tories, and edging out Ed Miliband’s Labour.
As you might imagine, the man himself is pretty happy with the newspaper’s honour (which, it should be noted, isn’t exactly an accolade, more of an assessment of his influence on the political scene).
Despite all, The Times has named me Briton of the year. Attacks aside, I am grateful. Thank you. http://t.co/6gqGvjoPVL — Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) December 26, 2014 Source: Nigel Farage /Twitter
Reaction
The decision has been met with plenty of criticism online — with some readers even cancelling their Times subscriptions as a result.
The Times has named Nigel Farage as 'Briton of the Year'. So I wrote to cancel my subscription. Pls do the same. pic.twitter.com/PSvaCK4tkg — James Rhodes (@JRhodesPianist) December 27, 2014 Source: James Rhodes /Twitter
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Ireland can be an embarrassment at times but I don't think any newspaper here would give Nigel Farage a person of the year award #muppets — Katie Dawson (@katiedawson23) December 27, 2014 Source: Katie Dawson /Twitter
The editor of The Spectator said he disagreed with the Times’ editorial position…
IMHO, Alex Salmond was far more consequential in 2014 than Nigel Farage. Last ICM poll puts SNP on course to win far more seats than UKIP. — Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) December 27, 2014 Source: Fraser Nelson /Twitter
And even political heavyweights have been weighing in on the issue…About different types and brands of Men's Suits & Blazers
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I’ve had enough of watching people degrade themselves for the sake of ratings or another season.
Sure, it’s entertainment and we tune in and watch. I get it if they want to make fools of themselves. That’s their choice and our entertainment.
The very sad truth of this reality TV era is that lives are being ruined because of these cameras.
As a former athlete it pains me more to see it play out in the sports world. I once was a fan of “Hard Knocks,” but I admit I always had a hard time seeing how the coaches spoke about players behind closed doors. Well I confirm now that I don’t like it at all, and neither should those coaches and players involved.
Some things should remain behind closed doors. The respect factor is compromised when some of the things being captured on film are replayed on television for all to see.
As for the Chad Johnson fiasco, if you ask me, this recent setback was a product of reality TV. He did a masterful job of building his persona beyond football. The only problem is it now has come back to bite him. The same for Terrell Owens or even Hulk Hogan. Reality shows are destroying people’s lives, and TV viewers are okay with it. When the cameras stop rolling, the personal messes created continue to play out in the news. Divorces, public feuds — some have even committed suicide. And still, oddly enough, people still want to be on these shows.
Sure, you dated, married or had a child with a professional ball player. You’re wealthy and want the world to see how you live. Here’s what I don’t understand: What makes these people feel as if that gives them the right to go on television and act like juvenile delinquents? Didn’t someone in their lives teach them better? Do these people not have enough self-worth not to behave the way they do on camera?
It’s sad to see so many people get the chance to be stars on TV, fail horribly at the attempt, and destroy their lives and the lives of those around them. What’s even crazier is I’m not so sure they even realize how bad they look. Too many people around them are saying what they want to hear. “It’s not you it’s everyone else.” Really? Correction: It is you, and you need to wake up. All of you are embarrassing yourselves for a couple of dollars and four minutes of fame. You need to stop.
It’s not right, and it’s a shame that this is what television entertainment has come to. If conducting yourself in a respectable manner or being a positive example doesn’t work for these show producers, then please, people, stop being cast on these shows. You represent more than just yourself.
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(Pls. 57-59), as well as lands granted to the states for educational and other purposes, 1785-1919 (Pl. 50A), military reserves (Pl. 45B), and federal land grants for the construction of railroads and wagon roads (Pl. 56D). In this group, also, belong certain detailed maps illustrating surveys, divisions, and grants of government land in different parts of the country at different times (Pls. 50B, 41B, 48A, 48C, 50E, 55D, 55C, and 56E, noted in chronological order).
5. The details of typical grants, surveys, divisions, and holdings of land, not otherwise covered under paragraphs 1-4, above. These miscellaneous reproductions may be grouped according to whether the originals date from (1) colonial period (Pls. 41D, 43B, 44B, 53C, 40, 51A, 44C, 44D, 50D, and 51B) and (2) the national period (Pls. 50C, 53A, 45A, 53B, 48B, 44A, 53D, 41E, 52A, 52B, 56C, 55A, 55B, 54, 56A, and 56B). For each period the maps are listed in chronological order.
Population and Settlement.
After the section entitled "Lands, 1603-1930," comes a series of plates devoted to the history of population. Three movements are here shown: (1) the progress of settlement as a whole, 1660-1930; (2) the rise of towns and cities, 1650-1930; and (3) the changing composition of the population, 1790-1930. Settlement as a whole is treated differently for the period 1660-1775 than for the subsequent period. The five maps on Plate 60 show settled areas in 1660, 1700, 1760, 1775, and 1790, but owing to the lack of detailed statistics it was not feasible to map the density of population for any but the last of these dates. The five maps, however, indicate by globe symbols the approximate total population of each colony. For the period 1790-1930 the United States government has taken a census of population every ten years, and it was possible to include a map for each census year showing the density of population by counties (Pls. 76B-79D). The lines on these maps between areas having more and those having less than two persons per square mile mark-very roughly to be sure-the successive positions of the "frontier" in its march across the continent. The steady, almost due-westward course of the center of population from the vicinity of Baltimore in 1790 to southwestern Indiana in 1930 is shown on Plate 80A.
On Plates 61-67A space was economized by marking on the same maps both colonial and state boundaries and the locations of towns and cities. These maps cover the years 1650, 1700, 1750, 1775, 1790, and every tenth year after the last-named date. The towns and cities on the maps for 1790-1930 are represented by dots of two sizes, smaller dots for places of 5000-100,000 inhabitants and larger ones for places of over 100,000. Perhaps a somewhat more graphic effect might have been achieved had it been practicable to separate the two elements-political units and cities-and to employ a greater range and variety of symbols to distinguish the towns and cities according to size. These maps will repay careful comparison with the maps showing relief, physical divisions, climatic factors, and mineral resources, all circumstances upon which the location and grouping of cities are closely dependent. As regards the composition of the population, maps are included for negroes and foreign-born. The percentages of slaves in the total population are shown for every census year from 1790 through 1860 (Pls. 67B-68B), and the percentages of colored persons in the total population for 1880, 1900, and 1930 (Pls. 69B-70B). The number of free negroes is mapped for 1810 and 1860 (Pls. 68C-69A). Plate 70E-O shows how many immigrants came to the United States from the different countries of Europe decade by decade from 1831 through 1929. Plates 71-76A reveal where the foreign-born have settled since 1860 and, more specifically, where Germans, Irish, and Swedes and Norwegians have settled since 1880. Based upon statistics by counties, the maps for densities, negroes, and foreign-born give a detailed picture of the distribution of these elements in the population.
Politics and Reforms.
The political maps (Pls. 102-122) are the results of a far more exact and detailed type of research than their clear and simple appearance would at first suggest. They set forth the shifting alignments of political sentiment in different sections and show where local interests have often diverged from the prevailing sectional interests. They express the geographical distribution of parties and political opinion in terms of the smallest feasible territorial units-counties in the case of the maps of Presidential elections (with some exceptions) and Congressional districts for the maps representing the votes in the House of Representatives. All Presidential elections are mapped, as well as the votes on no less than thirty-six important Congressional measures. Close study of these maps will undoubtedly disclose significant relationships between politics on the one hand and physical and human geography on the other. It will also serve to correct many false ideas and unfounded generalizations. The maps, for example, make it quite clear that the Solid South has not always been as "solid" in voting for presidents as was once thought to be the case. The consistent opposition of the Southern congressmen to high tariff measures as revealed by a quick survey of the Congressional series is striking indeed. Curiosity is aroused by the detail on these maps. One would like to know what accounts for certain distinctive patterns on successive maps of Presidential elections and why these patterns break up to give way to new patterns at later dates.
The political maps are followed by a series illustrating political and social reforms as brought about chiefly by state legislation: the abolition of slavery (Pls. 123-124A), the elimination of property qualifications for suffrage (Pls. 124B-126B), woman suffrage (Pls. 126C-128A), prohibition (Pls. 128B-131A), labor legislation (Pl. 132), and primary and secondary school education (Pl. 131B-E). On the maps for woman suffrage and prohibition it is impressive to see how these great movements have swept across the country-woman suffrage like a giant wave rolling from west to east; prohibition in two successive tides, the tide of local prohibition spreading eastward and westward from a central tier of states, followed by a dry tide flowing from the South and West.
Cultural Development.
There is available for the educational and religious institutions of the United States a large quantity of statistical material much of which lends itself to cartographic treatment. The series of dot maps showing the distribution of churches by denominations in 1775-1776, 1860, and 1890 (Pls. 82-88), and of colleges and universities in 1775, 1800, 1830, 1860, and 1890 (Pls. 80B-81) represent a selection from among a very wide range of topics that might have been mapped to illustrate the cultural life of the nation. Expenditures for schools by states indicate roughly (as shown on Plate 131B-D) nation-wide tendencies and sectional divergencies in primary and secondary teaching, but it should be remembered that the efficiency of schools is not measured by per capita expenditures, compulsory attendance, and minimum term laws (P1. 131E) alone.
Economic History.
The economic history of the United States is covered in part by the maps already mentioned in connection with the section "Lands, 1603-1930." The maps recording Congressional votes on the tariff, transportation, finance, and other economic measures also throw light on this broad subject. On Plates 133-155 maps will be found for industries, foreign trade, and wealth.
Under the general heading "Industries" about equal space is given to manufacturing (Pls. 133-137), transportation (Pls. 138-141), and agriculture (Pls. 142-147). The aim is to illustrate the general progress of each of these three groups of industries and incidentally to show something of the development of certain of the leading individual industries that compose each group.
For mapping the general progress of manufacturing (Pls. 133-134D) two criteria were chosen: (1) the growth of the principal manufacturing cities, 1839-1919, as measured by the number of wage earners; and (2) the increase in value added by manufacture, by states, in 1849, 1880, and 1927. The history of individual manufacturing industries is illustrated on Plates 135-137, where maps will be found for different dates showing iron and steel works, number of cotton spindles, and manufacture of motor vehicles. Improvements in the mechanism of transportation are reflected on the maps showing the length of time taken in 1800, 1830, 1857, and 1930 for passengers to reach different parts of the country from New York by the ordinary means of travel in use at each date (Pl. 138A-E). More detailed maps follow for canals and navigable rivers, the widening network of post routes, railroads, and air mail routes (Pls. 138F-141J). The rapid rise of motor travel and transportation during the last two decades may be inferred from two maps (Pls. 141 K and L) indicating for each state the number of persons per motor vehicle in 1913 and in 1930. The general progress of agriculture from 1850 to 1930 is to some degree summarized in a series (Pls. 144C-146M) revealing the total acreages and the changes in the acreages of improved land and of land in harvested crops, decade by decade. Maps will also be found showing the production of individual crops since 1839 (Pls. 142B-144B), farm tenancy since 1880 (Pl. 146N-Q), and farm values since 1850 (Pl. 147).
To the subject of foreign trade two series are devoted. One (Pls. 148-151C) shows the value of exports and imports as they have flowed through the ports of entry of the colonies and the United States. The mapping, however, is by states and colonies rather than by ports. Exports and imports from England are shown for 1701-1710 and 1765-1774, imports from England for 1791-1800, all exports for 1791-1800, and all exports and imports for the decades 1821-1830, 1851-1860, 1871-1880, and 1901-1910, and for the nine years 1921-1929. The second series (Pl. 151 D-G) comprises four maps of the world on which globe symbols depict the values of exports to and imports from the United States by continents and larger subdivisions of the continents, decade by decade from 1821 through 1920 and for the nine years 1921-1929.
As a basis for mapping the distribution of wealth the following sources of information were used: statistics by states, of wealth in terms of the value of houses and lands in 1799, of taxable property in 1850, and of all property in 1880, 1912, and 1922; statistics by states, of federal income taxes in 1866 and 1928, and of bank capital in 1801, 1830, 1850, 1880, 1910, and 1928; and a variety of documents relating to banks. From these sources maps were compiled showing total and per capita wealth (Pls. 152-153), income taxes (Pl. 155), and bank capital by states (Pl. 154B, D, F, H, K, and L), and also a series showing distribution of banks (Pl. 154A, C, E, G, and J).
Plans of Cities.
On Plates 156-159 are reproduced plans of the seven principal cities of the United States at the close of the colonial or beginning of the national period. They furnish a means of identifying places where events of historical importance occurred, and are of interest as illustrations of different systems of early town planning.
Military History.
Plates 160-165 cover the colonial wars and military history of the United States. Most maps illustrating wars and campaigns are confused and difficult to follow, especially when a tangle of lines on them is intended to show troop movements. Particular care was taken in arranging the maps of military history and in devising for them a scheme of conventional signs that so far as possible would tender them self-explanatory.
World Relationships.
The concluding plate (Pl. 166), as we have seen, like the first, takes us beyond the boundaries of our country. It shows the United States in some of its larger world relationships-its possessions, claims, and dependencies in various regions, as well as the locations of certain military engagements in which American forces have taken part, and grounds formerly visited by American whaling vessels.
Statistical Maps and Their Interpretation
History is a record of movement and change. Most maps represent static conditions-the earth's surface at a given moment. A large problem in any atlas of historical geography is how best to record movement and change by means of the somewhat unadaptable medium of the map. The ideal historical atlas might well be a collection of motionpicture maps, if these could be displayed on the pages of a book without the paraphernalia of projector, reel, and screen.
To illustrate movement and change cartographically three devices are used in this Atlas. The simplest is the sequence of maps revealing progressive stages in a process-as, for example, the series showing density of population or votes in Presidential elections. Another device is to show on a single map conditions that prevailed or events that occurred at different dates-for example, the maps of boundary disputes, foreign trade, and military history.
It is to the third device that we should like to draw particular attention at this point. This device is used on one series, the maps showing increase and decrease in acreage of improved lands (Pls. 145C-146M). Each map here summarizes a process of change during a decade. The student's attention is focused directly upon the fact of change and upon regional differences in its amount rather than upon a total quantity or a ratio of one to another total, as on most statistical maps. While maps showing processes of change cannot in any way take the place of those representing static conditions, they may be effectively used to supplement the latter, since they often bring out in sharp relief the vital movements with which the historian is likely to be most immediately concerned.
Many of the maps in the Atlas are based upon statistical tables. Everyone who has critically studied such tables knows that statistics are often tricky. They may be misleading when used for comparing conditions prevailing at different dates, because they are not always equally accurate and their compilers are tempted to change the definitions of categories without adequate explanation. Furthermore, in interpreting maps based on statistics given in terms of monetary values it should be remembered that the price level-or, in other words, the value of the dollar-has constantly fluctuated. On several series of maps the symbols showing values have been standardized with reference to the value of the dollar at a given date, but this could not be done consistently. Though faith may be placed in the main outlines of the statistical maps, hasty conclusions should not be drawn from a scrutiny of their minutiae. Too refined comparisons should be avoided between different small areas on the same map and especially between the same area as shown on different maps.
Although no distinction in the text is made between maps and cartograms, several of the so-called "maps" are not strictly maps in the geographer's sense of the term. A cartogram is a cartographic outline upon which are drawn statistical symbols that do not conform closely to the actual distribution of the phenomena represented. Discs, for instance, are used on some of the "maps" on Plate 154 to indicate bank capital in the several states. These "maps" are cartograms. Had data been available for showing bank capital in each county by a separate disc the picture would have been more realistic and would have resulted in a series of genuine maps.It is sometimes difficult to draw a hard-and-fast line between maps and cartograms. Much depends on the scale. For a map, the larger the scale, the smaller must be the area represented by each symbol. So far as this Atlas is concerned, all "maps" where statistical data are shown in terms of units as large as a state may perhaps be regarded as cartograms; and those "maps" where the data are plotted by towns, counties, Congressional districts, etc., may be regarded as maps.
Some Cartographic Desiderata
In the preliminary plans and suggestions made by several scholars (see Preface) many maps were proposed for inclusion that for one reason or another had to be omitted. Since cartographical simplicity was regarded as a desideratum no complicated map illustrating many kinds of information was included. Furthermore, room was found for maps that illustrate only the most basic and essential parts of American history, and not for all of these. In all divisions maps were excluded because of the limits of space. Owing to inadequate statistics many desirable maps for the colonial period could not be made. Other maps were not made because of the great labor required to assemble the necessary information.
A few examples, however, may be given of avenues of research that might well be followed further in directions already marked out in the Atlas. While every phase of American history offers alluring possibilities of cartographic interpretation, special attention is here directed to the subjects of exploration, population, education, and economic development.
The series for the history of exploration closes, as we have seen, with the year 1852, but the mid-nineteenth century by no means marked the end of exploration. The period of intensive work that followed and is still in progress has yielded results of hardly less scientific and economic value than the period of pioneer mapping. During the sixties, seventies, and eighties of the last century the federal government conducted important topographical and geological surveys in the Far West. These were supplemented by the private ventures of transcontinental railroads and by state geological and natural history surveys. Out of the work of the federal government in the Far West developed the nation-wide work of the United States Geological Survey. More recently the federal and state governments have pushed far the mapping of soils, minerals, and forests, and beginnings are being made in the field of land classification maps. Were it not for unrivaled natural resources the United States could hardly hold the position it now occupies among the nations. The progress of the systematic exploration of these resources deserves to be illustrated by maps showing the routes followed by some of the more notable exploring parties and the areas covered by surveys of different types at different times, as well as by specimens of the large-scale maps published on the basis of these surveys.
The Atlas, as has been seen, provides a substantial foundation for the history of the peopling of the United States. Welcome, however, would be maps showing the more recent currents of immigration from southern and eastern Europe and from Mexico, or a series depicting movements of different elements in the population from one part of the country to another-as, for example, the filtration of settlers from the eastern seaboard colonies and states into the lands beyond the Appalachians, or the recent migrations of negroes to the northern cities and of white people from the north-central and northeastern states to southern California and Florida. The social and economic characteristics that differentiate the newer sections of the country are due in part to geographical circumstances but also in large measure to marked differences between the older sections from which the settlers came. The Census, unfortunately, assists us little in tracing these internal migrations. In order to follow them satisfactorily, deep delving into local history is needed.
An important combination of forces during the last century has brought about the rapid growth of cities as contrasted with the slow growth of rural districts and actual decline of the latter in many sections. On the maps in the Atlas a county with one or two large towns surrounded by a desert waste is in general represented by the same symbol as a county in which an equal number of people is scattered evenly among farms and small villages. Had unlimited space been available, separate maps might conceivably have been included for rural and for urban population, or, possibly, for rural, urban, and farm population. The steady growth of a single manufacturing or commercial town may completely obscure, on the existing maps, the fact that the surrounding rural areas lost population. Different cities grow at different rates, and there are large cities that have become smaller during recent decades. Progress or recession region by region or locality by locality might be recorded on maps making clear these differential rates of growth and decline, much as differential increases and decreases in the acreage of improved farm lands are shown on Plates 144C-146M.
The history of education in the United States offers a particularly attractive field for further cartographic study. Maps in the Atlas present certain details regarding colleges, universities, and secondary schools. Statistical data, however, exist upon which maps could be based showing other equally significant factors, such as the age limits within which children are required to attend school or the number of pupils per teacher. The most important element of all, classroom standards, is hardly capable of measurement in statistical terms, but criteria could doubtless be discovered by which this factor might be estimated and mapped. Higher education should ultimately be illustrated in greater fulness, as, for example, percentages of college graduates in the total population above the age of twenty-one and of women among all college graduates. The cultural status of different parts of the country could be compared on maps showing the number of public libraries per capita, the prevalence of illiteracy, and the distribution of talent and of leadership in science, in the arts, in business, and in public affairs. More or less successful attempts have already been made to estimate and map some of these things, but there is a genuine need for further studies of the same sort.
In the almost boundless field of economic history there are many cartographic desiderata. For example, maps are needed illustrating in more detail than was possible in the Atlas the history of production in the agri-cultural and manufacturing industries, the volume and direction of domestic commerce, and the exchange of goods in trade between different parts of the United States and between the country as a whole and other parts of the world. Maps differentiating railroads and waterways according to the amount of freight and passenger traffic, showing the geographical structure of freight rates and freight differentials, and routes taken and ports visited by ships of the American merchant marine would also be of value. The agricultural series covers certain material bases of farming, crop production, and improved land, as well as property values. The whole subject of farmers' organizations, however, offers almost virgin soil to the map-minded historian. The national and state granges, the farm bureaus and farmers' institutes, and cooperative selling and buying organizations have often been powerful agencies in promoting the welfare of the farmer or in giving voice to his political aspirations. The industrial destiny of the nation is in the hands of labor no less than of capital. The distribution of capital and some of the interests of labor, as they have found protection in reform legislation, are illustrated in the Atlas (Pl. 132); but organized labor has had to be passed by, in the main because of lack of available statistics. Maps covering membership in the American Federation of Labor, the Knights of Labor, the Industrial Workers of the World, and similar units; maps for particular industries-such as coal mining-showing where labor has been organized and where not, and where there have been strikes and other conflicts-all might help to illumine much that is still obscure in the industrial history of the nation. But it is hardly profitable to add to these examples. Another atlas could scarcely do full justice to the economic history of the United States from a geographical standpoint if anything approaching a detailed presentation of the subject were to be attempted. The present atlas attempts to cover the essentials.
The Making of the Atlas
In the preparation of the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States two disciplines have been represented, history by the work of the Department of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and geography by the work of the American Geographical Society of New York.
The making of the Atlas was authorized by the Carnegie Institution in 1911, and work was begun in the following year when Dr. Paullin was employed for four months on a survey of possibilities and on other preliminary tasks. In 1913 he was placed in charge and from 1914 until 1927 gave all his time to the work, with the exception of a few intermissions caused by the World War and other exigencies. He was aided by numerous scholars of history and geography whose names and services are, for the most part, mentioned in the Preface.
In order that the Atlas might be further strengthened geographically and might benefit from the experience and technical skill of the American Geographical Society in editing and publishing maps, an arrangement was made in 1929 whereby the Society accepted the responsibility of bringing the enterprise to a close. Besides editing and seeing the publication through the hands of lithographer, printer, and binder, the Society has rearranged the material and has added, with the approval of the Carnegie Institution, a considerable number of new maps with corresponding text.
As first conceived the Atlas was to have been a bulkier and much more costly volume than the present one. A layout was planned for the entire Atlas on the assumption that the plates would measure rather more than half again as much in height and width as the present plates. Most of the maps were actually drawn on this basis. After very careful consideration it was decided that the size of the plates should be reduced and that space should be economized by printing maps on the backs of the plates. Accordingly, a new layout was prepared for all the maps. Under this new plan it has been possible to reproduce nearly all of the maps on approximately the scales first contemplated. Only a few large reproductions of old maps had to be substantially reduced, and these have suffered little, if at all, from reduction. In the sections on Cartography, Lands, and Boundary Disputes some rearrangement of the order of the maps was necessary. Otherwise the adoption of the new format has not altered the content of the Atlas in any way, though the economy of space effected has made publication possible at a price within the means of every scholar.
The American Geographical Society is also responsible for a few minor departures from the original plan in the sequence of topics and for the discarding of certain maps in order to leave space for new ones that for various reasons it seemed desirable to add. Some of the new maps were included to bring as nearly up to date as possible the several important chronological series already compiled by Dr. Paullin-for example, the series for population, agriculture, trade, Presidential elections, and votes in Congress. Others were introduced to round out somewhat more fully the treatment of particular topics. Many of the new maps were compiled on the basis of original investigations. Others are either reproductions or adaptations of existing manuscript and printed maps. A classified list of the items added by the Society follows.
1. Maps compiled by the American Geographical Society from statistics, other maps, or miscellaneous sources, and drafted at the Society:
a) To complete chronological series: Plate 36B, Indian Reservations, 1930; 59B, Distribution of Public Lands of United States, 1929; 67A, States and Cities, 1930; 70B, Colored Population, 1930; 72B, Foreign-Born Population, 1930; 73C, Foreign-Born Population, German, 1930; 74B, Foreign-Born Population, Irish, 1930; 76A, Foreign-Born Population, Swedish and Norwegian, 1930; 79D, Density of Population, 1930; 111D, Presidential Election, 1928; 122B, Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, June 13, 1930; 151B, Imports, 1920-1929; 151C, Exports, 1920-1929; 155C, Federal Income and Profits Taxes, 1928, Total Taxes per state.
b) Illustrating new topics not covered under the original plan: Plate 1, North America in Relation to the Atlantic Ocean and Europe; 60, Settlement and Population, 1660-1790; 101A, Michigan-Wisconsin Boundary; 101C, OklahomaTexas Boundary along the Red River; 131B-E, Schools; 134B-D, Value Added by Manufacture, 1849-1927; 134E, Wholesale Prices, 1791-1930; 137B-C, Manufacture of Motor Vehicles, 1909, 1927; 141K-L, Persons per Motor Vehicle, 1913, 1930; 146N-Q, Tenant Farmers, 1880-1930; 147A-D, Average Value of Farm Lands and Buildings per Acre of All Lands in Farms, 1850-1930; 147E-H, Average Value of Farm Implements and Machinery per Acre of All Land in Farms, 1850-1930; 151D-G, Imports from and Exports to the United States, 1821-1929; 152B, D, 153A, D, Wealth per Capita, 1799-1922; 154B, D, F, H, K, L, Banks, Capital, 1800-1928; 155B, D, Federal Income Taxes per Capita, 1866,1928; 166, The World, Showing Possessions and Territorial Claims of the United States, etc.
c) Illustrating topics covered under the original plan but compiled on the basis of different data or with different symbols: Plate 7A, Oil and Gas Fields; 70E-O, Sources of Emigration to the United States, 1831-1929; 138A-E, Rates of Travel, 1800-1930; 160-165, Military History.
2. Maps drafted but not compiled by the Society:
a) Based wholly or in large part on maps prepared or used by Dr. Paullin: Plate 2A, Relief; 33, Indian Tribes and Linguistic Stocks, 1650; 34, Indian Battles, 1521-1890; 38-39, Explorations in the West and Southwest; 138F, Navigable Rivers, 1930; 138G, Canals and Canalized Rivers, 1930; 148-151A, Imports and Exports, 1701-1910.
b) Based on other maps: Plate 2B, Physical Divisions; 4-5, Climate; 6A, Coal Fields; 132, Reforms; 141H, J, Air Mail Routes in Operation, 1920 and 1927, 1931.
3. Maps drafted under Dr. Paullin's direction to which the Society has added data: Plate 6B, Distribution and Production of Iron Ore; 7B, Gold, Silver, and Copper Districts; 36B, Indian Reservations, 1930; 37, Indian Missions, 1567-1861; 139A, B, Railroads, 1850, 1860, and Overland Mail, 1850-1869.
4. Maps added by the Society as reproduced from other sources: Plate 8, Behaim Globe, 1492; 30B, Humboldt Map, 1811; 31B, Pike's Map of the Mississippi River, 1810; 142A, Agricultural Regions; 142B-144B, Agricultural Production (selected topics); 144C-145C, Improved Land, Acreage, 1850-1910, Land in Harvested Crops, 1919, 1929; 145D-146M, Improved Land, Increase in Acreage, 1850-1920, Improved Land, Decrease in Acreage, 1850-1910, Land in Harvested Crops, Increase and Decrease in Acreage, 1909-1929; 159B, Baltimore, 1801.
It is hoped that the foregoing paragraphs make sufficiently clear the general concept of the Atlas, some further avenues of research that its plates suggest, and the circumstances under which it has been produced. Unless one is much mistaken the Atlas will be a dynamic force in historical and geographical studies in this country for many years to come.
JOHN K. WRIGHT.Netrunner is a game I have probably played more than any other of the last few years. An intense, cerebral and difficult game I find much joy in playing and have recently been trying to improve at. I’d consider myself to be an intermediate player and I’ve come to the conclusion that one of my weaknesses as a player is not experiencing enough of the builds that are out there.
To this end I am going to start playing the Netrunner Database (NRDB) deck of the week then write a little review of it. My intention is to play the deck a minimum of 5 times, record my win/loss and then write up what I think should be changed if anything. This will help in three ways I think: give me more experience playing Netrunner in general, expose me to many different deck archetypes and building ideas and give me more writing experience.
So first up is an Apex deck, a runner I have been playing around with little success.
Runner: Apex
Deck Name: Eviscerator
Win/Loss: 2/3
The concept of the deck is pretty strong, keeping the corp poor whilst you get setup to Apocalypse early and often. It can be the case that you can get in a really early Apocalypse with the DDOS and Account Siphon being great tools to get that hit. I have found this can be especially devastating at the right moment, preferably just after the corp has rezzed a few assets and is expecting money to flow back in.
I did find that Account Siphon could be a bit of a problem if used during an Apocalypse run, as you are then down to 3 cards from 5 after playing both and vulnerable to the scorch, one of my losses was down to this. Now that may just be my inexperience with the deck but I feel like siphoning the corp on an Apocalypse run is a strong play so I will be including Plascrete in my own build to alleviate this threat.
Endless Hunger is an immensely strong breaker, allowing you to penetrate most of the corps End the Run (ETR) ice. Saying that there is a lot of ice that technically isn’t ETR but effectively does and I can’t decide whether Crypsis is the answer to those things or not. I think with Apex you have to take the hit or maybe include a more powerful breaker like Eater or Faust, I’ve seen a couple of builds with the later. Hitting the corp early and often with apocalypse does help with the ICE problem as well, but that is not always an option.
Kraken was a surprise to me as it is a card I hadn’t really considered much before now. I found the corp would occasionally install an agenda behind a single piece of ice. I could then play ddos, fire it and run the agenda scoring it and removing a piece of ice from in front of another server. Neat trick. However I think 3 of is probably overkill and will look to reduce it, probably to 2, in my own version.
I initially wasn’t sure about the inclusion of some cards, a few of which seem to be padding out the deck a little. Infiltration, although more efficient than clicking for bits, seems weak when compared to maybe getting some recurring credits for your multiple events. I am intending to drop all of these for PrePaid Voice Pad. Not only can this card give you credits for events but can be sacrificed for your Endless Hunger or Heartbeat if need be.
I can totally see the logic behind Uninstall but I really think it’s not necessary. You don’t really have the clicks to plan bringing Endless Hunger back into your hand before you Apocalypse so I’m planning to replace it with Brain Cage in my own version. I figured more hand size to go with the quality times and give you more fodder for installing face down. You don’t really want to be discarding cards with Apex.
I think Apex suffers at the moment from not enough stuff he can use. Common cards like Same Old Thing are out of reach to him because of the arbitrary decision to make them a non-virtual resource. I think it might have been better to say he can’t use any Connections as there are some cards that aren’t virtual but would really give him a boost, but it is what it is. Forthcoming cards like The Turning Wheel will give both him and Adam a boost and who knows what the rest of the Mumbad cycle will bring.Chip Kelly
UCLA is wasting no time in pursuing former NFL and Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly, according to many sources.
There are rumors flying that David Dunn, Kelly's agent is set to meet with UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and Associate Athletic Director Josh Rebholz. but we have yet to confirm the rumors.
Kelly was the vastly successful coach at Oregon, leading the Ducks 46-7, four Pac-12 Championships and an appearance in the National Championship Game in five seasons.
He then went on to coach in the NFL, at Philadelphia and San Francisco, to limited success. This last season he has worked as a TV football commentator.
Kelly is considered one of the most cutting edge innovators in college football. He did have a show cause ruling with the NCAA after the Oregon program was hit with violations in 2013, but the show cause has since run out.
The 49ers still owe Kelly millions of dollars in its buyout, with some estimates in the $60 million dollar range. The 49ers would still be on the hook in paying Kelly, minus what any new employer would pay him.There is a great deal of excitement around today about an interview that Channel 4 News did yesterday with some quite smug chaps who have set up something called a ‘Cereal Café’ in Brick Lane and are charging customers £3.20 for a bowl of Lucky |
David William Meyers, he was one of 11 children. His father, Bob, was a standout basketball player and team captain at Marquette in the 1940s. The younger Meyers averaged 22.7 points as a senior at Sonora High in La Habra, California.
Meyers made a surprise announcement in 1980 that he was retiring from basketball to spend more time with his family. He later earned his teaching certificate and taught sixth grade for several years in Lake Elsinore, California.
He is survived by his wife, Linda, whom he married in 1975, and daughter Crystal and son Sean.Miami Heat Owner Hit With $155,000 In Legal Fees After Losing His Bogus Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
from the costly-buffoonery dept
Miami Heat part-owner Ranaan Katz will be parting with a bit of his fortune because he is a censorious blowhard who doesn't know when to quit.
Back in 2012, Katz got all sensitive about a blog that posted some court documents he didn't want published. To add imagined insult to imagined injury, the blog also posted a less-than-flattering photo of Katz. This one, to be exact:
Last year, the court rejected Katz’s copyright claim:
"a reasonable trier of fact could reach only one conclusion: that Defendant’s use of the photograph was fair, and did not constitute copyright infringement…"
(Note: Katz has appealed that ruling to the 11th Circuit).
After that conclusion, unsurprisingly the court granted the 17 USC 505 fee shift to the defendant and awarded the defendant $152,433.68 in attorneys’ fees plus another $2,403.50 in costs.
Plaintiff holds the copyright to an unflattering photograph of himself which Defendant published as part of highly critical blog articles she wrote about Plaintiff. Plaintiff purchased the photograph only after he realized Defendant’s use of it in her blog. Plaintiff’s purchase of the photograph was, from his perspective, to “stop this atrocity” of Defendant using the picture in her critical blog.
As explained by Magistrate Judge Chris M. McAliley in her Report and Recommendation recommending granting summary judgment in favor of Defendant:
Plaintiff is a businessman who testified that he considers the Photo “ugly” and “candid and embarrassing.” He does not claim to be a celebrity and does not claim Magriso’s (the original copyright holder’s) market as his own. Not surprisingly, Plaintiff has not tried to sell or license the Photo to anyone. Rather, Plaintiff testified that he obtained the Assignment of Copyright “[b]ecause I wanted to stop this atrocity.” (Plaintiff views the transfer of copyright as “a correction - correction of a mistake that happened.”). He has not used the Photo other than in this litigation, and has done so here to prevent its publication.
[...]
As Judge McAliley recognized in her Report and Recommendation, no reasonable fact finder could find for the Defendant. Plaintiff was privy to all the facts which led to summary judgment in Defendant’s favor from the outset of the litigation. He was fully aware when he filed the suit that he had no intent to profit from his copyright, nor was he a victim of any economic damages from Defendant’s use. The fact that the Court found three out of four factors weighed in favor of Defendant and the other was neutral clearly indicates that Plaintiff’s attempts to stymie Defendant’s speech are precisely what Section 107 is designed to protect against.
Instead of using the law for its intended purposes of fostering ideas and expression, Plaintiff obtained the photograph’s copyright solely for the purpose of suppressing Defendant’s free speech. Unsurprisingly, Plaintiff argues that protecting his rights under the Copyright Act was his sole motivation for filing this suit. [D.E. 187 at 13]. That assertion is rather dubious. Plaintiff has characterized this action as “just one battle” in a “malicious war.” [D.E. 187 at 1]. While Plaintiff might view it necessary to remove his unflattering picture to “stop this atrocity” [D.E. 148 at 23], he may not resort to abusive methods to do so.
Katz first tried to sue the blogger for defamation. That didn't go especially well for the public figure, so his lawyers argued (unsuccessfully) that the owner of an NBA team wasa public figure. This didn't work either.Katz tried a "fresh" approach -- one that has been used by others with similar censorious motivations. He went the copyright infringement route. He purchased the copyright to the unflattering picture and filed an infringement lawsuit against the blogger (and Google, which hosted the blog). He also threatened to sue the blogger's lawyers, because Ranaan Katz has yet to discover a hole he couldn't make bigger.And, for some ungodly reason, he nearly won. His barefaced effort to use copyright protection as a blunt "shut the fuck up" weapon was humored by a lower court, which issued a ridiculously broad injunction against the blogger. But upon later review, the district court decided the use of the photo was clearly fair use.Now, he's on the hook for $155,000 in legal fees -- something not always awarded to prevailing parties in copyright cases. But Katz's own actions pushed the culpability needle in his own direction, as Eric Goldman reports The court doesn't care much for Katz's actions:Even better, the court calls him out for using copyright as a weapon. Copyright as censorship. Only this time, someone's actually out a fair bit of cash for abusing the system. That, in and of itself, is an anomaly.
Filed Under: attorneys' fees, copyright, copyright as censorship, criticism, free speech, ranaan katz
Companies: miami heatBy David Wethe
(Bloomberg) — Oil and natural gas drillers in the U.S. and Canada will cut more than $35 billion from their exploration and production budgets this year, the deepest reduction of any region for the second consecutive year, according to Barclays Plc.
An estimated 27 percent cut in North American spending in 2016 to $96.6 billion comes after budgets shrunk 35 percent last year during the worst crude market downturn in decades, J. David Anderson, an analyst at Barclays Plc, wrote Wednesday in a note to investors. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, has fallen more than 70 percent since a high of $107.26 a barrel in June 2014.
“Capital discipline looks good on paper, but hard to execute, especially as oil prices fall,” Anderson wrote. “With oil prices still uncertain, the outlook for 2016 upstream spending is still a moving target, particularly for North America.”
Globally, explorers and producers are expected to cut spending 15 percent to $444 billion this year after cleaving budgets by more than $100 billion 2015. It’s the first “double dip” spending drop since 1986 and 1987, according to the note. The industry has also slashed more than 250,000 jobs around the world to cope with crude that dipped below $30 a barrel this week for the first time in more than a decade.Chris Paul’s hamstring is the biggest source of uncertainty in projecting the Clippers vs. Rockets series. In the first quarter of an epic Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs, the All-Everything guard seemed to injure his hamstring; but in doing his best Willis Reed imitation, he returned to play and hit the game-winning shot. Now, Paul is listed as questionable for Game 1. The FiveThirtyEight projections, using Real Plus-Minus numbers, gives the Clippers a 60 percent chance of getting past the Rockets, but it hinges on Paul’s health — the less he plays, the closer the series becomes.
The Rockets will be riding James Harden, the prototypical scoring guard of modern analytics gurus. Harden boasts the best offensive Real Plus-Minus rating (+8.7) in the league. It’s no secret how Harden, like the entire Rockets team, likes to score: by pushing the pace, drawing fouls, avoiding long 2-point shots and taking an astronomical amount of 3-pointers. The Rockets led the league by a mile in the percentage of shots coming from behind the arc. Houston also thrives on specialization: while Harden does the scoring, Dwight Howard and other teammates make up for his subpar defensive skills.
But while the Rockets’ offense is good, the Clippers’ is better. With Paul at full strength, the Clippers boast the second-most efficient offense in the NBA. Behind Paul’s passing — he led the league in assists per game, and the Clippers were second in assist percentage — the Los Angeles offense can seem unstoppable. Blake Griffin’s offensive versatility, and DeAndre Jordan’s blocks-and-boards game, will also help. But without Paul, the Clips would be severely handicapped.A rare event is said to happen once in a blue moon. But a blue moon has nothing on a blue lobster.
Canadian lobster boat captain Bobby Stoddard said he and his crew were hauling in their lobster traps one day in early May when one of the men called out, "Hey, we got a pretty one in this trap!"
"I turned around and said, 'Holy smoke!' " said Stoddard, 51, of Clarks Harbour, Nova Scotia.
In the trap with three other, ordinary greenish-brown lobsters was a remarkably bright blue one, the first lobster of that hue Stoddard had seen in his 33 years of fishing for a living.
"This is the only one that I've ever seen," he told CNN. "And my dad has been a lobsterman of about 55 years, and he caught one about 45 years ago, but hadn't seen one since."
Stoddard captains one lobster boat, his father another, and his three brothers work with them. On a good day, they haul in about 3,000 of the crustaceans, he said. Multiply that times 33 seasons, and that's a lot of lobsters. But only one blue one.
According to the University of Maine Lobster Institute, blue lobsters are a one-in-2-million phenomenon. A genetic variation causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein that gives it that azure aspect.
Stoddard offered his find (a male, by the way) to a nearby ocean research institute, but "they didn't seem too interested," he said.
His girlfriend pushed him to offer it for sale for on the classified-ad site Kajiji.com, he said. Having no idea what the market for a 1.5-pound blue lobster might be, he priced it at $200.
"I wanted to put a number high enough on it so nobody would be interested in it," Stoddard confessed.
However, he said he started to get some "weird" phone calls and e-mails scolding him for trying to sell such a rare creature, so he canceled the ad.
"I'm kind of a shy guy," he said. "When things get controversial, I kind of go hide. This is what I do for a living; I catch lobsters and sell them. I'm just trying to do the right thing. I thought, 'I just don't need this hassle.' "
For now, the cerulean crustacean is residing comfortably in a nice, cold holding tank at Stoddard's business, feeding on bits of fish and mollusks as normal. A massive aquarium is under construction near the CN Tower in Toronto, but Stoddard hasn't decided whether to offer his specimen for display there.
"I don't know what the best thing is to do," he said. "It probably belongs back in the ocean, but I'd like for as many people as possible to see it."
Related stories:
Blue lobsters aren't the only rare ones - what about calico lobsters?
And then of course, there are always really, really big lobsters as well.Humans are barbaric. It's embedded in our DNA. View a spat between two adult male chimpanzees and you easily see where our violent tendencies came from. But our brutality was important and vital to us a hundred-thousand years ago when we needed that extra aggression to help bring down large animals for food. It also helped connect the evolutionary bridge from survival of the fittest to hunter-gatherer, and onto our more domesticated ancestors, our docile farmer cousins. More recently, we saw the capabilities of the brutality of man in the Mayans and the Romans, who sacrificed disposable citizens by cutting out their hearts and allowing them to be eaten alive by animals.
Had guns been available ten or even five thousand years ago, it's quite probable that gun violence would have been the preferred method of killing for settling disputes among rival tribes, rather than yielding hatchets or throwing rocks. Winning a dispute was paramount. You weren't just trying to be the dominant male, but you were literally fighting to the death. A battle was something in which the loser was dead. It was kill or be killed. Humans desperately needed that level of violence. But as we evolved, we became tamer, less savagely, and resorted to other milder ways to settle our disputes.
But guns were and still are a convenient tool. Which is why we prefer guns to anything else. They offer certain advantages to killing someone that, say, our bare hands don't. As we became more sensitive to the intimacy of killing with our hands, guns became the convenient way of committing the act from afar -- without having to get our hands dirty.
Modern humans are not comfortable dealing with overly gruesome imagery. The auditory sounds of breaking a bone or the squish-like noise of an eyeball being pulled out of its socket is too much for most of us to handle. It's why you're more likely to watch a violent movie or gruesome video on mute rather than listening to the act without visualizing it. The sounds are so much worse.
Still, the majority of gun violence in America is committed by people who are generally non-violent in nature, that is to say, they aren't serial killers or sociopaths. They are crimes committed in the heat of passion, or maybe retribution for something gang-related. But every tangible item around us can be considered a dangerous weapon. A chair leg to the temple can render somebody unconscious and kill them. Razorblades are in every household. One cut to a few specific areas on the body would drain the body of blood in a matter of minutes, killing them. And while knives are frequently used as weapons in domestic violence cases, guns are used even more. Why, then, is the average person, not predisposed to violence, using the most violent weapon to kill? Because guns remove the intimacy of killing. The thought of having to approach your victim and kill them by using physical force unsettles enough of us that we decide on shooting a gun from thirty feet away-- away from the blood, away from having to personalize and internalize the act.
In 1967, psychologists Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage conducted a study to test the validity of Berkowitz's theory that frustration can lead to aggressive behavior in the presence of environmental triggers associated with aggression, such as guns.
As summarized below by Arron Quentin Umberger:
In their study, Berkowitz andLePage enlisted a group of 100 male college students who were assigned a problem-solving task.Upon completion of their task, the subjects were given a series of electrical shocks as their Social Psychology in the Gun Control Debate 5evaluation, an act meant to potentially anger the students. After they had received their shocks,the students filled out a questionnaire about their mood and then the students and confederates switched places. Students were then instructed to evaluate the confederates just as they had been evaluated. Students in the control condition were placed in a room with a table which held nothing but the shock device. In the situational cue condition, there was a shotgun and a revolver placed on the table with the shock device. Upon completion of the evaluations, it was noted that students who reported no anger on their questionnaire were not swayed by the weapons present in their environment; however, angry students administered more shocks to confederates while in the presence of these weapons (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967). These findings give reason to the argument that weapons are not only a means to cause violence themselves, but the mere presence of weapons can influence aggressive behavior in individuals.
Their conclusions support something called the "weapons effect," or the theory that the mere presence of a weapon or picture of a gun can lead to more aggressive behavior in humans, more so if the subject is already slightly aroused or agitated -- an argument, in other words.
A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on gun violence in homes, concluded that people who have ready access to a fireman (in the home) are twice as likely to be killed and three times as likely to commit suicide. Furthermore, a woman was three times more likely to be killed in a home that had a firearm in it. The study confirms previous data showing that three-quarters of women who are killed in a home, are killed by guns.
We are desensitized by gun violence in this nation. As we should be. We've lived with guns our entire lives. We've played Cowboys and Indians as children, watched our fathers watching John Wayne movies. We've sat and watched Saturday morning cartoons with Yosemite Sam shooting everything with reckless abandon. Shooting people is second nature to us.
But take the gun out of the equation. Now, what do you have? Are there 87 school shootings since Newtown? Suppose the shooter doesn't have access to the parent's firearm. Does he or she walk into school with a sword in his jacket? Or what about the gang member on the Southside of Chicago? Does he knock on his rival's door, risking his own life should he not be strong enough? Or does he drive-by with his Glock out the window from thirty feet away and in the safety of a car?The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan reveals that Russian-American Jews strongly support Trump.
“I don’t like big government,” Sundeyeva said. She made two circles with her thumbs and forefingers and pressed them against each other so they touched, like binoculars. This Venn diagram represents the interests of people and government, she said. “They don’t have very much in common.” Today, she’s not a registered Republican, but like many of the readers of her newspaper, she said she’s starting to lean toward supporting Donald Trump for president. The other self-styled outsider in the race, though, holds no appeal for her. The only Bern she and many other Russians here are feeling is the one in the banya.
Although American Jews are overwhelmingly liberal, spearheading socially progressive initiatives like gay marriage and reliably voting for the Democrats, this absolutely does not apply to Russian-American Jews.
Actually that entire Atlantic article pretty much confirms everything I wrote in my popular 2012 article The 5 Types of Russian American, in which I called this particular demographic group “Sovok Jews” – an ironic reference to their retention of conservative Soviet habits while flip-flopping 180 degrees from the Communist internationalism espoused by their grandparents under the early USSR to the libertarian and Israeli Firster outlooks they harbor today.
Furthermore, the USSR’s early philo-Semitism reversed from later Stalinism on, with rhetoric about “rootless cosmopolitanism” and “anti-Zionism” even as the US became highly pro-Israel. In a neat ideological reversal, Soviet Jews in America whose parents had sung Communism’s praises turned to libertarianism and neoconservatism, and in the 2000’s, most became hardcore anti-Putinists. … Yet while they harbor little love for Russia, Jewish Russian-Americans continue to speak Russian among themselves, play durak and eat borscht, and recite Radio Yerevan jokes. They remain stuck in the Soviet attitudes and tastes that they brought with them to American shores; arguably, far more so than ethnic Russians (who have co-evolved with post-Soviet Russia).
Back to The Atlantic article:
Menaker and Sundeyeva are part of a small circle—indeed, they know each other. Like with any immigrant group, the political views of Russians in the United States range widely. Ilya Strebulaev, a Russian-American and a finance professor at Stanford, said the left-leaning Russians he knows outnumber the right-leaning ones.
That is correct. Moreover, I would point out that as an academic, the type of Russians Ilya Strebulaev knows would be mostly fellow Egghead Emigres: The academics who fled Russia in the 1990s when scientific funding collapsed. Most of them are moderates, with little interest in and no talent for politics – I suspect Bernie Sanders would come first and Donald Trump second amongst them – which in practice puts them well to the left of Sovok Jews:
While they are now almost uniformly well-off, the Egghead Emigre lacks the Sovok Jew’s entrepreneurial drive, and as such there are very few truly rich among them. But on second thought this ain’t that surprising. Academia is a very safe environment (in terms of employment) and guarantees a reliable cash flow and career progression but it won’t make you a millionaire. The truly entrepreneurial Soviet academics have long since abandoned academia and made big bucks in the business world. … As you may have deduced, the Egghead Emigre shares many similarities with the Sovok Jew. Nonetheless, many of them still retain a few patriotic vestiges; and politically, they are considerably to the left, with social democratic, socialist, and even Communist leanings being common (whereas Sovok Jews are right-leaning, ironically, unlike purely American Jews who tend to be more leftist). Though not many are still much interested in Russian politics, those who are typically vote for Prokhorov/Yabloko or the Communist Party.
Back to The Atlantic article:
Still, some researchers have found that Russian Jews tend to be both less religious than their American counterparts and more conservative. According to preliminary data from a survey being conducted by Sam Kliger, director of Russian-Jewish Community Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, between 60 and 70 percent of Russian-speaking Jews will vote Republican in this election. About that same percentage of American Jews backed Barack Obama in 2012.
With the exception of the LARPier elements of the White Russians, all Russian-Americans are strongly secular.
This is one of the main reasons why most Sovok Jews have no great enthusiasm for Ted Cruz, even though he positively fawns over Israel.
Many of them are torn between Cruz and Trump. “Cruz, I like that he’s conservative,” said Shkolnikov. “But what is not appealing to me is that he sounds like he’s preaching all the time. Maybe it’s because I’m Jewish, but I don’t like when Christians are preaching too much.” About Trump, she says, “I don’t like his personality, but I like all his ideas.” … “He’s a successful businessman,” he said. “He’ll be able to work with people. Plus, a guy who’s not a politician won’t be able to promulgate big government for its own sake.”
But Trump makes up with his entrepreneurial charisma, and any shortage of enthusiasm he might exude as regards support for Israel, he mores than makes up with his surfeit of opposition towards Islam and general ‘Murica! can-do attitude relative to the other candidates.
I would note here that Sovok Jews are highly nationalistic. I wouldn’t even call most of them neocons. Of course neoconservatism for all intents and purposes is Jewish nationalism, but its adherents hide it behind nauseous rhetoric about American exceptionalism and the necessity of spreading democratic values to every last mudhole on the planet. First generation Sovok Jews – at least, those who don’t go into politics or journalism – don’t care for appearances and are much more honest about their outright hate for Palestinians, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, and anyone and everyone else that threatens Israel.
(For context: In Israel, this Sovok Jew demographic votes for the ultranationalist but not particularly religious Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman).
Of course Trump does have his risks.
It escalated until Wolfson rose up out of his seat, shouting. “Do you really want Trump to be your president? He’s going to sell you! He will sell you tomorrow to the Arabs!”
After all maybe the anime-obsessed Alt Righters waxing rhapsodically on Twitter about how Trump will drive out the (((merchants))) are correct after all? /s
Others at the party seemed more conflicted, particularly when it came to abortion, which was widespread and normalized in the Soviet Union. “We have become successful and comfortable within capitalism,” said Gina Budman. “On the other hand, I really am adamantly pro-choice. And I would love to see education that is less expensive. I am for gay rights.” They are lured, though, by the GOP’s more vociferous support for Israel, a country where many Russian Jews have friends and relatives. For some, this was a source of hesitation about Trump, the Republican front-runner, who said he’d be “sort of a neutral guy” on Israel.
Hard choices, hard choices…
FWIW, my own personal observations (n = ~10) bear all this out.
A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a Jewish Russian and his Putin’s Expat (Russian) Russian wife. Although they had some major political differences – essentially, she is a pro-Putin Russian nationalist, while he is an anti-Putin Jewish nationalist (which I suspect causes no shortage of friction between them) – they were both conservatives and strong Trump supporters and both said they’d vote for Hillary out of spite if the Republicans were to cheat Trump out of the nomination.
Apart from his foreign policy positions they like most other main classes of Russian-Americans also really like his forthright style:
But their views provide insight into the rise of Trump, a phenomenon that has bewildered many liberals. Several of the guests said they appreciate Trump’s tendency to “say what people are thinking”—a definite plus in a culture not exactly known for being timid. “We are so tired of not being able to say what we want,” Sundeyeva said. “[Trump] says politically incorrect things.”
But the children of Sovok Jews are becoming SJWs:
Several people at Menaker’s house lamented that their adult children are turning out to be more liberal than they are. (“Our children are all brainwashed already,” Menaker said.)
As I pointed out in my article on Russian-Americans, the offspring of Sovok Jews – secular like their parents, but far more liberal – are converging with the American Jewish mainstream.
But as the USSR is dead, this Soviet identity has no future; the children of Sovok Jews tend to undergo complete Americanization.
The one child of Sovok Jews whom I know quite well emigrated from Belarus at an early age and is a socialist who has been involved with Occupy Wall Street and has spent a good part of his time these past few months designing a slick website purporting to demolish “corporate media lies” about Bernie Sanders.An AT&T Family Share Plan/iPhone 6 cost calculator lets you see the cost of the various iPhone 6 purchase options for a given iPhone model and monthly data plan size. (Excel and Numbers versions.)
A few tidbits about the AT&T Next plans… collects all the knowledge from this post and comments in one spot. The popularity of this article led me to write two followups: Please give these a read if you’d like to know even more about AT&T Next.
Tomorrow (starting at 12:01am Pacific time, apparently) you can order a new iPhone 6/6 Plus. But you probably already knew that. What you may not know is that if you’re on AT&T’s Family Share Plan, and you enrolled in that plan with phones on a two-year contract, you’ll see a large increase in your bill if you upgrade to a new on-contract iPhone 6—even if your current contract has expired and you’re now contract-free.
Why would your bill go up, simply moving from an older to a newer iPhone? That’s never happened in the past. But we’ve not had the Family Share Plan in the past. And when AT&T rolled out this plan, they gave folks an incentive to move to it: they offered a discount for on-contract phones, from a $40 per month per device cost to either $25 (for under 10GB of shared data) or $15 (10GB or more) per month per device. So if you look at your bill, you’ll see something like this:
That discount was applied to the under-contract (at the time) iPhone 5 I moved to the Family Share Plan; the other two lines we have in the plan show the same discount. But if I buy a new iPhone 6 under contract, the discount will go away. If we upgrade all three phones with contract iPhone 6’s, that’d be another $75 per month!
AT&T doesn’t exactly hide this fact, but they don’t make it completely obvious, either. Here’s how AT&T advertises the Family Share Plan’s monthly cost for 10GB of shared data (on the Family Pricing tab of the linked page, but I can’t link directly to the tab):
The larger text explains that you can add more lines for $15 per line on a 10GB shared plan. But there’s a catch, and the catch is in the “No Annual Service Contract Pricing” double-asterisk footnote, which reads:
No Annual Service Contract options include AT&T Next, bring your own, purchase at full price or month-to-month.
This footnote explains the obvious: phones under contract aren’t eligible for the No Annual Service Contract structure, which makes complete sense.
Still, that explanation doesn’t tell you that your costs will be different with a phone under contract. But if you scroll down to the “Already an AT&T customer” section and click on the “Click here for upgrade requirements” link, you can find the hidden bad news there (added emphasis mine):
For plans 10GB or higher, customers with smartphones on 2-year agreements prior to 2/2/14 are eligible for the $15/month access rate. For plans 2GB to 6GB, customers with smartphones on 2-year agreements prior to 3/9/14 are eligible for the $25/month access rate. Upgrade: To keep discounted pricing with a new phone, buy via AT&T Next, buy at full price, or bring your own phone.
There it is: if you want to keep the $15 or $25 per month access rate, you cannot do so with a phone under contract. You must either use AT&T Next, or pay full retail price for an iPhone 6.
That means it’s time for the math to determine the most cost effective way to buy a new iPhone 6. One key assumption here is that you’re planning to keep the iPhone 6 for two years; things will change if you choose to get out early, but I’m not going to get into the alternative scenarios.
The following shows only the variable costs related to a new iPhone 6 64GB model on the 10GB Family Share Plan—the base $100 cost of that plan isn’t included, as it doesn’t change.
When Line Item Buy Next Contract Up Front iPhone 6 – 64GB $749 $0 $299 Upgrade Fee $0 $0 $40 TOTAL UP FRONT $749 $0 $339 Monthly Access Charge $40 $40 $40 Family Share Discount -$25 -$25 $0 Phone financing $0 $37 $0 TOTAL MONTHLY $15 $52 $40 Totals Monthly – 24 months $360 $1,109 $960 Plus up-front costs $749 $0 $339 TWO YEAR COST $1,109 $1,109 $1,299 Notes: Buy = Purchase phone outright. Next = AT&T Next 12 financing plan. Contract = Purchase with two-year agreement. The AT&T Next 12 plan requires 20 payments over the 24 months; the four “free” months are reflected in the figures above. Costs for the iPhone came from Apple’s iPhone order page.
As you can see, buying it outright is the same as using Next, and it saves about $190 over the contract purchase. (Technically, it saves me $200, because my contract doesn’t expire until September 14th: AT&T would require an extra $100 if I order a phone under contract on the 12th—even though I wouldn’t receive it until the 19th. How’s that for unfair?)
Next is appealing if you don’t have the cash in hand to buy the phone now. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t own the phone until after all 20 payments have been made. You can also turn it in after 12 months, but you have to do just that: turn it in, and get a new phone on a new plan.
If you buy the phone outright, you can upgrade any time you like (because you’re not on contract), and you get to keep (sell on your own, give to relatives, etc.) the current phone. For me, that’s the sealer to this deal: I’ll be buying my iPhone 6 for cash, saving $190 over the contract, and having the flexibility to do with it what I like in the future.
(Per the comments below, you can apparently prepay your Next financing at any time with no penalty, turning your phone into an owned device, with all the benefits above. This may be the best route; I have four hours left to investigate.)
Please note that the above is based on my research, though I confirmed the lack of discounts for contract phones with an AT&T rep during an online chat. Proceed at your own risk, but you really should look closely before ordering at 12:01am tomorrow!It is a great time to be a fan of mixed martial arts. Within the past week, we have seen a highlight reel knock out from possibly the sport's best current pound for pound fighter and also the decline of possibly the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. With all this great MMA going on there's tons of talking points to come out of things. However, there's one I want to focus on. Watching Fedor Emelianenko since his arrival in California-based Strikeforce has been rough to say the least. From his intense moments in the first round with a larger yet extremely inexperienced Brett Rogers to haphazardly wading in the guard of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt in Fabricio Werdum to getting smothered and crushed by the mammoth Antonio 'Big Foot' Silva have all shown Fedor and his mystique in a different light. The sad part of all this isn't that 'The Last Emperor' has looked less than magical in the states. The sad part is that those that are new to the sport have left watching his now very accessible bouts scratching their heads.
If I was a new fan and my only experience with Fedor is his televised fights in Strikeforce, the immeasurable amount of hype given to him by the play-by-play squad would seem almost fabricated. Sure, we all know what Fedor Emelianenko has done in his outstanding career and no these back to back losses do very little damage to it, however, it does not win him any new fans and also does not put him in the same light as fighters such as Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva when he had far exceeded them for many years. Now, the stoic, emotionless entrance walk of Fedor Emelianenko to fans looks simply like a custom-made pro wrestling walkout rather than a statement of greatness. If only Zuffa did not own the bulk of Emelianenko's career, newer fans could see just how potent and skilled the fighter once was instead of having to hear Gus Johnson and Mauro Ranallo talk about it and as we know, a picture is worth a thousand words.
So it is our duty as true fans of the sport to make sure that the newer generation of fans do not read the tweets of Dana White or the numerous columns being written and simply view Fedor from a spectator's eyes but get a glimpse of the greatness themselves.Image caption Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar
Al Jazeera has acquired Current TV, the cable television network founded by former US Vice President Al Gore.
The Qatar-owned broadcaster plans to replace Current with a new Al Jazeera America news channel based in New York, doubling its US-based staff.
Al Jazeera has been struggling to gain more viewers in the US.
Launched in 2005, Current is at present available in about 60 million US homes. The deal was reportedly worth about $500m (£308m).
Al Jazeera said that almost 40% of all online viewing of its current London-headquartered Al Jazeera English news channel comes from the United States.
Soon after the deal was announced, Time Warner Cable dropped Current from its line-up, indicating the struggle that Al Jazeera may face in expanding in the US.
"Our agreement with Current has been terminated and we will no longer be carrying the service. We are removing the service as quickly as possible," the nation's second-largest TV operator said.
It had warned it would drop Current in the past due its low ratings.
'Real news'
The broadcaster, which is funded by the government of Qatar, first gained popularity after it aired videos of Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Its willingness to show "martyrdom" videos and footage of attacks against US troops has not endeared Al Jazeera to some on the US right, who have labelled the network as anti-American propaganda.
In 2010, Al-Jazeera English blamed a "very aggressive hostility" from the administration of former President George W Bush for reluctance among US cable companies to show the network.
But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the network as "real news" in 2011.
The English language version of the channel can be viewed online in the US, and on TV in select cities.
It has tried to expand its reach in the past. In 2009, it launched an online web petition for viewers in the US and Canada to lobby their cable providers and pushed again for its own channel during the Arab Spring protests that began in 2011.
In a joint statement, Current's co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt said of the deal: "Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling.
"Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us."Lost in the explosive performances on offense by Colin Kaepernick and Anquan Boldin in the San Francisco 49ers' season-opening victory over Green Bay was an eye-popping NFL debut by safety Eric Reid.
The first-round pick from LSU was tremendous. He was all over the field and made his presence felt. If Reid continues to play this well as a rookie, the 49ers will be in good shape. Reid was drafted to replace Dashon Goldson, who went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency.
It might be a stretch to say Reid could be as good as Goldson, but the 49ers weren’t missing much with him on the field. He had one interception, and |
three-time All-American and a 2011 NCAA National Champion.
Now in his sixth year as an ESPN analyst, the Arizona State graduate is a three-time All-American and a 2011 NCAA National Champion. Jim Gibbons: Gibbons is a former NCAA Wrestling Coach of the Year, three-time All-American, two-time Big Eight winner at Iowa State and later won an NCAA National Championship as the Cyclones head coach. He was inducted in the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.
Lee Kemp: Won three NCAA National Championships as a wrestler at Wisconsin and three gold medals in the World Championships. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1990.
Won three NCAA National Championships as a wrestler at Wisconsin and three gold medals in the World Championships. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1990. Billy Baldwin: A former standout wrestler at Binghamton University turned actor, Baldwin will be a guest analyst throughout the three days for the second straight year. He was a leader in keeping the sport in the Olympic Games having joined USA Wrestling’s Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling.
Mike Couzens will call the action at the wrestling championships for the first time, handling all the prime-time sessions. The experienced ESPN commentator will be adding to his impressive resume, as he already calls numerous college football and basketball games. Shawn Kenney returns to the coverage and will handle the play-by-play for the earlier rounds each day. Quint Kessenich will be the reporter on the telecasts.
For more information on the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships: http://www.ncaa.com/wrestling
2017 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Schedule
Date Time (ET) Session Network/
WatchESPN Link Number of ESPN3 Mat Feeds Thu, March 16 Noon – 3:30 p.m. First Round ESPNU/ http://es.pn/2lUiswa Eight Mats 7 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Second Round ESPN/ http://es.pn/2mFH61O Eight Mats Fri, March 17 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Third Round – Quarterfinals ESPNU/ http://es.pn/2lzz7T7 Eight Mats 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. Fourth Round – Semifinals ESPN / http://es.pn/2mLtIbO Six Mats Sat, March 18 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Fifth Session – Medal Round ESPNU/ http://es.pn/2meB76V Three Mats 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. Sixth Session – Championship Finals ESPN/ http://es.pn/2meuUYA One Mat
Please Note: WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN and ESPN app will have links for individual mat feeds throughout the Championship
Pictures used in this release are mock-ups and use fictitious names; they are not supposed to be factually accurate
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolnerJulián Castro, Dan Patrick slug it out over immigration
San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro came out swinging against state Sen. Dan Patrick Tuesday night during a debate on immigration policy while the Republican lieutenant governor candidate tempered his sharp rhetoric on the red-meat issue.
Patrick, who is in a heated race with incumbent David Dewhurst for the state’s second-in-command, said he would repeal in-state tuition prices for undocumented immigrants because it is “unfair to American citizens” and “force Washington to fix the problem” of illegal immigration in Texas.
“I do not agree with a pathway to citizenship after 13 years,” said Patrick, adding that he is not “radical” or “anti-immigrant.”
Castro, who is not running for office this cycle but seemingly has ambitions for higher office one day, said he supports a pathway to citizenship and opportunities for undocumented immigrants, of who “the vast majority are here to work and improve their life.”
Castro blasted Patrick, who has said there is an “illegal invasion from Mexico” and that immigrants bring diseases such as leprosy in former campaigns, for what he called softening up on his rhetoric over immigration.
“You’ve been huffing and puffing on the campaign trail like the Big Bad Wolf and now you are tip-toeing around like Little Red Riding Hood,” Castro said.
Patrick managed to expand the debate, which was slated as exclusively over immigration, to include other controversial issues such as abortion and Obamacare.
After the debate, Castro said he believed he won and that he hopes Republicans and Democrats can work across party lines nationally, statewide and locally to pass effective immigration reform.
He also said he does not have a formal or informal role for the state party but that he thought the time was right to challenge Patrick’s immigration stance and rhetoric.
“Dan Patrick’s numbers are wrong, his policies are wrong, and he is wrong for Texas,” Castro said.
For more on the debate, check out Wednesday's San Antonio Express-News or read the full story on ExpressNews.com.
[email protected]
Twitter: @KoltenParker....which looks a lot like God A, one of the Maya Death Gods (which, by the way, is an excellent name for a band). This would not make Chipotle the first major American chain restaurant to decorate with death iconography from another culture (that distinction may go to P.F. Chang's, with their terracotta soldiers), but I'm of the opinion "death by burrito" should be about portion size, and not about inadvertently invoking the wrath of an ancient deity.
In order to get more information, I wrote an email to Dr. Marc Zender one of the leading scholars on Maya glyphs and author of The Book on the subject, asking if he could tell me whether the bas relief decoration at this Chipotle was imitating some known work or complete gibberish (email title: "a frivolous question"). To my surprise, he responded, and the answer is that it's a little of both. He told me that the artist for Chipotle intended to copy a well-known collection of stucco glyphs from Palenque's Temple 18.
He explained: "The text was commissioned by the early 8th-century king K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb, and had fallen from the rear wall of a temple in antiquity. The stuccos were then recovered piecemeal by several different archaeological projects between the 1920s and 1950s. Primarily because their original order couldn't be determined, but also because most of them couldn't be read at that time, the curators at Palenque's archaeological site museum unfortunately ended up mounting them in (unreversible) cement, placing similar signs next to one another and creating a nonsensical text. "
He went on to explain that " the Chipotle artist has also picked glyphs at random from this collection and has made his best attempt to copy them. It's not a bad effort in some places, but note the 'bird with wings' the artist has created in the bottom rightmost glyph, as well as some missing or invented details in a few other places." So my intuitions that (1) it was partially invented and (2) the artist followed the Portlandia mantra "put a bird on it" both check out! I was paying attention.
Then, Dr. Zender made my day. "Just for the fun of it," He translated the glyph blocks from Chipotle: (left to right, top to bottom):
u - K'AM - ma - K'AJAN?- ch'o - ko
- - -?- - uk'amk'ajan ch'ok
"the youth's rope-taking" (a ceremony)
u - TZ'AK - AJ
- - utz'akaj
"its count" (calendric information)
WAX - YAX - SIHOOM - ma
- - - "6 Yax" (part of a date)
chu - lu - ku -?
- - -? Chuluk... (pre-accession name of the king)
i - K'A' - yi
- - i k'a'ayi
"his... stopped" (a death verb, here referring to the king's father)
TIWOL?-4- ma - ta
?-4- - Tiwohl Chan Mat (the father of the king)
mu - ka - ja
- - muhkaj "he was buried" (again referring to the father)
u?- na - ta - la
?- - - u naahtal "the first"? (ordinal title?)
MO' - na - bi
- -... Mo' Nahb (part of the name of the king)
Dr. Zender also explained that the "shrunken head" glyph I thought might be God A is actually a complex Early Classic spelling of the name of the serpent deity Chak Bay Kaan (CHAK-ba-ya-ka-KAAN). He went on "We're still not sure what bay means, but the other portions of the name are 'Red... Serpent'."
So there you have it folks. Death verbs. "He was buried." Enigmatic dates. Mysterious serpents. Next time you're at Chipotle, forget the secret menu and instead focus on what one of my colleagues at U Penn enthusiastically referred to as a "disjoined, incoherent stream of historical tidbits." (Said colleague continued, "in that sense, it's not that different from the history of the non-European world that most people get anyway.")
Now if I could only figure out why a restaurant with a Nahuatl (=Aztec) name has Maya glyphs everywhere...How to be Gay In America's Living Room
Alejandro Morales
Alejandro Morales is a stand-up comedian. You can check him out at comedy shows all over Philly. posted by Alejandro Morales on Jan 21, 2015 10:30am | comments
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Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Desperate Housewives/One Life to Live Actor Tuc Watkins recently got into it online over an accusation that the gay couple on Modern Family is "the equivalent of blackface." Local roommates Alejandro Morales and Michael Kelly weigh in on gay male representation on the boob tube.
AM: So! Gay guy characters on mainstream television. How do we like them?
MK: I personally like blondes, but in this case I think there could be a broader spectrum for the TV-viewing nation.
AM: Absolutely. While I'm sure that gay couples like "Cam" and "Mitch" from Modern Family exist, I'm ready to see the types of guys I encounter in my day-to-day on the small screen -- excluding paid cable and Logo since they don't reach the widest audiences. So who do we want to see?
MK: Lets start with a character with whom we are both acquainted: "The Pot Dealer."
AM: HIGH FIVE. One thing that's irked me is how squeaky clean gay characters have become. It's like, yes, we can be doctors or lawyers, but we can also be --
MK: Stoned.
AM: I'd love to see a character like my pot guy in the mix. I mean, these are fascinating, complex characters who are part of the cultural underground. They have new stories to tell.
MK: I couldn't agree more. Imagine an ensemble cast-driven show with the gay, weed-dealer roommate, and all the wacky hi-jinx that come with smalltime drug dealing.
AM: Where there's smoke... there's almost no end to the possibilities that a character like this could bring. He could run up the electricity bill, or have a run-in with the law, or eat an important cheese plate. Someone who's navigating some light criminal activity as well as a gay romantic life could bring some unique chaos to a roommate dynamic.
MK: I think you just pitched gay 'Friends'.
AM: The only gay version of Friends I'd be into would be a filmed version of the slash fiction I used to read about Ross and Joey.
MK: I smell an EMMY!
AM: I smelly CAT... Sorry. Let's move on. You know what other outlaw gay character I'd like to see? "The Politician." Again, not like a super good guy politician. Like kind of a scamp.
MK: A gay politician would be an amazing character, especially one with questionable methods. Imagine the perfect gay political couple, but with Kennedy-esq skeletons in the closet rather than just "the closet" itself.
AM: I'm imagining something like "House of Cards" but with Kevin Spacey married to Chris Noth. Now that's a power couple.
MK: I'm going to imagine that in the shower.
AM: I could be wrong, but I don't think we've seen a gay political couple on television at all. A show like that has seven seasons in it at least. Think of all the backstabbing. And the suits.
MK: Speaking of couples, one big miss on TV's part is "The Open Couple." Open relationships are nothing new in our community and it's a topic that is rarely addressed - they're also great!
AM: They are! I think the gay community in general is squeamish about revealing to the rest of America just how many of us have one sort of "arrangement" or another with our partners. I think they're scared that if straight people know how much we tweak their formula, they won't give us our rights or whatever. But it's a thing! Most of the gay couples I've slept with -- I mean, most of the gay couples I'm familiar with have their little… ways.
MK: Seriously. If I had a dollar … But one thing we're forgetting is that gay people aren't the only ones who have open relationships. ::GASP:: Plenty of heterosexual couples also practice the open door policy! This would make a great plot device, because you're able to easily introduce new characters, who are also easy.
AM: Sluts are people, too. And even going back to Cam and Mitch, I stopped watching Modern Family this last season because those two just annoy the crap out of me anymore. But if they attempted to bring in a third guy to spice things up? I can't imagine that not being the funniest thing on prime time.
MK: Honestly! Six seasons and they didn't have one threesome? Not one? If I added up the amount of threesomes I had in the last six years, you'd probably judge me - let's talk about something else.
AM: Judge Judy! We should have a gay Judge Judy! But daytime TV is a whole 'nother thing. Let's stay with prime time. One character that I've been encountering more and more in my daily life, but not on TV, is "The Activist". With marriage equality and anti-discrimination measures getting so much attention lately, I would love to see the nuts and bolts of how our equality sausage is made. Like an Aaron Sorkin kind of jawn, you know? Real cerebral.
MK: C'mon cerebral gay character! It would be nice to see a gay character passionate about more than a dinner party. We are still fighting to be treated as equal human beings in this country and that fight should not go unnoticed.
AM: What's going on at a grassroots level in America in the struggle for equal rights is history in the making, and as for the characters involved? The sorts of people who get involved in activism are engaging, bold, outspoken, and often difficult. They're not always easy to like. The activist opens up possibilities for some thrilling television. You know what? We should write this one.
MK: That's a great idea! I'll visit our first character and we'll knock that right out.As Brazil’s deforestation begins to climb again, one man has spent over 40 years planting a forest of his own
When Antonio Vicente bought a patch of land in São Paulo state and said he wanted to use it to plant a forest, people called him crazy. It was 1973 and forests were seen by many as an obstacle to progress and profit.
Brazil’s then military government encouraged wealthy landowners to expand by offering them generously subsidised credit to invest in modern farming techniques, a move the ruling generals hoped would boost national agriculture.
But water, or an impending lack of it, was Vicente’s concern as he worriedly watched the expansion of cattle grazing and industry, the destruction of local forests, and the growth of the population and the rapid urbanisation of the state.
One of 14 children, Vicente grew up on a farm where his father worked. He’d watched him cut down the trees at the owners’ orders, for use in charcoal production and to clear more land for grazing cattle. Eventually the farm’s water springs dried up and never returned.
Maintaining forests are essential for water supplies because trees absorb and retain water in their roots and help to prevent soil erosion. So with some donkeys and a small team, he worked on his little patch – 31 hectares (77 acres) of land that had been razed for grazing cattle – and set about regenerating.
“The area was totally stripped,” he says, demonstrating by pointing to a painting of the treeless land in 1976. “The water supplies had nearly dried up.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest There are now eight waterfalls on Vicente’s land. Photograph: Tommaso Protti/Tommaso Protti for The Guardian
His neighbours, who were cattle and dairy farmers, used to tell him: “You are dumb. Planting trees is a waste of land. You won’t have income. If it’s full of trees, you won’t have room for cows or crops.” But what started off as a weekend gig has now become a full-time way of life. More than 40 years later, Vicente – now 84 – estimates he has replanted 50,000 trees on his 31 hectare Serra da Mantiqueira mountain range property.
“If you ask me who my family are, I would say all this right here, each one of these that I planted from a seed,” he says.
But Vicente is working against the national trend. After several years of successive falls in deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon – the world’s largest tropical forest – numbers are beginning to rise again.
Nearly 8,000 hectares (19,770 acres) of rainforest were destroyed between August 2015 and July 2016, equivalent to an area 135 times the size of Manhattan, a 29% from the year before and the highest increase since 2008, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and while deforestation levels are still nowhere near their peak in 2004 when more than 27,000 hectares (66,720 acres) were removed, the upward trend is still worrying.
There are a number of reasons behind the rise, not least the introduction of the controversial 2012 Forest Code which gave amnesty to property owners who committed illegal deforestation.
“This sends a very wrong signal, of impunity. People think: “If I get one amnesty, who knows? In another few years from now I might get another,” says Cristiane Mazzetti, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner.
If you ask me who my family are, I would say all this right here, each one of these that I planted from a seed Antonio Vicente
She also points out that: “The last government headed by Dilma Rousseff didn’t issue hardly any conservation areas of demarcated indigenous territory. These are good instruments for fighting deforestation.”
In her last days in office, Rousseff issued a few conservation areas, but alarmingly, politicians from Brazil’s Amazon caucus have expressed interest in reducing these by 35%, a move experts say would open up the reserves to deforestation, land grabbing and illegal gold mining.
And Brazil, reeling from economic and political crisis over the last few years, has had less capacity for monitoring due to budget constraints. Attention is being directed to the drama in Brasília where an unprecedented corruption investigation threatens the political establishment.
Vicente’s own home state, São Paulo, has seen some of Brazil’s worst deforestation. The richest state in Brazil, São Paulo is responsible for a third of the country’s GDP and is the biggest economy in South America, with industry and agriculture being two of the biggest contributors. For many decades, as the region grew in economic importance, so did the destruction of the local environment.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A view of Antonio Vicente’s Pouso do Rechedo guesthouse. Photograph: Tommaso Protti for the Guardian
During the last 30 years, while Vicente was planting his forest, 183,000 hectares (452,200 acres) of Atlantic forest in São Paulo state were cut down to make way for farming and expanding cities. According to a study by SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation and INPE, Atlantic forest originally covered 69% of São Paulo state, but only 14% of this total remains today. The deforestation may have been an aggravating factor in a two-year water crisis in São Paulo state that ended in 2016, alongside water-intensive industrial and agricultural production in the state and poor management of the state water company.
We are destroying rainforests so quickly they may be gone in 100 years | John Vidal Read more
Today, local government initiatives in the region give a small monthly payment to farmers who protect the water supplies by planting and maintaining trees. São Paulo is currently managing to achieve almost zero deforestation. (Although that is, at least partly, because there is so little forest left to be cut down.)
Nationally, there are signs of a fightback. In 2015, Brazil committed to replanting 12m hectares (29.6m acres) of deforested land by 2030, as part of the Bonn challenge, a target that was derided by many as unrealistic.
Much of this deforested land lies on private property and so engaging property owners like Vicente is fundamental to meeting the challenge.
The Alliance for the Restoration of the Amazon, a collection of government bodies, NGOs, private sector initiatives and universities bodies, was launched in January to meet this monumental challenge and is undertaking studies in the field.
“If everyone followed Vicente’s example, our task would be a lot easier,” says Rodrigo Medeiros, vice president of Conservation International Brazil, one of the organisations in the coalition. “The scale of restoration that we are dealing with here is unprecedented in the history of Brazil. Without forests, water, food and a pleasant climate are basically not possible.”
However, Mazzetti from Greenpeace points out that from 1985 to 2015, while 219,735 hectares (542,977 acres) of Atlantic forest were regenerated across Brazil, much more, 1,887,596 hectares (4,664,351 acres) were cut down during the same period.
“Regeneration is a slow process, we need zero deforestation now,” she says.
Others have joined Vicente in his work. Brazil’s most famous reforestation advocate lives nearby – celebrity photographer and activist Sebastião Salgado, who with his wife Lélia, reforested nearly 7,000 hectares of Atlantic forest in the late 1990s on his childhood home.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest POUSO DE ROCHEDO, BRAZIL - MARCH 04, 2017: Antonio Vicente in the forest. He has spent the last 40 years reforesting his land, bringing life back to an area that was razed for cattle grazing. Photograph: Tommaso Protti for the Guardian
On Vicente’s own patch, there are now eight waterfalls. He takes me out on to his land, and we hike down one of the mountain trails beside a cascading waterfall, covered by a lush green Atlantic forest canopy, stopping to take gulps of fresh water with our hands.
The trail is absolutely spotless, with no litter or cigarette butts, with a rich earthy smell and views in the distance of the Mantiqueira mountain range’s rolling green valleys, the only noise the trickle of the waterfall.
Vicente has seen first-hand the devastating effects of mass deforestation. He travelled at one point to Rondonia, now one of Brazil’s most deforested Amazon states, in 1986 during a drive by the Brazilian government to settle the region which proved disastrous as following mass deforestation, the land yielded poor results.
“The government were giving the land away for cheap, but the land didn’t serve for anything,” he says. “People cut down the trees but after 3 to 4 years, the soil turned into sand and nothing grows.”
Speaking of his own project in the Mantiqueira mountain range: “I didn’t do it for money, I did it because when I die, what’s here will remain for everyone.” He adds: “People don’t call me crazy any more.”
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter.Two things are certain in the wireless industry: your bill will never be right the first time, and every carrier will claim it has the best service. Measuring cell coverage and speeds is a fiendishly tricky business: one set of results will claim that T-Mobile is the best, while another has it languishing in last place.
Thanks to the difficulty in testing and vastly different methodology used by different third-party test firms, there’s no such thing as a definitive ranking of the big four networks. But when the same carrier comes out on top in multiple tests from different firms, you have to assume they’re doing something right.
Ookla, the company behind the ubiquitous Speedtest.net service, has published a report on the state of the wireless industry in 2017. It’s based on a sophisticated analysis of data from millions of speedtests conducted by real-world users. It’s a “big-data” approach to network testing: rather than carefully controlling the devices, testing locations, and time of day, Ookla instead relies on the sheer number of data points to paint an accurate picture of each operator’s network.
T-Mobile took first place in the two most important metrics: overall speed and “acceptable speed ratio,” how often a user has a usable data connection (faster than 5Mbps, enough for streaming HD video). T-Mobile inched above Verizon in the speed score, 23.5Mbps to 23.21. That number isn’t just an average of all the speed tests on one network; instead, it’s a weighted combination of tests from the fastest, slowest, and median. That prevents a handful of absurdly fast speedtests (like 300Mbps on a brand-new city network at 3AM) from skewing the overall results too heavily.
T-Mobile also won the acceptable speed ratio, 78.1% to Verizon’s 77.8%. The 0.3% of difference is nearly indistinguishable, and Verizon actually pulls ahead on average speed ratio in urban areas.
T-Mobile was understandably excited about the results. “Millions of wireless customers across the US have spoken – AGAIN — and they’ve shown that T-Mobile is the master of all things unlimited, while Verizon is the master of none,” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer for T-Mobile. “This is the reason we’re able to do things like Netflix On Us. Maybe now the carriers will finally start listening to their customers … stranger things have happened.”
Verizon has repeatedly disputed the conclusions of network test reports based on crowdsourced data. Big Red points instead to data from RootMetrics, a company that conducts “drive testing” around the US, a more repeatable approach that generally results in a Verizon win.
“Our network has never been stronger. Our network philosophy is simple: provide the largest coverage, the most reliable service and the most consistently fast speeds. This makes up the customer experience, Mike Haberman, VP of Verizon Wireless Network Operations, said. “While these crowd sourced tests don’t show how reliable a network is, other scientific studies do – and Verizon is the clear leader.”
Haberman is right that Ookla’s data doesn’t give as detailed a picture of reliability and coverage as drive-testing. Just because of where people with smartphones tend to live and how the testing works, crowdsourced reports favor fast, consistent service in urban areas — T-Mobile’s specialty — over a weak-but-usable signal in the countryside. Just as an example, Ookla’s data doesn’t show a failed speedtest — where a user doesn’t have enough coverage to even connect to a server — while RootMetrics’ drive-testing would.
Perhaps most importantly, the Ookla data shows that there’s no real winner between T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. All three networks are within a couple of percentage points on the important numbers, and in any large metropolitan area, your network experience is likely to be similar on all three.
The only network that stands out (in a bad way) is Sprint. Its customers can get a usably fast signal just 64.9% of the time, while all three other carriers are at 76-78%. Its speed score is also way lower, at 15.39. All the other carriers are over 20.
In a statement on the test, Sprint acknowledged that “we have more work to do,” but pointed to Sprint’s year-on-year improvement in speed and consistency as a sign that “Sprint customers don’t have to choose between a good unlimited network and one they can afford.”Former BEATLE John Lennon almost got beaten up during a mid-1970s visit to Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion - when he put out a cigarette on a priceless painting. Lennon was in Los Angeles in 1974 during an infamous period in his life when he was drinking heavily due to a prolonged split from his wife Yoko Ono. But the British star, who was shot dead in 1980, angered his host when he extinguished his cigarette on a painting by French artist MATISSE. Hefner, now 80, says, "(Lennon) misbehaved a little bit and a couple of my friends took exception to it. I didn't witness it. I was elsewhere in the mansion. "He put a cigarette out on a Matisse and one of my friends was gonna... "But he had been drinking. I was a huge fan. He was under a tremendous amount of pressure, you know, from the government. "They were strange times. And Lennon was one of my heroes."BOCA RATON — The FAU offense is anything but simple. Utilizing read-option runs, bubble screens, multiple blocking schemes and plenty of motion, Owls quarterback Jaquez Johnson has a lot to track on the field.
At first, the kinetic energy of FAU's attack was too much for the junior college transfer from Starkville, Miss. to handle, so offensive coordinator Brian Wright trimmed his playbook to help make the calls on the field digestible for the first-year starter. The hope was that Johnson would catch on and ask for more.
Wright's move has paid off. As Johnson has gained more game experience, his understanding, and subsequently his confidence, has increased. Johnson not only has full understanding of the playbook now, he's being given more liberty to change calls at the line of scrimmage.
After FAU beat USF in Tampa behind the strength of two defensive touchdowns, FAU coach Carl Pelini openly declared the Owls a defensive team. The tables haven't completely turned — FAU still prides itself on its defense — but Johnson and the FAU offense have become an asset to a team looking to gain bowl eligibility for the first time since 2008.
Johnson's intelligence was one of the key reasons he won the starting quarterback job in preseason, and the full-time quarterback job after two games. Wright's read-option spread offense requires the quarterback to make a progression of quick decisions on every play, combined with a route scheme that gives wide receivers the liberty to chose their own breaks. It's a difficult system to pick up and it's nearly impossible to simulate the speed Johnson would have to make those reads in practice.
That's why game experience was so important for the sophomore, and there's been a clear pay-off as of late. In the last three games with Johnson under center, the Owls have averaged 492 yards of total offense, and Wright gives the credit to his signal-caller.
Wright said he was specially impressed with Johnson' performance and command in FAU's last game, against Marshall, when Johnson amassed 265 yards of total offense and had only one turnover.
"He made a couple of really good checks in the last game," Wright said. "The better understanding you have, the better chance you have of putting us in a better play. He's done that."
Johnson said that he's overruling Wright and calling audibles "a whole lot more" in recent weeks.
"A lot of situations, I don't have to — we already have [checks] built in," Johnson said. "But in certain situations, maybe I need to make a play and check it for the better of the offense, so that's what I try to do."
One of the changes Johnson made at the line against Marshall led to his 1-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run, which gave the Owls a 23-13 lead.
"It was a full-on audible. We had a totally different play call," Johnson said. "I saw a look that we practiced. I made the check and it worked out."
But Johnson has become so well versed in the offense, Wright doesn't even have to coach his quarterback on what audibles he should make.
"Every week, [Wright] tells us the checks that we can make," Johnson said. "Last week, we didn't go over it in practice."
"It's really the same stuff," Wright said. "He sees it better now. He understands when to get to the certain play."
Having the confidence to call audibles, even when Wright hasn't specifically in practice, could come into play Saturday when the Owls take on Auburn's swarming SEC defense.
"I don't try to do too much," Johnson said. "I try to stay inside the scheme."BEIRUT, Lebanon — To the starving residents and rebel fighters in the bitterly contested suburbs of Damascus, the offer from the Syrian government can be tempting enough to overcome their deep mistrust: a cease-fire accompanied by the delivery of food supplies, if they agree to give up their heavy weapons and let state-run news media show the government’s flag flying over their town.
However, residents and rebel officials in some of the communities described in interviews a disturbing pattern in which the government has used the cease-fires as cover for an operation intended to attain a victory it could not achieve any other way.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said this week that they would work for localized cease-fires — or rather, an internationally backed version of them — ahead of peace talks on Syria scheduled to open next week in Switzerland. Mr. Kerry on Thursday also offered an unusual assurance that the United States had not pulled back from its goal of establishing a transitional government that did not include President Bashar al-Assad.
For Russia, the strategy builds on its effort to portray Mr. Assad as a responsible leader whom the West can deal with, begun last year with the deal to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons.An off-duty police officer fatally shot an armed man in his 50s who was attempting to rob a Walgreens store Monday in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, police said.
About 10:30 a.m., the suspect entered the Walgreens in the 5200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and announced a robbery, according to a statement from Chicago police.
The officer had observed a "frantic" cashier stuffing money into a bag, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said. The officer's wife and kids were waiting in a car in the parking lot. Camden said the officer ordered the man, estimated at around 400 lbs., to kneel on the ground. After doing so, Camden said, the suspect told the officer he would not be taken into custody willingly, and the officer would have to shoot him. Camden said the suspect then reached for a gun in his pocket, and the officer shot him.
The suspect was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was pronounced dead hours later. No one else was injured.
The robber's weapon was recovered at the scene, and charges were pending Monday afternoon, police said.
Police suspect the robber may be responsible for several similar armed robberies that have occured recently in the area, Camden said.
The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the shooting.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.We are very, very near the release of the new Plasma release by KDE (more on the nomenclature later).
This is the first entry of a short series of blogs that take a look about the past and the future of Plasma, what we learned from the 4.x series, what changed, what we can take away and to expect for the future.
First, we were (and we still are) very happy about the status of the Plasma desktop as seen in KDE 4.x, but this doesn’t stop to wonder what can be improved.
The Plasma Desktop started to migrate towards QML since quite some time, but it was clear that the real focus in Qt 5.x would have been QML2.
That’s awesome, because QML2 solves many limitation in performance that QML1 and the QGraphicsView framework had in Qt 4.x.
But that was also a problem, since Plasma1 was tightly coupled with QGraphicsView, this meant: a lot of work ahead.
What we wanted, was the plasma platform itself completely independent from any graphical system itself.
From a big monolith-that-provides-everything, libplasma would have become a way smaller library (roughly 1/3 of the code of the plasma library in 4,x), providing a *model* for the layout, and utils as painting utils and the usual data access, but the representation of this model, would have been completely up to the shell (more on that next entry).
I remember starting a branch of libplasma back in summer 2011 at the Berlin desktop summit (that was also when the Frameworks development seriously started to seriously gain steam). The thing lived as mostly a proof of concept for a while.
Fast forward at the end of 2012 and we had a minimal shell that started correctly and could correctly restore a layout of applets, in a minimal desktop (no panel yet!).
The work proceeded and the features got back one by one.
In the meantime many new people joined the effort (Some thanks to Blue Systems, some volunteer) significantly speeding up the process.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2014 and it was possible again to use it as a basic main desktop (eat your own dogfood).
Just to give a little idea of the amount of work, there are around ~5100 Plasma5-related commits only on the plasma-frameworks repository, if we count all the workspace parts, it would be a way bigger figure.
It has been a long road, with some (quite) rough moments in the middle for sure, but looking back I’m pretty proud of what we achieved, of what i did, and what every single member of the team did to get here.
But this, this is |
is an even bet that the implication will be mutual. Yet upon a foundation so remote from ordinary modes of inference the whole structure of Principia Mathematica is built. This logic - and there are others even more strange - is utterly consistent and the results of it entirely valid. Over and above all questions of consistency, there are issues of logic which can not be determined - nay, can not even be argued - except on pragmatic grounds of conformity to human bent and intellectual convenience. That we have been blind to this fact, itself reflects traditional errors in the conception of the a priori. We may note in passing one less important illustration of the a priori - the proposition "true by definition." Definitions and their immediate consequences, analytic propositions generally, are necessarily true, true under all possible circumstances. Definition is legislative because it is in some sense arbitrary. Not only is the meaning assigned to words more or less a matter of choice - that consideration is relatively trivial - but the manner in which the precise classifications which definition embodies shall be effected, is something not dictated by experience. If experience were other than it is, the definition and its corresponding classification might be inconvenient, fantastic, or useless, but it could not be false. Mind makes classifications and determines meanings; in so doing it creates the a priori truth of analytic judgments. But that the manner of this creation responds to pragmatic considerations, is so obvious that it hardly needs pointing out. We may note in passing one less important illustration of the a priori - the proposition "true by definition." Definitions and their immediate consequences, analytic propositions generally, are necessarily true, true under all possible circumstances. Definition is legislative because it is in some sense arbitrary. Not only is the meaning assigned to words more or less a matter of choice - that consideration is relatively trivial - but the manner in which the precise classifications which definition embodies shall be effected, is something not dictated by experience. If experience were other than it is, the definition and its corresponding classification might be inconvenient, fantastic, or useless, but it could not be false. Mind makes classifications and determines meanings; in so doing it creates the a priori truth of analytic judgments. But that the manner of this creation responds to pragmatic considerations, is so obvious that it hardly needs pointing out. If the illustrations so far given seem trivial or verbal, that impression may be corrected by turning to the place which the a priori has in mathematics and in natural science. Arithmetic, for example, depends en toto upon the operation of counting or correlating, a procedure which can be carried out at will in any world containing identifiable things - even identifiable ideas - regardless of the further characters of experience. Mill challenged this a priori character of arithmetic. He asked us to suppose a demon sufficiently powerful and maleficient so that every time two things were brought together with two other things, this demon should always introduce a fifth. The implication which he supposed to follow is that under such circumstances 2 + 2 = 5 would be a universal law of arithmetic. But Mill was quite mistaken. In such a world we should be obliged to become a little clearer than is usual about the distinction between arithmetic and physics, that is all. If two black marbles were put in the same urn with two white ones, the demon could take his choice of colors, but it would be evident that there were more black marbles or more white ones than were put in. If the illustrations so far given seem trivial or verbal, that impression may be corrected by turning to the place which the a priori has in mathematics and in natural science. Arithmetic, for example, depends en toto upon the operation of counting or correlating, a procedure which can be carried out at will in any world containing identifiable things - even identifiable ideas - regardless of the further characters of experience. Mill challenged this a priori character of arithmetic. He asked us to suppose a demon sufficiently powerful and maleficient so that every time two things were brought together with two other things, this demon should always introduce a fifth. The implication which he supposed to follow is that under such circumstances 2 + 2 = 5 would be a universal law of arithmetic. But Mill was quite mistaken. In such a world we should be obliged to become a little clearer than is usual about the distinction between arithmetic and physics, that is all. If two black marbles were put in the same urn with two white ones, the demon could take his choice of colors, but it would be evident that there were more black marbles or more white ones than were put in. The same would be true of all objects in any wise identifiable. We should simply find ourselves in the presence of an extraordinary physical law, which we should recognize as universal in our world, that whenever two things were brought into proximity with two others, an additional and similar thing was always created by the process. Mill's world would be physically most extraordinary. The world's work would be enormously facilitated if hats or locomotives or tons of coal could be thus multiplied by anyone possessed originally of two pairs. But the laws of mathematics would remain unaltered. It is because this is true that arithmetic is a priori. Its laws prevent nothing; they are compatible with anything which happens or could conceivably happen in nature. They would be true in any possible world. Mathematical addition is not a physical transformation. Physical changes which result in an increase or decrease of the countable things involved are matters of everyday occurrence. Such physical processes present us with phenomena in which the purely mathematical has to be separated out by abstraction. Those laws and those laws only have necessary truth which we are prepared to maintain, no matter what. It is because we shall always separate out that part of the phenomenon not in conformity with arithmetic and designate it by some other category-physical change, chemical reaction, optical illusion - that arithmetic is a priori. The a priori element in science and in natural law is greater than might be supposed. In the first place, all science is based upon definitive concepts. The formulation of these concepts is, indeed, a matter determined by the commerce between our intellectual or our pragmatic interests and the nature of experience. Definition is classification. The scientific search is for such classification as will make it possible to correlate appearance and behavior, to discover law, to penetrate to the "essential nature" of things in order that behavior may become predictable. In other words, if definition is unsuccessful, as early scientific definitions mostly have been, it is because the classification thus set up corresponds with no natural cleavage and does not correlate with any important uniformity of behavior. A name itself must represent some uniformity in experience or it names nothing. What does not repeat itself or recur in intelligible fashion is not a thing. Where the definitive uniformity is a clue to other uniformities, we have successful scientific definition. Other definitions can not be said to be false; they are merely useless. In scientific classification the search is, thus, for things worth naming. But the naming, classifying, defining activity is essentially prior to investigation. We can not interrogate experience in general. Until our meaning is correspondingly exact, experience can not conceivably answer our questions. The same would be true of all objects in any wise identifiable. We should simply find ourselves in the presence of an extraordinary physical law, which we should recognize as universal in our world, that whenever two things were brought into proximity with two others, an additional and similar thing was always created by the process. Mill's world would be physically most extraordinary. The world's work would be enormously facilitated if hats or locomotives or tons of coal could be thus multiplied by anyone possessed originally of two pairs. But the laws of mathematics would remain unaltered. It is because this is true that arithmetic is a priori. Its laws prevent nothing; they are compatible with anything which happens or could conceivably happen in nature. They would be true in any possible world. Mathematical addition is not a physical transformation. Physical changes which result in an increase or decrease of the countable things involved are matters of everyday occurrence. Such physical processes present us with phenomena in which the purely mathematical has to be separated out by abstraction. Those laws and those laws only have necessary truth which we are prepared to maintain, no matter what. It is because we shall always separate out that part of the phenomenon not in conformity with arithmetic and designate it by some other category-physical change, chemical reaction, optical illusion - that arithmetic is a priori. The a priori element in science and in natural law is greater than might be supposed. In the first place, all science is based upon definitive concepts. The formulation of these concepts is, indeed, a matter determined by the commerce between our intellectual or our pragmatic interests and the nature of experience. Definition is classification. The scientific search is for such classification as will make it possible to correlate appearance and behavior, to discover law, to penetrate to the "essential nature" of things in order that behavior may become predictable. In other words, if definition is unsuccessful, as early scientific definitions mostly have been, it is because the classification thus set up corresponds with no natural cleavage and does not correlate with any important uniformity of behavior. A name itself must represent some uniformity in experience or it names nothing. What does not repeat itself or recur in intelligible fashion is not a thing. Where the definitive uniformity is a clue to other uniformities, we have successful scientific definition. Other definitions can not be said to be false; they are merely useless. In scientific classification the search is, thus, for things worth naming. But the naming, classifying, defining activity is essentially prior to investigation. We can not interrogate experience in general. Until our meaning is correspondingly exact, experience can not conceivably answer our questions. In the second place, the fundamental laws of any science - or those treated as fundamental - are a priori because they formulate just such definitive concepts or categorical tests by which alone investigation becomes possible. If the lightning strikes the railroad track at two places, A and B, how shall we tell whether these events are simultaneous? "We... require a definition of simultaneity such that this definition supplies us with the method by means of which... we can decide whether or not both the lightning strokes occurred simultaneously. As long as this requirement is not satisfied, I allow myself to be deceived as a physicist (and of course the same applies if I am not a physicist), when I imagine that I am able to attach a meaning to the statement of simultaneity.... "After thinking the matter over for some time you then offer the following suggestion with which to test simultaneity. By measuring along the rails, the connecting line AB should be measured up and an observer placed at the mid-point M of the distance AB. This observer should be supplied with an arrangement (e.g., two mirrors inclined at 900) which allows him visually to observe both places A and B at the same time. If the observer perceives the two flashes at the same time, then they are simultaneous. "I am very pleased with this suggestion, but for all that I can not regard the matter as quite settled, because I feel constrained to raise the following objection: 'Your definition would certainly be right, if I only knew that the light by means of which the observer at M perceives the lightning flashes travels along the length A-M with the same velocity as along the length B-M. But an examination of this supposition would only be possible if we already had at our disposal the means of measuring time. It would thus appear as though we were moving here in a logical circle. "After further consideration you cast a somewhat disdainful glance at me - and rightly so - and you declare: 'I maintain my previous definition nevertheless, because in reality it assumes absolutely nothing about light. There is only one demand to be made of the definition of simultaneity, namely, that in every real case it must supply us with an empirical decision as to whether or not the conception which has to be defined is fulfilled. That light requires the same time to traverse the path A-M as for the path B-M is in reality neither a supposition nor a hypothesis about the physical nature of light, but a stipulation which I can make of my own free-will in order to arrive at a definition of simultaneity.'... We are thus led also to a definition of 'time' in phvsics."
As this example from the theory of relatively well illustrates, we can not even ask the questions which discovered law would answer until we have first by a priori stipulation formulated definitive criteria. Such concepts are not verbal definitions, nor classifications merely; they are themselves laws which prescribe a certain uniformity of behavior to whatever is thus named. Such definitive laws are a priori; only so can we enter upon the investigation by which further laws are sought. Yet it should also be pointed out that such a priori laws are subject to abandonment if the structure which is built upon them does not succeed in simplifying our interpretation of phenomena. If, in the illustration given, the relation "simultaneous with," as defined, should not prove transitive - if event A should prove simultaneous with B, and B with C, but not A with C - this definition would certainly be rejected. In the second place, the fundamental laws of any science - or those treated as fundamental - are a priori because they formulate just such definitive concepts or categorical tests by which alone investigation becomes possible. If the lightning strikes the railroad track at two places, A and B, how shall we tell whether these events are simultaneous?As this example from the theory of relatively well illustrates, we can not even ask the questions which discovered law would answer until we have first by a priori stipulation formulated definitive criteria. Such concepts are not verbal definitions, nor classifications merely; they are themselves laws which prescribe a certain uniformity of behavior to whatever is thus named. Such definitive laws are a priori; only so can we enter upon the investigation by which further laws are sought. Yet it should also be pointed out that such a priori laws are subject to abandonment if the structure which is built upon them does not succeed in simplifying our interpretation of phenomena. If, in the illustration given, the relation "simultaneous with," as defined, should not prove transitive - if event A should prove simultaneous with B, and B with C, but not A with C - this definition would certainly be rejected. And thirdly, there is that a priori element in science - as in other human affairs - which constitutes the criteria of the real as opposed to the unreal in experience. An object itself is a uniformity. Failure to behave in certain categorical ways marks it as unreal. Uniformities of the type called "natural law" are the clues to reality and unreality. A mouse which disappears where no hole is, is no real mouse; a landscape which recedes as we approach is but illusion. As the queen remarked in the episode of the wishing-carpet; "If this were real, then it would be a miracle. But miracles do not happen. Therefore I shall wake presently." That the uniformities of natural law are the only reliable criteria of the real, is inescapable. But such a criterion is ipso facto a prioriem>. No conceivable experience could dictate the alteration of a law so long as failure to obey that law marked the content of experience as unreal. And thirdly, there is that a priori element in science - as in other human affairs - which constitutes the criteria of the real as opposed to the unreal in experience. An object itself is a uniformity. Failure to behave in certain categorical ways marks it as unreal. Uniformities of the type called "natural law" are the clues to reality and unreality. A mouse which disappears where no hole is, is no real mouse; a landscape which recedes as we approach is but illusion. As the queen remarked in the episode of the wishing-carpet; "If this were real, then it would be a miracle. But miracles do not happen. Therefore I shall wake presently." That the uniformities of natural law are the only reliable criteria of the real, is inescapable. But such a criterion is ipso facto a prioriem>. No conceivable experience could dictate the alteration of a law so long as failure to obey that law marked the content of experience as unreal. This is one of the puzzles of empiricism. We deal with experience: what any reality may be which underlies experience, we have to learn. What we desire to discover is natural law, the formulation of those uniformities which obtain amongst the real. But experience as it comes to us contains not only the real but all the content of illusion, dream, hallucination, and mistake. The given contains both real and unreal, confusingly intermingled. If we ask for uniformities of this unsorted experience, we shall not find them. Laws which characterize all experience, of real and unreal both, are non-existent and would in any case be worthless. What we seek are the uniformities of the real; but until we have such laws, we can not sift experience and segregate the real. This is one of the puzzles of empiricism. We deal with experience: what any reality may be which underlies experience, we have to learn. What we desire to discover is natural law, the formulation of those uniformities which obtain amongst the real. But experience as it comes to us contains not only the real but all the content of illusion, dream, hallucination, and mistake. The given contains both real and unreal, confusingly intermingled. If we ask for uniformities of this unsorted experience, we shall not find them. Laws which characterize all experience, of real and unreal both, are non-existent and would in any case be worthless. What we seek are the uniformities of the real; but until we have such laws, we can not sift experience and segregate the real. The obvious solution is that the enrichment of experience, the separation of the real from the illusory or meaningless, and the formulation of natural law, all grow up together. If the criteria of the real are a priori, that is not to say that no conceivable character of experience would lead to alteration of them. For example, spirits can not be photographed. But if photographs of spiritistic phenomena, taken under properly guarded conditions, should become sufficiently frequent, this a priori dictum would be called in question. What we should do would be to redefine our terms. Whether "spook" was spirit or matter, whether the definition of "spirit" or of "matter" should be changed; all this would constitute one interrelated problem. We should reopen together the question of definition or classification, of criteria for this sort of real, and of natural law. And the solution of one of these would mean the solution of all. Nothing could force a redefinition of spirit or of matter. A sufficiently fundamental relation to human bent, to human interests, would guarantee continuance unaltered even in the face of unintelligible and baffling experiences. In such problems, the mind finds itself uncompelled save by its own purposes and needs. I may categorize experience as I will; but what categorical distinctions will best serve my interests and objectify my own intelligence? What the mixed and troubled experience shall be - that is beyond me. But what I shall do with it - that is my own question, when the character of experience is sufficiently before me. I am coerced only by my own need to understand. The obvious solution is that the enrichment of experience, the separation of the real from the illusory or meaningless, and the formulation of natural law, all grow up together. If the criteria of the real are a priori, that is not to say that no conceivable character of experience would lead to alteration of them. For example, spirits can not be photographed. But if photographs of spiritistic phenomena, taken under properly guarded conditions, should become sufficiently frequent, this a priori dictum would be called in question. What we should do would be to redefine our terms. Whether "spook" was spirit or matter, whether the definition of "spirit" or of "matter" should be changed; all this would constitute one interrelated problem. We should reopen together the question of definition or classification, of criteria for this sort of real, and of natural law. And the solution of one of these would mean the solution of all. Nothing could force a redefinition of spirit or of matter. A sufficiently fundamental relation to human bent, to human interests, would guarantee continuance unaltered even in the face of unintelligible and baffling experiences. In such problems, the mind finds itself uncompelled save by its own purposes and needs. I may categorize experience as I will; but what categorical distinctions will best serve my interests and objectify my own intelligence? What the mixed and troubled experience shall be - that is beyond me. But what I shall do with it - that is my own question, when the character of experience is sufficiently before me. I am coerced only by my own need to understand. It would indeed be inappropriate to characterize as a priori a law which we are wholly prepared to alter in the light of further experience, even though in an isolated case we should discard as illusory any experience which failed to conform. But the crux of the situation lies in this; beyond such principles as those of logic, which we seem fully prepared to maintain no matter what, there must be further and more particular criteria of the real prior to any investigation of nature whatever. We can not even interrogate experience without a network of categories and definitive concepts. And we must further be prepared to say what experimental findings will answer what questions, and how. Without tests which represent anterior principle, there is no question which experience could answer at all. Thus the most fundamental laws in any category - or those which we regard as most fundamental - are a priori, even though continued failure to render experience intelligible in such terms might result eventually in the abandonment of that category altogether. Matters so comparatively small as the behavior of Mercury and of starlight passing the sun's limb may, if there be persistent failure to bring them within the field of previously accepted modes of explanation, result in the abandonment of the independent categories of space and time. But without the definitions, fundamental principles, and tests of the type which constitute such categories, no experience whatever could prove or disprove anything. And to that mind which should find independent space and time absolutely necessary conceptions, no possible experiment could prove the principles of relativity. "There must be some error in the experimental findings, or some law not yet discovered," represents an attitude which can never be rendered impossible. And the only sense in which it could be proved unreasonable would be the pragmatic one of comparison with another method of categorical analysis which more successfully reduced all such experience to order and law. It would indeed be inappropriate to characterize as a priori a law which we are wholly prepared to alter in the light of further experience, even though in an isolated case we should discard as illusory any experience which failed to conform. But the crux of the situation lies in this; beyond such principles as those of logic, which we seem fully prepared to maintain no matter what, there must be further and more particular criteria of the real prior to any investigation of nature whatever. We can not even interrogate experience without a network of categories and definitive concepts. And we must further be prepared to say what experimental findings will answer what questions, and how. Without tests which represent anterior principle, there is no question which experience could answer at all. Thus the most fundamental laws in any category - or those which we regard as most fundamental - are a priori, even though continued failure to render experience intelligible in such terms might result eventually in the abandonment of that category altogether. Matters so comparatively small as the behavior of Mercury and of starlight passing the sun's limb may, if there be persistent failure to bring them within the field of previously accepted modes of explanation, result in the abandonment of the independent categories of space and time. But without the definitions, fundamental principles, and tests of the type which constitute such categories, no experience whatever could prove or disprove anything. And to that mind which should find independent space and time absolutely necessary conceptions, no possible experiment could prove the principles of relativity. "There must be some error in the experimental findings, or some law not yet discovered," represents an attitude which can never be rendered impossible. And the only sense in which it could be proved unreasonable would be the pragmatic one of comparison with another method of categorical analysis which more successfully reduced all such experience to order and law. At the bottom of all science and all knowledge are categories and definitive concepts which represent fundamental habits of thought and deep-lying attitudes which the human mind has taken in the light of its total experience. But a new and wider experience may bring about some alteration of these attitudes, even though by themselves they dictate nothing as to the content of experience, and no experience can conceivably prove them invalid. At the bottom of all science and all knowledge are categories and definitive concepts which represent fundamental habits of thought and deep-lying attitudes which the human mind has taken in the light of its total experience. But a new and wider experience may bring about some alteration of these attitudes, even though by themselves they dictate nothing as to the content of experience, and no experience can conceivably prove them invalid. Perhaps some will object to this conception on the ground that only such principles should be designated a priori as the human mind must maintain, no matter what; that if, for example, it is shown possible to arrive at a consistent doctrine of physics in terms of relativity, even by the most arduous reconstruction of our fundamental notions, then the present conceptions are by that fact shown not to be a priori. Such objection is especially likely from those who would conceive the a priori in terms of an absolute mind or an absolutely universal human nature. We should readily agree that a decision by popular approval or a congress of scientists or anything short of such a test as would bring to bear the full weight of human capacity and interest, would be ill-considered as having to do with the a priori. But we wish to emphasize two facts: first, that in the field of those conceptions and principles which have altered in human history, there are those which could neither be proved nor disproved by any experience, but represent the uncompelled initiative of human thought - that without this uncompelled initiative no growth of science, nor any science at all, would be conceivable. And second, that the difference between such conceptions as are, for example, concerned in the decision of relativity versus absolute space and time, and those more permanent attitudes such as are vested in the laws of logic, there is only a difference of degree. The dividing line between the a priori and the a posteriori is that between principles and definitive concepts which can be maintained in the face of all experience and those genuinely empirical generalizations which might be proven flatly false. The thought which both rationalism and empiricism have missed is that there are principles, representing the initiative of mind, which impose upon experience no limitations whatever, but that such conceptions are still subject to alteration on pragmatic grounds when the expanding boundaries of experience reveal their infelicity as intellectual instruments. Perhaps some will object to this conception on the ground that only such principles should be designated a priori as the human mind must maintain, no matter what; that if, for example, it is shown possible to arrive at a consistent doctrine of physics in terms of relativity, even by the most arduous reconstruction of our fundamental notions, then the present conceptions are by that fact shown not to be a priori. Such objection is especially likely from those who would conceive the a priori in terms of an absolute mind or an absolutely universal human nature. We should readily agree that a decision by popular approval or a congress of scientists or anything short of such a test as would bring to bear the full weight of human capacity and interest, would be ill-considered as having to do with the a priori. But we wish to emphasize two facts: first, that in the field of those conceptions and principles which have altered in human history, there are those which could neither be proved nor disproved by any experience, but represent the uncompelled initiative of human thought - that without this uncompelled initiative no growth of science, nor any science at all, would be conceivable. And second, that the difference between such conceptions as are, for example, concerned in the decision of relativity versus absolute space and time, and those more permanent attitudes such as are vested in the laws of logic, there is only a difference of degree. The dividing line between the a priori and the a posteriori is that between principles and definitive concepts which can be maintained in the face of all experience and those genuinely empirical generalizations which might be proven flatly false. The thought which both rationalism and empiricism have missed is that there are principles, representing the initiative of mind, which impose upon experience no limitations whatever, but that such conceptions are still subject to alteration on pragmatic grounds when the expanding boundaries of experience reveal their infelicity as intellectual instruments. Neither human experience nor the human mind has a character which is universal, fixed, and absolute. "The human mind" does not exist at all save in the sense that all humans are very much alike in fundamental respects, and that the language habit and the enormously important exchange of ideas has greatly increased our likeness in those respects which are here in question. Our categories and definitions are peculiarly social products, reached in the light of experiences which have much in common, and beaten out, like other pathways, by the coincidence of human purposes and the exigencies of human cooperation. Concerning the a priori there need be neither universal agreement nor complete historical continuity. Conceptions, such as those of logic, which are least likely to be affected by the opening of new ranges of experience, represent the most stable of our categories; but none of them is beyond the possibility of alteration. Neither human experience nor the human mind has a character which is universal, fixed, and absolute. "The human mind" does not exist at all save in the sense that all humans are very much alike in fundamental respects, and that the language habit and the enormously important exchange of ideas has greatly increased our likeness in those respects which are here in question. Our categories and definitions are peculiarly social products, reached in the light of experiences which have much in common, and beaten out, like other pathways, by the coincidence of human purposes and the exigencies of human cooperation. Concerning the a priori there need be neither universal agreement nor complete historical continuity. Conceptions, such as those of logic, which are least likely to be affected by the opening of new ranges of experience, represent the most stable of our categories; but none of them is beyond the possibility of alteration. Mind contributes to experience the element of order, of classification, categories, and definition. Without such, experience would be unintelligible. Our knowledge of the validity of these is simply consciousness of our own fundamental ways of acting and our own intellectual intent. Without this element, knowledge is impossible, and it is here that whatever truths are necessary and independent of experience must be found. But the commerce between our categorical ways of acting, our pragmatic interests, and the particular character of experience, is closer than we have realized. No explanation of any one of these can be complete without consideration of the other two. Pragmatism has sometimes been charged with oscillating between two contrary notions; the one, that experience is "through and through malleable to our purpose," the other, that facts are "hard" and uncreated by the mind. We here offer a mediating conception: through all our knowledge runs the element of the a priori, which is indeed malleable to our purpose and responsive to our need. But throughout, there is also that other element of experience which is "hard," "independent." and unalterable to our will. Mind contributes to experience the element of order, of classification, categories, and definition. Without such, experience would be unintelligible. Our knowledge of the validity of these is simply consciousness of our own fundamental ways of acting and our own intellectual intent. Without this element, knowledge is impossible, and it is here that whatever truths are necessary and independent of experience must be found. But the commerce between our categorical ways of acting, our pragmatic interests, and the particular character of experience, is closer than we have realized. No explanation of any one of these can be complete without consideration of the other two. Pragmatism has sometimes been charged with oscillating between two contrary notions; the one, that experience is "through and through malleable to our purpose," the other, that facts are "hard" and uncreated by the mind. We here offer a mediating conception: through all our knowledge runs the element of the a priori, which is indeed malleable to our purpose and responsive to our need. But throughout, there is also that other element of experience which is "hard," "independent." and unalterable to our will. CLARENCE IRVING LEWIS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Teacher | Scholar CLARENCE IRVING LEWIS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY. NormalMap of Christmas Island showing the location of Flying Fish Cove 'The Settlement'
Flying Fish Cove
Flying Fish Cove (Chinese: 飛魚灣 (Fēiyú wān), Malay: Pantai Ikan Terbang) is the capital city and main settlement of Australia's Christmas Island. Although it was originally named after British survey-ship Flying-Fish, many maps simply label it “The Settlement”.[1] It was the first British settlement on the island, established in 1888.
About a third of the territory's total population of 1,600 lives in Flying Fish Cove, which lies near the north-eastern tip of the island. There is a small harbour which serves tourists with yachts. It is possible to carry out recreational diving at the settlement's beach.[2]
References [ edit ]
^ Christmas Island settlement [electronic resource] / produced by the Royal Australian Survey Corps under the direction of the Chief of the General Staff. Ed. 2-AAS. Canberra : Royal Australian Survey Corps, 1983. Scale 1:10 000 transverse Mercator proj. “Series R911” ^ Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954). 19 January 1917. See page 24, article and photo
Further reading [ edit ]
Golder Associates.(1995) Landslide risk assessment, Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean : submitted to Australian Construction Services. Leederville, W.A. : Golder Associates. "October 1995"
Coordinates:The Toonami news that grabbed fans’ attention was that Black Clover would be joining the lineup Dec. 2. The reaction from most fans about another show being added to Toonami’s arsenal is to be expected, considering it’s a new show that is polarizing. But something that is equally as important that occurred with this recent acquisition is the fact that Toonami is expanding, yet again. While I wouldn’t say this piece of news was glossed over, I’m not sure fans are as excited about that prospect as they are about the new show. I look at this recent expansion as just another example of Toonami growing and becoming even more popular with potential viewers.
Instead of 11 p.m., Toonami will now begin its broadcast at 10:30 p.m., with Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z Kai (DBZ Kai) moving up a half an hour earlier. Black Clover (Toonami’s newest show) then settles in at 11:30 p.m.and the rest of the schedule stays the same, making the block now a five and a half hour event. That should make fans feel great as favorites like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders (Stardust Crusaders) and Hunter x Hunter won’t suffer a later time slot and Toonami will end at the same time that it has been for a while. Instead of things shifting around and potentially confusing fans as to when their favorite shows will air, the schedule stays as is. So for some fans, it won’t feel as if a show is getting buried with the new series that joins the lineup. Fans may get upset having to wait longer to see their favorite show, so the fact that everything can stay the same or air earlier (Dragon Ball Super and DBZ Kai) makes this latest change a massive win for everyone. Even for a couple of weeks when the schedule changes, it could hurt other shows where fans might think that a later series was relinquished. As of now, that shouldn’t be an issue.
To be honest, I didn’t think this iteration of Toonami would ever see anything past 11:30 p.m. I wasn’t sure if the shows on the block would warrant enough weight to start earlier (and this was before Attack on Titan Season Two was a real thing). It’s been something that fans of the block have wanted for a while in an earlier start time. I’m right there, I’ve also wanted Toonami to air earlier, due to how I view television. The earlier something is on, the more there’s significant potential for people to see it. The fact that Toonami continues to bring in big shows that are popular, create Immersion events for the hardcore fans, and still have clout with distributing companies like VIZ Media and FUNimation makes the continual expansion viable and exciting. It’s something that fans have wanted for a long time (the block starting earlier), and I’m sure the people at Toonami feel the same way. Plus, Toonami is inching closer and closer to where it was when it was airing shows for six and half hours (back when Space Dandy made its world premiere). Returning to that amount of some of the best action cartoons is a welcomed sight, and is a far cry from all the doomsday talk you hear when Toonami is brought up.
It’s amazing how little fans on the outside know about the block (which includes myself). While I wasn’t someone who worried about the ratings consistently, I am shocked that even more expansion was planned after securing the 11 o’clock time slot. Sure, the traditional numbers have gone down from previous years. But as it seems to be, it was never something to be devastated about week after week. Fans want ratings to be at an all-time high, and I get that. But clearly, Toonami was doing fine and had plans to make things even more enjoyable for fans. Personally, I view those numbers as arbitrary, considering how much the entertainment landscape has changed, and I think Toonami feels the same way. They get all the information about how their block is doing and will act accordingly (just look at how they decided to move on from One Piece). Things seem to be going well, and Toonami plans to stick around for a lot longer than we may have thought.
Toonami got advanced plans like they Marvel Studios pic.twitter.com/tq3IH17I0b — SuperElite BusDriver (@Sketch1984) November 18, 2017
I think this can lead to Toonami taking over the full 10 o’clock hour, which would be a huge move. Adult Swim is already making the Toonami showing of Dragon Ball Super the premiere (instead of a rerun). That would bring the total runtime of the block to six hours, and I think that’s about as strong as the block can get (I could be wrong though). That doesn’t mean they have to keep expanding to an earlier time, but I do think that move (if made) |
IconImage:atIndex: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _sizeOfMiniIconGrid Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _sizeOfMiniIconGridWithRows: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector updateBackgroundImage Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector loadView Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector viewWillAppear: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _handleSwipeRight Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _layoutLoadingUI Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector layoutSubviews Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: Welcome to the wonderful world of Ayecon 1.0! Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: Meh. (null) Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Notice: Loading: /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/ayecon2x2.dylib Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _sizeOfMiniIconGridOfType: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _rectForMiniIconImage:atIndex: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _sizeOfMiniIconGrid Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _sizeOfMiniIconGridWithRows: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone assistantd[15618]: MS:Notice: Loading: /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/libstatusbar.dylib Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector updateBackgroundImage Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector loadView Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector viewWillAppear: Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _handleSwipeRight Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector _layoutLoadingUI Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Warning: nil class argument for selector layoutSubviews Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: Welcome to the wonderful world of Ayecon 1.0! Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: Meh. (null) Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: MS:Notice: Loading: /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/libstatusbar.dylib Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone lsd[6479]: Launch Services: For app identifier appcake2.iphonecake.com, corrected resources URL from file://localhost/Applications/AppCake3.app/ to file://localhost/Applications/AppCake3.app Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: (Note ) profiled: Service starting... Feb 9 07:43:55 iPhone profiled[15612]: (Note ) profiled: Recomputing passcode requirement message Feb 9 07:43:56: --- last message repeated 1 time --- Feb 9 07:43:56 iPhone locationd[58]: Launch Services: Registering unknown app identifier com.apple.AssistantServices failed Feb 9 07:43:56 iPhone locationd[58]: Launch Services: Unable to find app identifier com.apple.AssistantServices Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone lsd[6479]: Launch Services: For app identifier com.apple.mobilephone, corrected resources URL from file://localhost/Applications/MobilePhone.app/ to file://localhost/Applications/MobilePhone.app Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone lsd[6479]: Launch Services: For app identifier com.apple.mobilemail, corrected resources URL from file://localhost/Applications/MobileMail.app/ to file://localhost/Applications/MobileMail.app Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone lsd[6479]: Launch Services: For app identifier com.apple.mobilesafari, corrected resources URL from file://localhost/Applications/MobileSafari.app/ to file://localhost/Applications/MobileSafari.app Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone profiled[15612]: (Note ) profiled: Recomputing passcode requirement message Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone backboardd[6473]: MultitouchHID: detection mode: 3->1 Feb 9 07:43:57 iPhone backboardd[6473]: ALS: SetDisplayFactor: factor=1.0000 Feb 9 07:43:58 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: Application windows are expected to have a root view controller at the end of application launch Feb 9 07:43:58 iPhone kernel[0]: [HPark] RcMgr::GetFirmware( 'gsm''nb') found in resource 'gsm''nb'Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: libMobileGestalt copySystemVersionDictionaryValue: Could not lookup ReleaseType from system version dictionary Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: WiFi: Consulting "no-sdio-devices" property. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: WiFi: "no-sdio-devices" property not found. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: SMS Plugin initialized. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone calaccessd[15622]: MS:Notice: Installing: com.apple.calaccessd [calaccessd] (793.00) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: SIMToolkit plugin for SpringBoard initialized. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: WiFi: Consulting "no-sdio-devices" property. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: WiFi: "no-sdio-devices" property not found. Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: WiFi picker plugin initialized Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: libMobileGestalt copySystemVersionDictionaryValue: Could not lookup ReleaseType from system version dictionary Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone networkd[141]: notifying connection 1 (connect-by address 0.0.0.0-0, passive) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone SpringBoard[15608]: 2013-02-09 07:43:59.791|15608|0x1f52b950: Region monitoring not available or enabled. Trigger ignored! Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone kernel[0]: launchd[15625] Builtin profile: MobileMail (sandbox) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone networkd[141]: notifying connection 2 (connect-by address 0.0.0.0-0, passive) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone networkd[141]: notifying connection 3 (connect-by address 0.0.0.0-0, passive) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone networkd[141]: notifying connection 4 (connect-by address 0.0.0.0-0, passive) Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone backboardd[6473]: ALS: SetDisplayFactor: factor=0.0000 Feb 9 07:43:59 iPhone backboardd[6473]: Posting 'com.apple.iokit.hid.displayStatus' notifyState=0
RAW Paste Data
## Crash log <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>AutoSubmitted</key> <true/> <key>SysInfoCrashReporterKey</key> <string>3c57795f52a63b8baf40f68885c14cbd69f51a43</string> <key>bug_type</key> <string>109</string> <key>description</key> <string>Incident Identifier: 2A69F7C3-E3E7-4579-979E-1B1EE0E1B398 CrashReporter Key: 3c57795f52a63b8baf40f68885c14cbd69f51a43 Hardware Model: iPhone4,1 Process: SpringBoard [6477] Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard Identifier: SpringBoard Version:??? (???) Code Type: ARM (Native) Parent Process: launchd [1] Date/Time: 2013-02-09 07:43:49.908 -0500 OS Version: iOS 6.1 (10B142) Report Version: 104 Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x70000008 Crashed Thread: 0 Thread 0 name: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread Thread 0 Crashed: 0 libobjc.A.dylib 0x39ad55b0 0x39ad2000 + 13744 1 applocker.dylib 0x0180a22c 0x1802000 + 33324 2 BackBoardServices 0x3495e684 0x34958000 + 26244 3 BackBoardServices 0x3495d2aa 0x34958000 + 21162 4 BackBoardServices 0x3495b970 0x34958000 + 14704 5 libdispatch.dylib 0x39ef211c 0x39ef0000 + 8476 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x39ef14b4 0x39ef0000 + 5300 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x39ef61b8 0x39ef0000 + 25016 8 CoreFoundation 0x31d90f36 0x31cfb000 + 614198 9 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 10 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 11 GraphicsServices 0x358da2e6 0x358d5000 + 21222 12 UIKit 0x33c192fc 0x33bc2000 + 357116 13 SpringBoard 0x000399e2 0x36000 + 14818 14 libdyld.dylib 0x39f11b1c 0x39f10000 + 6940 Thread 1 name: Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager Thread 1: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8648 0x39fc7000 + 5704 1 libdispatch.dylib 0x39ef8974 0x39ef0000 + 35188 2 libdispatch.dylib 0x39ef8654 0x39ef0000 + 34388 Thread 2 name: WebThread Thread 2: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 WebCore 0x37d0d500 0x37d03000 + 42240 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 3: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 Foundation 0x32626f92 0x32623000 + 16274 7 Foundation 0x326ca860 0x32623000 + 686176 8 UIKit 0x33eeb596 0x33bc2000 + 3315094 9 Foundation 0x326d3e80 0x32623000 + 724608 10 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 11 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 4: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 SpringBoard 0x0009af58 0x36000 + 413528 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 5 name: com.apple.coremedia.player.async Thread 5: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd808c 0x39fc7000 + 69772 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f29d2a 0x39f20000 + 40234 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f33f14 0x39f20000 + 81684 3 CoreMedia 0x322e98ac 0x322e6000 + 14508 4 MediaToolbox 0x32ddbe56 0x32dd8000 + 15958 5 CoreMedia 0x32307890 0x322e6000 + 137360 6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 6: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 SpringBoard 0x0009b994 0x36000 + 416148 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 7 name: com.apple.springboard.icongeneration Thread 7: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 SpringBoard 0x0009bab4 0x36000 + 416436 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 8 name: com.apple.NSURLConnectionLoader Thread 8: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 Foundation 0x326503d0 0x32623000 + 185296 7 Foundation 0x326d3e80 0x32623000 + 724608 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 9 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 9 name: JavaScriptCore::BlockFree Thread 9: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd808c 0x39fc7000 + 69772 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f29d2a 0x39f20000 + 40234 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f29aa0 0x39f20000 + 39584 3 JavaScriptCore 0x35cd0c70 0x35c75000 + 375920 4 JavaScriptCore 0x35de2552 0x35c75000 + 1496402 5 JavaScriptCore 0x35df4fa8 0x35c75000 + 1572776 6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 10 name: JavaScriptCore::Marking Thread 10: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd808c 0x39fc7000 + 69772 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f29d2a 0x39f20000 + 40234 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f33f14 0x39f20000 + 81684 3 JavaScriptCore 0x35d75f3c 0x35c75000 + 1052476 4 JavaScriptCore 0x35d75e7c 0x35c75000 + 1052284 5 JavaScriptCore 0x35df4fa8 0x35c75000 + 1572776 6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 11 name: WiFiManager callback thread Thread 11: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d03d44 0x31cfb000 + 36164 6 Foundation 0x32626f92 0x32623000 + 16274 7 Foundation 0x326ca860 0x32623000 + 686176 8 Foundation 0x326d3e80 0x32623000 + 724608 9 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 10 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 12: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 CoreFoundation 0x31d92040 0x31cfb000 + 618560 3 CoreFoundation 0x31d90d9e 0x31cfb000 + 613790 4 CoreFoundation 0x31d03eb8 0x31cfb000 + 36536 5 CoreFoundation 0x31d629b6 0x31cfb000 + 424374 6 IMDPersistence 0x35b5b476 0x35b5a000 + 5238 7 Foundation 0x326d3e80 0x32623000 + 724608 8 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 9 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 13 name: com.apple.coremedia.player.remote Thread 13: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc7eb4 0x39fc7000 + 3764 1 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fc8048 0x39fc7000 + 4168 2 MediaToolbox 0x32de20b4 0x32dd8000 + 41140 3 CoreMedia 0x32307890 0x322e6000 + 137360 4 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 5 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 14 name: com.apple.coremedia.player.async Thread 14: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd808c 0x39fc7000 + 69772 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f29d2a 0x39f20000 + 40234 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f33f14 0x39f20000 + 81684 3 CoreMedia 0x322e98ac 0x322e6000 + 14508 4 MediaToolbox 0x32ddbe56 0x32dd8000 + 15958 5 CoreMedia 0x32307890 0x322e6000 + 137360 6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f3130e 0x39f20000 + 70414 7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f311d4 0x39f20000 + 70100 Thread 15: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd8d98 0x39fc7000 + 73112 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26cf6 0x39f20000 + 27894 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26a12 0x39f20000 + 27154 3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f268a0 0x39f20000 + 26784 Thread 16: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd8d98 0x39fc7000 + 73112 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26cf6 0x39f20000 + 27894 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26a12 0x39f20000 + 27154 3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f268a0 0x39f20000 + 26784 Thread 17: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd8d98 0x39fc7000 + 73112 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26cf6 0x39f20000 + 27894 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26a12 0x39f20000 + 27154 3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f268a0 0x39f20000 + 26784 Thread 18: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x39fd8d98 0x39fc7000 + 73112 1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26cf6 0x39f20000 + 27894 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f26a12 0x39f20000 + 27154 3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x39f268a0 0x39f20000 + 26784 Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State (32-bit): r0: 0x1f6467b0 r1: 0x3787e88e r2: 0x1dd8ec30 r3: 0x3a13c97c r4: 0x70000000 r5: 0x0180c980 r6: 0x34093556 r7: 0x2fdc9cd8 r8: 0x1dd703c0 r9: 0x0de1fa23 r10: 0x00000000 r11: 0x1dd71cc0 ip: 0x0180c038 sp: 0x2fdc9c94 lr: 0x0180a230 pc: 0x39ad55b0 cpsr: 0x20000030 Binary Images: 0x36000 - 0x248fff SpringBoard armv7 <6b02e8b9913d39caa24f7927cc9fa77b> /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard 0x2de000 - 0x2defff +MobileSubstrate.dylib armv6 <216f43844ba632968b9d25d1a28ae7b9> /Library/MobileSubstrate/MobileSubstrate.dylib 0x311000 - 0x312fff 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ole cooking?
Lots of interesting stuff—gator, squirrel, turtle. I’ve heard many stories about people eating barbecued raccoon. Certainly not in downtown New Orleans but backwoods folks are still fighting that fight. I wouldn’t be opposed to trying it, but it doesn’t sound very good.
It’s certainly a different culture in America—very diverse from many aspects.
It’s like its own continent—and they created all of this comfort food. Gumbo is the ultimate comfort food. They make stuff like rabbit and dumplings and are still eating squirrel down there—and they are delicious. Not like our dumpster diving squirrels in the city. Folks are just trying to elevate that home style of food and thinking ‘how do I feed a family of eight by stretching things out?’
There’s also a huge French influence in use of all the product. If you look at British vs. American vs. French charts of cuts of beef, you’ll see that the French chart has about 12 more cuts. It’s because they use everything. This has played a lot into how Creole cooking came about.
How did the availability of ingredients factor into your menu at Roux?
It was a very interesting process to figure out the menu here. One of my favorite proteins is rabbit—which is so underutilized and very evident in Southern and New Orleans cuisine. We can’t get a lot of the fish they use there but we do fly up gator, crawfish, gulf prawns and the like. It helps us to broaden the variety of what we serve.
What chefs have inspired you?
Throughout my career? Wow, I guess for the basics it would be Thomas Keller for sure. As far as working in Maine—Rob Evans at Hugo’s was inspirational. Also Sam Hayward and John Besh. The first time I ate at August many years ago it opened my eyes to what Creole food was all about. There was no gumbo or etoufee—it was all farm-grown foods that showcased the ingredients.
Everyone should be able to break down a chicken.
Tell us about your relationship with meat.
I just grew up in a family where we were very meat-heavy. My mom made spaghetti and meatballs for Christmas dinner every year.Oddly enough, I was a vegetarian for about four years in my late teens. Then I had a hamburger and it was so good. After that, sourcing came into play and learning about where my food came from. I learned about how to butcher hogs, beef, and lamb. The first time I got to play with whole animals it was inspirational.
How often do you go out to eat and where do you go?
As often as possible but not as much as I’d like—one or two times a week sometimes. I love to see new stuff and learn about what’s going on. I love going to Chinatown—Kau Kau is one of my favorite places. Give me a half-pound of side pork, a half-pound of BBQ pork with plum sauce and rice from Kau Kau and I’m good. I don’t know what they put in that plum sauce but if they told me they put heroin in it I’d probably just shrug my shoulders and eat it anyway.
Also Green Leaf Vietnamese, Bitterroot in Ballard, and LloydMartin. I worked with Sammy (Crannell) and Dan for many years and I can always go there and get some awesome dish. His use of product is some of the best I’ve seen and what he’s done in that kitchen is nothing short of a miracle. The guy makes stocks in the oven, sous vides things, and works with limited space but still comes up with the most perfect piece of foie or duck you’ve ever had.
Beef, Lamb, Pork, Chicken, Goat, or Other?
I’d say probably beef. For me, beef is still king—the complexity of the animal both for cooking and eating. Which is why I have a giant cow tattoo on my arm with French cuts. Pork is really good but it’s such a fatty animal and it kind of takes on the same characteristics no matter what you do with it. Beef stands alone better than most. You can do everything with it.
Best non-traditional cut of beef to work with?
I’d have to say beef cheeks. They are so good, though not easy to find in this town. There’s so many great sub-cuts. People go for the ‘Hollywood cuts’ but there’s so much better flavor in other parts of the animal. I think Seif and Rachel (Revel, Joule, Trove) opened people’s eyes to the fact that you can slice and grill short ribs.
I’ve always wanted to teach a class to show people how to break animals down properly. Learning this can help change the culture about how we buy things in grocery store. It’s so easy to do and to cut down on waste. Everyone should be able to break down a chicken.
What off-beat meats should people look for?
Rabbit is my absolute favorite. You can get it at Uwajimaya and there are so many things you can do with it. The saddles are like tenderloin. The front and back legs braise down real well for pasta dishes. Plus, they are super lean, grow fast, and are in abundance. We do some great things with rabbit here, as does Holly Smith at Cafe Juanita. She does a fantastic braised rabbit and she may be the one that put it on the map for me.
What meat should people learn to cook if they only know the standards?
Braising is something that many people are intimidated by but should learn. And making confit in the same rights—how to properly demi-cure things, cook in fat, and preserve. These techniques were invented so sailors could eat food on the high seas. Do it right and you can keep stuff for a very long time.
Who’s the best butcher in town?
I’d have to say Rain Shadow—Russ Flint does a fantastic job. I also love Don and Joe’s in the market. Even though they’re buying boxed meats and cutting them up it just reminds me of all the old-school butcher shops back home.
And I miss Miles James and Dot’s—it was absolutely my favorite place to go. I miss being able to get some pate, confit, sausage, and a steak to bring home for dinner. I lived in this neighborhood for a year-and-a-half before this place opened and I went there all the time.
Best after-hours activity for food service?
I think we all know the answer to that one. Drinking bourbon and eating copious amounts of food. It’s so nice to find places that stay open late enough to serve us. That’s why Green Leaf is such a great place to go as they are open until 2 a.m. in Belltown.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
I’m a ‘Careless Whisper’ man. I know, right?! I’ve sung that song so many times. And everyone that has done karaoke with me will say the same thing when it comes on— “Hey chef, it’s our song!”
*Portions of this story previously appeared on Eater SeattleBy Kwaak Je-yupNo one can dispute that the Korean film industry is flourishing.Investment and return are both on the upside. The sheer number of productions is rising, spawning hits and, of course, misses.This year, the local press is abuzz about two homegrown works vying for awards at the world’s most prestigious cinema showcase, the Cannes Film Festival, namely “In Another Country” by Hong Sang-soo and “The Taste of Money” by Im Sang-soo.But one prize people should bet against from the get go is the Prix d’interpretation feminine, the best actress award, unless the jury bases its decision on appearance.The women in these works are of decorative value; they may have onscreen presence and beauty yet strikingly little depth in character. Their lines are cringe-worthy (conveniently lost on most Cannes audience and jury members who will watch with subtitles). Most of all, they are weak, accessories to male co-stars.One of the oldest stories — beaten to death, really — in Korea’s epicenter of motion pictures Chungmuro, is the supposed lack of leading ladies who are both bankable stars and gifted thespians.The apparent phenomenon has maintained itself for so long, people have come to moderate their expectations to an astounding low. At promotional events, a good performance by an actress is pushed like a gigantic news item, a delightful exception to the norm.But the sad little women should blame their screenwriters and directors instead. Often the same person, neither the writer nor the director are unable to depict a real female character and her infinitely complex interior.At the respective national premieres of the Cannes entries, both Hong and Im, who cannot be more dissimilar in mise-en-scene, said one thing in common; that they were happy about how “nice” or “pretty” the actors, male and female, looked on the silver screen.And that is all they could really say about the artists — who probably had a barebones script in their hands.Take “The Taste of Money,” for which promotion revolved just around the abundance of female nudity and sex in it. Im’s extremely unrealistic portrayal of high-class society makes both the 60-year-old control freak matriarch Geum-ok (Youn Yuh-jung) and her “I-need-no-job-to-be-fabulous” daughter Na-mi (Kim Hyo-jin) look completely unbelievable. Their grip on power is flimsy and so they must depend on their respective fathers and more so the ubiquitous hero assistant Young-jak (Kim Gang-woo) for dirty corporate affairs and lady business.Meanwhile, men hire prostitutes/masseuses on a whim. Even Geum-ok’s unhappy husband (Baek Yun-shick), who married her for money and now wants to start anew with the Filipina maid Eva (Maui Taylor), treats his supposed lover like a sex doll and shows no psychological connection to her on screen.Do women yield so much to men in real life? The audience must decide.“In Another Country” from Cannes regular Hong is even more troubling with its unrealistically subservient female characters.It is unsettling to witness the director’s disemboweling of Isabelle Huppert, the symbol of strong-voiced French women. He only leaves a sweet, delicate shell of a woman who awaits her five-hours-late lover watching the sea and exclaiming “Oh, it’s beautiful!” on repeat, like a robot. Her husband having cheated on her, Anne (Huppert) appears as brittle emotionally as physically. She has to cling to the strapping young men who come her way in this provincial seaside town. She is a docile kitten.Other women are just as hollow but decidedly more simple. Geum-hee (Moon So-ri) is a knocked up girl married to a film director (Gwon Hae-hyo) with a knack for adultery (he inevitably seduces Anne who falls right into the trap). The wife catches them and throws one of the mildest tantrums seen on a movie screen. Is it an ode to Anne Sinclair, the wife of fallen political figure Dominique Strauss-Kahn?Won-ju (Jeong Yu-mi), the caretaker of Anne’s lodging, prances around in colorful dresses, religiously records her guests’ trysts and provides them various household items and food. Do any of these people have lives?These two films are only one of many signs of the gloomy state of the movie industy, as uninteresting female characters continue to bedevil audiences.Park Si-yeon recently scored a hit by baring one of her breasts in “The Scent.” Jo Yeo-jung is creating hoopla with her exposed thin elbows on the poster for “King’s Concubine,” slated for a summer release. Gong Hyo-jin, known for candor on set and in public, openly admits that she had problems with her character in “Love Fiction” and took her complaints to its director Jeon Kye-soo. Recent box office hits like “As One,” “Eungyo,” “Architecture 101,” and even “Helpless,” which was directed by a woman (Byun Young-joo) somehow all conform to this unfortunate trend.Should Korea call Spanish director and female-role specialist Pedro Almodovar for rescue?On Tuesday, word began circulating that the American film adaptation of Death Note, a wildly popular Japanese manga and anime series, has found the actor it wants to play Light Yagami, the deranged teenage antihero who finds a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone he desires, as long as he know the victim’s name and face. That actor is Nat Wolff, the talented and magnetic star of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. This should have been wonderful news.
Instead, fans of the series—and of anime in general—emitted a now well-rehearsed, weary sigh of disappointment (and a couple of groan-worthy “White Kagami” jokes on Twitter). It’s the same thing that happened when news broke that America’s big-screen adaptation of Akira, Japan’s landmark 1988 post-apocalyptic movie, would star Garret Hedlund and Kristen Stewart (it has since been shelved). It happened again when Scarlett Johansson was cast as Motoko Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie.
It happens every time a beloved Japanese or East Asian-influenced animated work filters its way through Hollywood studios, producing a live-action American version where “American” is taken to mean “white.”
This is nothing new, of course—rewriting Asian stories to fit an American narrative has yielded film treasures like The Magnificent Seven, an Old West cowboy retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece, Seven Samurai. (The 1960 classic is now due for its own retelling next year, this time including Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.) Even Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning gangster saga The Departed was a remake of the excellent 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller Infernal Affairs.
But more often than not, the story is taken cut-and-paste style, keeping its fantasy setting and context, and substituting white faces for Asian ones. The results have mostly been stinkers like Dragonball Evolution, which tried passing Justin Chatwin off as Goku, and Speed Racer, which starred Emile Hirsch as the titular character. Even Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American-produced Nickelodeon cartoon series that happened to star Inuit and East Asian-influenced characters, gave all but one of its main roles to white actors in M. Knight Shyamalan’s critically maligned 2010 live-action version. Casting missteps was just one of many issues plaguing these movies, but the extra inauthenticity sure didn’t help.
But they’re just cartoons, right? What’s the harm?
The simple answer is that all-white castings of Asian remakes subtract that many roles from the already scant number available to Asian actors. While incremental progress has been made over the past few years, minorities still accounted for fewer than 16.7 percent of leading roles in 174 American films released in 2013, according to a comprehensive report by UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. By contrast, minorities now make up close to 40 percent of the U.S. population—and Asians in particular will make up 14 percent of America as soon as 2055, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.
In 1965, five years after The Magnificent Seven’s release, Asians were just 1 percent of the population. Turning a cast of Japanese-speaking samurai into gun-toting, white cowboys wasn’t just an exciting creative move, it was a savvy business decision. But now here we are, 50 years later with a very different-looking America—making Hollywood’s perennial reluctance to have Asian actors lead films based on Asian stories seem woefully short-sighted.
The global market for major studio films like Death Note, which is being made by Warner Bros., would also seem to testify in favor of minority actors. Movie ticket revenue in the U.S. and Canada went down 5 percent between 2013 and 2014 alone; but internationally, it increased 4 percent in the same time period, according to a report on theatrical market statistics by the MPAA.
China and Japan, unsurprisingly, were the top two international box office markets in 2014, grossing a combined $6.8 billion—so no one can say they had the global market in mind while casting a non-Asian Light Yagami, either.
So the conundrum remains: America changes, yet Hollywood stays stagnant—especially when compared to the small screen, where minority-led, critically acclaimed TV shows (including one led by Asian-Americans, Fresh Off the Boat) are on the rise. No surprise then that it was the Emmys where this year’s greatest rallying cry for onscreen diversity took place, in Viola Davis’s rousing, tear-inducing speech, when she reminded viewers that actors can’t win awards for roles that are simply not there.A COUNCIL has banned a group of teenagers from playing frisbee in a local park until they get a permit.
Yoav Silverstein, 17, and his mates have been getting together at Caulfield Park most Fridays to throw a frisbee around for some exercise.
But the schoolboys were stunned last week when a City of Glen Eira officer told them the activity was considered an organised sport and they needed a $120 permit to play.
Yoav explained that he and his friends caught up informally to play a frisbee game.
"It's just a bunch of guys who text each other or go on Facebook - different people show up every week," he said.
"It's like going to the park and playing soccer with some friends, it's not an organised game."
Yoav, who is completing his VCE, said the group would show up at the park todayin defiance of the ban.
"We will definitely be playing," he said.
Yoav's father, Michael, said the council was being ridiculous.
"They're just kids at the end of the school week doing something better than going down to the pub and drinking," he said.
"I just couldn't believe it. I thought my son was joking when he told me what happened."
Mr Silverstein said the council had quoted $120 for a one-off permit or a six-month permit costing $300-plus.
"It just seems exorbitant at any price," he said.
"We are all ratepayers in the area. This council bureaucracy is absolutely ridiculous."
Glen Eira councillor Michael Lipshutz, whose ward includes the park, said last night he wasn't aware of the incident but knew of people using the park to play frisbee.
"I'm certainly happy to investigate it and obviously if it's a bunch of kids playing who are not organised, I'd be happy to look at it," he said.
Cr Lipshutz said that the bylaw regarding organised sport had been drafted during the drought to help protect council parks and ovals.
"Given that the drought is now finished, council will have a look at it again and act sensibly," he said.
"The council is not heavy-handed."
[email protected] (Photo: US Secretary of States John Kerry (R) gestures beside of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.) http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/contact http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/schedules http://johnbatchelorshow.com/blog Twitter: @BatchelorShow
Tales of the New Cold War: Syria/Ukraine Ceasefires. Obama Trash-talking Putin & Trump. Stephen F. Cohen, NYU, Princeton University.
"...The terms of the deal The deal calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, but does not cover militant groups considered terrorists, such as ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front. It is hoped the ceasefire will provide a window for the delivery of aid to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians in desperate need of food, medicine and other essentials...." http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/13/middleeast/syria-ceasefire/
"...President Barack Obama criticized what he called Donald Trump’s adulation of Vladimir Putin, saying the billionaire considers the Russian president a “role model,” in a broad attack on the Republican nominee’s fitness for the presidency. “He loves this guy,” Obama said at a campaign rally for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia. “Think about what’s happening to the Republican party. Used to be opposed to Russia and authoritarianism, and fighting for freedom and fighting for democracy.” Obama hit the campaign trail on Tuesday for Clinton, who is recovering from pneumonia at her New York home, and delivered a barn-burning speech in Philadelphia before heading to a fundraiser later in New York City. The president is one of Clinton’s most important surrogates because she needs the coalition of blacks, Hispanics and young people who helped elect him to office twice. While those voters aren’t likely to swing to Trump, Clinton hasn’t replicate the enthusiasm they had for Obama to drive high turnout in November. http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-09-13/obama-says-putin-is-trump-s-role-model-in-campaign-attack?..."utmcontent=politics&utmcampaign=socialflow-organic&utmsource=twitter&utmmedium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/morell-and-vickers-an-open-letter-to-donald-trump/2016/09/10/1af395dc-776b-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49estory.html?hpid=hpno-nameopinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utmterm=.0f0c396d7e8cBrendan Rodgers remains defiant and says “I haven’t lost a derby yet” as Liverpool prepare to face Everton after another disappointing result.
The Reds could only manage a 1-1 Anfield draw with Sion in the Europa League on Thursday putting the spotlight firmly back on the Reds boss, who made seven changes.
Rodgers will switch back to his first-choice line-up – which will include striker Daniel Sturridge fresh from his brace against Aston Villa last weekend – and insists Goodison Park holds no fear on Sunday.
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“We go into the game against Everton and we will focus on our performance. The players will look forward to it,” he said.
“I haven’t lost a derby yet (won one, drawn five) and they are always good games.
“We are point behind Everton – I know the media and written press will build the game up but we will stay calm.
“I am immensely enjoying the job, it is a great challenge and it is a rebuilding.”
Rodgers defended his decision to make significant changes for Europe, as he did a fortnight ago when they drew their opener in Bordeaux.
“For this game, there were a number of players we needed to be careful with like Daniel (Sturridge) that were coming back from injuries,” he added.
“There is no doubt we want to qualify and get through to the knockout stages but we are picking teams to get a result.
“Away in Bordeaux a lot of young players played but we are still going up in games.
“The story of the game was obvious; we started well, got in front, gave away a poor goal and then created chances and should have maybe won a lot more comfortable but unfortunately ended up drawing and a bit frustrated.
“We have enough chances to win the game and that is the disappointment.”
Sion boss Didier Tholot was more than satisfied with a draw.
“I am very pleased. It is a job well done. I had a plan and my players put it into action. We are very happy with the point we gained here,” he said.Checkers Earn Fourth Straight Victory with 5-2 Win in Utica
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Author: Paul Branecky Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Checkers' vice president of communications, Paul Branecky has been covering hockey in North Carolina since 2006, including five seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Checkers’ offensive prowess continued on Friday as the team improved to a perfect 4-0-0 on its season-long, eight-game road trip with a 5-2 victory in Utica.Clark Bishop, who entered the game with two goals in 54 career AHL contests, scored twice in this game to help the Checkers extend their win streak to a season-best four games. Charlotte (10-3-0) also improved to 8-1-0 away from home this season, with their eight road victories good for most in the AHL.Nicolas Roy, Andrew Poturalski and Janne Kuokkanen also scored for the Checkers, who hit the five goal mark for the eighth time in their 13 games this season. In goal, Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 24 shots to improve to a perfect 7-0-0 on the campaign.Charlotte opened the scoring in the first period through Roy, who finished a shorthanded 2-on-0 break with Aleksi Saarela for his second goal of the campaign and the Checkers’ third shorthanded tally of the season, which ties the most in the AHL.After Bishop extended the lead, the Comets seized the momentum with a shorthanded tally of their own with 16 seconds left in the second period. However, Poturalski extended the lead during a minute-long, five-on-three advantage that the Checkers enjoyed to start the third. After that it was all Charlotte, with Kuokkanen picking up his first goal of the season just as a power play expired and Bishop finishing a breakaway on either side of Utica’s second goal.Charlotte played the majority of the game down one player as NHL veteran Lee Stempniak, playing his first game of the season after joining the Checkers on a conditioning stint from the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, left the game with an injury early in the first period and did not return.This game concluded the four-game season series between Charlotte and Utica, which the Checkers won 3-1. All four games were decided by at least three goals.All three of the Checkers’ shorthanded goals this season were scored by rookies (Roy’s tonight and two by Warren Foegele) … The team’s three shorthanded goals allowed is also tied for most in the AHL … Bishop now has seven points in 13 games this season, compared to the six he scored in 42 games as a rookie last season … The Checkers scored 14 goals in their three games against Utica netminder Richard Bachman … Last season, Nedeljkovic did not earn his seventh win until Feb. 18 … With an assist on Poturalski’s goal, Phil Di Giuseppe extended his point streak to four games (2g, 3a) … Forward Lucas Wallmark and defensemen Jake Chelios and Brenden Kichton missed the game due to injury … Forwards Mike Ferrantino, Nick Schilkey and Zack Stortini and defenseman Josh Wesley were healthy extras.The Checkers' road trip continues with the first of a four-game season series with Syracuse tomorrow night at 7 p.m.WASHINGTON — New emails reveal that Hillary Clinton’s closest aides had concerns about her email setup and how she was wedded to her BlackBerry — even taking it to the shower.
Both Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills expressed outrage that a political appointee was contacting Clinton directly on her BlackBerry for help in getting placed in the State Department, shortly after Clinton became secretary of state.
“Personally, i think it’s outrageous that staff go straight to her on this stuff,” Abedin wrote Mills on April 3, 2009.
“This is unbelievable,” Mills replied in an email obtained by Citizens United, a conservative group, and shared with The Post, “and she also should not be giving her email to everyone — b/c she will get stuff like this.”
“Its a long story,” Abedin answered. “She’s not giving her new email to people. People who email her old senate address are still being forwarded to new address. Most of her senate staff had access to that address.”
Abedin said she was hoping “Justin” could fix the problem — presumably Justin Cooper, the Bill Clinton aide who is the registered administrator of Clinton’s private home email server.
But Abedin had trouble prying the BlackBerry away from Clinton.
“I need her berry and she takes that thing to every bilat [bilateral meeting], to the shower, so hard to get my hands on that thing,” Abedin told Mills.
“This made me laugh out loud — especially the shower part,” Mills replied.
The email exchange is part of hundreds of new Clinton Foundation and State Department emails produced to Citizens United from a public records lawsuit.
The “berry” exchange was first reported by the Daily Caller.
Another email exchange showed Abedin was concerned about cybersecurity when Clinton arrived in Russia in October 2009.
“Want to make sure DC is aware that those of us in the Russia traveling party will be leaving blackberries on the airplane once we touch down in moscow tonite,” Abedin emailed State Department staffers on Oct. 12, 2009. “Lew is getting us local cell phones and ops will have numbers.”
Jack Lew was then a deputy secretary of state.
‘I need her berry and she takes that thing to every bilat [bilateral meeting], to the shower, so hard to get my hands on that thing.’ - Huma Abedin wrote in an email about Clinton's BlackBerry
Minutes after emailing the official staff, Adedin forwarded the note to the Clintons’ personal addresses and foundation staff in another example of how Abedin was often the middleman between Clinton-affiliated entities.
“FYI for tues and wed. We won’t have berries in russia,” Abedin wrote to top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band; Oscar Flores, operations manager of the Clintons’ Chappaqua home; Jon Davidson, Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff; Hannah Richert, a director at the Clinton Presidential Center; and Cooper, a close aide to Bill Clinton who registered the private server that has been the source of Clinton’s email controversy.
“Are they taking them from u. Bc ur clintonemail.com shld work,” Cooper replied.
“Its for security reasons,” Abedin said. “I don’t want to use that one either.”
Clinton said she turned over printouts of all her work-related emails to the State Department — some 30,000 in total.
She said she deleted another 30,000 or so deemed personal.
But during the course of the FBI investigation into classified material on her private server, some 15,000 work emails were discovered that will begin to be made public next month.
News outlets and conservative groups, such as Judicial Watch and Citizens United, have also gained access to Clinton public records through federal records lawsuits.
“These newly disclosed Hillary Clinton emails — that are clearly work-related — give us a sense of what might be in the 15,000 emails the FBI discovered that will be released in September,” Citizens United president David Bossie told The Post. “The American people want to know how many of these emails are related to Clinton Foundation business.”CONTINUITY IRA chief Liam Kenny told his daughter three days before his murder he had a “feeling something bad” was going to happen, an inquest has heard.
CONTINUITY IRA chief Liam Kenny told his daughter three days before his murder he had a “feeling something bad” was going to happen, an inquest has heard.
Continuity IRA chief's wife tells inquest: I don't know why anyone would want to harm him
The 54-year-old father-of-five was shot multiple times through the door of his home at Shancastle Avenue in Clondalkin, Dublin 22 on June 9, 2011.
Kenny was "officer commanding” in the Dublin Continuity IRA and his death has been linked to a dissident republican feud.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard he had been out celebrating his birthday on the night he died and returned home at around 2am. Two hours later there was a knock on the door and he went downstairs to answer it.
In her deposition read into record in her absence, his daughter Deborah Kenny told gardaí she also got up when she heard the knocking as it became louder. “I opened my bedroom door. As I did I heard noises and I heard somebody saying: ‘it’s the guards, open up”,” she said. Her father told her to go back into her room so she went to her bedroom window. She saw two men at the door. One of the men was holding a sledgehammer and banging on the door with it. Glass smashed and then a number of gunshots rang out in quick succession.
Ms Kenny said she saw the two men run out of the front garden toward a getaway car where another man was waiting for them. She shouted “f****** w*****s” at them and one of the men stopped and looked up at her, pausing “as if he was going to come back” to the house but then got in the car.
Another witness told gardaí the driver initially had trouble starting the car and it was cutting out for 20 feet before it got going. Detective Inspector Richard McDonnell said the car, which had been stolen, was later found burnt out two miles away. A firearm was also recovered.
Paramedics attending to Kenny found no vital signs at the scene. He was taken to Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The post-mortem was carried out by state pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy who found that Kenny had been shot five times with a fatal injury when his aorta was severed.
The dead man’s wife Margaret Kenny told the inquest her husband had not said he was in fear for his life and his death had come as a “big shock”. “I have no idea why this happened to Liam. I don’t know of anybody who would want to do him harm,” she said.
His daughter Deborah told gardaí that three days before his death Kenny said to her he had a feeling “something bad” was going to happen and he had not been sleeping well.
DI McDonnell said Gardaí were unaware of any threats to Kenny’s life at the time of his death. Despite an extensive investigation involving more than 260 lines of inquiry, no person has been charged with the murder and no file has been sent to the director of public prosecutions. The case remains open but is inactive at this time, he said.
The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing by persons unknown.
Online EditorsAs an Epicurean, I require very little to be content: Food, Shelter, Friends and the absence of pain. All these things have always been generally easy to achieve and as such they are what each person should be able to have. The fact that so many do not is a telling problem of the disfunctionality of our society.
One could ask: “As an Epicurean, why do you care what others have? After all, if you can achieve a state of ataraxia why should you care if others do the same?”. This is really a moral issue and should be looked in this light.
The question is, how do I go from the descriptive “My only needs are those which bring me in ataraxia” to the prescriptive “Everyone should be able to fulfill the needs that bring them in a state of ataraxia“. To go there, we first need to look at my reasons for doing so.
The more people that desire that others are achieving ataraxia, the more likely it is that I will be able to achieve and sustain it through their combined efforts. Achieving ataraxia allows people to work on achieving the rest of their desires. Since I’m trying to make it so that one of those desires is that everyone is achieving ataraxia, then this helps spread this desire as well as happiness which comes from being in this state.
From these we can see that I have reasons to promote the desire (i.e. it is considered good) that people should be able to fulfill the needs that bring them in a state of ataraxia. It becomes a moral value.
So how does this lead to Communism? Well, Communism has the ideological proposition that everyone should be producing according to their abilities and receiving according to their needs. By itself, the second part of the sentence is not very descriptive as anyone can claim the most extraordinary things as needs. However through the lenses of Epicurism, the needs transform to something objective: The things one needs to be in a state of ataraxia.
Communism then conflates exactly with the moral value I have reached via Epicurism. Each of us should be striving to the best of our abilities to help others fulfil their needs. And since the needs one has on average are the very basic and most easy to create, the effort we would require from each of us for this to be achieved would be minimal.
Of course Communism is more than a ideological proposition. It also proposes the way a society would be organized (Classless & Staleless) which also follow from Epicurism since authority and inequality either lead to emotional pain or to the increased cost of basic needs, making them opposed to the moral value I explained above.
Now to be accurate, I never really moved towards the libertarian socialist quadrant because I looked at the subject philosophically, but rather because intuitively, for someone with an Epicurean mindframe, the concepts of Anarchism/Socialism/Communism fit very well to my moral values.
Only later did it occur to me how much one leads to the other and the dialectic relationship between them. As much as the Epicurean subconsiously espouses the libertarian socialist mindframe, so does the consistent libertarian socialist require an Epicurean thinking to avoid sliding into authoritarianism or crass individualism (ie Capitalism)
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TumblrCamilla, 31, felt a little out of place at university. She made a few very close friends, but avoided the rowdy pub crawls loved by her peers and was reticent at seminars. Now, 10 years on, she holds back during work meetings (she's a web designer), but is happy to send her colleagues reams of ideas by email. Every weekend she potters round her flat listening to music, cherishing having a whole quiet day at home, leaving her free to think, read and be.
It's fair to say that Camilla is a typical introvert, and if this sounds like you, rest assured that you're not alone: between a third and half of the population are introverts, too. You might think you're in a minority, but that's only because you make less noise.
‘The classic definition of an introvert is that when you're out and about, even if you're having a good time, after a while you feel drained and want to recharge by yourself,’ says Susan |
stifled and replaced with “normal” thoughts and perceptions. Imaginative insights and visions are usually left to the eccentric artists, mystics, and fringe creative innovators. Much of our modern minds have been denied their left-right brain full function and pulled into a tight left-brain rational functioning that operates as mechanical, linear, competitive, and narrow.
The Modernity Project has fashioned a mind-set that is a highly focused and logical narrow-band receiver. This arrangement has been further strengthened by modern social institutions in order to suppress visionary and creative insights and our intuitive capacities. The abstract right brain, with its magical world of creative visionary thinking, has been sidelined. Much of this right-brain activity was the source for indigenous wisdom, shamanic practices, and similar traditions that modern materialism has mercilessly eliminated over the years. We have been conditioned to think of such “magical practices” as primitive, barbaric, and worthy of little more than Western colonialism and imperial rule.
The social institutions in our modern materialistic age act to influence us to reject anything extrasensory as a load of nonsense, wishful thinking, or New Age delusion. Thus with our left-hemisphere-dominated brain we live in the everyday world of matter: of material objects and external attractions. We are shown to exist as separate forces, as islands in a chaotic sea of physical and natural impacts, and at the whim of random neutral influences. Yet we now know that this is not the case.
To recap, quantum biology has shown that the body displays an incredible degree of quantum coherence, and that a quantum consciousness field exists throughout the human DNA and thus the human nervous system. Our biochemical structure is composed of a confluence of energies in complete entanglement and that operate as a nonlocal field within and outside the human body. Further DNA is a liquid-crystal, lattice-type structure that emits biophotons, which are light based. What this leads to is a new understanding that human DNA operates also as a quantum field. In other words, we can begin referring to DNA as quantum DNA. Therefore the 97 percent of human DNA that is not involved in protein building is active within a quantum state. It may well be that a future manifestation of quantum consciousness will come from part activation of the 97 percent quantum DNA that so far has baffled our scientists with its function. This quantum DNA activation may likely be related to the state of human consciousness and has remained dormant in response to human consciousness not being sufficiently prepared, or made ready, for its manifestation. This field “life force” may be similar to the pervasive pranic energy that, as Gopi Krishna states, forms the impulse for evolutionary growth in the human nervous system:
.... An ever-present possibility, existing in all human beings by virtue of the evolutionary process still at work in the race, tending to create a condition of the brain and nervous system that can enable one to transcend the existing boundaries of the mind and acquire a state of consciousness far above that which is the normal heritage of mankind at present.7
This transcendental stage of consciousness that is depicted above as being a part of our natural evolutionary heritage is connected with the human brain and nervous system. We now know that we have a DNA quantum field activated within our bodies. Some biophysicists are already discussing whether quantum behavior may not be a common denominator for all living processes. As such a quantum informational field throughout the human body will determine the coherence of our light (biophoton) resonance as a vibratory rate. If human consciousness begins to shift its vibratory rate then there is every likelihood that DNA — as a quantum field — will likewise undergo a resonance shift, bringing into activation parts of its 97 percent hitherto “inactive” capacities. This may or may not be linked to the increase in electromagnetic frequencies now impacting our solar system from the galactic core. Is there a possibility that a phase step in the “engine of evolutionary energies” is under way?
The Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev, who has studied human DNA with his research team in Moscow, found that the 97 percent “inactive” DNA actually has complex properties. Garjajev discovered that the DNA, which is not used for protein synthesis, is instead actually used for communication — more exactly for hypercommunication. In their terms, hypercommunication is a data exchange on a DNA level. Garjajev and his group analyzed the vibration response of the DNA and concluded that it can function much like networked intelligence, and that it allows for hypercommunication of information among all sentient beings.
For example, the Moscow research group proved that damaged chromosomes (such as those harmed by x-rays) can be repaired. Their method was to capture the information patterns of particular DNA and then transmit these patterns, using focused light frequencies, onto another genome as a way of reprogramming the cells. In this way they successfully transformed frog embryos to salamander embryos simply by transmitting the DNA information patterns. Garjajev’s research shows that certain frequency patterns can be “beamed” (such as with a laser) to transfer genetic information. This shows how DNA operates through resonance and vibratory frequencies. It also shows that human DNA can be modified — or altered — through the impact of external frequencies. This may also help to go some way toward validating the existence of such phenomena as remote acts of healing and other psychic attributes. It also suggests that DNA is a living, fluid, and dynamic “language” that as a quantum informational field is responsive not only to laser waves (as in the above experiment) but also EM waves and sound, given that the correct frequencies are applied.
The knowledge that human DNA can be influenced and modulated by frequencies (sound, light, language, and thought) is likely to have been known to various spiritual traditions, mystics, and teachers over the ages. This is perhaps why a variety of exercises have existed that utilize thought focus (prayer), sounds (music, chanting, singing), light (both natural light and produced light, such as in stained glass), and language (specific recitations such as a mantra and zikr). DNA appears to function not only as a protein builder (the minority function) but also as a medium for the storage, receiving, and communication of information.
Somewhat more controversially, Garjajev and his Russian colleagues also found examples where DNA could cause disturbing patterns in a vacuum, resulting in the production of what seemed to be magnetized wormholes. (For more information see the work of Grazyna Fosar and Franz Bludorf.) These wormholes appeared to function as connections outside our normal fields of time and space (which hints at interdimensional communication). This phenomenon is indeed worthy of further analysis and experimentation. Yet it does seem probable that DNA is involved with various forms of hypercommunication of which, at present, we know very little about. However, there are examples of hypercommunication at work in Nature. For example, the organization of ant colonies appears to make use of this distributed form of communication. When a queen ant is separated from her colony, the worker ants continue to build and construct the colony as if following some form of blueprint. Yet if the queen ant is killed, then all work in the colony ceases, as if the blueprint had suddenly been taken offline. This suggests that the queen ant need not be in physical contact to continue to transmit the blueprint, yet upon her death the group consciousness ceases to operate within a hypercommunicative informational field. We can thus refer to these forms of hypercommunication as quantum-field consciousness, or simply as quantum consciousness (since quantum implies non-local field effect).
At-a-distance human phenomena such as remote healing, remote sensing, and telepathy may work along comparable lines. On a more basic level we could say that many of us experience this as the sense of intuition and moments of inspiration. We may even be receiving these forms of hypercommunication when we are asleep. There are countless examples of people, artists, and designers who gained inspiration for their work in their dreams. One example is the Italian composer Giuseppe Tartini who one night dreamt that a devil sat beside his bed playing the violin. The next morning Tartini wrote down the piece from memory and called it the Devil’s Trill sonata. Not only do these experiences seem to be increasing (or perhaps people are more open to speaking of them?), but also newer generations of children are manifesting a higher level of clairvoyance and other extrasensory capacities. In recent times they have been referred to as indigo children, or the “new children.” These developments may indicate that a higher form of group consciousness is emerging within humanity and that these abilities are now finding greater expression. This does not, however, deny the presence of negative influences against collective quantum consciousness since stress, fear, and similar impacts (see Armageddon meme) all serve to disrupt awareness and manifestation of quantum states. In this context we would do well to return to those practices recommended for centuries by spiritual traditions and teachers, that is, mediation, reflection, watchfulness, and mindfulness. Einstein was famous as a daydreamer throughout his life, and he often claimed that his greatest inspiration came to him when in such states. Enhanced connectivity between humanity may thus be served by each of us paying more attention to our inner states and striving for harmony and balance in our lives.
Notes
1. Krishna, The Dawn of a New Science, 56.
2. Popp, Li, Mei, Galle, and Neurohr, “Physical Aspects of Biophotons,” 44, 576-85.
3. Ho and Popp, “Gaia and the Evolution of Coherence.”
4. Ho, The Rainbow and the Worm, 210
5. Ibid, 241.
6. Becker, The Body Electric.
7. Krishna, Kundalini, 226.
8. Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field.
9. Narby, Cosmic Serpent.
10. Narby, Intelligence in Nature.
11. Krishna, Higher Consciousness and Kundalini, 166.
12. Ibid, 147.
13. Gulbekian, In the Belly of the Beast, 251.
Becker, R. O. The Body Electric. New York: William Morrow, 1998.
Gulbekian, S. E. In the Belly of the Beast: Holding Your Own in Mass Culture. Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads, 2004.
Ho, M-W., and F-A. Popp. “Gaia and the Evolution of Coherence.” In Third Camelford Conference on The Implications of The Gaia Thesis: Symbiosis, Cooperativity and Coherence. The Wadebridge Ecological Centre, Camelford, Cornwall, 1989.
Ho, M-W. The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms. Singapore: World Scientific, 1998.
Krishna, G. The Dawn of a New Science. Markdale, Ont.: Institute for Consciousness Research, 1999.
—. Higher Consciousness and Kundalini. Ontario, Calif.: F.I.N.D. Research Trust, 1993.
—. Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
Laszlo, E. Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2004.
Narby, J. Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. London: Phoenix, 1999.
—. Intelligence in Nature. London: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2006.
Popp, F-A., K.H. Li, W.P. Mei, M. Galle, and R. Neurohr. “Physical Aspects of Biophotons.” Experientia, 1988 Jul 15;44(7):576-85.PARIS (Reuters) - French police arrested nine people and another was arrested in Switzerland in coordinated counter-terrorism swoops that follow a spate of deadly attacks in Europe in recent years.
Swiss officials said a 23-year-old Colombian woman was taken into custody after police raids there. A Swiss man aged 27 was among those arrested in parallel French police swoops linked to Islamist militant activity, they added.
French police conducted simultaneous raids on premises on the eastern edge of Paris and in the southeastern region that borders Italy and Switzerland, taking nine people into custody, a source in the French judiciary said.
Those arrested were aged from 18 to 65 years, said the French source, who spoke on condition of anonymity — standard practice for most French officials on such matters.
Le Parisien newspaper said it was possible the raids had thwarted an attack.
The French judicial source spoke of suspected participation in a criminal terrorist network and of communications via the Telegram network that many militants use because messages can be encrypted.
A Swiss statement cited suspected involvement in terrorist activity and banned Islamist militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State.
The arrests took place a week after France introduced tougher national security laws to permanently replace emergency powers given to police and intelligence services following deadly attacks by Islamist militants on Paris two years ago.
More than 240 people have been killed in France since early 2015 in attacks by Islamist militants or assailants inspired by the Islamic State group, which has sought to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and called for attacks on France.
France is among countries contributing to military operations against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who says 32 attack plots have been thwarted in the past two years in France, played down the latest operation when asked about it during a visit to Berlin.
“It’s part of operations which, sadly, are conducted relatively regularly, where we arrest a number of people we consider dangerous,” he said.A federal judge in Hawaii on Tuesday blocked the most...
A federal judge in Hawaii extended his halt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens from six Muslim-majority countries.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, who stopped the ban from taking effect this week, on Friday converted his temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction.
Watson’s ruling, issued in Honolulu, applies only to the six Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad, although the ban, announced in September, also limits travel from North Korea and Venezuela.
Trump has said the restrictions are needed to tighten security and prevent terrorist attacks, and his administration reserved its right to appeal the injunction.
Opponents say the ban violates the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against Muslims while overstepping the bounds of U.S. immigration law by discriminating by nationality.With thinly sliced beef and sweet onions over a bowl of steaming rice, this Gyudon (牛丼), or “beef bowl” is a mouthwatering Japanese classic that comes together in minutes. The secret to tender flavorful beef is to gently simmer the meat in a broth made from dashi, white wine, and sake. The broth turns into a tasty sauce that percolates into the rice, flavoring each grain with loads of beefy goodness.
What is Gyudon
Although these days Japan is famous for their Wagyu beef, using cattle for food is a relatively new concept that dates back to the latter half of the 19th century, when Japan opened its doors to foreign trade. One of the first areas to welcome foreigners was Tokyo, which is why it’s no big surprise that Gyudon got its start there.
As with most new ingredients that work their way into a culinary culture, beef was initially in a way that was familiar to Japanese people: as a hotpot (鍋 – nabé). The new dish became known as Gyunabé (牛鍋), and it was the precursor to modern-day Sukiyaki, as well as Shabu Shabu, and Gyudon. In the latter part of the 19th century, enterprising vendors started selling gyunabe on top of a bowl of rice, as a kind of fast food, and ti was called Gyumeshi (牛めし – “beef rice”).
One of those vendors was a guy named Eikichi Matsuda who was from a town called Yoshino near Osaka. He opened a small stall at Nihonbashi Fish Market in 1899 selling a hearty meal called Gyunabé Bukkake (牛鍋ぶっかけ – “covered in gyunabe”) to the workers at the market. After the Nihonbashi market was destroyed during the Great Kanto Earthquake, Matsuda moved Yoshinoya to the new market located in Tsukiji in 1926. Gyudon remained a specialty of the Tokyo area until the mid 20th century when Yoshinoya started expanding outside of Tokyo.
Gyudon Ingredients
The beef
To get an authentic Gyudon taste, you need to use a cut of fatty beef. This not only keeps the thin slices of beef moist, but the fat itself also contributes a smooth richness to the sauce. Yoshinoya is famously picky about their beef and only uses short-plate from American beef. They created a stir in 2004 when the BSE scare (and the ensuing ban on US beef in Japan) caused them to replace their iconic beef bowl with a pork bowl. For context, this would be akin to McDonald’s halting sales of hamburgers in the US and replacing them with chicken burgers.
As stocks of cheap US beef disappeared, Yoshinoya’s competitors Matsuya and Sukiya responded by sourcing beef from other countries, but Yoshinoya stubbornly refused to compromise on quality and price, sticking with pork until the ban was lifted over two years later. While some consumers simply switched brands, some loyal Yoshinoya fan’s went to the lengths of visiting the chain’s foreign locations to enjoy their beloved Gyudon.
Short-plate can be a bit hard to find, which is why I like to use boneless short ribs for my Gyudon. It tends to have good marbling and is a little more tender than short plate. Regardless of what cut of beef you use, it’s crucial to slice the meat thinly against the grain. This is what makes it possible to cook the meat for such a short amount of time and yet still have it come out tender. If you’re friendly with your local butcher, you can try asking them to cut it for you on a meat slicer, or you can lightly freeze the beef and then use a very sharp knife to slice it into sheets that are about 1/16 of an inch thick (~1.4mm).
The onions
I’ve tried a bunch of different types of onions here including Welsh onions, and leeks, but I always end up going back to plain old yellow onions. That’s because they tend to hold their shape the best. Juicer varieties such as sweet onions, tend to turn to mush when you cook them for too long, and red onions discolor, taking on an unappetizing grey appearance.
Gyudon sauce
Because Gyudon originated as a hotpot, it’s prepared in a similar manner; with the beef and onions cooked in a savory sweet broth. I like making mine with a combination of dashi stock, white wine, sake, soy sauce, and sugar. The white wine contributes just a hint of acidity while adding a fruitiness that brings out the sweetness of the onions. The sake adds plenty of umami, and the soy sauce seasons the broth.
If you’re a die-hard Yoshinoya fan and want to get the same taste, you’re going to need to use Hondashi granules (which contains MSG) to make the dashi. Personally, I find this a little heavy-handed, resulting in an artificial taste. That’s why I prefer to use a batch of dashi prepared using my homemade dashi recipe.
Gyudon condiments
While purists, tend to prefer their Gyudon unadorned, I like adding toppings such as benishōga (red pickled ginger), scallions and sesame seeds, which contribute layers of texture and taste. Here’s a list of some of my favorite condiments for Gyudon:
scallions – Brown on white isn’t a very flattering look, and a sprinkle of scallions helps add a splash of color while fortifying the flavor of the onions in the Gyudon.
– Brown on white isn’t a very flattering look, and a sprinkle of scallions helps add a splash of color while fortifying the flavor of the onions in the Gyudon. benishōga – benishōga or “red ginger” is young ginger pickled in the tangy juices produced while making umeboshi (pickled plums). Although these days the color is often added through different means, it was originally colored by the red shiso leaves added to umeboshi. The tangy, salty pickles add a nice color and taste contrast to the beef, and the ginger helps smooth out the rough edges of the beef.
– benishōga or “red ginger” is young ginger pickled in the tangy juices produced while making umeboshi (pickled plums). Although these days the color is often added through different means, it was originally colored by the red shiso leaves added to umeboshi. The tangy, salty pickles add a nice color and taste contrast to the beef, and the ginger helps smooth out the rough edges of the beef. sesame seeds – toasted sesame seeds not only add a wonderful texture to the Gyudon, but they also give the donburi a wonderful nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with the beef.
– toasted sesame seeds not only add a wonderful texture to the Gyudon, but they also give the donburi a wonderful nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with the beef. onsen tamago – onsen tamago, or “hot spring egg”, is essentially a sous vide egg. It’s cooked in its shell at 145.5 degrees F for about 45 minutes, which renders the egg white soft and custardy while thickening up the yolk and giving it a rich buttery texture. Gyudon is a bit of an outlier amongst donburi’s in that it doesn’t include any egg, and adding an onsen tamago on top fixes this minor oversight.
– onsen tamago, or “hot spring egg”, is essentially a sous vide egg. It’s cooked in its shell at 145.5 degrees F for about 45 minutes, which renders the egg white soft and custardy while thickening up the yolk and giving it a rich buttery texture. Gyudon is a bit of an outlier amongst donburi’s in that it doesn’t include any egg, and adding an onsen tamago on top fixes this minor oversight. aonori – aonori literally means “green nori” and they come in flakes that can be sprinkled on top of things. They’re most famous for going on dishes like oykonomiyaki and takoyaki, but they add a touch of color and fragrant oceanic aroma that’s a delicious take on surf and turf.
Gyudon (牛鍋) Japanese
Entree 5 from 1 vote Yield: 2 people Prep Time: 2 minutes Cook Time: 13 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Print Nutrition Metric - US Imperial Ingredients For beef bowl 1 cup dashi
2 tablespoons sweet white wine (such as Riesling or Gewürztraminer)
2 tablespoons sake
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
250 grams beef (very thinly sliced)
100 grams onion (~1/2 large onion, thickly sliced
400 grams cooked short-grain rice For garnish sesame seeds (optional)
1 scallion (chopped, optional)
benishōga (red pickled ginger, optional) Steps Add the dashi, white wine, sake, soy sauce, sugar, and onions to a pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn down the heat to maintain a simmer and cook the onions until they're mostly translucent (about 3 minutes) Add the beef, and turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring regularly until the meat is tender (about 10 minutes). Adjust salt. Serve the beef over bowls of hot rice, with some of the cooking liquid poured over the beef and rice. Garnish the Gyudon with sesame seeds, scallions, and benishōga. Nutrition Facts Gyudon (牛鍋) Amount Per Serving Calories 644 Calories from Fat 243 % Daily Value* Total Fat 27g 42% Saturated Fat 10g 50% Cholesterol 88mg 29% Sodium 1733mg 72% Potassium 721mg 21% Total Carbohydrates 59g 20% Dietary Fiber 4g 16% Sugars 6g Protein 31g 62% Vitamin A 1.2% Vitamin C 5.9% Calcium 9.1% Iron 24.3% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.Capcom’s Christian Svensson Comments On Monster Hunter 3G and 4 Localizations
By Ishaan. September 18, 2011. 1:31pm
It’s no surprise that there’s already a fairly large thread on Capcom’s community site, asking for localizations of Monster Hunter 3G and Monster Hunter 4, despite the fact that both Japan-centric games were announced just days ago.
In situations such as this, Japanese publishers — Capcom included — usually like to play coy. But not this time, perhaps. Responding to the 3G and 4 localization request thread, Capcom’s Christian Svensson says: “Noted guys. Stay tuned.”
In a different forum thread about Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Ver. on PlayStation 3, Svensson discusses the challenges of bringing that game out of Japan, highlighting that it would need to be approved by Sony in order to make the transition overseas, as the game doesn’t support Trophies or PlayStation Network multiplayer and requires a modification of Sony’s adhoc party application, which would have to be created for the west.
In this same thread, on August 30th — ie; before Monster Hunter 3G or 4 were announced — Svensson also replied to a poster asking if we could expect to see Monster Hunter games other than Portable 3rd HD Ver. localized any time soon. Svensson’s reply was as follows:
“Soon is a relative term but I would say that Western MH fans have lots to be excited about for the future. Admittedly I do hope we can find a way to get P3 HD Westward somehow sooner than those other things but as I’ve mentioned, it’s an open item.”
Monster Hunter 3G is currently slated for release in Japan on December 10th.Advertisement Farmers fund research to breed gluten-free wheat Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Kansas farmers are paying for genetic research to figure out exactly why some people struggle to digest wheat.The hard science is aimed at developing new varieties of wheat at a time when the gluten-free industry is worth nearly a billion dollars a year in the U.S. alone.The Kansas Wheat Commission is spending $200,000 for the first two years of the project, which is meant to identify everything in wheat's DNA sequences that can trigger a reaction in people suffering from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which eating even tiny amounts of gluten - comprised of numerous, complex proteins that gives dough its elasticity and some flavor to baked goods - can damage the small intestine.The only known treatment for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet free of any foods that contain wheat, rye, and barley."If you know you are producing a crop that is not tolerated well by people, then it's the right thing to do," said the project's lead researcher, Chris Miller, senior director of research for Engrain, a Kansas company that makes products to enhance the nutrition and appearance of products made by the milling and cereal industry.Though celiac disease is four to five times more common now than 50 years ago, only about 1 percent of the world's population is believed to suffer from it, and just a fraction have been diagnosed. But the gluten-free food business has skyrocketed in the last five years, driven in part by non-celiac sufferers who believe they are intolerant to gluten and look for such products as a healthier alternative.Sales of gluten-free snacks, crackers, pasta, bread and other products reached $973 million in the U.S. in 2014, up from $810 million the previous year, according to a January report by the consumer research firm Packaged Facts, which analyzed the sales of hundreds of explicitly labeled and marketed gluten-free products and brands at supermarkets, drugstores, and mass merchandisers.Understanding the causes of celiac disease and gluten intolerance is the goal of a lot of research around the world; Some focuses on human diagnosis and treatment, and others have identified about 20 of the protein fragments in wheat that causes celiac reactions.But no one has identified all of them, or bred a variety of wheat that is safe for celiac sufferers to eat."We are hoping to be one of the first to establish this comprehensive screening of reactive proteins in wheat," Miller said.The research began in July at the Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan, Kansas, and remains in its early stages, with researchers extracting proteins from seeds of various varieties of wheat. A later step will be combining the proteins with antibodies produced by the human immune system to test for reactions.He also plans to examine the wild relatives of wheat as well as modern varieties, and will tap into a Kansas wheat variety repository that dates back to the 1900s in hopes of finding a variety - perhaps one that fell out of favor among commercial farmers - that might already be low in reactivity for celiac sufferers.Researchers hope to use that variety to develop a gluten-free wheat using traditional breeding methods.An expert on celiac disease who reviewed Miller's plan online worries that it may prove "too simplistic," and fail to identify all the toxic sequences that can trigger a celiac reaction.Armin Alaedini, assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University and a researcher at the New York-based school's Celiac Disease Center, said the project may end up with a less toxic wheat product that isn't completely safe for all celiac disease patients."After all this effort, this product that is coming out... is unlikely to be superior in terms of nutritional value or baking properties and taste to the gluten-free products that are already on the market," Alaedini said.The medical advisory board for the Celiac Disease Foundation, a nonprofit based in Woodland Hills, California, could not reach a consensus on the viability of Miller's research.But the organization's CEO, Marilyn Geller, is encouraged.Her son had been sick his entire life before being diagnosed with celiac disease at age 15, Geller said, and his father also was later diagnosed. Since the disorder is genetic, her grandchildren will be at risk of getting it.If these research efforts can keep celiac disease in the public eye, more doctors will be aware of it and more federal research dollars may flow, she said.Many people with the disease would like to "eat actual wheat, with the properties of wheat that make the bread nice and fluffy," she said."The idea of having a variety of wheat that they could eat that has those wonderful wheat-like properties would certainly be very interesting for them."FORT WORTH (CBSDFW) – One person is dead following a shooting at a Fort Worth tax office late Tuesday morning.
According to reports, Medstar was called out to the scene a little after 11:00am and declared one man dead. The identity of the deceased is not yet known.
The shooting happened at the Flores Income Tax Services building on Northwest 28th Street, not far from the Fort Worth Stock Yards.
The circumstances about the shooting are not clear.
According to police, the suspect may be on the loose.
Body of Fort Worth tax office shooting victim is lead into a hearse. @KRLD pic.twitter.com/jAsh3ykw96 — Andrew M. Greenstein (@KRLDAndrewG) August 23, 2016
*This is a developing story. Listen to 1080 KRLD for the latest information.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)Health secretary faces tough questions from MPs amid growing anger at policy fiasco over cap on care costs for the elderly
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, faces a growing backlash after quietly shelving a key Tory manifesto commitment to cap care costs for the elderly, as experts claimed that the policy fiasco has cost taxpayers up to £100m.
Hunt has announced that the plan to limit care bills from next year to £72,000 for the over-65s and for younger adults with disabilities has been delayed until 2020 – despite the fact it was trumpeted by the Conservatives in the runup to the general election.
While Hunt insisted that his department was still fully committed to the policy – which ministers had claimed would prevent old people having to sell their homes to pay care bills – most experts believe that it has, effectively, been abandoned.
The announcement – and the manner in which it was made in a written statement to the House of Lords on a day the Commons was not sitting – has infuriated the Tory MP and chair of the House of Commons health select committee Sarah Wollaston, who has asked Hunt to explain his about-turn by this Thursday at the latest.
She has also told him, in a strongly worded letter, that he will be grilled before her committee in September about how and why plans contained in legislation that went through parliament before the election had been put off so abruptly, with so many questions left hanging in the air.
Wollaston told the Observer: “At the heart of this are the very serious unanswered questions for those families who are facing catastrophic care costs who thought this issue had been resolved.
“This was a key part of the Care Act legislation in the last parliament. It is very disappointing that it has been shelved.”
In her letter to Hunt last week, Wollaston said it was “regrettable” that the decision had been made on a day the Commons was not sitting, and the day after a major speech by the secretary of state in which he had made no mention of the change.
Wollaston, who is a GP, has also asked the health secretary to clarify what ministers intend to do to address the longstanding situation that people who pay for their own care are also subsidising those whose costs are inadequately met by local authorities.
Experts say huge sums of public money have been wasted on fees for employing the top advertising agency M&C Saatchi to explains the reforms included in the Care Act 2015; on the development of IT systems to run it, and the cost of running public consultations.
James Lloyd, director of the Strategic Society Centre thinktank, said: “I would estimate the ‘capped cost’ reforms have cost the taxpayer between £50m-£100m to date.
“This is a lot of money at a time that councils are cutting support packages for the most vulnerable members of their communities. And it is a lot of money when the problems associated with the reforms were readily apparent back in July 2011.
“Up and down England, 152 local authorities have been training frontline staff and managers in relation to the reforms and developing IT systems.”
Richard Humphries, assistant director of The King’s Fund, an independent health policy charity, said: “Postponement to the end of this parliament makes it almost certain that these reforms will not happen. In effect they have been abandoned, not postponed.”
Brian Tabor, co-founder of Carematters, a financial advice firm that specialises in issues for older people, said that his firm had had a “significant increase” in calls since the care-cap announcement on 17 July.
“People had been thinking, ‘They are going to cap my fees, I don’t need to worry’,” he said. “Now people with an ageing parent in care are suddenly concerned, thinking ‘How am I going to manage that extra cost?’”
In their election manifesto the Tories specifically said that they had introduced a cap on care costs, adding that “no one will have to sell their home to pay for care”.
Liz Kendall MP, shadow care minister, said: “This is a shameful broken promise from David Cameron, and devastating news for older people and their families who have been trying to plan for the future. Not only have the Tories failed to tackle the crisis in social care, David Cameron is now going back on the already watered-down proposals to protect people from catastrophic costs of care at the end of their lives.
“As we clearly saw in the budget, this is a government that gives with one hand and takes with another. While they found the money to pay for an inheritance tax cut for the most well-off, they are rowing back on their manifesto promise to cap the care costs for the many.
“The Tories owe people an apology for this latest failure to sort out social care.”NEW YORK-“There is a class war going on in this country,” AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said during a September 24 panel discussion at the Cooper Union, “and my class is losing. We’ve got to turn that around.”
The panel brought together Trumka, N.Y. Times columnist Bob Herbert, Working America executive director Karen Nussbaum as well as journalist and professor Eric Alterman, all to discuss the question, “Which Way for the Working Class?”
In one form or another, each of the panelists spent their time discussing ways to bring to life the old labor movement adage, “Organize, organize, organize,” with the current dire economic conditions as a backdrop.
Herbert referred to his recent trip to suburban Connecticut, during which he visited a food pantry. While there he encountered dozens of people, he said, who, until economic calamity struck them, “thought they were solidly rooted in the middle class.”
Trumka was clear on labor’s plans for November. “What working people face in this election is a pretty sharp decision about whether we we’re going to go forward and try to build an economy that really is different and works for everyone,” he said, “or whether we’re going to go back to the days of a few years ago, where the rich are doing extremely well, where we’re going to get rid of every regulation, where Wall Street runs wild and has control of the agenda.”
Trumka said that the his federation was promoting “worker-to-worker” contact, and argued that real, in-person conversations with peers would do more than anything else to bring someone out to vote against the Republicans. The AFL-CIO is planning to contact each of its more than 11 million members an unprecedented 25 times each between now and Election Day.
According to Nussbaum, Working America, an arm of the AFLiCIO that organizes working people not already in unions, has already contacted more than 1 million people since 2009, averaging about 25,000 to 30,000 contacts weekly.
“These people,” she said, “are non-partisan and non-ideological.” She went on to say that the vast majority of people with whom she and other WA organizers come into contact are simply worried about paying their children’s tuition, jobs and other economic issues.
“The right,” she said, “has |
. After several days the young woman still had not returned and she was considered to be a missing person. According to her family, the last time they had heard from her was a phone call they had received on January 1, at which time she had seemed to be her normal self.
Oddly, Masakela would be arrested several weeks later after trying to use the missing woman’s traveler’s checks to pay the bill for the room when he finally checked out of the hotel. Indeed, Masakela would become a prime suspect because of this, which was only exacerbated by the fact that authorities soon learned that he had had a history of domestic violence, rape, and drug use. Other street musicians who were asked about the man also claimed that he was a habitual liar and wooer of women. However, when he was brought in for questioning Masakela denied having any idea of where Ylenia had gone, and with no evidence to hold him authorities were forced to release him. He proceeded to fade into the background.
One spooky clue came in several weeks after the vanishing, on January 30, when a security guard at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas by the name of Albert Cordova claimed that he had been on duty on the evening of January 6 and had seen a woman at Woldenberg Park, near the Mississippi River, who he believed closely matched Ylenia’s description and was wearing a flower-print dress of the same type she had been wearing when she had vanished. According to the guard, the woman had been sitting on a pier and that when he had approached her to tell her it was too late to be in the park she allegedly said she “belonged to the river,” jumped into the river, and disappeared under the waves. At the time the Coast Guard had been notified and a search for the mysterious woman had been carried out, but no body was ever found, making it impossible to know if the woman had been Ylenia or if she had really even drowned at all. Regardless, there were many other alleged sightings of Ylenia in the weeks after the incident, but none of these were ever verified as being her.
Was the mysterious swimmer Ylenia Carrisi and did she drown? If so, why would she have been out there and why would she jump into the river? If it was not her, then just what did happen to Ylenia? Besides the clues pointing to her drowning there have of course been other theories as well. The simplest one is that she committed suicide, but her family denies that she had been suicidal in any way, and have asserted that even if she had been the one who jumped in the river she was an exceptionally strong swimmer and would not have done so to kill herself. Another idea is that she really was harmed or killed by the street musician Masakela, a notion supported by her family, who think not enough was done to investigate him, but with no evidence at all to charge him with it this is a dead end so far. There is also the possibility that Ylenia was kidnapped and forced into human slavery or abducted for some other nefarious purpose, with her mother, Romina Power, saying:
I’ve heard a lot of strange stories in New Orleans about white slave trade and girls being abducted for black-magic rites. I believe she is being held somewhere against her will.
Despite all of these sinister possibilities there has been no evidence of any foul play in the vanishing of Ylenia Carrisi, and this is all pure speculation. In the meantime, there have been no new suspects, no new clues or leads, no revelations, no nothing. Indeed, there is no evidence of anything at all other than that Ylenia left her things behind and walked out of that hotel right on off the face of the earth. There is no apparent reason for any of it, and the disappearance remains stubbornly unsolved.
It is rather tragic to see these young, beautiful, possibly quite talented people with big dreams in Hollywood have those visions of a star-filled future cut short. One wonders what would have become of them in the business had they not mysteriously disappeared into the ether. Would they have become major stars, beloved by many? Could they have launched into the pantheon of unforgettable icons and the stratosphere of fame if they had just not veered off into the unknown? Or would they have been used, abused, and disposed of by the show business beast like so many others before them? Unfortunately, considering they have seemingly dissolved into thin air, in these cases we will never know.Show full PR text
Global Technology Power Players Unite to Form Alliance for Wireless Power Creating Spatial Freedom in Consumer Electronics Charging
CTIA WIRELESS 2012
SAN DIEGO & SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wireless technology leaders Samsung and Qualcomm Incorporated have joined other technology leaders to form the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), it was announced today.
The independently operated organization's mission is to promote global standardization of a wireless power transfer technology that offers spatial freedom, to develop product testing, certification and regulatory compliance processes, and to foster industry dialogue with regulators on wireless power policy development. The alliance is targeting a broad base of consumer electronic devices to establish a worldwide wireless power technology ecosystem.
The A4WP will focus on a new wireless power transfer technology that provides spatial freedom for charging of electrical devices in cars, on tabletops and for multiple devices simultaneously.
Benefits of this wireless power approach include: a transmitter and receiver antenna design that is easily implemented, a simple wireless power control system, and the ability to transfer power through non-metallic surfaces. The A4WP expects to achieve this capability without the need for costly multi-coil repeaters, which are required for other systems. A single specification is envisioned that will address simultaneous charging of multiple devices ranging from very low power products, such as Bluetooth headsets, to today's most sophisticated tablets.
The A4WP is open to new members and welcomes participation from vendors in all segments of the potential ecosystem, including: handheld devices, consumer electronics, semiconductor products, automotive, furniture, test equipment, cellular operators, and retail.
Alliance members will be available to discuss membership opportunities at the launch event on May 8, to be held at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, USA, during CTIA Wireless 2012.
According to the analyst firm IMS Research, shipments of wireless power enabled devices are projected to surpass 100 million by 2015.
Jason dePreaux, a research manager at IMS Research comments, "Wireless power has the potential to increase convenience and improve the user experience in consumer devices like mobile phones by untethering the charging process. For these benefits to be realized, wireless power infrastructure must be deployed to enable wireless charge points in the home, at work, or while traveling without concern for compatibility. Industry alliances will play a critical role in developing this infrastructure."
"Qualcomm is delighted to be involved in this dynamic initiative to set the standard for wireless power. WiPower™ Technology by Qualcomm is ideally suited for a forum like the A4WP. As a leader in delivering enabling technology solutions, Qualcomm is helping to define the next-generation consumer electronics experience," said Derek Aberle, Executive Vice President and Group President, Qualcomm. "Going forward, we hope to welcome additional companies and organizations who are looking to contribute towards setting the best possible standard for wireless power."
"A4WP will accelerate the commercialization of this technology and will contribute to expanding its market. As a founding member of A4WP, Samsung is committed to supporting standardization of wireless charging technology boasting spatial freedom, contributing to the eco-system, and exploring possibilities of a variety of services," said Executive Vice President KiHo Kim, head of Digital Media & Communications R&D Center, Samsung Electronics.
Joining Qualcomm and Samsung are: Ever Win Industries, Gill Industries, Peiker Acustic, Powermat Technologies, and SK Telecom.
Editors notes:
A4WP will focus on the standardization of a wireless charging solution offering spatial freedom, a certification program and supporting marketing activities with the intent to expand the wireless charging technology eco-system.
In addition, members will also work on the following:
* Set up and issue technical specifications
* Collaboration on a wireless charging solution ecosystem
* Co-operation with existing industry organizations
* Securing new members from across the industryImage copyright Lucasfilm Image caption The trailer, beginning with a shot of British actor John Boyega, reveals little about the plot
The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been unveiled online and in US cinemas.
It gives fans an 88-second glimpse of the new film, the first new addition to the series since 2005.
Featuring shots of the Millennium Falcon, it also offers the first look of a new cross-shaped lightsaber.
The film, which reunites original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher is scheduled to be released in cinemas on 18 December 2015.
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption A new droid is featured
The trailer opens with a sweeping desert landscape, with a voice saying: "There has been an awakening, have you felt it?", before British star John Boyega appears wearing a Stormtrooper uniform.
It goes on to feature a football-like droid, a Stormtrooper army and fellow British star Daisy Ridley on a type of speeder bike.
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption A Stormtrooper army is seen preparing for battle
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption British actress Daisy Ridley also stars in the JJ Abrams film
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption Fans were able to see a new type of speeder bike
A hooded villain is seen walking through a snowy wood with the new lightsaber, along with shots of X-Wing and Tie Fighters, before the Millennium Falcon sweeps across the sky.
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption A pilot - who some speculate is Oscar Isaac - flies an X-Wing fighter
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption A new cross-shaped lightsaber was revealed
Image copyright Lucasfilm Image caption The trailer ends with Tie Fighters pursuing the Millennium Falcon
According to Time, one cinema in Austin, Texas, is playing the trailer in a separate standalone screening 17 consecutive times.
Each screening will be followed by two minutes of discussion by a panel of Star Wars experts.
The seventh instalment of the sci-fi saga is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.Revealed in every tiny detail: The secret life of harvest mice as never seen before
A stunning and rare insight into the secret tiny lives of adorable harvest mice is revealed in incredible pictures captured painstakingly over 12 months.
Photographers Jean-Louis Klein and Marie-Luce Hubert, both from the Alsace, France, spent the year snapping the furry subjects in a project that ended with their release into the wild.
Laying patiently in meadows and reed beds, the pair were able to capture the fascinating images.
One shows a mouse being suspended in the air on the tails of his fellow critters. Another curious mouse was spotted inspecting a camera while balanced precariously between two sheaves of wheat.
Hang on a mo: A harvest mouse uses all four legs and its tail to steady itself on two stalks of grass as it snares a cicada in the reed beds of Alsace, France
Steady on: A harvest mouse wraps its tail around a plant stem to help it balance while it investigates
Peek-a-boo: An inquisitive mouse balances on two ears of wheat to take a close look at one of the cameras
A female harvest mouse rolls her baby carefully up a plant stem towards her nest, while a cobweb creates a stunning backdrop for a male perched on canary grass
From the studio - where the pair documented tiny newborns and their first few weeks of life - to the great outdoors where all of the 30 mice were eventually released, the pictures take viewers through almost every event they faced.
Also captured are stunning underwater pictures of one of the animals swimming.
To demonstrate how the mice often take to the water in the wet meadows they inhabit, 55-year-old Jean-Louis and 46-year-old Marie-Luce gave one of their subjects a dip in a mouse-sized aquarium before releasing it into the wild.
Other behaviour documented in the captivating series were fighting, nest-building, foraging, balancing and even a mother mouse carefully rolling one of her babies along a tiny branch. Jean-Louis said: 'All of the harvest mice came originally from captivity and were eventually released into a field where we continued to photograph them, always carefully choosing a suitable habitat where we knew they could survive.
'We also wanted to show the behaviour of the animals during maternity, but we wouldn't have been able to get this in the wild without disturbing the mother and there was a danger a wild mother might have abandoned them.
'Instead we shot the maternal behaviour in a studio before releasing the mice once the babies were mature enough for the wild. 'When shooting in the wild, we didn't need to hide. You just had to find a good spot, lay very still for a long time, and wait for the mice.'
Safe as houses: A harvest mouse keeps watch from the safety of its nest made from Phragmites reeds
Hang about: A harvest mouse shows its agility climbing down a wheat stalk, while young harvest mice put their tails to playful use during a display of acrobatics
Mother love: Inside her nest, a female regurgitates to feed her ten-day-old babies
The incredible patience of Jean-Louis and Marie-Luce, which sometimes saw them frozen in position for up to four agonising hours, paid off by allowing them to witness some amazing moments rarely seen by humans.
One such moment saw an adventurous young mouse getting into an unusual position - hanging from the tails of three of its siblings.
'These were young mice becoming independent and playing not far away from their nest,' said Jean-Louis.
'After the mother leaves, the young remain together for a few days while they grow in confidence and then disperse.
'Like a monkey, the harvest mouse has a prehensile tail, using it as a fifth leg. The tail is mainly used to keep balance while climbing among grass stems. That way, the mouse is free to use both his hands.
'The tail is instinctively always searching for something to grasp. It's usually a grass stem but sometimes it's simply a neighbouring mouse.'
The project was the culmination of 20 years of fascination of the animals for Jean-Louis and Marie-Luce.
Marie-Luce said: 'Two decades ago we saw our first harvest mice in a huge vivarium in a wildlife sanctuary. We were absolutely fascinated by their little acrobats and we hoped to find time one day to learn more about their behaviour in the wild.
'We were very happy to finally complete this project last year in an effort to document all the ways that they behave.Fares have gone up again, but the latest punctuality figures expose serious flaws in our rail network
Only four out of 10 trains are running on time on many of Britain’s busiest routes, with CrossCountry and TransPennine trains the least likely to arrive on schedule, according to punctuality figures from Network Rail.
The data, which covers mid-November to mid-December 2015, shows that punctuality has fallen significantly since the same period in 2014. On the toughest definition of timeliness – arriving within one minute of the schedule – almost half of all trains were late. Even using the industry’s preferred measure, where “on time” is within five minutes of the schedule for commuter trains and 10 minutes on long-distance routes, nearly a fifth of trains were late. At the worst operator, Virgin Trains West Coast, this figure was 29%.
Overall, 83% of trains in Britain ran within five minutes of their schedule during the period. By comparison, in Germany 92% of trains were on time during November. The data on punctuality, for a period before flooding hit parts of the UK, comes amid anger at the latest fare rises – it has emerged that British commuters spend as much as six times more of their salaries on rail fares than their European counterparts.
The Network Rail data shows that the “right time” performance (within one minute of the schedule) of CrossCountry trains, which operates routes from Penzance to Aberdeen, was just 29.8% in November/December, rising to 82% for trains arriving within 10 minutes of their schedule. First TransPennine Express, meanwhile, saw 68% of its trains turn up at the “right time”, while the “on time” measure was 72.5%, down from 85.4% in the same period in 2014.
On Virgin West Coast just 35% of trains hit the “right time” and 71.1% “on time”. Rival long-distance provider Great Western proved more reliable, with a 60% “right time” arrival figure.
The best operators for timeliness were Chiltern Railways, London Overground, Arriva Trains Wales and c2c. The latter, which operates between Fenchurch Street and Southend, ran 78.3% of trains within one minute of the schedule and 95.9% within five minutes.
But the bigger picture shows reliability generally falling since the same time last year, adding fuel to calls this week for the network to be taken back into public ownership. The number of trains running at the “right time” fell from 57.2% to 54.2% nationally, while the numbers “on time” fell from 85.8% to 82.6%.
Train operating companies in the past said delays were the result of circumstances beyond their control. But the data shows that for Govia Thameslink, Southeastern and ScotRail more than 30% of delays were caused by the train operators’ own failures – in most cases a failure to employ enough drivers.
Govia’s Great Northern route, which has suffered numerous delays since it took over the franchise from First Capital Connect, ran nearly a quarter of all trains more than five minutes late in the run up to Christmas.
Passenger group Transport Focus says train performance “remains poor and in some cases downright terrible”. A spokeswoman says: “Passengers must send a clear message to the train companies and Network Rail that they have not got what they paid for, and claim compensation.”
The timetable is our promise to passengers, and we never want people to suffer delays or disruption Rail Delivery Group
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, says: “The timetable is our promise to passengers, and we never want people to suffer delays or disruption. Train operators and Network Rail are working hard together every day to deliver a better, more punctual railway and to give people better information when things do go wrong. The rail industry has cut the number of incidents causing delays every year, but a busier network means incidents can have a greater knock-on effect.”
Network Rail adds that the “right time” data is not entirely reliable, but it is working to improve the quality of the figures.
How to claim compensation
Finding out exactly what you are entitled to is difficult, as the train operating companies all have different compensation terms – often above the statutory minimum.
As a general rule, most train firms pay at least 50% of the single fare for delays of 30-59 minutes. For a return ticket you will get back at least 50% of the fare paid for the affected part of the journey. Following delays of 60 minutes or more you are entitled to 100% of the single fare, or for return tickets 100% of the fare paid for the affected leg. The whole amount is paid if both legs are delayed by an hour.
Each train company website lists its own process and entitlement. Many will now let you claim electronically, and you should be paid within 28 days. Just search “delay repay” on Google plus the name of your train company. You have to claim within a month of the delay.
Until last summer you were only entitled to National Rail vouchers as compensation, to be spent on further tickets. But in July the rules changed and you can now request money. Transport Focus says fewer than 15% of passengers claim the compensation they are owed – mostly because they are unaware that the process exists.
If you a season ticket holder the train operators assume you travel 22 days a month, and divide the cost of the monthly ticket accordingly, then pay the 50% or 100% compensation depending on the length of the delay.
One of the problems commuters face on short journeys is that delays often run to 20-25 minutes, which does not qualify for compensation. In November’s autumn statement George Osborne proposed compensation should be paid after a delay of 15 minutes, but this isn’t expected to come into force anytime soon.
Just before Christmas Which? lodged a super complaint with the railway regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, claiming the system isn’t working. The consumer group said as many as 47m journeys a year end in cancellation or delay, and it should be easier for passengers to get their money back. There are websites which will make the claims on your behalf, for a fee. DelayRepaySniper.com charges from £3.75 a month and claims to have recovered £289,000 for commuters in the past month alone.Image copyright PA
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has become one of the UK's richest politicians after selling Hotcourses, his privately owned business.
The firm, which runs websites listing courses for students around the world, is being bought for £30m by the Australian firm IDP Education.
Mr Hunt owns a 48% stake in Hotcourses, which is therefore valued at just over £14m.
He said he would use the money to fund campaigns after he leaves politics.
"I am incredibly proud to have set up a successful business, even prouder of the current Hotcourses team who have taken it from strength to strength, and intend to use a significant proportion of the proceeds to campaign for causes I believe in when I eventually leave frontline politics," Mr Hunt said.
He helped to set up the firm, which initially printed a directory of educational courses, in 1996.
The MP for South West Surrey stepped down as a director in 2009 but retained his shareholding.
The company now runs several educational websites, such as Postgraduate Search and The Complete University Guide, as well as Hotcourses.
Headquartered in London, it employs more than 300 staff in the UK, Australia, the US and Asia.
It has more than two million registered users for its websites, which list half a million courses offered by more than 5,000 educational institutions in 48 countries.
IDP Education, based in Melbourne, is half-owned by a consortium of 38 Australian universities and recruits and advises university students around the world who want to study abroad.
It is also a co-owner of the English language testing business IELTS.
IDP Education said that it and the Hotcourses businesses would retain their identity and continue to operate separately, but would collaborate.
Chief executive of the Hotcourses group, Simon Emmett, said: "The Hotcourses Group and IDP Education are both longstanding members of the international education community, and this agreement brings together a world leader in education search technology and tools, with a world leader in student placement and preparation. Together we will now provide unparalleled support and guidance at every step of the student journey, from enquiry to enrolment."
Hotcourses was up for sale in 2013 but no deal materialised.The first step in getting a protection order is for you to complete a form known as Form 2: Application for a Protection Order.
Where should I go?
Form 2 is available at police stations and courts, and the Justice and Constitutional Development website, although police may send you to the courts for help with filling out the form. The police should also give you Form 1, which is a document explaining your rights. If you're hurt or need a different place to stay because of the abuse, the police must help you to get medical treatment and help you with finding a place of safety. It's also within your rights to request a police escort when collecting personal property.
Any court that covers the area in which you live or work, or in which your abuser lives or works, or which covers the area in which any incidents of abuse took place can grant you a protection order. Ordinarily, you should go to the courts during the court hours (weekdays from 8am - 4pm). After-hours applications will normally be taken only if you can show you will suffer undue hardship if the matter is not dealt with immediately.
Some courts have a room set aside to deal with domestic violence cases. Volunteers are sometimes available to help you with filling out Form 2, and the clerk of the court may also be able to help. The clerk will also give you Form 3, which explains how the protection order works and warns you against lying when you complete Form 2, as this is a criminal offence. Form 3 cannot be downloaded online but is available at the court.
Do I have to apply myself? Can someone else apply on my behalf?
Yes, someone else can make the application on behalf of you. All they need is your written permission to do so. If you're a minor (under 18 years of age), mentally impaired, unconscious, or unable to give permission for any other reason, someone else can apply for you without your permission. Minors under the age of 18 years old you may also apply for a protection order without the assistance of parents, guardian, or anyone else. If you're applying for a protection order on behalf of a minor, there must be material interest in the wellbeing of the minor. This means a minor's parents, guardian, sibling, family member, social worker or teacher can apply for a protection order on behalf of a minor.
What information do I need?
Form 2 is made up of 9 sections.
Part 1: The applicant
This is information about the applicant, also called the complainant. If you're applying for a protection order for yourself, you're the applicant unless you are applying for someone else, in which case this is information about the person on whose behalf you are applying - the person who is the victim of abuse. You will need to give the applicant's ID number, home and work address, telephone numbers, job, and relationship of the victim (for example, wife, friend, or relative) to the abuser (the respondent).
Part 2: If you are not the applicant
You don't need to complete this section if you're applying for yourself. However, if you're applying on someone else's behalf, this is information about you. This includes your ID number, home and work address, job, relationship to that person (for example, friend, counsellor, or relative), reason for making the application, and whether you have permission from the person for whom you're applying.
Part 3: The respondent
Information about the abuser (the respondent) including their ID number, home and work address, telephone numbers and job should be provided. Residential and work addresses in particular are very important. If you don't know the addresses then you should give any information about where they can be found, such as public places or friends they might visit often. This is so the Sheriff or police can find them.
Part 4: others affected
Details of anyone else also affected by the domestic violence, how they are affected and whether any of them are disabled.
Part 5: statement of abuses
An affidavit (statement) detailing the acts of domestic violence by the abuser, including whether weapons or firearms were used, what injuries you had and whether you needed medical treatment.
Part 6: any information on how urgent the application is
For example, it may be urgent if you have reason to fear the abuser may act violently again - maybe they've obtained a weapon or recently threatened you or something has happened that you know will provoke them.
Part 7: what conditions you need in the protection order
These conditions should match up with the types of abuse you've noted. For example, if you've described economic abuse, you should ask that a condition of the protection order be that your abuser not abuse you economically. The form has a list of conditions and you need only tick the correct boxes. Don't tick all of them as some contradict each other, so decide carefully what protection you need.
Part 8: any additional conditions
You can also ask for conditions that are not on the first list. Some of these are listed and you need only tick the correct boxes and fill in details. There's also a block to fill in for any other conditions that may not be listed.
Part 9: personal property
A list of property that you consider to be personal. This is important if you have asked for assistance from the police in collecting your personal property.
What will happen after completing the application form?
Once Form 2 has been completed, it has to be certified. This means that you have to make an oath in front of a commissioner of oaths saying that you know and understand everything you've written. This means you don't object to taking a sworn oath and that you consider the oath to be binding on your conscience. This can be done at a police station, at the courts by a Justice of the Peace, or by a magistrate.
Once Form 2 has been completed and certified, you need to take it to the clerk of the court, who will fill out another form called Form 4: Interim Protection Order and set a return date (the date on which your final protection order will be considered) for the case. The clerk will hand both Form 2 and Form 4 to the magistrate, who may sign the forms granting an interim protection order. Form 4 cannot be downloaded online but is available at the court.
When will the interim protection order be granted?
In some courts, the magistrate might meet with you briefly before granting the order to ask any questions they might have about your request for immediate protection. At some courts, you may have to return a day or two later to find out whether the interim order has been granted, while in other courts the forms can be signed the same day; generally, this depends on how busy the court is and how urgent your application is.
What happens once the interim order is granted?
Once the interim order has been granted you'll be given a copy and it will also be "served on" (handed to) your abuser by the police, or if you can afford Sheriff's charges, by the Sheriff (in South Africa the Sheriff is an officer of the court responsible for serving documents that need to be served in civil cases). The interim protection order doesn't come into effect until it has been served. Serving of the interim order by the police is free. If you can afford the service charges, it is better to ask for the Sheriff as the police have many cases and are likely to take longer than the Sheriff. The clerk of the court can also arrange for service by registered mail, but this involves a cost and will not work if your abuser does not go and collect and sign for the documents at the post office.
Whoever serves the order must give the clerk of the court a "return of service" document to confirm that they have served the interim order and state when they served it. Once the clerk has received the return of service, they must ensure that a certified copy of the interim order, as well as a warrant for the arrest of the abuser (Form 8) is served on (given to) you. This warrant only comes into effect if your abuser breaks the conditions of the interim protection order.
If you don't receive the warrant you should go to the court to collect it. Having the warrant means, that should your abuser break the conditions of the interim order, you can have him arrested or charged by going to the police and giving them the warrant and an affidavit (Form 10). The police must then arrest him if it appears you might suffer harm.
The interim protection order will have a date called a "return date" listed on it. On this date you (the applicant) and your abuser (the respondent) will have the opportunity of giving the court further information about the abuse, and the conditions in the interim order will either be confirmed, changed or set aside by the magistrate, in a final protection order. The return date may not be sooner than 10 days after serving of the order.
What happens if the interim order is not granted?
In some cases, the magistrate may decide not to grant an interim protection order. Instead, a notice (Form 5) will be served on your abuser, which will also have a return date. It will warn your abuser to appear in court on that day and give reasons why a protection order should not be made against him. In this case, no warrant of arrest is issued.
?
On the return date, your final protection order can be granted. This is a permanent order and will remain in force until an application for setting it aside is granted by a magistrate. On the return day, your case will be considered in the magistrate's chambers (office), not in open court. No one except officers of the court and people directly involved in the matter may be present. However, you may bring along up to 3 people to support you. You or the respondent can have lawyers representing you at any stage of these proceedings. No one is allowed to publish or reveal the identity of any party in these proceedings. Your physical address may also not be revealed in any documents and proceedings related to the protection order if you ask for that on Form 2 (unless it's necessary for describing the conditions of the protection order).
Under what conditions will a final potection order be granted?
If your abuser doesn't oppose the order, or if your abuser isn't present but there's proof the interim order or notice was served on your abuser, or if neither of you are present but there's proof the interim order was served, then it's likely the final protection order will be granted.
Under what conditions will the protection order be set aside (not granted)?
If neither of you appear, and there's no proof of service, then it's likely the interim order will be set aside. If only you appear but there is no proof of service, then it's likely the interim order will be extended to another return date. If only you appear or both of you appear and request that the interim order be set aside, then it will be set aside.
Under what conditions will the case go to trial instead?
If your abuser is present and contests the granting of a final protection order, the case will go to trial. This means the magistrate will hear all the evidence given by you or any other witness and make a decision. At trial, the magistrate can direct that any cross-examination of you or any other witness by the abuser (where a lawyer isn't doing the questioning for him) be done by putting the question to the court and then having it relayed to you by the magistrate, so that the abuser doesn't question you directly. You should ask for that if you think you will feel intimidated under cross-examination.
What happens once a final protection order is granted?
A warrant of arrest is issued immediately on the granting of the final protection order, but it's suspended as long as your abuser does not break the conditions of the protection order. You must make sure you take the warrant of arrest with you. Having the warrant means that, should your abuser break any of those conditions, all you need to do is complete a sworn affidavit (Form 10) stating how the conditions of the protection order have been broken and hand your affidavit together with the warrant of arrest to the police. The police must arrest your abuser immediately if it appears you might suffer harm. If it doesn't appear you might suffer harm, then the police may instead give your abuser a notice to appear in court on a criminal charge of breaching the protection order.
If you use up the warrant (it can only be used once and becomes "executed and cancelled") and you need a second one, or the first warrant is lost or destroyed, you can apply for another one (Form 9).
If your abuser is found guilty of breaking the conditions of a protection order in a criminal case, he can be fined or sentenced to prison for not more than 5 years.Indian Media Giant's New Policy For Employees: Hand Over Your Social Media Passwords
from the how-not-to-do-it dept
Over the last half a decade, Techdirt has written a number of times about employers seeking the right to ask for the social media passwords of their employees. But a story on the Quartz Web site suggests that India's largest media conglomerate has gone much further in its demands. In fact, there are two stories on Quartz covering this, posted on consecutive days. Here's what the first one reported: Under a contract unveiled to employees last week, Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd -- India's largest media conglomerate and publisher of the Times of India, Economic Times, among many other properties -- told staffers they are not to post any news links on their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. This runs counter to many social-media policies in newsrooms across the world, which often encourage journalists to share content widely.
But BCCL, as the company is known, is telling journalists that they must start a company-authorised account on various social media platforms. They also have the option of converting existing personal social media accounts to company accounts. On these, they are free to discuss news and related material. The company will possess log-in credentials to such accounts and will be free to post any material to the account without journalists' knowledge. It is now also mandatory to disclose all personal social-media accounts held by the journalist to the company. This understandably drew wide criticism for being clueless about how social media works, and how companies might try to benefit from it -- see, for example, Mathew Ingram's analysis on Gigaom. This barrage of negative comments coupled with resistance from the journalists affected seems to have forced the company to backtrack quickly -- but not much, as the second Quartz story explains: There are two main changes. An earlier clause that said the company could continue to post updates from an employee's account even after they leave, has been removed. Secondly, the clause that earlier prohibited an employee from posting news links on her personal social media account has now become more ambivalent. It states: If you are planning to maintain two user accounts, then the company expects that all content related to your primary role at BCCL should be solely posted on your Company User Account, though it can be re-tweeted/shared from your Personal User Account. It is not clear whether that means journalists can or cannot post news and related links on their personal account. But they can retweet them off the official accounts. Adding to confusion, the company said it strongly encourages staffers to maintain one account, which by default, becomes the official account. Moreover: Like in the previous contract, the company claims unhindered access to all followers/friends of company user accounts. Any future revenue from such accounts shall belong solely to the company. It remains to be seen whether this slightly amended policy proves more acceptable to BCCL employees, or whether resistance continues and it is changed again. In any case, it's a reminder that important issues about who "owns" and controls social network accounts used by employees are still largely unresolved many years after the problems first surfaced.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Filed Under: employment, india, passwords, social |
corresponding “Hide This Update” item that is disabled except when you are in the “Updates” section and an update is selected. Activating this command should remove the update from the list indefinitely.
Below “Hide This Update” in the “View” menu should be a “Show Previously Hidden Updates” item, which is enabled whenever there are any, regardless of which screen you happen to be in. Selecting the item should navigate to the “Updates” screen if you are not there already, and indefinitely un-hide all updates.
The “Updates” screen should show updates for not just Backports, but any NotAutomatic channel, for example “For Purchase”.
When a new version of Ubuntu is available, it should appear as the first row in the “Updates” screen, above the “Update All” panel. In this case the panel should say not “{N} updates available”, but “{N} other updates available”. The row itself should, instead of an “Update” button, have an “Upgrade…” button that opens the upgrade dialog.
Smarter ellipsis of software list view items
In a software list view, if the secondary text is wider than the space available, it should be ellipsized in the middle, not the trailing end (because unique parts of package names are often at the trailing end).
Copying software list view items to the clipboard
Whenever an item in a software list view is selected, “Edit” > “Copy” should be enabled. Choosing it should copy to the clipboard the item’s title and summExtreme Couponing, which premiered on TLC, has elicited some extreme reactions. Some reviewers and viewers have scorned the show as an example of obsessive selfishness. Others admire the ingenuity of the shoppers who are able to reduce $1,000-plus grocery bills to a little over $100.
Me, I think the show is a canny example of two elements floating through the country right now. The first is a fascination with extreme behavior as it’s filtered through reality TV, whether we’re talking about people who sire a lot of children (hello, Duggar family) or who stuff their bodies with a lot of drugs (hello, Intervention and Relapse). The second is the fact that a lot of people don’t have as much money as they used to. It’s the economy, not-stupid!
Sure, Extreme Couponing presented some people stocking up on things they don’t need, such as the guy who admitted he didn’t eat mustard even as his wife bought dozens of bottles of the stuff. But that’s the way TV works these days: People watch The Biggest Loser and, at best, maybe pick up some tips and a bit of inspiration to lose weight. It’s junk programming, yet it imparts a sliver of useful information.
The same goes for Extreme Couponing. If, while gawping at the people who spend their lives scouring trash cans for newspaper coupon supplements, a viewer learns how to reduce his or her grocery bill for the family, what’s the harm? Entertainment and free(ish) food.
I won’t lie: I’m not going to add Extreme Couponing to my DVR schedule. But I’m also not going to discount, if you’ll excuse the expression, the impulses and, in some cases, needs that inspire its popularity.
Agree? Disagree?
Twitter: @kentuckerWorld Wrestling Entertainment/WWE Edit
Kerwin White's caddie (2004–2005) Edit
Nemeth signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2004.[8] He was assigned to their developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), debuting as "Nick Nemeth". He feuded with Paul Burchill and challenged unsuccessfully for the OVW Television Championship, losing a championship match against then-champion Ken Doane on August 12, 2005.[2]
Nemeth was called up to the Raw roster shortly afterwards, making his television debut on the September 19, 2005 episode of Sunday Night Heat.[citation needed] He was made the enforcer and sidekick for Chavo Guerrero, Jr., who was using a golfer in-ring persona and going by the ring name of "Kerwin White".[2] As such, Nemeth became White's caddy.[2] His wrestling debut came on an episode of Sunday Night Heat, teaming up with White in a tag team match against Shelton Benjamin and Matt Striker.[citation needed] After the death of Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero dropped the "Kerwin White" character, and Nemeth no longer played the role of his caddy and tag partner. After a few months of wrestling in dark matches and at house shows, he was sent back to OVW.[2]
The Spirit Squad (2005–2006) Edit
Nicky (Dolph Ziggler) (left) with Mikey and Kenny as part of the Spirit Squad in 2006
Nemeth became a part of The Spirit Squad faction, a group of five wrestlers who used the in-ring personas of male cheerleaders, and adopted the name Nicky in OVW during late 2005.[2] The Spirit Squad members trained with real cheerleaders and gymnasts to ensure their characters were believable.[11] On January 23, 2006, they had their WWE television debut as a group, appearing on Raw and helping Jonathan Coachman win a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Jerry "The King" Lawler by performing cheers for Coachman and distracting Lawler.[12] They later became a part of the ongoing scripted feud between WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. The heel McMahon brought in the Squad to attack Michaels on numerous occasions, including placing them in multiple handicap matches.[13][14]
They also wrestled in the tag team division, and on April 3, on Raw, won the World Tag Team Championship when Kenny and Mikey, with outside help from the other three Squad members, defeated Big Show and Kane.[15][16] After winning the championship, all five members of the Spirit Squad were recognized as the champions, allowing any combination of them to defend the championship under the Freebird Rule.[2]
In May, McMahon signed another Handicap match, with the Spirit Squad facing Michaels. The match never started, however; instead the Spirit Squad attacked Michaels, and, as part of the storyline, shattered his knee with a steel chair.[17] McMahon brought Triple H to the ring to attack Michaels with a sledgehammer; however, after Triple H felt that the Squad had disrespected him, he attacked the group.[17] This led to Triple H and Michaels reforming D-Generation X (DX) and they began a feud with the Spirit Squad.[18][19] DX played various sophomoric jokes on the Squad and the McMahons, as well as defeating the Spirit Squad in handicap tag team matches at Vengeance and a clean sweep in an elimination handicap match at Saturday Night's Main Event.[19][20][21][22]
At the same time as their feud with DX and their alignment with McMahon, the Squad also wrestled other teams in Raw's tag division over their World Tag Team Championship, successfully defending the championship against the teams of Jim Duggan and Eugene, Charlie Haas and Viscera, and Snitsky and Val Venis.[20] They then entered a lengthy feud with The Highlanders, whom they eventually defeated to retain the championship at the Unforgiven pay-per-view in September.[23][24] The Squad as a whole later began a losing streak with separate members losing singles matches to Ric Flair on consecutive episodes of Raw, until Kenny managed to defeat him on the October 23 episode.[25][26][27][28][29] It was then announced that Flair and a WWE legend, selected by interactive voting, would wrestle the team for the World Tag Team Championship at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view in early November.[29] The fans chose Roddy Piper, and he and Flair defeated Kenny and Mikey to win the championship.[30]
The group disbanded on the November 27 episode of Raw, when they were defeated in a five-on-three handicap match by DX and Flair. In a backstage segment later that night, DX placed all members into a crate stamped "OVW, Louisville, Kentucky", a reference to the developmental territory from which the Squad had come.[31]
Developmental territories (2007–2008) Edit
Nemeth returned to OVW on January 17, 2007, at the television tapings, again using his Nick Nemeth ring name, along with Mike Mondo, formerly Mikey in the Spirit Squad, as the "Frat Pack". The pair teamed with Mike Kruel in a match against Seth Skyfire, Shawn Spears, and Cody Runnels.[32] The team disbanded in the early parts of 2007.[33] Nemeth then competed in several dark matches before the OVW television tapings, competing against several wrestlers including Chris Cage, Bradley Jay and Jake Hager, before he began teaming with Mondo again in August.[34][35][36][37]
At the end of August, Nemeth and Mike Mondo were moved to the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental territory and in his debut there, Nemeth gained the nickname "The Natural" and defeated Hade Vansen.[2][38] In November 2007, Nemeth gained Big Rob as his manager, but their alliance was short-lived.[citation needed] At the start of 2008, he tweaked his name to "Nic Nemeth" and began teaming with Brad Allen, with the pair gaining Taryn Terrell as their valet.[8] Nemeth and Allen started a frat boy type ring character with Terrell as a sorority girl. On March 22, Nemeth and Allen won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship by defeating defending champions Eddie Colón and Eric Pérez, but lost the championship to Colón and Pérez on April 15.[8][39] Throughout April and May 2008, Nemeth wrestled in several dark matches prior to Raw, losing to Kofi Kingston and Ron Killings on several occasions.[citation needed] Soon after, he returned to the name "Nic Nemeth", and began teaming with Gavin Spears.[citation needed] The pair defeated Colón and Pérez to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship on August 16, but lost it to Heath Miller and Joe Hennig less than a month later.[40]
Repackaging (2008–2010) Edit
Ziggler in September 2008
On September 15, 2008, Nemeth re-debuted on Raw (as a heel), introducing himself in a backstage segment under the name "Dolph Ziggler".[1] On October 10, Nemeth was suspended for 30 days for a violation of WWE's Wellness Program policy.[41] He returned to Raw on November 17 in a backstage segment with Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels.[42] In his first match on Raw under the Ziggler name, he lost to Batista on the December 1 episode.[43] The following week he got his first victory as Ziggler, by countout, against R-Truth.[44] The next week on Raw, he picked up his first televised pinfall victory, when he defeated Charlie Haas.[45] Ziggler competed in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, in which he was eliminated by Kane after 21 seconds.
On April 15, 2009, Ziggler was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft.[46] He made his debut on the April 17 episode of SmackDown, defeating the United States Champion, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a non-title match, and, as a result, the following week he demanded a match for the championship.[47][48] On the May 1 episode of SmackDown, however, he failed to win the championship, after he was pinned by MVP.[49] Ziggler then started a rivalry with The Great Khali, losing to him by disqualification after attacking Khali with a steel chair.[50] As a result, Khali began coming out to the ring during and after Ziggler's matches, in attempt to gain revenge and to stop Ziggler from cheating.[51][52] Over the next few weeks, Ziggler would defeat Khali by countout and disqualification after making it look like Khali had struck him with a steel chair.[53][54] At The Bash pay-per-view, Ziggler defeated Khali in a No Disqualification match by pinfall, after Kane interfered and attacked Khali.[55]
Ziggler then entered an on-screen relationship with WWE Diva Maria and she became his valet.[2] He simultaneously started a scripted rivalry with Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio, who defeated Ziggler at the Night of Champions and SummerSlam pay-per-views to retain the championship.[56] In September, Mysterio lost the Intercontinental Championship to John Morrison, and Ziggler entered a feud with Morrison after defeating him by countout in a non-title match, but lost to him at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.[57] On the episode of SmackDown following Hell in a Cell, Ziggler ended his on-screen relationship with Maria after she accidentally cost him a match against Morrison for the Intercontinental Championship. He again failed to win the Intercontinental title from Morrison twice, wrestling him to a double countout on the November 13 episode of SmackDown and losing a two-out-of-three falls match the following week to end the feud. On the February 26, 2010 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler defeated John Morrison and R-Truth in a triple threat qualifying match to compete in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI, but was ultimately unsuccessful.[58][59]
Relationship with Vickie Guerrero (2010–2012) Edit
In June 2010, he began a romantic storyline with Vickie Guerrero, who began accompanying him to the ring.[60] On the July 9 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler defeated Chavo Guerrero and Montel Vontavious Porter in a triple threat match to qualify for the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, where he once again failed to win the match.[61][62] On July 28 at the tapings of the August 6 episode of SmackDown Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the first time.[63][64] In his first title defense at SummerSlam, he retained the championship against Kingston when the match ended in a no contest due to interference from The Nexus.[65] Ziggler was able to make a successful title defense against Kingston at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, and against Kaval at Survivor Series.[66][67]
In November 2010, Ziggler was chosen a Pro for the fourth season of NXT, with Jacob Novak as his Rookie.[68][69] On the January 4, 2011 episode of NXT, Ziggler won a battle royal to earn the right to choose a new rookie, and chose Byron Saxton. His original rookie, Novak, was the first rookie eliminated later that night.[70] On February 8, 2011, Ziggler's second rookie, Byron Saxton, was also voted off of NXT.[71]
Ziggler successfully retained the Intercontinental Championship at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs in a three-way ladder match against Kingston and Jack Swagger,[72] but lost the title to Kingston at SmackDown on January 4, ending a five-month reign at 160 days. That same night, Ziggler won a four-way match against Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre and The Big Show to become the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship.[73] At the Royal Rumble, Ziggler was unsuccessful in his title match against Edge.[74] On February 4, Ziggler's storyline girlfriend Vickie Guerrero, who was the acting General Manager of SmackDown, banned the spear – Edge's finishing move – and decided that if Edge used it, Ziggler would be awarded the championship.[75] Ziggler was again defeated by Edge in a rematch on the February 11 episode of SmackDown, but because Edge used the spear,[76] Guerrero declared Ziggler the new champion on the February 14 episode of Raw.[77] Prior to Ziggler's official coronation ceremony on SmackDown on February 18, Guerrero also fired Edge, claiming that he had attacked SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long several weeks prior. However, Long interrupted Ziggler's ceremony and accused Guerrero of orchestrating the attack, prompting Guerrero to reveal Ziggler as the attacker and Long to rehire Edge. Long also gave Edge a rematch against Ziggler, who lost the championship back to Edge[78] and was then fired by Long.[79]
On the March 7 episode of Raw, Ziggler was introduced as the newest member of the Raw roster, and defeated John Morrison in a singles match; Ziggler was accompanied by Guerrero, who had also been fired from SmackDown, but she was forced to earn her spot on the Raw roster.[80] Ziggler, along with Guerrero, and LayCool then feuded with Morrison, Trish Stratus, and Jersey Shore guest star Snooki, culminating in a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania XXVII which Ziggler and his team lost.[81][82] On the April 18 episode of Raw, Vickie introduced the "new and improved" Ziggler, who came out with his hair cut short and brown and went on to defeat Evan Bourne in a singles match.[83] Ziggler had re-bleached his hair by the May 23 episode of Raw.[84]
Ziggler beat United States Champion Kofi Kingston in a non-title match on the May 30 episode of Raw, leading to a championship match at Capitol Punishment which Ziggler won to earn his first United States Championship.[85][86][87] The next night on Raw, Kingston invoked his rematch clause in a two out of three falls match and won via disqualification, allowing Ziggler to retain. After Jack Swagger suggested to Guerrero that she should manage him in addition to Ziggler, a jealous Ziggler teased tension with Swagger.[88][89] This, coupled with Ziggler's concurrent feud with Alex Riley, led Ziggler to defend and retain his United States Championship in a fatal four-way match against Swagger, Riley, and John Morrison at Night of Champions.[90] On the September 19 episode of Raw, Ziggler lost a non-title match to Zack Ryder when guest star Hugh Jackman helped Ryder by punching Ziggler in the face.[91] Although Ziggler later claimed to have a broken jaw due to Jackman's punch, it was reported that the supposed injury was fake.[92] Later that night, Guerrero officially began managing Swagger, and Swagger began interfering in Ziggler's matches to help him win.[93] Ziggler and Swagger unsuccessfully challenged Air Boom for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Hell in a Cell and at Vengeance, where Ziggler also successfully defended the United States Championship against Ryder.[94][95] He went on to successfully defend the championship against Morrison at Survivor Series.[96] At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Ziggler lost the United States Championship to Ryder.[97]
On the December 26 episode of Raw, Ziggler defeated WWE Champion CM Punk in a gauntlet match for a championship opportunity following interference from John Laurinaitis.[98] The following Raw, Ziggler defeated Punk by countout after Laurinaitis interfered again; as a result, Ziggler did not win the championship.[99] At the 2012 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Ziggler failed to capture the WWE Championship from CM Punk.[100] At the Elimination Chamber, Ziggler failed again to capture the WWE Championship after being eliminated second by Chris Jericho.[101] Nemeth noted to Arda Ocal in an interview for The Score Television Network that the Elimination Chamber left him with multiple minor injuries and it is a match he least looked forward to working.[102]
On the February 27 Raw, Ziggler and Swagger unsuccessfully challenged Primo & Epico for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a Triple Threat tag team match, also involving Kofi Kingston and R-Truth.[103] On the March 19 Raw, Ziggler and Swagger were announced as the newest members of Team Johnny for the 12-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXVIII and on the April 2 Raw, Ziggler and Swagger unsuccessfully challenged Santino Marella for the United States Championship in a triple threat match.[104] After the match, Ziggler began a feud with Brodus Clay, who attacked Ziggler with a headbutt after he and Swagger tried to attack Marella.[104] On the following episode of Raw, Ziggler and Swagger were defeated by Clay and Marella in a tag team match.[105] In the following weeks, Ziggler and Swagger lost to Clay and Hornswoggle in singles and tag matches.[106][107] At Extreme Rules, Ziggler was again defeated by Clay.[108] In May, Ziggler and Swagger unsuccessfully challenged Kofi Kingston and R-Truth for WWE Tag Team Championship, first at Over the Limit and second on the May 28 episode of Raw, resulting in Ziggler showing signs of wanting to break away from Guerrero and Swagger.[109][110]
On the June 11 episode of Raw, Ziggler pinned The Great Khali, Swagger and Christian in a fatal four-way elimination match to become the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship,[111] but at No Way Out, Ziggler lost the title match to champion Sheamus.[112] On the following Raw, Guerrero, finally tired of the bickering between Ziggler and Swagger, arranged for a match between them; Ziggler won the match and Guerrero's affections.[113] Ziggler received another shot at the World title on the June 29 SmackDown, but was again defeated by Sheamus in a triple threat match, also involving Alberto Del Rio.[114]
World Heavyweight Champion (2012–2013) Edit
On the July 3 SmackDown, Ziggler defeated Alex Riley to qualify for a spot in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match.[115] On July 13, Ziggler, Zack Ryder and Justin Roberts were involved in a car accident in San Diego while driving from Comic-Con; none of them suffered severe injuries.[116] Two days later at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Ziggler won the Money in the Bank ladder match to guarantee him the opportunity to challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship at a time of his choosing within the next year.[117] Later that night, Ziggler attempted to cash in the briefcase on Sheamus after Alberto Del Rio attacked him after their match, but Del Rio stopped Ziggler from cashing in.[117] On the following episode of SmackDown, Ziggler again attempted to cash in the briefcase on Sheamus following a tag team match with Alberto Del Rio, but was laid out by Rey Mysterio and Sheamus before he could do so.[118] During this time, Ziggler began a feud with Chris Jericho after claiming he had lost his touch, which resulted in Jericho attacking him on two occasions,[119][120] and defeating him in a singles match at SummerSlam.[121] The night after SummerSlam, Ziggler defeated Jericho in a rematch; as a result Ziggler retained his Money in the Bank contract and Jericho's WWE contract was terminated.[122] Following this, Ziggler began feuding with Randy Orton on SmackDown four days later, after Orton hit him with an RKO when Ziggler tried to cash his Money in the Bank contract on a vulnerable Sheamus.[123] The following week on SmackDown, Ziggler faced Orton in a match that was won by Orton,[124] Ziggler defeated him in a rematch on Raw by pinning him while holding his tights.[125] Ziggler faced Orton again at Night of Champions where he lost again, ending the feud.[126] On November 18 at Survivor Series, Ziggler captained the traditional 5-on-5 elimination tag team match opposite Mick Foley and won the match by last pinning Orton, making him the sole survivor of the match.[127]
Ziggler then began feuding with John Cena after he sided with Vickie Guerrero to help defame Cena and AJ Lee by alleging they had a romantic relationship. On December 16 at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Ziggler retained his Money in the Bank briefcase in a ladder match after AJ interfered and turned on Cena.[128] The following night on Raw, while trying to diffuse an argument between Vickie and AJ, AJ unexpectedly kissed Ziggler, leaving him confused. Ziggler then attempted to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Big Show after Show was assaulted by Sheamus, but he was attacked by Cena before the match could start. Later, Ziggler teamed with AJ to face Cena and Vickie Guerrero, however, the match ended in a disqualification after the debuting Big E Langston attacked Cena, also starting an on-screen relationship between Dolph and AJ.[129] Ziggler ended 2012 having wrestled the second most TV/PPV matches that year with 90; however, he had the most TV/PPV losses with 57.[130] Ziggler ended his feud with Cena after losing to him on the January 7, 2013, episode of Raw, in a singles match and in steel cage match the following week, despite outside interference from AJ and Langston in both matches.[131][132] On the January 21 episode of Raw, Ziggler won a Beat the Clock Challenge to earn the right to choose what number he can enter in the Royal Rumble match, first or second.[133] Six days later at the Royal Rumble, Ziggler entered at number one and lasted nearly fifty minutes before being eliminated by Sheamus. During the match, Ziggler resumed his feud with the returning Chris Jericho whom Ziggler managed to eliminate.[134] The following night on Raw, Ziggler and Jericho were placed in a "Strange Bedfellows" match against WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane), but they lost when Kane hit a chokeslam on Ziggler and pinned him after Jericho framed him for pushing Kane.[135] On the February 18 episode of Raw, Ziggler was defeated by World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio by submission in a non-title match, and afterwards Langston attacked Del Rio and then Ziggler made a failed attempt to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase after Del Rio's ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez ran off with it.[136] After defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Kane in singles matches due to interference from Langston,[137][138] Ziggler and Langston were given a shot at their titles.[139] The title match took place on April 7 at WrestleMania 29, where Ziggler and Langston unsuccessfully challenged Bryan and Kane for the WWE Tag Team Championship.[140]
The following night on Raw, Ziggler cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on an injured Alberto Del Rio to win his second World Heavyweight Championship.[141] After gaining the World Heavyweight Championship, Ziggler began feuding with Del Rio and Jack Swagger over the title.[142][143][144] Ziggler was originally booked to face Del Rio and Swagger in a three-way ladder match at Extreme Rules;[145] however, Ziggler suffered a legitimate concussion at a SmackDown taping, thus removing their match from the pay-per-view and resulting in Ziggler being absent from television for a month.[146][147][148][149] On June 16 at Payback, Ziggler faced Del Rio in his first title defense of the World Heavyweight Championship and during the match, a double turn took place; Ziggler turned face by displaying a never-say-die attitude while Del Rio turned heel by repeatedly and ruthlessly targeting his head to take advantage of his concussion, win the match, and end Ziggler's reign at 69 days.[150][151][152] On July 14 at Money in the Bank, AJ cost Ziggler his title rematch against Alberto Del Rio, after she prematurely snuck into the ring and hit Del Rio with her own title, prompting a disqualification.[153] On the following Raw, Ziggler ended his relationship with AJ due to her actions the previous night and AJ exacted revenge by costing Ziggler a non-title match against Del Rio, then she attacked Ziggler and unleashed Langston on him.[154]
On the July 29, 2013 episode of Raw, Ziggler defeated Big E Langston via disqualification after AJ Lee attacked Ziggler.[155] In a rematch on the following week, Ziggler was defeated by Langston after a distraction by AJ and Kaitlyn.[156] This led to a mixed tag team match at SummerSlam, where Ziggler and Kaitlyn defeated Big E and AJ.[157] Ziggler was later unsuccessful in capturing the United States Championship, when he lost to Dean Ambrose, at Night of Champions[158] and on the October 16 episode of Main Event.[159] Ziggler also failed to win the Intercontinental Championship from Curtis Axel on the November 11 episode of Raw.[160] In December, Ziggler lost two number one contender matches for the Intercontinental Championship, first to Damien Sandow and later to Fandango.[161]
Feud with The Authority (2014–2015) Edit
Dolph Ziggler as the Intercontinental Champion during his third reign
At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Ziggler entered the Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by Roman Reigns.[162] On April 6 at WrestleMania XXX, Ziggler competed in the 31-man Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but was eliminated by Alberto Del Rio.[163] On June 29 at Money in the Bank, Ziggler competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship contract, but the match was won by Seth Rollins.[164] Ziggler later competed in a Battle Royal for the vacant Intercontinental Championship on July 20 at Battleground; however, he was abruptly eliminated from behind by The Miz.[165] After Ziggler defeated Miz in a non-title match the following night on Raw, he received a rematch at SummerSlam, where he defeated Miz to win the championship for a second time.[166] The next night on Raw, Ziggler successfully retained his title against Miz, after he was counted out.[167] At Night of Champions, Ziggler dropped the title to Miz, only for Ziggler to win it back the following night on Raw.[168][169] Ziggler then retained the championship against Cesaro on September 26 episode of SmackDown,[170] in a triple threat match against Cesaro and Miz the next week on Raw[171] and at Hell in a Cell against Cesaro in a 2-out-of-3 falls match.
On the October 28, 2014 episode of Raw, Ziggler and John Cena shook hands together backstage, which The Authority interpreted as a deal to plot against them. As a result, Ziggler was put in a match against Kane, which Ziggler won. Ziggler then joined Team Cena at Survivor Series.[173] On the November 10 episode of Raw, Ziggler was brutally attacked by the returning Luke Harper.[174] The following week, Harper was awarded a title match against Ziggler, which Harper won with assistance from The Authority, ending Ziggler's reign at 56 days.[175] At Survivor Series, Ziggler emerged as the sole survivor for a second time. Ziggler contributed to Rusev being counted out, then after all his teammates were eliminated, he pinned Kane and Luke Harper. Triple H twice prevented Ziggler from pinning final opponent Seth Rollins, but the debuting Sting provided an assist to help Ziggler win the match, thus ousting the Authority from power.[176] At TLC on December 14, Ziggler defeated Harper in a ladder match to win his fourth Intercontinental Championship.[177] On the December 16 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler finally defeated Seth Rollins in a singles match after failing numerous times before. Three days later, Rolling Stone named Ziggler as the 2014 WWE Wrestler of the Year.[178] On the first Raw of 2015 (dated January 5), the recently reinstated Authority forced Ziggler to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Bad News Barrett and he initially won. After Barrett then attacked and injured Ziggler's shoulder, Kane declared the match as two-out-of-three falls, Barrett proceeded to defeat Ziggler for the title after Kane distracted him. Later that night, Ziggler alongside Ryback and Erick Rowan were fired by the Authority.[179]
On the January 19 episode of Raw, Sting provided another assist, as John Cena won Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan's jobs back.[180] Ziggler returned to television on the next SmackDown and qualified for the Royal Rumble match by beating Barrett in a non-title match.[181] In the 2015 Royal Rumble match, Ziggler entered as the last entrant, scored two eliminations but was quickly eliminated by Big Show and Kane.[182] At Fastlane, Ziggler competed together with Rowan and Ryback in a six-man tag team match against Rollins, Big Show and Kane, which they lost.[183] On the March 5 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler was announced as a participant in the 7-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 31, which was won by Daniel Bryan.[184]
Various feuds (2015–2016) Edit
After losing an Intercontinental Championship match against Daniel Bryan on the Raw following WrestleMania 31,[185] Ziggler was attacked and Brogue kicked by the returning Sheamus.[186][187] Claiming that "the era of underdogs (like Ziggler) is over",[188] Sheamus and Ziggler started a feud, with Sheamus challenging Ziggler in a Kiss Me Arse match at Extreme Rules, which Ziggler won.[189] However, Sheamus refused to follow the stipulation, and instead made Ziggler kiss his arse.[190] Ziggler lost the rematch against Sheamus at Payback.[191] Ziggler participated in the Elimination Chamber match for the vacated Intercontinental Championship; other participants were winner Ryback, King Barrett, R-Truth, Sheamus who eliminated Ziggler, and Mark Henry at Elimination Chamber.[192] At Money in the Bank, Ziggler competed in the Money in the Bank ladder match, which was won by Sheamus.[193] On July 4 at The Beast in the East live event in Japan, Ziggler and John Cena defeated King Barrett and Kane in the main event.[194]
the booking. They've 50/50ed the roster to death to the point where no one is...the booking. They've 50/50ed the roster to death to the point where no one is over. Dolph Ziggler's character is dead. He used to get a great pop coming out, but now the fans are conditioned to know that he's gone as far as he'll ever go, so they sit on their hands when his music hits now. —Mike Tedesco, writing for wrestleview.com in 2015, describing Ziggler's slump into irrelevance.[195]
Ziggler became involved in an on-screen love affair with Lana, the former manager of Rusev, when she kissed him at Raw on May 25, with Lana serving as Ziggler's valet during his matches.[196][197] During this time, Ziggler started incorporating elements of 80's glam rock fashion into his entrance and ring attire; typical of 80's bands like Mötley Crüe and Poison.[198] In June, after Ziggler and Lana confirmed their storyline relationship, Summer Rae allied with Rusev to even the odds.[199][200] After an attack by Rusev, Ziggler suffered a bruised trachea in storyline,[201][202] which was to give him some time off to film a new WWE Studios movie, titled 6:42.[203] Ziggler returned on the August 17 episode of Raw, aiding Lana during a confrontation against Rusev and Summer Rae.[204] This altercation prompted a match between Ziggler and Rusev at SummerSlam, which ended in a double countout due to interference from Lana and Rae.[205][206] In a rematch on September 20 at Night of Champions, Ziggler emerged victorious.[207][208][209] On October 11, when TMZ reported the real–life engagement of Rusev and Lana, this officially ended their feud.[210][211] The following night on Raw, Ziggler unsuccessfully challenged John Cena for the United States Championship.[205]
On the October 22 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler started a feud with the debuting Tyler Breeze, who aligned with Summer Rae and attacked Ziggler.[212] Ziggler entered a tournament for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, defeating The Miz in the first round match[213] before being eliminated by Dean Ambrose.[214] Ziggler and Breeze continued their feud,[215] which culminated in a match between the two at Survivor Series, which Ziggler lost.[216] Ziggler would then enter a feud with Kevin Owens with the pair trading victories throughout the rest of December and beginning of 2016. Ziggler entered the 2016 Royal Rumble as the 28th entrant, lasting 7 minutes, but was eliminated by the eventual winner, Triple H.[217] The next night on Raw, Ziggler faced Kevin Owens in a losing effort, but defeated him the following two weeks in a row.[218][219] On the February 15 Raw, Ziggler was involved in a fatal five-way match for the Intercontinental Championship, where Owens regained the title after pinning Tyler Breeze.[220] At Fastlane, Ziggler challenged Owens to a match for the Intercontinental Championship, which he lost.[221] In the following weeks, Ziggler began to re-ignite his feud with The Authority, and on the |
world around me, kind of going out in concentric circles maybe, better for everybody. I would be so happy if tomorrow we could wave a magic wand and I could walk down any street in Washington, D.C., and I wouldn't be afraid of being mugged. If I could go to any park in the city at any time of day or night with my friends and we could sit around and have a conversation and watch children playing and have young teenagers holding hands, and you wouldn't be living in fear. I don't care who gets the credit for that. But that's how I see my life. I mean, I want to live in a place that helps everybody be better than they are and achieve whatever their potential is. I don't care who's president. I don't care who's governor. I don't care who's the big muckety-muck that gets attention. I just want the conditions to change. And that's always the way that I have felt. And it is. I don't talk about it a lot, because it sounds sort of stupid, I suppose, because here I am, I've got a lot of wonderful aspects of my life. My husband is president, I'm very proud of him and I think he's going to be a great president, because I think he cares about the right things. But I told him all during the campaign that if I thought there had been anybody else who I thought could talk about the world the way we see it, who could motivate people to understand they had to change personally, and it wasn't just some top-down programmatic approach to our lives that we needed to change, it was who we were, and the meaning in our own lives, heck, I would have been ecstatic about that. I just, I just want this country to realize what its real future could be and to come to terms with a lot of the problems that it's had, and to work them out, and that's what I care about in a political and day-to-day sense, about how we live together and how we support each other and how we take care of each other. I don't care who gets the credit. That is irrelevant to me.
Sherrill: Alan Schecter [Hillary’s Wellesley professor and senior advisor] said that you were never inflammatory or radical in any way in college, and I'm just wondering if you gave a lot of thought to how much of an activist you wanted to be at that time, or if it was just your nature to be more cautious.
Clinton: I don't know if cautious is the right word. I like to favor what is being advocated can actually bring about results. Because there are very few sweeping events that you see historically whether you're talking about a college or a community or a country or anything else. Most change is done incrementally and over time. And I've always felt that way. But, even if you had very strong feelings about something, you had to think about how to best communicate those feelings so that people could understand what you were trying to say. So I learned a lot about that in college because it was a very tough, emotional time to be going to college and to care about issues. And, you know, a lot of my friends were deeply involved in various movements and emotionally committed to them and I supported their feelings but I was always looking for ways that would get to where they wanted to go that would be effective. Maybe some of it was my nature, but maybe some of it was real thoughtful and trying to work out how to help the people who I thought were really more in tune with what was going on. Who understood the pain and the anger and anguish of …the war and all that was happening, but whose emotion was not always tied to being effective, and emotion is a necessary engine, but you've got to have a track that you're going down once you've got it fired up. So that's kind of how I tried to understand what we needed to accomplish. And I have very strong feelings about a whole range of issues and believe deeply a lot of personal and social matters. But I also want to go back to what I said earlier, which is that what I'm interested in is creating an environment in which more people have an opportunity to make good decisions for themselves, and the emotional catharsis that comes with saying it, which gets you the momentary applause and the great screams and yells of approbation are usually not enough to sustain the energy that's needed to bring about the changes that will actually create the conditions that I'd like to see.
Sherrill: Your politics changed a lot when you were in college, like a lot of people, but is there something that happened that was emotional or intuitive -- or (was it) gradually a more rational process?
Clinton: I mean, I'd always been a Republican because my parents were Republican and I lived in a very Republican community and because a lot of the issues that I cared about I could view in terms of what I used to think of as the Republican party. I mean, individual responsibility, conservatism that really does try to conserve, that is not driven by the buzzwords as the modern ideological battles we've had. And part of why I began to change my thinking my senior year in high school was because of a very smart social studies teacher who, in 1964, wanted to have a debate between Johnson and Goldwater. And I was a Goldwater proponent, a Goldwater girl. I used to dress up with all these friends of mine and we'd go do things for Goldwater. And so my social studies teacher took a good friend of mine, who was a leading Democrat, assigned her the task of representing Goldwater, assigned me the task of representing Johnson. We both complained, and she held her ground. So I had to really go and look at things from the other side. I had to do a lot of research. I had to understand all this Great Society stuff. I had to understand civil rights stuff that Johnson was promoting and it was a real eye-opener for me. But, when I got to Wellesley, I was elected president of the College Republicans, and I remember going to a big meeting of Massachusetts Republicans. It was like the convention or something. And I remember walking around, talking to a lot of people, and I began to see more clearly what a movement to a radical version of republicanism actually meant. So I got back to college and it was more emotional and intuitive, I just went to see one of my good friends, who was a vice president of the College Republicans and I said: "I don't know what I am right now, but I know I can't be the president of the College Republicans." It was the first year when I was at Wellesley, '65-'66. I worked very hard to elect Senator Brook. We had worked in his campaign, and I really believed in that. But I didn't believe in a lot of the other stuff that I saw happening in the Republican Party after the Goldwater defeat. And so I went to my friend and I said: "I'm going to resign, so you're going to become the president. I'll do anything that I can to help you but I just can't do this. I just don't believe it anymore. I just can't be a part of it." So I didn't identify with any particular party for a while after that because I was mostly interested in issues and I was reading a lot and trying to understand what I did believe, and I had a wonderful course in International Relations at Wellesley my sophomore year, one of the best college courses I ever had, and the professor, a woman named Barbara Green, was so intellectually acute, I mean she really raised, for us, every possible theory about America's role in the world and it was so apt because we were getting more deeply involved in Vietnam, and I must have spent -- I did all the reading I was supposed to do... and much, much more reading. I remember sitting in the reserve room of the Wellesley Library, hour upon hour, reading everything I could find about what was happening in the world. And I remember also, it was my freshman or my sophomore year, Henry Kissinger came out to Wellesley to speak and we all crowded in to hear him speak. He was speaking about the future of Europe, and I stood in line for a long time to go up and talk to him after it was over, and I remember asking him, you know: "You didn't say very much about Germany's future. What did the future of Europe have to do with the resolving policy in Vietnam?" I was just very interested in all of that. So I just spend a couple of years searching for my own sense of politics, carrying with me some of my sort of bedrock beliefs in promoting individual responsibility and promoting the kind of conservatism in which you do try to sustain institutions like families and communities against the onslaught of change, so that there can be some anchoring for people as they go through the last part of the twentieth century.
I mean, a lot of my politics is a real mixture, it's an amalgam, and I'm so amused when these people try to characterize me: "She is this, therefore she believes the following twenty-five things," you know, half of which I don't believe, but nobody ever stopped to ask me or tried to figure out the new sense of politics that Bill and a lot of us are trying to create--
Sherrill: No labels, or--
Clinton: Yeah, no labels, and all of it.
Sherrill: Most people do say that you're an amalgam--
Clinton: Yeah, they do say that. And yet, the political system, and the reporting of it, keeps trying to force us back into the boxes, it's so much easier to talk about, you don't have to think so much if you just fall back on the old Republican versus Democrat, liberal versus conservative mindset. It's a big disservice to all of us in the process that we're trying to go through trying to figure out how to make sense out of responsibility at an individual and personal level, and how do you support it, instead of saying it's one or the other.
Sherrill: You also stumbled upon Saul Alinsky, at some point in college?
Clinton: It was interesting, because I was looking around for a senior thesis subject, and I was very interested in the proper balance between government programs and community responsibility. And what Alinsky was doing was so interesting to me because he was trying to organize people on the grassroots level, sometimes in opposition to the programs of the Great Society that were trying to help them. I thought it was a terrific kind of case study for the tensions between making people independent and dependent, which you could very easily argue were the kind of conflicts that were going on. And so I read what he had written, and I met him, and I talked to people about him, and I wrote a senior thesis in which I basically argued that he was right in some respects to be against what called then 'The Welfare Files' and even at that early stage, I was against these people who came up with these government programs that were more supporting of the bureaucracy than actually helping people. I've been on this schtick for 25 years, and I really enjoyed getting to meet him because he was a real character, he was a radical. And I talked with Senator Moynihan about him because Senator Moynihan knew him very well. He and Senator Moynihan had very hard-fought but mutually respectful battles about all of these issues. In fact, we had a very nice conversation about Saul Alinksy, because Moynihan is one of the few people who I know now who knew him. So I loved talking to him about that. But that's what I was trying to work out in my own mind, I mean, people have to take responsibility for themselves, they cannot expect the government to come in and make their lives better. But they can expect the government to make conditions in which that responsibility is more likely to be rewarded than penalized. So that's a continuing refrain for me, and he helped me a lot with that.
Sherrill: I read a story in the Boston Globe about your time at Wellesley--
Clinton: I haven't seen that, I need to see that--
Sherrill: And there's a story about how you took a black woman to church with you, one of your first weeks at Wellesley. And I'm thinking, in retrospect, if that seemed a daring thing to have done or --
Clinton: You know, when I got to Wellesley, I had never had any relationship with any black person my age except through school exchanges or my church work. And I was exhilarated by my friendships with all sorts of people. That was one of the experiences that Wellesley gave me, and I don't think we even thought about it, but a friend of mine and I went to church together one Sunday and didn't realize that what we were doing was considered unusual, and it was such a telling moment for me, because I'd not gone to school with any black kids, I'd not gone to church with any black kids, and what seemed at the time then so natural, that here was this friend of mine and we were going to go to church together, would be viewed as unusual was one of those real "click" experiences that you have in your life. Looking back on in now, I guess it would still be unusual for some people in some parts of our country. Churches on --
Sherrill: Somebody said it's the most segregated hour of--
Clinton: That's right.
Sherrill: I wanted to talk to you just a little bit about your church life. Did you go to church through college or at Yale?
Clinton: I went sporadically when I was in college and in grad school. I'd got to chapel at Wellesley and I'd go into town at Wellesley on occasion, and the same at Yale. I'd go to chapel or, I'd go to--there were a couple of small churches in New Haven that I really liked. There was a really small, beautiful episcopal church that I'd liked to go to.
Sherrill: You shopped around, or--
Clinton: Yeah, I shopped around, but it was mostly because I wanted to go to different services or I wanted to go to different churches because I heard that somebody was going to preach great sermon or some church had a great choir. So I was, yeah, just real open. And I knew that I wasn't going to be living in those communities when I graduated from college or law school so I kept my membership at home.
Sherrill: And, I think there was an interview in the United Methodist magazine where you talk a bit about how when you met the president, you talked about your religious beliefs and what mattered to you, and--
Clinton: Yeah, yeah we did that a lot.
Sherrill: And have you found a church here?
Clinton: I mean, I'm trying. We've been gone for a lot of Sundays. You know what I loved, is going to church at Camp David--
Sherrill: There's a chapel?
Clinton: Yeah, and we went to Easter service there. It was wonderful. I mean, it really had a great feeling. I've been to the church at camp twice, and I've been to church here maybe three or four other times, but I haven't really found a church yet. I'm still just visiting around and meeting people and finding, because of our moving back and forth, that I haven't got my routine down yet.
Sherrill: You somewhat answered this question, but how tied are your religious beliefs? Your feeling of the purpose of your life being tied to your commitment to social action?
Clinton: Very tied. I mean, it's -- I don't really see them as separate. I see them as part of the same set of feelings.
Sherrill: Does it feel like a sense of mission? That that's just who you are and what you're supposed to be doing?
Clinton: It just feels like who I am. It just feels like--
Sherrill: Not something you have to make yourself do.
Clinton: No, because it's just, I just think about how my life -- I've tried to lead an integrated life and so the spiritual, the emotional, the psychological, and physical, and all of that --I'm not there, I don't want to mislead you. But I'm trying very hard to have that be the primary purpose of my life. I want to feel as though I've led a coherent, integrated life. And the spiritual part of my life is a very important element to me in defining who I am and what I care about. It's a real benchmark, I mean, when I disappoint myself because of the way that I have treated somebody, or behaved, it's against a backdrop of believing that, you know, there's some effort I should make to try to be better than that, and it's something very personal with me.
Sherrill: Okay. Let's talk about the speech [April, 1993, in Austin, TX]. Tell us what's to be learned from the piece by Michael Lerner and his editorial about The Politics of Meaning? Were you very influenced by things he'd written -- or?
Clinton: Not knowingly, although I had a wonderful conversation with Michael during the--I met him for the first time during the Holocaust reception we had out there. And I had read some of his early stuff, like an '88, '89, '87, somewhere back then about why the Democrats were always losing. I don't really remember it other than it was sort of part of the backdrop against which my husband was thinking about all of these things. But I think he's done some very good work, and he's sent me a lot of the stuff that he's written and I'm now reading all of it. I've been more influenced by [Vaclav] Havel. I mean I have read Havel stuff and I don't know that he ever quite used the term "politics of meaning" but he talked a lot about the need for more understanding. But, you know, people in political life -- no one cared about being so obsessed with the programmatic or the issue-driven aspects as much as they needed to be looking for meaning and understanding and interpreting what was happening to people. So I think there's a convergence. Michael came to see me the other day... [unintelligible]. …I think there's a convergence of a lot of people. Much of the energy motivating the sort of responsible fundamental right has come from their sense of life getting away from us, and meaning being lost, and people being turned into kind of amoral decision-makers, because there wasn't any overriding thought that they related to. And I have a lot of sympathy for that. You know, I battled hard for religious parents in Arkansas to be able to teach their own families. I championed home-schooling thirteen years ago, whatever it was, because my view was, if parents were going to make that kind of commitment to their families, that was a value we should support because if it gave meaning to their life, and through-out it, it would give meaning to a lot of other peoples' lives.
And I'm not in any way casting aspersions on any God or on their right to claim anything that they wish to claim. The problem is that, the issue of meaning--and the issue of our daily experiences being grounded in some sense of a greater whole than what we can understand--can be viewed from so many different perspectives. But the search for meaning should cut across all kinds of religious and ideological boundaries. That's what we should be struggling about, not "You have a corner on God and I don't," or "You're the real true person and this other one isn't." I mean, that is an unfortunate and in many ways destructive debate. What we ought to start from is a sense that I think is widely shared now in a lot of elements of society, which is that being economically prosperous, having a religious country, having most people able to participate in the market and have luxuries beyond their grandparents' wildest dreams and all of this stuff that we now have is not sufficient, or leading a meaningful personal life, or a meaningful community life. Then we can argue about what is or is not an appropriate way to--
Sherrill: Then is it government's place to--
Clinton: No! And the answer to that is a no-brainer. There are things that government can do that are more likely to make a condition that allows people to be secure enough to take responsibility for themselves and therefore participate fully in this search for meaning. If you treat people like they're disposable commodities -- whether it's in the workplace or in a government program -- you look on them with contempt because of who they are or what race they are, and you are bound and guaranteed to get the kind of division and alienation that we currently have. And so there are ways that government can promote an environment in which responsibility truly has a chance to flourish. That's really the motivating force behind welfare reform. I mean people may want to do it because they want to punish people, because they're not worthy, but where the president comes from, and where I come from, is that we want government to be empowering and uplifting and not degrading and demeaning and dependency-producing, which is basically what we've had -- out of a lot of good motives -- but nevertheless the results have not worked.
Sherrill: Are you with the president on welfare reform?
Clinton: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Sherrill: 100%?
Clinton: Absolutely. And we've--
Sherrill: There's been an attempt I think to paint you as ideologically to the left, or—
Clinton: I think so much of that is rooted in their desire to put me in a corner or box and try to understand me because I've apparently posed problems for them, which is too bad for them, I guess. But there are ways of doing it that are more likely to be successful than other ways. But in terms of our ultimate goals, I mean, I would like to see welfare as we know it, over the next years, abolished. I mean, that's what I would like to see. I do not like it, nor I do not think it is good for the women and children who are trapped within it. One of my great goals in this health care effort is to remove the Medicaid incentive for people to stay on welfare, by having a system of health care that is available to every American, so you don't have the unfair situation now where some women are on welfare because they get Medicaid. I know women who are single parents who are struggling in the job market, day to day scared because their family will be affected by some health disaster, but are working and not able to get health care. So there's a lot about this that I believe in very strongly that I think will, if we do it right, result in a better situation for the people in general.
###
Henrietta Reily contributed to this report.Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
In news that’s hardly unexpected, but mildly surprising nonetheless, Terrelle Pryor‘s playing career at Ohio State has come to an end.
In a tweet from the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Doug Lesmerises, the Buckeyes quarterback has decided to end his football career at the school. Lesmerises cited Pryor’s attorney Larry James as his source for the information.
Pryor and athletic director (for now) Gene Smith later confirmed the decision via statements.
“In the best interest of my teammates, I have decided to forego my senior year of football at the Ohio State University,” Pryor said.
“We understand Terrelle’s decision and wish him well in this next phase of his life,” Smith said. “We hope he returns to The Ohio State University one day to finish his degree.”
Pryor has come under fire of late for potential NCAA violations and is the subject of an NCAA investigation into multiple vehicles he has driven throughout his three years in Columbus. He had already been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season following a separate investigation into impermissible benefits he had received from a Columbus tattoo parlor.
It’s unclear what his future holds, although seeking entry into the NFL’s July supplemental draft would seem to be one significant possibility. At this point in time, however, Pryor’s undecided on the draft part of the equation.
“He’ll take the next couple days to collect this thoughts,” James told the Plain Dealer. “Right now, when you reach closure, it’s very emotional.”
Interestingly, OSU interim head coach Luke Fickell’s statement on Pryor’s departure indicated that his now-former QB had already decided on a career in professional football.
“I was notified this evening that Terrelle has decided to pursue a professional career,” Fickell said. “I wish him the best in his pursuits.”
Pryor, who came to the school as the No. 1 recruit in the country in the Class of 2008, ends his stormy OSU career with a 31-4 mark as a starter, with a perfect 3-0 record against archrival Michigan, three Big Ten titles and two BcS bowl wins being his on-field legacy. He ended up finishing five wins short Art Schlichter‘s school record for most career win’s by a QB at the school.Iranian arms trader
Cyrus Hashemi (also spelled Hashimi; c.1942 – 21 July 1986[citation needed]) was an Iranian arms dealer linked to the Iran-Contra affair and October Surprise conspiracy theory.[1][2] Hashemi was named by Robert Dreyfuss as a CIA and Mossad agent; Hashemi sued Dreyfuss and Lyndon LaRouche, whose Executive Intelligence Review had linked Hashemi to funding of Iranian terrorism,[3] with the case dismissed in June 1983 due to Hashemi's failure to respond to legal documents.[4][5] Hashemi died in 1986 in London in mysterious circumstances; the official cause of death was "a rare and virulent form of leukemia that was diagnosed only two days before Hashemi died."[6]
Background [ edit ]
Hashemi and his brother Jamshid Hashemi were persecuted by the Shah's SAVAK during the 1963 White Revolution, and left Iran as a result. The Hashemis had connections with Ahmed Madani, who was exiled in 1970 and went on to become Defense Minister after the 1979 Revolution.[7]
The Hashemis supported the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and Jamshid was appointed to oversee the national radio network, where he worked with Mehdi Karroubi's brother Hassan.[citation needed] Hashemi said he was a cousin to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an aide of the Ayatollah Khomeini who was elected Speaker of the Iranian Parliament in 1980.[6]
Iran hostage crisis [ edit ]
From November 1980 to January 1981 wiretaps were placed in the New York offices of the First Gulf Bank and Trust Company, of which Hashemi was the head.[8] The bank had handled clandestine money transfers for the Iranian government, with Admiral Ahmad Madani, then the Defense Minister, ordering $30–$35m transferred to an account there in late 1979.[citation needed]
A 1992 Senate investigation concluded that Hashemi was involved in a 1980 CIA attempt to funnel $500,000 to the campaign of Iranian presidential candidate Ahmad Madani, ahead of the Iranian presidential election, 1980. Charles Cogan met with Hashemi and his brother Jamshid in New York on 5 January, and in the context of the Iran hostage crisis the Hashemis "promised to put U.S. officials in touch with top officials in the Tehran government, including a family member of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini", but asked for financial support for Madani. The CIA provided $500,000 in cash on 17 January, which was rejected in favour of a wire transfer via Switzerland. Hashemi later returned $290,000 to Cogan, via the office of John Stanley Pottinger, after Cogan had determined that less than $100,000 had been spent for its intended purpose.[9] Madani later testified to the House October Surprise Task Force that he had told off Hashemi for attempting to collaborate with the Republicans behind Carter's back; he said Hashemi had offered to bring Casey to a meeting to discuss a hostage deal.[citation needed]
According to the Los Angeles Times, by the mid-1980s Hashemi, although maintaining an appearance of wealth (such as commuting to his London office in a gold-trimmed Rolls-Royce) was facing bankruptcy, in part due to major gambling losses sustained in London casinos.[10]
In mid-1985 Hashemi was partnered with Adnan Khashoggi in "World Trade Group", "a joint venture... that was seeking to trade farm equipment, oil and military weapons with Iran."[11] Roy Furmark was also involved.[12]
In June 1985 Hashemi approached William Casey with a new arms-for-hostages plan.[6] The Los Angeles Times reported in 1988 that "according to newly declassified CIA and State Department memos, Hashemi approached then-CIA Director William J. Casey with an arms-for-hostages plan of his own that was strikingly similar to the one that would soon be embraced by the White House as its secret Iran arms initiative."[13] According to one source, Hashemi's lawyer in this proposal was John Stanley Pottinger.[14] A June 1985 CIA memo documented a call regarding a potential arms-for-hostages deal from Hashemi to Shaheen. The Times said in 1988 it had discovered that Hashemi was meeting with Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, and that Hashemi's efforts to arrange a deal collapsed in August 1985 due to Kashoggi's competing efforts to arrange US access to Ghorbanifar via Robert McFarlane.[13]
Brokers of Death arms case [ edit ]
In 1986 Hashemi acted as a government informant in a four-month sting operation for the US Customs Service,[15] resulting in the Brokers of Death arms case, which the Los Angeles Times described in 1988 as "the largest arms conspiracy prosecution ever brought by the Justice Department".[13] Hashemi had agreed to act as an informant in exchange for the dropping of arms smuggling charges against him.[13]“Fifty-one per cent is not enough” – the speaker is a senior Labour politician. An hour later I put the idea again to another Labour strategist: 51 per cent no by the time the votes are counted. Again the response comes: “Not enough”.
Nobody will tell me what they plan to do if the Scottish people vote no by a narrow margin, but the implication is clear. If, with the help of nearly every newspaper, and after 10 days of “Project Fear” the yes vote is firm in the high 40s, Westminster’s mandate to govern Scotland is highly questionable.
First because of what the markets will see. Yes, markets might turn an independent Scotland’s credit rating to mush. But they may also look at the UK and say – with yes dominant among the young, and a critical EU referendum coming – this is only going one way. All long-term and strategic investment decisions will be taken asking: will this state still exist in 10 years’ time?
Second because, whatever you think of Westminster politicians they are democrats. When David Cameron lost the vote for military action in Syria, there was no EU-style “vote till you get it right”.
In Conservative circles, a high-40s vote would be taken as signalling the need for a rethink bigger than tax variation powers.
And that is because of a third factor Labour strategists find it harder to deal with than the rest.
As Robin McAlpine, director of Common Weal, tells me: “The Scottish working class has broken with the union. All the key issues – poverty, Trident, the NHS – are irrevocably aligned to the idea of independence.”
That may be an exaggeration, but it is true for enough of the Scottish workforce, the marginalised and the poor to matter.
Like many in the yes camp today, Mr McAlpine says yes can win only if an “armada of working class voters” who have never voted troops off the estates tomorrow and votes.
In the no camp, above all a Labour party punch-drunk and bitterly complaining about pressure and intimidation, they cling to the idea that the electorate, roused to the streets, will now surge into the official party system.
“We have to tell them change is coming, and that by voting no they are triggering that change,” says Michael Mara, strategist for Better Together.
So that’s why both sides are hoping for a decisive vote – a five-point difference.
On George Square last night I had a taste of the anger, enthusiasm and at times hostility of the yes grassroots.
If it’s rough, and profane, it’s because that’s what street politics are like when ideologies collide. That’s what it was like when class defined British politics and if it makes a few technocrats upset, get used to it.
Those people on the streets for yes have become something like a social movement. It is unlikely to go away.
Once out of the box, it’s unlikely to subside. If, as the polls predict, no edges it, it will take massive statecraft to keep both Scottish society and the markets calm.
If yes edges it, the Scottish government too will have to respond to the aspirations of this movement – which goes way beyond activists and reaches into many areas that feel abandoned by the system.
I put it to Mr McAlpine: “Don’t you fear this Jacobin-style movement on the streets getting out of control?”
“Oh please, please give me an uncontrollable movement from the streets,” he smiles. “Nothing in history has been achieved without them.”
Foll0w @paulmasonnews on TwitterThe former secretary of state says industry leaders ‘bump your heads on the glass ceilings that persist’ and discusses other likely campaign issues
Hillary Clinton has implored female leaders to support and promote other women – especially in the workplace – at a technology conference in the heart of Silicon Valley, offering the best preview yet of how she intends to “crack every last glass ceiling”.
During the daylong conference on Tuesday, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race, sketched rough parameters around her anticipated candidacy, making it clear that she won’t shy away from gender issues.
“Where women are included, you’re more likely to have democracy; you’re more likely to have stability and prosperity,” Clinton said. “It’s not just a nice thing to do.” And quoting former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, the first female to fill the role, she said: “There is a special spot in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
The former secretary of state then criticized the tech industry about its gender gap and poor record of hiring and promoting women.
Sexism in Silicon Valley: Tinder, the 'Dave rule' and tech's glass ceiling Read more
“You bump your heads on the glass ceilings that persist in the tech industry,” she said.
“We can literally count on one hand the number of women who have actually been able to come here and turn their dreams into billion-dollar businesses,” Clinton said. “We’re going backward in a field that is supposed to be all about moving forward.”
Clinton also gave a nod to Patricia Arquette’s speech at the Oscars blasting discrimination against women, saying the Oscar-winning actress was “right – it’s time to have wage equality once and for all”.
In a keynote address and question-and-answer session, Clinton spent time addressing issues of income inequality in a manner a crowd of wealthy female leaders found appealing.
“We have to restore economic growth with rising wages for the vast majority of Americans, and we have to restore trust and cooperation within our political system so that we can act like the great country we are,” Clinton said.
“Wages no longer rise with productivity, while CEOs’ pay keeps going up,” she added. “We have to figure out how to make this new economy work for everyone.”
While the potential Republican contenders have been active on the campaign trail, Clinton has been quiet in recent weeks, and the conference was her first domestic public appearance of the year. Clinton was paid for her appearance at Lead On: Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women, where tickets for the all-day event were sold at $245. Organizers declined to say how much Clinton was paid for the event.
Silicon Valley tries egg-freezing perks. How about just hiring more women? Read more
Following her keynote speech, Clinton answered questions from tech columnist Kara Swisher, of Recode, touching on topics such as Edward Snowden, net neutrality and, of course, her prospective presidential run.
On Snowden, Clinton dialed back her rhetoric on the former NSA contractor, saying: “I could never condone what he did. He stole millions of documents … many of those documents had nothing to do with civil liberties.”
Clinton then scored points with the tech audience by saying she supports the FCC’s plan for tough net neutrality rules.
“I would vote for net neutrality because, as I understand it, it’s Title II [of the Communications Act] with a lot of changes within it in order to avoid the worst of the utility regulations,” said Clinton. “It’s a foot in the door. It’s a value statement, but it’s not the end of the discussion.”
During the onstage interview, Swisher gave Clinton the opportunity to declare her candidacy before the crowd of about 5,000 female technology professionals who cheered wildly at each coy nod to 2016. Clinton declined.
“If you don’t tell anybody – I am obviously talking to a lot of people, thinking [it] through,” Clinton told Swisher. “Because here’s my view on this, Kara: I just think that we have so many big issues we have to deal with that unless we can really come together and have a national conversation about those issues, we’re not going to make the progress we need.”
The women high-fived after Swisher told her: “I interviewed President Obama last week and I’m eager to interview another president.”DR-05 Portable Handheld Digital Audio Recorder (Black) is rated 4.4 out of 5 by 359.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Ding Dion from Very nice sound quality I'm using this recorder for voice audio and I sync it up to my video afterward. I make Youtube videos. It's great. It's a huge upgrade from the camera's mic, of course, and it has some nice level inputs so I'm sure to get a good strong audio track. I'm impressed. The price was right and it is very easy to use in terms of the basic controls as well as the more technical options. Also, if you're using a powered mic, make sure to select that option. Mine didn't sound quite right until I selected the powered mic option. I thought I had a bad mic at first but it sounds great.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Ronald from Coconut Ron's Review: |
upon a group of suspected illegal immigrants immediately north of the border between Mexico and Arizona. The agent attempted to arrest a 22-year-old Mexican national, but the young male resisted and threw dirt in the agent’s face.
Breitbart Texas reported on Saturday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California refused to prosecute a Mexican national after his alleged assault on an agent put the agent in the hospital for head injuries. The Border Patrol agent received a concussion after being struck in the head by flying metal after the illegal immigrant plowed through a road sign while allegedly bypassing a checkpoint during a human smuggling run, Breitbart Texas reported last Friday. Breitbart Texas reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Diego for an explanation about the lack of charges. A cryptic response said the DOJ might be considering prosecution.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) responded that it does not specifically track the prosecution of illegal aliens that assault Border Patrol agents.
DOJ officials said their department has prosecuted 428 people for assaulting federal law enforcement officials. The number of prosecutions is up from 376 in 2016 and 336 in 2015.
During the first 11 months of FY 2017, which ended on October 1, 671 Border Patrol agents have been assaulted in the performance of their duty, Breitbart Texas reported in September. This number represents a 67 percent increase over the same period in FY 2016. Final numbers for FY 2017 have not yet been released.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Gab, and Facebook.Helen from the UK newspaper the New Statesman writes,
Today, the New Statesman is publishing an issue of the magazine guest-edited by the Chinese rebel artist Ai Weiwei.
In the issue, Ai interviews the "blind dissident" Chen Guangcheng about the forced abortions and sterilisations required to enforce the one-child policy. He also speaks to a member of the "50 Cent party" - China's "paid trolls", given half a dollar every time they derail an online conversation. There are also pieces by human rights lawyers, activists, film makers and artists - as well as Ai's 170,000 Twitter followers giving their thoughts on the future of China.
We're expecting the NS website to be banned in China - and deleted from search results - after doing this, so it's vital to get the issue out by other means. We've created a PDF version in Mandarin, and uploaded it to PirateBay, and other torrent sites. That way, people on VPNs in China, can get it, and pass it around. The page I'm sending has information on how to do that.
China wants to restrict its people from telling the truth about their lives. We hope the internet can set them free.If you are a football fan, you already know that it's difficult to win football games when you turn the ball over. That's as obvious as football analysis gets. But just to hammer the point home, according to ColdHardFootballFacts.com, from 2008 to 2012, teams who won the turnover battle had a winning percentage of 0.786:
In 2014, the Eagles won the turnover battle in just four games:
They won all four games they won the turnover battle, were 3-2 when it was even, and 3-4 when they lost it. On the season, they had a total turnover differential of -8. During the 2014 season, there were eight teams that had a turnover differential of -6 or worse, listed here:
If you'll note, the Eagles are the only team among the teams listed above that had a winning record. In fact, if you were to take the Eagles out of the mix, the other seven teams had a combined win-loss record of 25-87, or a winning percentage of 0.223. In other words, in terms of turnover differential, the Eagles were among the absolute dregs of the NFL.
Even worse, no team turned the ball over as much as the Eagles. The Eagles not only had the most turnovers in the NFL, with 36, but they led the NFL in interceptions thrown and tied for the league lead in fumbles lost. They basically won the "Triple Crown of Terrible Ball Security." (trademarked):
If you're a glutton for punishment, you can watch all 36 turnovers in less than 35 seconds below:
This is nothing new. The Eagles have been a horrible ball security team over the last four years. Since 2011, they have turned the ball over 130 times, or more than twice per game on average. That also leads the NFL over that span:
If you'll note above, seven teams over the last four years turned the ball over at least 36 times. The Eagles did it three times:
Some view turnovers as luck-driven. In the case of the 2014 Eagles, that was hardly the case. They got poor QB play for the better part of the season, and their skill position players were careless when they ran with the football. It's really kind of incredible that they won 10 games while leading the league in turnovers, but ultimately, their sloppiness (and not just bad luck) on offense was a major contributor to the downfall of the 2014 season.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempskiOn June 30 millions of Egyptians protested against their president, Mohamed Morsi, in the largest demonstrations the country has ever seen. Three days later Egypt’s top general removed Morsi from office, saying the scale of the protests left him no choice.
But some leaders behind these landmark protests say they were in regular contact with the Army, via intermediaries, as they planned the demonstrations—and that it was clear their movement had the Army’s support.
In the days and weeks before the protests, Waleed al-Masry, a central organizer, was in regular contact with a group of retired military officers. These retired officers, Masry says, promised to protect the protesters who turned out on June 30. They said they were reaching out on behalf of the Army’s current commanders. “We didn’t ask them for help. They just offered it,” Masry says. “And we welcomed that.”
Masry was a key figure in Tamarod, or “Rebel,” the youth-led group whose campaign to collect signatures against Morsi snowballed into the protests that sparked his ouster. Tamarod’s leaders say they gathered 22 million signatures in just two months. While that figure is unlikely—and dismissed even by some of the group’s own organizers—signs of Tamarod’s grassroots success abounded as its campaign gained steam.
Teams of volunteers knocked on doors across the country. Many Egyptians downloaded Tamarod’s signature form online and passed it around. One organizer, Maha Saad, recounts working 16-hour days overseeing more than 400 volunteers tasked with entering all the names and ID numbers into a database. “It was crazy, really,” she says.
Even as the signature count grew and the protest plans intensified, however, many organizers knew Morsi would never step down on his own. Some admit that the more realistic aim of the protests was to inspire the military to step in—paving the way, they hope, for a smooth transition to fresh elections.
Tamarod’s leaders say that in removing Morsi, the Army was responding to the protesters in the street, not taking initiative on its own. The military and its backers have been keen to reinforce this point. “The armed forces couldn’t plug its ears or close its eyes as the movement and demands of the masses [calls] for them to play a national role,” Egypt’s Army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said as he announced Morsi’s removal on July 3.
But critics of Morsi’s ouster have alleged that the Army may have played a role in supporting the very protests it cited as justification for overthrowing him.
Moheb Doss, one of Tamarod’s co-founders and main organizers, says the group’s leaders received communications from the Army and other state institutions who had turned on Morsi in two ways. First, he says, they hinted at their intentions via media statements that all Egyptians could see. “The country’s institutions—the police, the Army, the judges—were clear from their messages in the media that they were in favor of getting rid of [Morsi],” he says.
“The second way,” Doss adds, “is individual communications between Tamarod people and state institutions.”
Doss says he didn’t take part in these communications, but that they were well known among Tamarod’s leaders. The meetings with retired Army officers, he says, related strictly to security. Morsi’s allies in the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s more hardline Islamist groups had routinely threatened violence against protesters. At previous demonstrations against Morsi, meanwhile, many had been killed by police.
“It is normal to communicate with the Army before the revolution. We respect the Egyptian Army,” Doss says.
Doss adds that Tamarod, as well as the protesters, led the way. “In the end, 33 million people went to the streets,” he says, citing an estimate popular with Morsi’s opponents. “And in the end, the army supported that.”
Despite fears of widespread violence on June 30, the protests went on relatively peacefully. And authorities made no effort to stop protesters from massing around Cairo’s presidential palace and in Tahrir Square. Some police officers even joined them.
Another Tamarod organizer recounts taking part in a meeting with colleagues and former military officers in the basement of a popular Cairo restaurant in the week before the protests. The former officers, he says, “were the bridge between us and the Army during the preparations for June 30.”
At the meeting, this organizer says, the former officers promised security on June 30. “They told us, ‘You are forbidden from chanting against the military or police... Only focus on Egypt, and we will help you,’” Adel says.
Masry, the Tamarod member who coordinated with the ex-officers, says they advised him to ensure that protesters remained nonviolent. They asked nothing in return for their help with security, describing it as a “national role,” he adds.
One former general whom protest organizers say they met, Abdul Rafe Darwish, has been retired for 23 years. But, he says, “still now I have connections with the commanders here.” Darwish, who heads a small political party, says he helped protesters with security—“I protected them in Tahrir and in other governorates”—though he declined to detail how. He adds that he advised protest leaders to stay peaceful. “I told them no fighting. No weapons. No violence. Everything peacefully,” he says.
Darwish says he acted as a link between protest leaders and military officials, saying that he “conference” between the two sides.
A spokesman for Egypt’s military did not return requests for comment.
Some organizers insist there were no communications between Tamarod leaders and the Army before the protests, even via unofficial channels. “I am telling you very clearly: I only met the Egyptian people,” says Tamarod co-founder Mahmoud Badr.
Mahmoud Rusdie, a retired colonel who worked with Tamarod in organizing and collecting signatures, adamantly denies any link between the group and the current military brass. “You are trying to convince the world that the Army is the one who made Tamarod, and that it did a coup!” he says. “The Egyptian people are smart. We are not as stupid as you think.”
With reporting by Maged Atef in Cairo.10 SHARES Share Tweet
Dillon Overton– LHP, Triple-A, El Paso Chihuahuas
6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Fresh off a not so great spot start against the division leading Los Angeles Dodgers, Overton looked a lot better for the Chihuahuas on Thursday night. Over the last year or so, Overton has been about as up and down as they come. For every solid start there is a bad start, but Thursday was yet another solid one following a bad one for the left-hander. Overton wasn’t dominant by any means, but for a game played in the offense-friendly PCL, it was a good line. It’s too bad the Chihuahuas gave up 11 earned runs over the next three innings…
Wilfri De La Cruz– C, High-A, Lake Elsinore Storm
3-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R
I am going to be honest here and say I had no idea who Wilfri De La Cruz was before last night. As someone who follows the Padres’ minor league system closely, I get updates on my phone through the MILB First Pitch app for every Padres minor league team. Because of these updates, I started noticing De La Cruz’ name popping up more and more frequently. After a quick stint to start the season with the Dust Devils, De La Cruz has found himself in Lake Elsinore over the past few games, and he has not disappointed so far. For a guy who spent three years in the DSL from 2013-2015, and last year split between rookie ball and short season ball, De La Cruz has been impressive so far in his first taste of full season professional baseball.
Adrian De Horta– RHP, High-A, Lake Elsinore Storm
6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Speaking of impressive, Adrian De Horta has opened some eyes with his early season performance. Drafted in the eighth round of the 2013 draft by the Padres, the 22-year-old right-hander is finally starting to find some success after struggling through his first few years in the Padres’ system. De Horta now has eight straight starts to begin the season with three earned runs or fewer. The walks have been somewhat of a problem for De Horta, but he has maintained a steady strikeout rate and has been consistently good at getting batters out.
Fernando Tatis Jr.- SS, Low-A, Fort Wayne TinCaps
1-3, 1 3B, 1 BB, 1 R
I mainly wanted to write about Tatis here because he was included in the Baseball Prospectus Midseason Top 50 Update as the 22nd-best prospect in all of baseball. This seems like a somewhat aggressive ranking for my liking, but given his performance so far this season, it’s hard to argue with his long term potential. Despite being just 19 years old and playing in full season ball, Tatis leads all Padres top-30 prospects in wRC+ so far this season. For a guy so young, and playing at a premium position with a strong glove and some solid speed, that’s a heck of a package.
Pedro Avila– RHP, Low-A, Fort Wayne TinCaps
7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
It’s been a bit of a slow going for Avila since joining the Padres organization this off-season, but this may just be his best start of the season. Avila has shown plenty of flashes, with several games with strikeout totals of eight or more, but this may be his most complete start to date, as all his pitches were working and he was limiting damage at every turn.
Luis Asuncion– RF- Short Season, Tri-City Dust Devils
2-4, 1 R
Fred Schlichtholz– LHP, Short Season, Tri-City Dust Devils
2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
That’s quite a fun name to say right? Drafted in the 13th round of last month’s draft, Schlichtholz is getting his first taste of professional action with the Tri-City Dust Devils of the Northwest League. He has looked solid in his first two outings for the Dust Devils.
Alex Cunningham- RHP, Rookie League, AZL Padres
1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
After some struggles in his first start with the Storm last week, Cunningham came back with a strong inning of work in the AZL. Despite being drafted just a month ago, the Padres were aggressive in giving the right-hander a chance to pitch in Lake Elsinore. It remains to be seen where he goes from here, but it may be best if he takes his time in the Arizona Rookie League.
Tirso Ornelas- RF, Rookie League, AZL Padres 2
1-5, 1 RBI, 4 K
Not every international signee is going to work out perfectly, and so far things have been far from perfect for Ornelas with the AZL Padres 2. To this point, Ornelas just hasn’t made much good contact, and striking out four times a game just isn’t going to get the job done. However, Ornelas has shown some bright spots, as his early season 16 percent walk rate does bode well for his overall plate discipline, even with the strikeouts.
Gilberto Vizcarra– C, DSL Padres
3-5, 1 RBI
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Patrick Brewer Editorial and Prospect Writer for East Village Times. Twenty-five years young, Patrick has lived in San Diego for his entire life and has been a Padres fan nearly as long. Patrick lives for baseball and is always looking to learn new things about the game he loves through advanced stats.Portland is requesting more than $3.2 million in federal disaster aid to cover the costs of responding to the record-setting snow and ice storms that ravaged the city's roads, water pipes and power lines in January.
Removing snow and ice from the city streets proved the most expensive, costing the city an estimated $1.6 million, city documents show. Removing debris and repairing traffic signs and markings cost the city an estimated $570,000. Repairing water main breaks cost about $500,000.
The city gave Multnomah County an initial damage assessment outlining those costs and others Thursday.
The assessment provides a rough estimate of the cost of responding to the storm in order to determine whether or not the city meets a threshold the federal government uses to decide disaster reimbursements, said Dan Douthit, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
If the federal government grants aid, the city will further examine its storm spending, he said.
"Even if we're above the threshold, which we believe we are, it doesn't guarantee us getting the money," Douthit said.
Portland Bureau of Transportation spent more than $2.2 million-- the most of any bureau--in response to the storm, the assessment showed. The water bureau spent about $635,000; the fire bureau spent about $151,000 and the parks department spend about $141,000.
--Jessica Floum
503-221-8306back
17 / 04 / 2014
KONAMI announces digital-only Millennium Duels for PlayStation3® and Xbox 360®
Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. has announced an all-new video game adaptation of its multi-million-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME for PlayStation® and Xbox 360®, with Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels available via PlayStation®Network and the Xbox®LIVE Marketplace from April 23rd, 2014.
Making its inaugural appearance on PlayStation 3® in Europe, Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels marks the welcome return of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, which spans television and the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME and acts as the perfect jumping-on point for newcomers to the series.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels, players enter a Virtual Dueling System, an advanced program wherein they battle against simulated Duelists from the animated TV show, characters from past, classic Yu-Gi-Oh! storylines, through to those from the current Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL adventures. Players can also unlock avatars from the animated series and take them online to battle other players in versus matches.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels game features and functionality include:
Duel with the latest cards from the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, including Xyz Monsters.
Create bespoke Decks from more than 6,000 cards; the most in any Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME video game.
Compete against 80 popular characters across all four animated series, including classic Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, and Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Battle through single-player elements or compete in four-player tag duels, complete with text and voice chat ability.
Compatible with all previously purchased downloadable content from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels Plus!
! Online play includes Rank Match against Yu-Gi-Oh! fans of the same rank and ability; Quick Match to jump into the action and compete against anyone; Custom Matches against friends where the rules of play can be adapted to taste.
PlayStation 3® Xbox 360® RRP (Digital) £9.99 / €7.99 £9.99 / €7.99
About Konami Group
KONAMI CORPORATION was established in 1973, and became a holding company of the Konami Group on March 31, 2006. KONAMI CORPORATION covers the fields of "Digital Entertainment Business", "Health & Fitness Business", “Gaming & Systems Business" and "Pachinko & Pachinko Slot Machines Business". KONAMI CORPORATION went public on Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1988, the London Stock Exchange in 1999, and the New York Stock Exchange in 2002. Home Page URL: www.konami.co.jp.
Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. is a wholly-owned subsidiary, responsible for popular franchises like Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill and Pro Evolution Soccer amongst other top sellers. Konami Group is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. For more information concerning Konami Digital Entertainment and its products, please visit www.konami-europe.com.
Media Contacts:
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Page TopBrian Carney scores a try for Great Britain and Ireland against New Zealand during the 2005 Tri Nations
The return of the Lions and Kangaroos tours has been announced by the Rugby League International Federation.
The marquee tours are the main feature of a four-year calendar outlined at an international meeting of interested parties in Sydney on Tuesday.
This year's World Cup will be followed by a New Zealand tour to Europe in 2018, a Great Britain and Ireland Lions tour to the southern hemisphere in 2019 and a Kangaroos tour to Europe in 2020.
RLIF chairman Nigel Wood said: "I am sure supporters will welcome the re-introduction of Lions, Kangaroos and Kiwi tours in particular.
"But the calendar provides new opportunities for all our members and embraces the expansion of Nines, providing an exciting future for players, supporters and members alike."
RLIF chief executive Nigel Wood has welcomed the 'new opportunities'
The four-year cycle also includes an Emerging Nations Championship in 2018 leading up the 2021 World Cup which will be hosted by the Rugby Football League in the UK.
The RLIF is also committed to putting together a business plan for international Nines with the potential for a World Cup for men and women in 2019 and for both youth and women's nines to become a part of the Commonwealth Games
Festival in 2018.
Nines is a shorter form of the 13-a-side game which allows for a tournament to be completed in a day or over a single weekend.
Sky Customers can now upgrade to Sky Sports for the Premier League run-in and an unmissable summer of sport. Upgrade now!Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Leslie Benzies, the former president of Rockstar North who is currently embroiled in a lawsuit over Grand Theft Auto V, has launched a new studio and announced its first game.
The studio, which has offices in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Los Angeles, California, does not have a name yet, though it could be one of these five that he incorporated recently. According to VentureBeat, Benzies opened it alongside other former GTA developers Colin Entwistle and Matthew Smith, and the studio now has around 30 people on staff and is hiring.
The studio's first game is an ambitious-sounding project titled Everywhere. As its name suggests, the open-world game aims to allow players to go anywhere and do basically anything.
"Everywhere has a lot of traditional game mechanics, but we're going for something more that draws inspiration from, well, everywhere," Benzies told VentureBeat. "Players are getting smarter and require more from their games, and we want players to have the real freedom to live in our worlds in the ways they want to. We're aiming to offer a huge variety of game modes and styles that not only tell our stories but also enable players to live in the identities and adventures they most want to explore."
Smith added: "The game is about giving the player an enormous amount of freedom, with enough possibilities and just enough constraints to keep you constantly entertained and at the same time feel like you’re actively shaping the world around you, and living in a genuinely alternate reality."
Benzies and his team are making Everywhere with Amazon's Lumberyard engine. The game is coming to unspecified consoles, as well as PC. Benzies teased that people will be able to "engage with the game through other means, too."
In an interview with Polygon, Benzies said Everywhere won't be a copy of Grand Theft Auto.
"Everywhere is very different from GTA," he said. "There may be parts of our game that include satire but the tone will be very different and at times our players will be in control of how the tone is set."
In January 2016, Rockstar confirmed that Benzies left Rockstar North, following a 17-month sabbatical. In April of that year, he sued Rockstar Games for $150 million in royalties and alleged that he was forced out. Rockstar parent company Take-Two, however, doesn't see it that way.
The company said Benzies' "significant performance and conduct issues" ultimately created a situation that led to his eventual resignation. Take-Two also said that his claims are "entirely without merit and in many instances downright bizarre."
We'll report back with more on the Benzies vs. Rockstar case as it becomes available.
As for GTA V, more than three years after its initial release, the open-world sandbox game continues to sell. In fact, it was the No. 6 overall best-selling game of the year in the US for 2016, while it remains a chart-topper in the UK as well.
This story has been updated.This article is about the city. For the adjacent town, see Mosinee (town), Wisconsin
City in Wisconsin, United States
Downtown Mosinee
Mosinee is a city in Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,988 at the 2010 census.[4]
History [ edit ]
Early History [ edit ]
The traditional inhabitants of the area were the Ojibwe, the Potawatomi and the Menominee.[5] The Ojibwe ceded the territory to the United States in 1837 when they sold most of their land in what would become Wisconsin, though they were guaranteed the right to continue hunting, fishing, and gathering wild rice on the ceded lands.[6] Similarly, the Potawatomi gave up their land claims in Wisconsin in 1833, and the Menominee ceded territory in this area in the 1836 Treaty of the Cedars.[7][8] These treaties coincided with the establishment of the first sawmill in the area by a white settler, John L. Moore, in 1836, and enabled white settlement to begin in the area. Lumber quickly became the most important industry and drew other businesses and settlers to the town, which at the time was known as Little Bull Falls. After the closing of Fort Winnebago in 1845, a number of Métis families moved to Little Bull Falls, and in 1857 the town was renamed in honor of an Ojibwe chief from the Wisconsin River Band. Deforestation led to the collapse of the lumber industry in the early 20th century, but it was quickly replaced by the paper industry.[9] In the neighboring Menominee language the town is called Mōsāpnīw, "he dwells alone there", which is likely a close approximation of the eponymous chief's name.[10]
Mock Communist invasion [ edit ]
On May 1, 1950, local residents acting as Communist invaders seized control of Mosinee.[11][12]
The action was a part of an elaborate pageant organized by the Wisconsin Department of the American Legion. The "Communists" dragged Mayor Ralph E. Kronenwetter and Police Chief Carl Gewiss out of their beds. Mayor Kronenwetter surrendered at 10:15 AM in the town's new "Red Square" with a pistol to his back. The police chief was reported to have resisted and was "liquidated".
Roadblocks were set up around Mosinee, the library was "purged", prices of goods were inflated for the duration of the coup, and local restaurants served Russian black bread and potato soup for lunch.[13]
As he arrived at a rally to restore democracy to the community the night of May 1 Mayor Kronenwetter suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. He died five days later on May 6, 1950 at age 49. The mayor's doctor said the excitement and exertion probably contributed to his collapse.
Franklin Baker, commander of the local American Legion post, said, "It was a terrible coincidence."[14]
Local minister Will La Brew Bennett, 72, who, during the Communist invasion, demonstrated to the media how he would hide his Bible in the church organ if the Communists really invaded and was herded with other residents into a barbed-wire ringed "concentration camp" near "Red Square", was found dead in his bed hours after the mayor's death on May 7, 1950.[15]
Geography [ edit ]
Mosinee is located at 44°47'30" North, 89°42'19" West (44.791709, −89.705301).[16]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.54 square miles (22.12 km2), of which, 7.77 square miles (20.12 km2) is land and 0.77 square miles (1.99 km2) is water.[17]
Demographics [ edit ]
Historical population Census Pop. %± 1880 201 — 1890 427 112.4% 1900 657 53.9% 1910 482 −26.6% 1920 1,161 140.9% 1930 1,229 5.9% 1940 1,361 10.7% 1950 1,453 6.8% 1960 2,067 42.3% 1970 2,395 15.9% 1980 3,015 25.9% 1990 3,820 26.7% 2000 4,063 6.4% 2010 3,988 −1.8% Est. 2016 4,012 [3] 0.6% U.S. Decennial Census[18]
2010 census [ edit ]
As of the census[2] of 2010, there were 3,988 people, 1,660 households, and 1,110 families residing in the city. The population density was 513.3 inhabitants per square mile (198.2/km2). There were 1,791 housing units at an average density of 230.5 per square mile (89.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 97.6% White, 0.3% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.5% from other races, and 0.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.3% of the population
There were 1,660 households of which 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.4% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33.1% were non-families. 27.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.89.
The median age in the city was 39.1 years. 25% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.7% were from 25 to 44; 25.5% were from 45 to 64; and 15.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.2% male and 50.8% female.
2000 census [ edit ]
As of the census[19] of 2000, there were 4,063 people, 1,635 households, and 1,111 families residing in the city. The population density was 522.2 people per square mile (201.6/km²). There were 1,711 housing units at an average density of 219.9 per square mile (84.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.79% White, 0.12% Black or African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.32% from other races, and 0.42% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.
There were 1,635 households out of which 34.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.0% were married couples living together and 32.0% were non-families. 26.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the city, the population was spread out with 26.3% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $46,109, and the median income for a family was $51,776. Males had a median income of $34,494 versus $25,572 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,700. About 2.8% of families and 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.3% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.
Transportation [ edit ]
Airport [ edit ]
Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA) is located 2 miles (3 km) southeast of the Mosinee central business district. The airport provides both scheduled commercial jet service and general aviation services.
On October 24, 2018, the airport was the site of a Donald Trump "Make America Great Again" rally. Attendees lined up to gain entry to the rally up to 29 hours before the event was scheduled to begin.[20]
Education [ edit ]
Joseph Dessert Library [ edit ]
Joseph Dessert came from Canada to Mosinee (then known as "Little Bull Falls") in 1844. He built and equipped a free library for the community. Dedicated on February 11, 1899, the building was used as a library, as well as a post office, village hall, and school, and it was the scene of many community events, including dances and balls. The library was the only place in the community with theater facilities, so amateur plays were often presented there, and school commencements were held in the Grand Hall. The library existed as a city library until 1974, when the library and municipal boards recommended that the Joseph Dessert Library should join the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL). Since then, it has also come to be known as the MCPL – Mosinee Branch.
Celebrations have marked two significant anniversaries for the library, the first in 1949 at the 50th anniversary, and the second in 1999 at the time of the library's 100th year. Several renovations have also taken place, with the most recent occurring in 1995 as part of a county-wide building and improvement program for libraries. Today, the library maintains its status in the City of Mosinee as both an important community service and as a building significant to the history of the community. The library building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Notable people [ edit ]Why not a Vox for the Grey tribe?
Mark Lutter Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 27, 2016
Scott Alexander, in one of the best essays I have ever read, differentiates the red and blue tribes, before acknowledging the rise of a Grey tribe.
There is a partly-formed attempt to spin off a Grey Tribe typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, drinking Soylent, calling in rides on Uber, reading lots of blogs, calling American football “ |
the River Ouse floods on December 27, 2015 2/17 Floods hit the UK Teams in Whalley evacuate villagers from their homes 3/17 Floods hit the UK A resident of Glenridding, which flooded for the third time this month, surveys the damage 4/17 Floods hit the UK The River Ouse, York, has burst its banks 5/17 Floods hit the UK A soldier from the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s regiment helps to sure up flood defences in Appleby, Cumbria, one of the areas worst affected by the floods 6/17 Floods hit the UK Experts believe the cost of clearing up the most recent flooding could exceed £50m (PA) 7/17 Floods hit the UK Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes in York 8/17 Floods hit the UK A police helicopter photographed the extent of the flooding in York on 27 December. 9/17 Floods hit the UK Flooding at Clifford's Tower in York on 27 December 10/17 Floods hit the UK Flooding along York's Inner Ring Road on 27 December 11/17 Floods hit the UK Water runs out of the Lowther pub in York on 27 December after the River Ouse bursts its banks in York city centre. 12/17 Floods hit the UK Flooded streets in Dumfries, Scotland on 30 December Getty 13/17 Floods hit the UK A car left submerged in floodwater in Newton Stewart, Scotland PA 14/17 Floods hit the UK Staff at the Worlds End bar in Dumfries Scotland desperately try to pump floodwater out of the building PA 15/17 Floods hit the UK A man stands in the doorway of his cottage in the flooded town of Straiton in Scotland PA 16/17 Floods hit the UK Flooding in the village of Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland 17/17 Floods hit the UK Man wades through floodwater outside a fish and chip shop in Dumfries, Scotland PA
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic this year is tracking significantly below the average between 1981 and 2010.
In February, Dr Peter Gleick, of the Pacific Institute in California, warned the rapid warming of the Arctic could have a “catastrophic” effect on the planet’s climate.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now"Between Man and Beast": A great explorer with a secret How the first scientist to bag a gorilla was plunged into the historic battles over evolution and race
A renowned Victorian explorer stands before his colleagues, accused of fabricating accounts of the strange beasts he encountered in a remote jungle. The explorer responds by challenging the most energetic of these detractors to join him in an expedition back to the site of his celebrated discoveries. That's the opener of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World," a ripping adventure yarn published in the early 20th century, with a main character, Professor Challenger, thought by many to be based on the real-life physiologist William Rutherford.
But as Monte Reel persuasively argues in his equally ripping (and far more intellectually satisfying) "Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm," another likely model for Challenger is Paul Du Chaillu, the first modern naturalist to observe gorillas in their native habitat. This elusive, gallant and endearing man was born on a date and in a place unknown, to a mother who has never been identified. His story, as told by Reel, is both a tale of plucky self-invention and an ironic reflection on the sometimes ugly inner workings of the scientific world.
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The son of a French trader who operated an up-river station in the West African nation of Gabon, Du Chaillu first swam into the world's ken in 1848, at the age of about 17, when he appeared, bedraggled and diminutive, on the doorstep of the first permanent Christian mission in that nation. The missionary, John Leighton Wilson, happened to be a passionate amateur entomologist who liked to measure such interesting figures as "how fast a swarm of driver ants could consume a live horse or cow (48 hours)." Wilson and his wife adopted Du Chaillu as a surrogate son -- a type of relationship the explorer would form throughout his life, even into middle age -- educating him and helping him to land a job teaching French at a boarding school in upstate New York.
Always a misfit, if a cheerful and outgoing one, Du Chaillu parlayed his African experiences and American contacts into an expedition sponsored (meagerly) by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. His mission: to return from West Africa with a specimen of a gorilla, a fabled creature known to Europeans chiefly through skulls brought to their coastal settlements by native African traders. This was a tall order. As Reel notes, a full 60 percent of the British explorers sent to the region between 1816 and 1841 didn't make it out alive -- if hostile tribesmen didn't kill them, disease, animal attacks, drowning and other catastrophes often did. Furthermore, while most European expeditions lugged a staggering amount of gear with them (the famous David Livingstone "estimated his travel kit weighed about 11,000 pounds," and a typical crew included 100 to 160 porters), Du Chaillu's supplies could fit in a single dugout canoe (although it was a really big canoe).
Reel alternates between accounts of Du Chaillu's adventures in the jungle and the infighting among the members of the Royal Geographic Society in London over Charles Darwin's emerging theory of evolution. Du Chaillu bagged his gorillas and trucked their remains back to the U.S. But the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences refused to return his letters or requests for reimbursements, and when he resorted to exhibiting his specimens on Broadway, a bogus "creature" -- billed as a "link between man and monkey" and exhibited by P.T. Barnum -- upstaged Du Chaillu's genuine and genuinely remarkable finds. The book's two story lines converge when Richard Owen, superintendent of the natural history department at the British Museum, rescued Du Chaillu from obscurity by inviting him to London.
Owen was one of Darwin's staunchest and most energetic scientific adversaries. He was interested in Du Chaillu's gorillas because, Owen claimed (erroneously), the animals lacked a "hippocampus minor," a part of the brain present in human beings. This, according to Owen, proved that humans could not have evolved from gorillas. (The theory of evolution was still in its infancy, and even Darwin's allies sometimes asserted, incorrectly, that human beings might have evolved from present-day primates, or that some human races were "more evolved" than others.)
Taken under the wing of one of Britain's foremost men of science and feted by a public that became captivated by the idea of gorillas (Reel offers many amusing examples of the beast's appearance in popular culture), Du Chaillu became a celebrity. He dined with the Duke of Wellington and other luminaries, and his written account of his expedition was a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, as Reel portrays it, the explorer's success was undercut by a nagging anxiety regarding the connections between gorillas and human beings. Whatever his sponsors might have said, Du Chaillu felt that the creatures he'd killed "had something of humanity" in them. Reel strongly telegraphs that this ambivalence was amplified by what he believes to be the primal secret of Du Chaillu's life: his mixed-race heritage.
The more resonant irony of Du Chaillu's story, however, lies in his trials among the English scientists. A zoologist who regarded Owen as a rival initiated an implacable campaign to impugn Du Chaillu's integrity. This detractor was joined by Charles Waterton, the prototypical great English explorer and a reflexively bitter enemy of any young aspirant to the title. Waterton insisted that Du Chaillu's descriptions of gorillas and their behavior was obviously wrong because it didn't jibe with what Waterton had observed of South American monkeys (he'd never been to Africa himself) or with the temperament of an infant gorilla he had discovered being exhibited as a sideshow attraction in England. (When this animal died, Waterton purchased its remains and had it stuffed "in a position of humiliating absurdity, complete with a set of donkey ears affixed to the top of the creature's head" and labeled it "Martin Luther After the Fall." Waterton was a Roman Catholic, and eccentric.)
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Du Chaillu mostly served as a proxy target in long-standing feuds and contests he barely understood. I can't help wishing that Reel had made more of the fact that the scientists so intent on using Du Chaillu's discoveries to demonstrate the enormous differences between ape and man were conducting themselves exactly like any bunch of primates jockeying for social dominance. Du Chaillu -- described as "impish" and "elvin," and generally well-liked despite his gauche manners -- became collateral damage in such pissing matches. His veracity, his competence and his ethics were thoroughly besmirched, and there wasn't much he could do to defend himself, since the research he'd gathered during his expedition was limited by his very real lack of scientific training.
That's when Du Chaillu issued his own Professor Challenger-style challenge, and if his critics didn't take him up on it, other backers eventually did. A second expedition was assembled, and Du Chaillu showed the true content of his character by embarking on an intensive and comprehensive course of preparation. The journey, when it finally took place, did not unfold in any way like he'd planned -- it's one of the most exciting parts of "Between Man and Beast." But as Reel makes clear, right down to this book's final, eye-misting sentence, in the fullness of time Du Chaillu has been well and truly redeemed.Can I just say a small thank god for Videogum? Without them we would never have known what a Japanese man in blackface dressed as Obama looked like or how a remake of "Cops" for kids would make us feel. Now they've found this video of Stephen Colbert making Meredith Vieira fabulously uncomfortable.
Colbert was on the show to discuss his upcoming film, "Monsters and Aliens." He chatted with Vieira for a while doing his usual schtick (hating on Lauer, asking Meredith if she's been paying attention during the interview) until our host tried to make a smooth transition to an upcoming segment on Twitter by asking Colbert if he'd ever tweeted. He responded "I have twatted."
A shocked Vieira muttered, "Oh my gosh. Well, actually, so have I." Which sounds kind of dirty considering she realized his transgression. The folks behind the scenes crack up and you can hear Vieira saying "oh my god" as they go to break. It's no Jane-Fonda-saying-the-c-word, but it made us chuckle.
This was cut out of the official online version, but it was too late, the internet already saw it.
WATCH:Since SatoshiLabs released its TREZOR "Bitcoin Safe" hardware wallet back in 2013, building an integration for Copay users has been on our to-do list. With Copay version 1.5.0, our desktop Chrome app can now work directly with TREZOR devices.
TREZOR allows bitcoin users to store their private keys on an external offline hardware device. This keeps funds safe from vulnerabilities – accidental or malicious – that can affect devices connected to the Internet. Whenever a TREZOR user wants to send money, they can use TREZOR to sign their bitcoin transaction – all without exposing their private keys to those potentially-compromised devices or networks.
We have a few use cases for TREZOR's Copay integration that we're excited to share with our users:
Creating your First Copay TREZOR wallet
Creating a personal Copay wallet with TREZOR as a signing device is easy.
On the Create view of the Copay Chrome App, click on Show Advanced Options and select TREZOR Hardware Wallet under Wallet Seed.
Once you hit Create in Copay, the TREZOR app will pop up and prompt you to export two public keys.
Your new wallet will work just like any other Copay wallet, but once you need to sign a transaction, you'll need to view and confirm the transaction details on your linked TREZOR device.
Adding Restricted-Access Devices
You can also add devices that are restricted from signing funds themselves. Just export the TREZOR-connected Copay wallet and import it into your phone or other device. Now you'll be able to check your wallet balance and transaction history and create spend proposals from any device.
Transactions are still signed only from the TREZOR device through your TREZOR-connected Copay Chrome App, and no private keys are stored online.
Securing TREZOR Funds With Multisig
With Copay, TREZOR users can add multisignature to their wallets for increased wallet security or shared wallet ownership.
To do that, just select TREZOR in Advanced Options when creating or joining a shared wallet. Any multisig combination is allowed, and each Copay multisig wallet can connect to TREZOR, Ledger, or software wallets.
Restoring Copay Funds From TREZOR
In case you lose access to the Copay Chrome App you've used to host a Copay TREZOR wallet, you can fully recover the wallet with just the TREZOR device. Install the Copay Chrome App again, go to Import Wallet, and select TREZOR under the Hardware Wallet tab.
To finish restoring your wallet, import the funds held on your TREZOR directly into Copay by going to Import Wallet and entering the 24-word seed backup.
Please refer to our Hardware Wallet Support Section in our Copay README for more details.
Getting Started With Copay's TREZOR Integration
To get started with the new integration, download the latest version of our Copay Chrome app, and let us know what you think at BitPay Labs. As always, you can also share any issues or pull requests with us on GitHub.Ian Townsend: Hello, I'm Ian Townsend and welcome to Background Briefing.
It was called an act of bioterrorism; the introduction of foxes into Tasmania more than a decade ago. Here's how it was reported on ABC Television's Catalyst program in 2002.
Journalist: Two years ago, a group of environmental vandals committed an unthinkable crime. They hand-reared up to 19 fox cubs and released them into the previously fox-free Tasmanian wilderness. It's hard to comprehend that such a petty act has unleashed the greatest extinction threat since Tasmania's last ice age 10,000 years ago.
Nick Mooney: Bringing foxes to Tasmania is probably the most foolish and stupid thing I could think of being done.
Clive Marks: I would call it an example of bio-terrorism. We're dealing with something which is akin to September 11 for our wildlife in Australia.
Ian Townsend: In response, the Tasmanian government started a decade-long multi-million dollar search and destroy program that's still going today, but has never found a live fox. It's been the subject of furious public debate and media speculation in Tasmania.
Now, an independent scientific review is saying the Tasmanian fox story is a myth. Leading that review is Dr Clive Marks. He helped set up the state's Fox Eradication Program. He now believes Tasmanians have been misled.
Clive Marks: Here is an example where you can propose that something exists when it doesn't, and if you follow that narrative with a suitable amount of media and spin doctoring you can get a good proportion of people believing it.
Ian Townsend: The story was that hunters released foxes across the Tasmania around the year 2000.
The director of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Peter McGlone, is on a government fox advisory committee, and he firmly believes that release did happen.
Peter McGlone: The investigation into the deliberate introduction of foxes that did take place, and I'm confident took place, was bungled.
Ian Townsend: How was it bungled?
Peter McGlone: It was bungled by the minister refusing to accept advice that to successfully prosecute those people who were known by authorities to have done this, they would have had to have retrospectively changed legislation, but it was the advice of the experts at the time that we have these people absolutely dead in the water, they are guilty as sin.
Ian Townsend: But police reports from 2001, obtained under Freedom of Information, show there was no evidence to charge anyone, retrospectively or not. The police dismissed the allegations as “hearsay”, “gossip”, and “rumour”. Despite that, Tasmanians have been told for years that the foxes really were released.
The police minister at the time was David Llewellyn, who was also the minister in charge of Parks and Wildlife. David Llewellyn's now an Opposition MP.
David Llewellyn: Senior people within the department of Parks and Wildlife gave me that advice and they were absolutely certain of the fact. Although it was somewhat dated by the time it had got to me, I initiated a police investigation which I'm not sure how thoroughly it was done, but there wasn't enough evidence to follow up from a legal point of view.
Ian Townsend: Did you see the police report when it was done, the report that said that the information that came from Parks and Wildlife was rumour and probably guesswork and some of it was highly suspect?
David Llewellyn: Well, I can't recall the details of that right now, but it was somewhat after the event.
Ian Townsend: But the original police report really dismissed all that evidence. Are you confident that Parks and Wildlife had enough information to go on to establish that foxes were in the state?
David Llewellyn: Well, absolutely. I mean, at the time it was quite a serious issue and I took the advice that I was given quite seriously.
Ian Townsend: For the first time, one of the hunters accused of importing those foxes is speaking publicly.
Adrian Donaldson: No one's brought any…I have not brought any foxes into the state.
Ian Townsend: Adrian Donaldson lives in the state's north, and his name appeared on a Confidential Briefing Note that was handed to the police minister back in 2001.
Adrian Donaldson: It's kind of a shock to even have you here speaking to me about the whole thing when it's just all made up.
Ian Townsend: We'll hear more from Adrian Donaldson later. A police task force interviewed the three hunters back in 2001. The commander of that police taskforce at the time was Ivan Dean.
Ivan Dean: Yes, they were spoken to and nothing came from that at all. Their evidence was plausible in all of the circumstances, and I then reported back to the Commissioner saying that there was just no truth in it whatsoever. From our point of view we could find no evidence at all and it was a thorough investigation, well done, some of the top detectives in the State at the time, they were on this investigation, so it wasn't something we treated lightly. We treated it as an extremely serious matter.
Ian Townsend: Ivan Dean is now a politician in the Tasmanian Upper House and he's a strong critic of the decade-long Fox Eradication Program.
Ivan Dean: There's been in the realms of about $50 million spent on this program, and when you look at the whole of the evidence on which this was built, it falls away to absolutely nothing, and in in my opinion it's been $50 million wasted.
Ian Townsend: The Fox Eradication Program in its various forms is administered by Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment, and the department has declined to comment. A former spokesman for the program, though, is biologist Nick Mooney, who left the department several years ago and is now a wildlife consultant.
Nick Mooney: We were confident the evidence showed that there was a high enough risk that something substantial had to be done. The simple fact is, if you wait long enough for everyone to be happy there are foxes in Tasmania or satisfied there are foxes in Tasmania it's too late to do anything, because there would have to be so many there that people start shooting them and, you know, we start shooting them or the police shoot one or whatever and it'll be too late to do anything. That's the problem.
Ian Townsend: Another problem, though, is that the eradication program's been running for more than a decade and it has not shot, photographed, or trapped a live fox, or found evidence of a baited fox.
A team of seven scientists has been reviewing the program and it's just published its report online. There's a link on the Background Briefing website.
Veterinary pathologist Dr David Obendorf is one of the authors
David Obendorf: The difficulty this program had was it used a great deal of propaganda and public relations to get across its message, but it failed to actually pass the first test which was the onus of proof test. People need to know that this has been independently, repeatedly demonstrated that you have got evidence that shows that the fox is in the landscape. So what we've got is a situation where the threat has always been a real threat for Tasmania, but the presence of evidence is completely zero
Ian Townsend: After more than 10 years, Tasmanians have become deeply sceptical about the foxes they've been told are in their midst.
I'm driving north from Hobart to what's considered fox central, the town of Longford, where three hunters were said to have brought in, raised and then released fox cubs.
Longford is off the main road, down a country lane lined with hedges. The countryside looks European. There are sheep and chickens in the paddocks. A fox wouldn't look out of place here.
In the centre of Longford village is the Blenheim Inn hotel.
Man: Foxes? Ha ha, what do want to know about them? I've got a shit-load them at home! You still got that fox out at your place?
Man: Fox? Yeah, why?
Ian Townsend: It's a Friday evening and people are coming in after work.
Man: Well, I hear a lot of people talking, they do a lot of shootin', there's no foxes about.
Ian Townsend: Nobody you know ever seen a fox?
Man: No.
Ian Townsend: Any of you guys?
Man: No mate, I don't reckon there is. I been shooting a fair bit myself and I've never seen one. If there is a fox about he's hanging out that Tasmanian Tiger!
Ian Townsend: Is a bit of a joke around here, the fox has become a joke?
Man: Yes, I'm sure it is. You know if there's scats around or whatever…like, anyone could have brought in from the other side or something or other, surely to God they should have them by now.
Ian Townsend: It was to Longford that the police task force came in 2001 to investigate a report that hunters had raised up to 19 foxes on a farm out of town, and then released them around the island to improve the hunting.
According to the police reports, it all started with a conversation at the back of a vehicle outside the Allgoods Store in the Hobart suburb of Glenorchy. An unnamed man was heard to say that hunters had brought fox cubs in from Victoria. The person who reported it said he thought at the time it was a joke, but on reflection told Parks and Wildlife officers.
By the time the story reached the Minister for Police, David Llewellyn, it had been put into a briefing note that contained names, places and times. The briefing note was passed to police, and five detectives were put onto the case. When they reported back in July 2001, they were scathing about what was in that briefing note. Here's a reading from the police report.
Reading: On investigation it became abundantly clear that the original informant (spoken to by police) had only passed on part of that information, most of which was hearsay and gossip. The remaining information seems to have come from Parks and Wildlife Service personnel who have relied on rumour and probably guesswork. None of the information was confirmed and some was found to be highly suspect.
Ian Townsend: You'd think it might have ended there, but that was just the beginning.
The police commander at the time, Ivan Dean, said that police report was handed to the Police Minister.
Ivan Dean: The Minister of Police at the time accepted that report. However, the Minister later went back on some of that information, after I guess following briefings from other sides.
Ian Townsend: The Police Minister was David Llewellyn, who was also the minister in charge of Parks and Wildlife. He's now an Opposition MP.
David Llewellyn says senior people within Parks and Wildlife persuaded him, in spite of the police report, that the event did happened. He says he's still convinced of it.
David Llewellyn: Well yes, I am, I think it was very seriously taken at the time and the people involved were quite, as I say, senior people within the department, and for not following the matter up I think that would have been a tragedy if we had seen the incursion develop into larger numbers of foxes in the state.
Ian Townsend: That campaign kicked off though on the basis of those foxes being released and it's since transpired that there was no evidence for that, the police report's quite clear…
David Llewellyn: Well, you're saying that, I don't believe that. I think there's a lot of evidence and I think that's authenticated by the scat evidence that's been seen since and certainly the very high number of people that have reported sightings of foxes in the state.
Ian Townsend: When the fox eradication campaign kicked off 12 years ago, one of the first people brought in was Dr Clive Marks, who we heard at the start of the program describing the introduction of foxes as the 'September 11' for Tasmanian wildlife. Clive Marks is one of Australia's foremost fox experts and at the time worked for the Victorian Government.
Clive Marks: It was initially indicated to me that the police had confirmed the release of these animals and that was without a doubt, but because it was sub judice, the details could not be provided. Now, given that was the story I received from at least two Tasmanian government employees at the time, I had no reason to doubt it.
Ian Townsend: One of those Tasmanian government employees was wildlife officer Nick Mooney. Here's Nick Mooney talking to Robyn Williams on the ABC's Science Show back in 2002.
Nick Mooney: Our information is that they were basically smuggled in by a vehicle on a ship.
Robyn Williams: And so presumably they were brought to shore and let free somewhere in the north of Tasmania?
Nick Mooney: Yes. Because this is all done in secrecy and it's very illegal, it's very hard to get a handle on what actually happened, and so of course our information is hearsay and we can only have a certain amount of faith in it.
Ian Townsend: But today, that faith has trickled away. Nick Mooney's on the phone from his home at Richmond in Tasmania.
Do you believe that actually happened, that cubs were brought in?
Nick Mooney: I don't know. To me it's a story, it might be a very credible story when told by some people, but I don't have a strong view of it, because I've seen no evidence.
Ian Townsend: But back in 2002, the respected journal Nature ran a story quoting Nick Mooney as saying: 'The information that authorities have received leaves no doubt that foxes were deliberately brought into Tasmania.'
It was such a serious claim that fox expert Clive Marks flew to Tasmania to help organise a national response.
Clive Marks: I had no reason to doubt that. So, of course, I worked on the basis anyway of the precautionary principle, which is something that is sensible to do to begin with, and we started to organise the response. So, yes, I had no reason at all to doubt the veracity of the claims.
Ian Townsend: Clive Marks says the precautionary principle was only triggered back then because authorities had assured him the foxes had been introduced. He went to Canberra to help organise funding, and then returned to his main job with the Victorian Government.
It wasn't until seven years later, when he was sent a copy of that original police report scotching the fox release story, that Clive Marks decided to take a closer look at all the other claims being made about foxes in Tasmania.
Clive Marks: And I was staggered by what I found. Thinking about this in sort of wider political terms is quite frightening, because you come up with a completely different interpretation about what's going on.
Ian Townsend: North of Longford on the road to Devonport is the quiet village of Westbury. It's here that I've found Adrian Donaldson, one of the three hunters named as suspects in the alleged fox importation caper, and questioned by police.
This is the first time that Adrian Donaldson has spoken publicly, and he says he's shocked anyone still believes that story.
Adrian Donaldson: I mean, I just believe it's bloody…it's all a myth, it is really a myth, I don't believe there's any foxes in the state.
Ian Townsend: The accusation originally was that you and a couple of other blokes had brought in fox cubs. Did the police ever talk to you about that?
Adrian Donaldson: I didn't even understand it back then, it was like 'you've got to be joking, that's absolute bulldust'.
Ian Townsend: That initial accusation that people brought in fox cubs still has some credibility.
Adrian Donaldson: To whom, to whom? Because for me I don't spend any time looking for foxes. I am a hunter, but there's no foxes in the state, there's a lot of hunters in the state and they don't see them. So the people you must be talking about must be the Fox Task Force. They're the ones who see foxes, nobody else.
Ian Townsend: Actually, the Fox Task Force, later called the Fox Eradication Program, has never seen a live fox in Tasmania either.
What the fox program has produced are four already-dead foxes and a skull provided by the public, a DNA sample found in a chicken coop, and two sets of paw prints. These all have detailed stories behind them, and on the Background Briefing website there's a link to what the Fox Eradication Program says about them, as well as a link to what the new scientific review is disputing.
The only fox event that people agree happened was in 1998, when a lone fox walked off a boat at Burnie. It escaped, but being outside the fox breeding season, it was unlikely to have bred or even lived long. Foxes live only three to five years in the wild. It made news though, and was followed by a rash of sightings.
The Fox Eradication Program, now part of the Tasmanian Government's Invasive Species unit, still receives and investigates fox sightings, and rates them for quality from poor to excellent. The sightings—thousands since 1998—have convinced many people that foxes must be in Tasmania.
Peter McGlone from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust says there've been so many sightings, they can't all be wrong.
Peter McGlone: In the case of two carcasses that have been found, you could imagine, well, maybe that was, you know, we haven't found any more carcasses since, maybe that was false evidence. With the sightings, there is a ranking that's placed on all sightings based on a whole lot of criteria about whether it was good daylight, how long you saw it, how far you were from it, what characteristics you could describe without being prompted, all these things are done, and there's scores and scores of very high quality sightings over the last decade or so, including people that I've met who I totally trust as being not just good at observation but very unbiased.
Ian Townsend: But sightings are notoriously unreliable.
The new scientific review of the fox program, led by Clive Marks, has looked at the sightings, and found they peak after media reports.
Clive Marks: When a claim of physical evidence of a fox being identified was advertised in the media we saw a spike or a cluster in sightings around that particular event. So there were two things that drove the sightings: the anecdotal reports, the amount of media, and then the claim that there was convincing evidence of a fox based upon so-called physical evidence. Now, the other interesting factor was of course the decline in fox sightings that was mistaken to be indicative of the efficacy of baiting was only really a decline in media intensity. Annually, the media intensity, as it built until 2009/2010, so did fox sightings.
Ian Townsend: 2006 was a big year for foxes in the media and sightings soared. The fox program's initial funding was coming to an end, and the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre in Canberra published a review of the program and concluded that foxes were still running wild across Tasmania.
This was one of the television news items at the time:
Journalist: It's time for Tasmanians to get serious about fox eradication. That's the message from a team of experts whose new report has found overwhelming evidence of foxes in the state. They say it's time to stop doubting the veracity of recent sightings and get on with wiping them out.
Sally Dixon: There have been more than 1,000 fox sightings in Tasmania over the past eight years. But many have been dismissed as hoaxes. A Canberra based research team has spent 12 months reviewing the State's fox program and says there's no doubt the animals are here.
Tony Peacock, Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre: Not just sightings, that's actual bodies, DNA tests from blood and from scats. So anyone that denies there are foxes there, you've got to question why the hell they're doing it.
Ian Townsend: The study by that Canberra research team concluded that 'an unknown number of foxes have been deliberately and/or accidentally introduced to Tasmania since 1998' and they or their progeny were living in the wild. It recommended the use of a DNA test to monitor foxes by looking at fox poo, or what are called scats.
In 2005, a single fox scat had been found at Conara in the Tasmanian midlands. That scat had fox DNA in it, and a new type of fox hunt was on.
One of the advisors to the program, Professor Stephen Sarre from the University of Canberra, had developed a method of testing predator scats for fox DNA. Professor Sarre then used that test to run a survey of scats across Tasmania in pre-determined sites.
Stephen Sarre: So what we did in that survey was collect all predator scats that we encountered. But the primary goal of that survey was to detect any evidence of foxes through DNA in the scats, so that was the primary purpose of the original survey.
Ian Townsend: By late 2012, nearly 10,000 scats had been collected across the state, and 56 were said to be fox–positive; in other words, there was fox DNA in them.
It seemed conclusive. Based on these fox-positive scats, as well as four carcasses and other items, Stephen Sarre published a paper in 2012 saying that foxes were widespread in Tasmania.
But the scientific team that's now reviewing the fox program is disputing that as well. Leading that new review is Clive Marks.
Clive Marks: What we're interested in defining is the existence of an extant, living fox population. So we can't rely upon assumptions or rely upon anecdotal evidence, or rely upon the provision of materials from someone else, we need empirical data to make the case. And that's why the scat DNA data was the most convincing, because it was indeed empirical data. And that's why it's quite significant, if you look at that data and you find that there is a potential for false positives, but there is also no indication that the data that's been gathered is from a fox population and there are many indications that it fits an explanation which has more to do with false positives then foxes.
Ian Townsend: Clive Marks is saying is that there's a high probability that these fox-positive scats are mistakes.
Criminal cases have shown DNA testing can be flawed. The survey test developed by Stephen Sarre was based on mitochondrial DNA, and in 2007 a paper was published saying this test was accurate and reliable.
Clive Marks and his team re-ran that test using a laboratory in Portugal that specialises in mitochondrial DNA and wildlife surveys.
Clive Marks: What the laboratory reported was that there was a great potential for error or false positives, type 1 error by another name, where the scat DNA assay or one of them that had been used by the eradication program failed to adequately discriminate fox DNA from common prey species, an endemic predator, two common species of domestic livestock for instance.
Ian Townsend: In other words, the mitochondrial DNA test used initially to detect fox scats could also identify rabbits and even cattle as foxes. The pattern of the scats across Tasmania also raised eyebrows. One scat was found alone on an island three kilometres offshore.
One of the new papers challenging that DNA test has only just appeared online, and I caught up with Stephen Sarre again when he'd had a chance to read it. He was on a mobile phone in the Tasmanian midlands on a new scat survey.
Stephen Sarre: You know, I don't think it's disputing it. What it's saying is that if you apply a PCR amplification to tissue, that there's a risk that you will amplify DNA from non-target species. Well, that's not new, we've known that always, and I think the important thing is that we run a sequential test.
Ian Townsend: We're talking about a test in two stages here. The first is looking at the mitochondrial DNA to see if it looks like a fox. The second step is the more specific DNA sequencing test, |
which is smoky and dark in flavor, not ideal with the al pastor, but tasty. Ask for a plastic freezer bag, and fill up on spicy, lightly pickled onions from a large tub in front of the truck to cut through the grease.
Rosa Maria’s Drive-In
SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA
I initially turned my nose up at some of the inland selections in California for the Burrito Bracket. I know greatness hides in the most unexpected places, but we kicked out some seriously righteous burritos in the name of geographic diversity. I was deeply wrong to discriminate, however, and it was Rosa Maria’s that first put me in my place.
San Bernardino is located about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, in an area known as the “Inland Empire.” It’s home to another famous drive in, the first McDonald’s, and was the largest city in the country ever to declare bankruptcy until Detroit earned that distinction last year. But if you didn’t know any of that, it just feels like a sleepy, working-class town with beautiful mountain views. Rosa Maria’s is on the northern edge, and harkens back to a different era. It’s the kind of place where you could imagine women in roller skates pulling up to car windows to take orders. A small cement patio out front holds four cement benches, but most of the orders are to go.
A man in a pale, mint green guayabera and a paper hat took my order at a sliding window. It was my second burrito of the day, so I ordered the regular size Garbage Burrito in lieu of the XL. The burrito wasn’t as ingredient-laden as the name would imply; pork in red sauce, rice, beans, cheese, lettuce and tomato filled the contours of the tortilla.
At the pickup window they ask if you want hot sauce, a thin, watery red with flecks of black pepper (the correct answer is yes). Orders are served in little paper boxes with a stack of napkins that will all come in handy.
It smelled like a bakery when I unwrapped the deli paper. Within lay a toothsome tortilla, floury and lightly cooked. Pale, creamy refried beans and hearty chunks of salty pork mingled with crunchy lettuce and smooth, dense Mexican rice for a pleasing range of textures. This burrito is elegant, and without pretension, but full of delicious.
La Taqueria
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
San Francisco’s Mission Street is a major thoroughfare for the district of the same name, home to an abundance of taquerias (as well as pupuseria and restaurants selling other Central American specialties in recent years).
La Taqueria took the Burrito Bracket’s No. 2 seed in California, just behind El Farolito (an internet sensation that took the No. 1 seed with the country’s highest Value Over Replacement Burrito, or VORB, score). Many people take issue with La Taqueria’s prices; starting at $8, this burrito is $1-2 more expensive than others in the area. Several other burritos in the bracket have cost far more, but they aren’t in San Francisco’s Mission District, and therefore aren’t beholden to the same laws in the court of public opinion.
Shiny wooden tables and stools with crisscrossed leather straps fill La Taqueria’s open room. A screen above the kitchen projects posts about the restaurant from Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and Instagram. Four enormous skylights keep the white stucco and terra cotta interior bright and airy.
When you order a burrito, the assembly line goes like this: The tortilla is placed on a press to warm it. Once removed, the meat is piled on top, followed by pintos and guacamole, which are smoothed out with a slatted spoon. Sour cream is squirted from a plastic bottle. Tomatoes, cilantro and onion are tossed on top, and the whole thing is rolled up nice and tight, then wrapped in tin foil.
I tried several meats, and they were all exquisite, but the carnitas won my heart with their melt-in-your-mouth qualities and sweet, smoky, rich flavor. This was a burrito of near technical perfection. Pillowy sour cream and chunky guacamole lined the tortilla. The pinto beans were creamy and bursting through their skins, and the shreds of fried pork were tender and dry. The juices that ran throughout, however, were thick with an explosive burst of flavors, beckoning me back with each bite.
I might wish the tortilla was griddled. I might say the meat could be a little juicier. But the blend of liquid and textures in this burrito was so fantastic that I couldn’t dare ask for changes without fearing the consequences.
Final Decision
With an abundance of flavor and near technical perfection in execution, La Taqueria takes the win.Google makes all @nest devices free if you sign up for Google+ and interact once a month. Shutters the company a year later. — David Chartier (@chartier) January 13, 2014
Investors may be pleased by today’s news of Google’s Nest acquisition, but some Nest owners are far less enthused.
Anyone want to buy an @nest that's been installed for barely a month? Probably not joking. — David Chartier (@chartier) January 13, 2014
@9to5Google I just tore mine off of the wall. Thanks for nothing, Google. — kenikh (@kenikh) January 14, 2014
@chrisharrington Is that a whoohoo! yes, or more of a confirmation? Cause I'm about to rip that thing off the wall. @nest — Ben T (@hejdetarBen) January 13, 2014
@daytonlowell did you rip your nest out of the wall? — Dan Syde (@dansyde) January 13, 2014
Sad day. Time to rip the @nest off the wall. — PCR (@23rag1) January 13, 2014
https://twitter.com/guyinmj/status/422880877308157952
The day @google forces me to sign on to @nest using a google+ account is the day it gets ripped off the wall. #Depressing — Robert (@TheCheekyTaurus) January 13, 2014
I want to see a video where someone sees the news, then proceeds to tear their Nest out of their wall, breaking the wall in the process. — Nick Pomes (@NickPomes) January 13, 2014Pop quiz: how many elaborately detailed, scientifically generated topographical maps have you created in the last day or so? Chances are the answer is "none," unless you're writing or publishing a series of old-school fantasy novels. Those kinds of novels were the inspiration for glaciologist Martin O'Leary, who created a Twitter bot named @UnchartedAtlas that generates a new map every hour, complete with cities, mountains, rivers, valleys, country borders, and other features. As O'Leary says in his public notes on the terrain generator:
I wanted to make maps that look like something you'd find at the back of one of the cheap paperback fantasy novels of my youth. I always had a fascination with these imagined worlds, which were often much more interesting than whatever luke-warm sub-Tolkien tale they were attached to. At the same time, I wanted to play with terrain generation with a physical basis. There are loads of articles on the internet which describe terrain generation, and they almost all use some variation on a fractal noise approach, either directly (by adding layers of noise functions), or indirectly (e.g. through midpoint displacement). These methods produce lots of fine detail, but the large-scale structure always looks a bit off. Features are attached in random ways, with no thought to the processes which form landscapes. I wanted to try something a little bit different.
The bot has been cranking out made-up countries since February 2016, but National Geographic has a recent interview with O'Leary that provides a fascinating new peek behind the scenes. He initially created the bot for National Novel Generation Month, a NaNoWriMo spinoff focused on creating algorithms in an attempt to generate coherent text. O'Leary instead spent a month creating an algorithm to generate continents, coastlines, and place names. The bot starts with random data points, then uses a progressive system to stream virtual water from those points, eroding drainage channels through the landscapes, and softening the edges of the coasts. It's all based in actual geological science, which makes his maps look more realistic and believable. His notes on language generation are just as fascinating and elaborate, and they come with plenty of illustrative tools to make the process clear.
O'Leary's personal pages aren't just a guide to how his mapmaker works, they're an open invitation to examine and tweak his code and do your own thing with his project. So if you've ever wanted to build worlds of your own — or just generate a ton of maps for your own Game Of Thrones-style epic fantasy series — here's your chance.The low gluten diet craze has got to be one of the most frustrating fads that have hit the developed world in the last few decades. Without real evidence that gluten affects anyone but the tiny percentage with a genuine, diagnosed gluten sensitivity, pseudoscience supporters are pushing a low gluten diet to treat any number of issues.
The only benefit of the low gluten diet is that today a lot of products are labeled “gluten free.” Thus, the few individuals who have real gluten sensitivity have an easier time shopping for safe foods.
So a low gluten diet may have few benefits for the 99% or more of the population. But does it have risks? Well, a new study seems to indicate that it does, and we’ll let the feathery dinosaur have a go at it.
What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, along with similar proteins found in common grains such as barley and rye. Generally, we like gluten, because it gives elasticity to dough, allowing bread to have that chewy texture that is an important component of the pleasure of eating.
I’m certainly not a world-renowned chef, but I know gluten is important part of good food. It is critical in baking everything from bagels to cakes. Generally, kneading the dough forms long chain gluten protein molecules giving a chewier texture. Pastas, breads, and so many other foods are made through high gluten flour that is worked to create longer chain proteins from the gluten. I bet you didn’t know that good cooking requires more than a basic knowledge of chemistry.
Gluten can be removed from the milled flour (or it can be added back). Purified gluten, because of its texture, is actually used to create fake meat products, so beloved (or not) by vegans.
Real gluten sensitivity
Yes, there really are people who are sensitive to gluten. Celiac disease (also known as coeliac disease in British English) is an autoimmune disorder that afflicts the small intestine of certain individuals who are genetically predisposed to gluten sensitivity. The disease afflicts between 1 in 1,750 and 1 in 105 people in the United States (or about 0.05 to 1%), a tiny number.
The disease is usually diagnosed during childhood, but it can show up at any age. It is not diagnosed by gastrointestinal issues alone – it requires a blood test and endoscopy with biopsy. Lacking this level of diagnosis, I am skeptical of anyone that claims that they are gluten sensitive. In fact, a proper diagnosis is necessary to rule out other, more serious diseases, that may appear to be celiac disease.
The disease usually presents, but not always, with chronic diarrhea, low pediatric weight gain, and fatigue in response to gluten. Individuals with celiac disease know that they have it because the symptoms are so disruptive. Furthermore, a low gluten diet wouldn’t work. Celiac disease is binomial – no gluten is good, any amount of gluten is horrible.
Although the disease is not completely understood, in an individual with celiac disease who is exposed to gluten, the immune system causes an inflammatory reaction of the lining the small intestine. This interferes with the absorption of nutrients. The only known effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. In addition, once gluten is removed from the diet, the damage from the inflammatory response is reversed
Celiac disease should not be confused with wheat allergy, which is also caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, generally not including gluten. There are over 20 different wheat proteins that have identified as causing wheat allergies, and gluten generally is not the cause of wheat allergy. Finally, wheat allergies are extremely rare, and the gluten form of wheat allergies is so rare that it would take a huge population to detect it. However, if you go to your local natural food store, you’d think that 75% of the population have either wheat allergies or celiac disease – it’s another silly food fad.
Low gluten diet and type 2 diabetes
Just for background, type 2 diabetes mellitus (or type 2 diabetes, T2DM) is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by high blood glucose with insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. In general, someone with T2DM produces low (or maybe even adequate) levels of insulin, but various cells and organs become resistant to insulin, so cells don’t remove or store blood glucose.
Although the cause of T2DM is not completely understood, it results from a complex interaction between diet, obesity, genetics, age and gender. Some of the causes of T2DM are under a person’s own control, like diet and obesity, but many of the factors aren’t.
Because they are often confused, it’s important to note that T2DM has a completely different cause and pathophysiology than type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM, and once called juvenile diabetes). Type 1 diabetes results from the inability of the beta cells of the pancreas to produce insulin, as a result of an autoimmune disease.
According to research presented to the spring 2017 American Heart Association meeting, lower consumption of gluten may be linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
In this long-term observational study, researchers found that most participants had gluten intake below 12 grams/day, and within this range, those who ate the most gluten had lower Type 2 diabetes risk during thirty years of follow-up. Study participants who ate less gluten also tended to eat less cereal fiber, a known protective factor for Type 2 diabetes development. After further accounting for the potential effect of cereal fiber, individuals in the highest 20 percent of gluten consumption had a 13 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in comparison to those with the lowest daily gluten consumption (approximately fewer than 4 grams).
The researchers estimated daily intake for nearly 200,000 participants in three different long-term health studies. The study included 4.24 million person-years of follow-up from 1984-1990 to 2010-2013, during which 15,947 cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed and confirmed.
Although this study seems, on the surface, impressive, there are several important issues to address:
The results were presented at a meeting, and, as such, has not been peer reviewed, and a full paper is not available to read and critique. Generally, presentations at meetings are at the lower half of the hierarchy of scientific research. However, this is a large study of impressive quality, so we shouldn’t dismiss it like a “XYZ cures cancer” cell culture study presented at many meetings. This is an observational study where the study participants reported their gluten consumption in diaries. I’ve never been a fan of this type of study because it prone to error of memory. The study population included only nurses and other health care professionals. It’s a subsection of individuals that may be more careful with their health choices than the general public. The study lacks a control group that did not consume any gluten – this study was set up well before gluten became a food fad.
Obviously, the study’s limitations indicate that we might want to wait until follow-up studies confirm or refute this potential link. However, according to one of the researchers in this study, Geng Zong, PhD, from the Harvard University Department of Nutrition,
We wanted to determine if gluten consumption will affect health in people with no apparent medical reasons to avoid gluten. Gluten-free foods often have less dietary fiber and other micronutrients, making them less nutritious and they also tend to cost more. People without celiac disease may reconsider limiting their gluten intake for chronic disease prevention, especially for diabetes.
Low gluten diet, the summary
Food fads, especially ones based on no science or pseudoscience, can have long-term consequences for one’s health. I’ve been looking at all of these fads for years, and very few, if any, are supported by robust scientific evidence. I go with Michael Pollan’s summary of everything he learned about food and health, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Yeah, Pollan’s views on food aren’t scientifically credible in some cases, but his point here was that we shouldn’t overthink nutrition – as long as you have a balanced diet, you will be fine.
Although I’m not fully convinced, this preliminary data is robust enough to consider the possibility of a link between a low gluten diet and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, the researchers have provided plausible reasons why this may happen – gluten-free foods have less dietary fiber and other micronutrients that can contribute to the risk for type 2 diabetes.
For over 99% of the population who lack real, diagnosed gluten sensitivity, there is simply little to no value of a low gluten diet. And if there is a real risk of type 2 diabetes from this diet, with little to no benefit, it makes no sense. Don’t fall for this food fad that has no basis in science.
Citations
Di Sabatino A, Corazza GR. Coeliac disease. Lancet. 2009 Apr 25;373(9673):1480-93. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60254-3. PubMed PMID: 19394538.
RelatedDeciding whether to write this latest entry was a tad difficult, if only because I'm starting to feel like I've been harping a bit too much on Microsoft, but some of the information that has trickled out about the new Xbox bears some putting into context. Specifically, the requirement that anyone wanting to publish a game to Xbox Live needs to sign on with a publisher, so no self-publishing by indies. There's some minor rumbling and irritation at this requirement, but I don't think anyone was really expecting Microsoft to even try to accommodate indies on this one. Some people might not be quite aware of why they had such low expectations though and I intend to try to lay out some basic points that might help provide clarity or at least coherency.
Games have been a traditional strong point of the Windows platform, partially because early in Windows' lifecycle Microsoft made a concentrated effort to woo game developers. The API war between Direct3D and OpenGL was the result of that effort and Microsoft ultimately triumphed on the desktop when Direct3D became the defacto API for 3D games. A couple of things have however begun to compromise this dominance. Some have claimed that it is because OpenGL is gaining more acceptance and thus allowing for more cross-platform compatibility, but I would argue that OpenGL's improved standing was in response to the weakening Windows gaming environment, not a cause of it.
Probably the biggest threat to Windows' dominance in gaming has been Microsoft's attempts at diversification, namely into consoles and then mobile devices. When Microsoft first released the Xbox, the company focused heavily on getting as many games on it as possible to make it competitive. This resulted in what could at best be called a 'benign neglect' of the PC gaming market. After all, Windows already dominated the PC gaming market. The real growth opportunity was in consoles, especially as Microsoft could take a direct cut of games sold on its console, something it could not do for PC games. The original Xbox gave Microsoft a foothold in the console market and the 360 expanded that foothold. This caused an internal conflict of sorts, wherein efforts and projects that might help boost PC gaming were neglected or scaled back to avoid disadvantaging the console. PC gamers aren't stupid and caught on that something like this was happening, though for some time there was no official confirmation, not that any such was needed. The end result was a stagnation of sorts with PC games as the complexity of games were effectively dictated by having to work with technology that is at this point eight years old. So in Microsoft's quest to ensure a steady flow of games for the 360, the company had a vested interest in not pushing games to take advantage of the latest and greatest PC hardware.
As part of this pursuance of games, Microsoft even released the XNA framework targeted at indie developers. Ironically, the need to maintain support for the 360 is what prevented XNA from ever being updated to support Direct3D 10 and higher, as the 360's hardware was effectively Direct3D 9 plus some enhancements. This particular experiment has not lasted very long as Microsoft made it more and more financially infeasible to try to publish a game on Xbox Live for indies however. There are many reasons Microsoft might have done this, but probably the simplest is its ever shifting focus and its efforts to force third party developers to shift along with Microsoft. Microsoft is now a major player in the console market and its entertainment division is no longer taking heavy losses, though we'll see whether they repeat the mistakes of previous generations by cheaping out on hardware only to get hit by massive charges to replace broken systems. Since Microsoft's entry into the console market however, mobile devices have taken off and it was not long before the company also dove into that field.
Microsoft actually had a fairly strong presence in the mobile market due to Windows CE, but that platform never really captured the imagination of the consumer market. Its first attempts to do so were the Zune, which basically flopped, and then the ZuneHD, which actually was a very respectable MP3 player. The Metro tile interface actually originated from work on the ZuneHD and lessons learned were incorporated into Microsoft's new phone OS, Windows Phone 7. To emulate Apple's appstore/device model, Microsoft knew it needed applications. As such, Microsoft retooled XNA to make it a platform for mobile app development. It should not be surprising that publishing to Xbox Live was increasingly de-emphasized. Improving XNA to help it be more useful for desktop game development was probably never even considered, though Microsoft could not stop people from using its existing facilities for desktop game development. Still, Microsoft had fostered a development community for Windows Phone 7 using XNA, which in theory could be grown and migrated to future iterations. And then there was Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
Windows 8 represents Microsoft's effort to extend the appstore model to the desktop. XNA's ability to create desktop games however was a direct threat to Microsoft's attempts to funnel things into its appstore. Microsoft took to dealing with this threat with a scorched earth strategy, wherein they dropped XNA outright even though they had built the Windows Phone developer community around it and replacing it with a new framework that they could restrict to the appstore. The disruption and dissatisfaction that resulted was apparently written off as acceptable collateral damage so long as the goal of forcing the third party developers that had flocked to XNA in the first place into the appstore was achieved. Except constantly been run roughshod over by Microsoft has soured a lot of developers, driving many of them to search for alternatives instead of going the appstore route that Microsoft was hoping.
Microsoft has a tendency to weaken itself whenever a current strength gets in the way of an expansion/growth objective. This might work if Microsoft was an actual trend setter, but in all of the above cases it was a follower or late adopter. But in the process of shooting itself in the foot in so many ways, Microsoft is creating openings that others can and are exploiting. Time will tell whether the company understands that it is helping others undercut it in its core competencies whenever it cripples itself in pursuit of something new.3x3x3 Cube First Round Final 2x2x2 Cube Final 7x7x7 Cube Combined Final 3x3x3 Fewest Moves Final 3x3x3 With Feet Combined Final Megaminx Combined Final Pyraminx Combined Final Clock Combined First Final Skewb Final Square-1 Combined Final Competitors Adam Polak Andrew C Hooke Andrew Karbusicky Andrew Pathos Ashley Mikel Ben Jackson Bodie Zwank Brandon Satterstrom Brian Ferrell Brian Johnson Caleb Gamble Chance Cork Chris Braiedy Chris Kellogg Christopher Olson Christopher Resendiz CJ Sheng Colin Angelos Dakota Rossi Dan Pietz Daniel Khamo David Nguyen Drew McFadyen Dustin Esser Elliott Ross Ethan Pawl Grant Hall Haiyun Jin (金海云) Henry Lange Henry Schaffer Jack Goldstein Jack Splitgerber Jacob Gamble Jacob Timmer Jet Matteson John Brechon Jordan Barnes Joshua Feran Kelly Stewart Ken Yuan Kennan LeJeune Kevin Hays Kole Hedrick Kyle Casilli Kyle Satterstrom Kyler Dewerd Logan DeGroot Logan McGraw Lucas Urbanski Marcus Kamen Max Munz Mitchell Ernst Nicholas Schreiner Nick Krahn Nolan Braier Nolan Polak Oliver Sterling Payton Vaughn Rachel Feran Randi Satterstrom Reagan Wcisel Sam Dodd Samuel Bennett Samuel You Theo Herzog Torbin Kittleson Tyler Brodzinski Walker Welch Wesley Mcghee Zach Emery Zachary Hall [refresh] [show]9/11 Truth is an important movement which is spreading across North America.
In relation to the 12th anniversary commemoration of the tragic events of 9/11 and their aftermath, Global Research brings to the attention of our readers this timely and carefully researched documentary on the September 11 attacks by Italy’s award winning film director Massimo Mazzuco.
To see the fully indexed film in one page go to luogocomune.net. You can also purchase the 5-hour film in a 3 DVD set.
Italian and French versions also available. Full info at luogocomune.net.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1GCeuSr3Mk#t=16
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
0.01:02 – 12 parallels between Pearl
Harbor and September 11
0.14:10 – The debate: main issues
PART 1 – AIR DEFENSE
0.14:55 – Where are the interceptors?
0.16:12 – The “incompetence theory”
(radars, transponders)
0.22:00 – The military drills
0.29:40 – Specific warnings
0.33:08 – The chain of command
0.38:10 – Promotions, not punishments
0.39:50 – The Mineta case
0.47:38 – Debunkers: “Mineta was mistaken”
0.53:18 – The Mineta case – A summary
PART 2 – THE HIJACKERS
0.57:15 – “Piss-poor student pilots”
0.59:38 – Marwan al-Sheikki (UA175)
1.01:52 – Ziad Jarrah (UA93)
1.03:06 – Hani Hanjour (AA77)
1.04:00 – The debunkers’ positions
1.06:00 – 2 simulations of the Pentagon attack
1.13:10 – Someone knew?
1.16:40 – Airport security cameras
1.20.15 – The missing black boxes
PART 3 – THE AIRPLANES
1.26:50 – Passenger planes or military drones?
1.28:20 – Impossible speeds
1.37:30 – What happened to the passengers?
1.38:35 – The cellphone calls
1.48:30 – The debunkers’ position
1.50:38 – If not from the planes, from where?
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75XiXvqxWUQ (Preview)
PART 4 – THE PENTAGON
0.02:35 – Downed light poles
0.03:30 – The missing plane
0.04:30 – The official version
0.05:24 – Problems with the official version
(wing, ailerons, tail, engines)
0.13:09 – The mystery hole
0.14:10 – The debunkers’ explanations
0.16:20 – Conclusions on damage analysis
0.17:00 – The missing tapes
0.18:30 – Security video analysis
0.23.40 – Pentagon summary
PART 5 – FLIGHT 93
0.24.15 – The empty hole
0.28.00 – The debunkers’ explanations
0.33:00 – Plane crash or bomb explosion?
0.34:50 – The debris field
0.37.20 – The shootdown hypothesis
0.38:50 – The small white plane
0.41:40 – “Let’s roll”
0.44:25 – Summary of Flight 93
PART 6 – THE TWIN TOWERS
0.45:10 – Introduction
0.47:45 – The Towers’ small dirty secret
0.53:10 – Larry Silverstein
0.56:15 – NIST vs. Architects & Engineers
0.58:00 – Robust or fragile buildings?
1.04:45 – The initial collapse – Explanation #1
1.05:45 – The initial collapse – Explanation #2
1.07:35 – Problems with the official explanation
1.18:00 – The full collapse – No official explanation
1.18:50 – Law of physics violated
1.20:50 – The Twin Towers and freefall
1.27:50 – Debunkers’ response to A&E
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCw1TjfNKow (Preview)
(Twin Towers continued)
0.00:20 – The hypothesis of controlled demolitions
0.01:08 – Debunkers: “Impossible to place explosives”
0.07:34 – Explosions in the Twin Towers (witnesses)
0.15:00 – “Fuel in elevators shafts” theory
0.23:25 – Debunkers: “Explosions not recorded by tv cameras”
0.30:26 – Squibs
0.33:00 – Explosive force (montage)
0.35:00 – Ejecta
0.38:00 – Diagonal cuts
0.40:15 – What happened to the hat trusses?
0.42:20 – Extreme temperatures
0.45:30 – Debunkers’ explanations
0.46:45 – Twisted and mangled beams
0.47:40 – Molten steel
0.51:05 – Molten concrete
0.53:50 – Pulverization
0.57:40 – Victims vaporized
1.02:20 – Conclusion on the Twin Towers
PART 7 – BUILDING 7
1.05:10 – Introduction
1.06:35 – Official version by NIST
1.09:36 – Collapse computer simulation
1.11:00 – Fire computer simulation
1.12:20 – Debunkers: “Building 7 weaker”
1.14:25 – Preknowledge
1.19:00 – Symmetry
1.20:00 – Freefall
EPILOGUE
1.22:30 – John McCain
1.24:35 – The last word* Israel bombs Gaza launch sites after rocket attack
* Hamas says Israel nabs two of its West Bank politicians (Adds West Bank arrests)
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at a southern Israeli coastal city on Monday and Israel's Iron Dome interceptor shot down one while the other fell into the sea, a military spokeswoman said.
Within hours, Israel's air force bombed what a military spokesman described as two concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza. There were no casualties.
The pre-dawn salvo against Ashkelon, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Gaza, was unusual given the relative restraint of Palestinian militants since last November's war between the coastal enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers and the Jewish state.
There was no claim of responsibility for Monday's launches.
They may have been meant to spoil the U.S.-sponsored peace talks that Hamas's rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, resumed with Israel in July. To bolster Abbas, Israel is due to free 26 Palestinian prisoners this week. [ID: nL5N0IH0PG]
During the previous prisoner release, in August, Gaza militants fired rockets across the border and Israel responded with air strikes.
Hamas has called on Abbas, who holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to abandon peacemaking and form a new Palestinian power-sharing government.
The Islamist faction has also signalled readiness to go to war, taking responsibility last week for a tunnel which the Israelis discovered running into their territory from Gaza and said was likely intended for kidnapping soldiers or setting off underground explosives.
But the sands are shifting for Hamas, which has tipped into financial and political crisis after being cut off from neighbouring Egypt by the new, military-guided interim government in Cairo.
Hamas's ties with former backers Iran and Syria have similarly deteriorated and in Gaza its authority has at times been challenged by more radical armed Islamists.
Abbas's administration, which was expelled from Gaza in a 2007 Palestinian civil war, has kept Hamas in check in the West Bank. So has Israel, whose troops seized two Hamas lawmakers and 23 other Palestinians in the West Bank on Monday, according to Abbas's administration. Israeli authorities did not immediately comment on the arrests.
The Israeli military spokeswoman said a mortar bomb was fired across the border from Gaza on Sunday, but caused no damage or casualties. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones)Andreas Johnson and the Frolunda Indians won the SHL championship over the weekend. Frolunda handily defeated Skellefteå in five games to take the win, and KatyaKnappe can tell you all about it here.
Johnson was a little ghost-like on the scoreboard during the later rounds of the playoffs, but hopefully that's not an issue with the Leafs/Marlies next year, I mean he's won everything he could with Frolunda, come share that experience here.
In the OHL the London Knights are taking a series that everyone that would be close and well contested and running away with it. Outscoring the Otters 13-5 after two games, the Knights look to be making quick work and can wrap up the series over the next two games on home ice. Mitch Marner is not slowing down at all as he makes his way through the playoffs, he has six points in those two games.
It's a little different in the QMJHL, where the Huskies (Dzierkels) and the Cataracts (Timashov) are tied in the QMJHL semi-finals 1-1 in their respective series.
Neither are lighting things up, but they aren't hurting their teams either.
Ontario Hockey League
Mitch Marner/JJ Piccinich (F) - London Knights
Leads series vs Erie Otters 2-0
April 20: London 7 at Erie 4
Marner: 1G, 3A, +2 / Piccinich: 0G, 0A, -3
April 24: London 6 at Erie 1
Marner: 1G, 1A, +1 / Piccinich: 0G, 1A, +1
Week Totals: Marner: 2G, 4A, +3 / Piccinich: 0G, 1A, -2
Travis Dermott (D) - Erie Otters
Trails series vs London Knights 2-0
April 20: London 7 at Erie 4 0G, 0A, -2
April 24: London 6 at Erie 1 0G, 0A, -1
Week Totals: 0G, 0A, -3
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Dmytro Timashov (F) - Shawinigan Cataractes
Series vs Saint John Sea Dogs tied 1-1
April 22: Saint John 6 @ Shawinigan 5 OT 1G, 0A, +1
April 23: Saint John 1 @ Shawinigan 7 0G, 1A, +1
Week Totals: 1G, 1A, +2
Martins Dzierkals (F) - Rouyn-Noranda Huskies
Series vs Moncton Wildcats tied 1-1
April 22: Moncton 1 @ Rouyn-Noranda 4 0G, 0A, +1
April 23: Moncton 5 @ Rouyn-Noranda 4 No Points
Week Totals: 0G, 0A, +1
Europe
Andreas Johnson (F) - Frolunda, SHL
Frolunda wins SHL championship vs Skellefteå 4-1
April 19: Skellefteå AIK 1 - Frölunda HC 3 No Points
April 21: Frölunda HC 3 - Skellefteå AIK 2 No Points
April 24: Skellefteå AIK 3 - Frölunda HC 5 No Points
Week Totals: No Points
Prospects currently with the Toronto Marlies:
Andrew Nielsen (D) - Lethbridge Hurricanes
Jeremy Bracco (F) - Kitchener Rangers
Prospects with completed seasons:
Nikita Korotselev (F) - Sarnia Sting
Stephen Desrocher (D) - Kingston Frontenacs
Dominic Toninato / Tony Cameranesi (F) - U. Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs
Dakota Joshua (F) - Ohio State Buckeyes
Nolan Vesey (F) - U. Maine Black Bears
Pierre Engvall (D) - Mora IK, Allsvenskan
Fabrice Herzog (F) - Zurich Lions, Swiss AHow MH17 was shot down – analysis by Colonel Cassad
Colonel Cassad has just published an interesting analysis about how MH17 was shot down (please see here for the original Russian text: Как убивали малазийский “Боинг |
not fit the network's rock playlist. James accused the network of racism. When MTV and BET both avoided playing the video for "Loosey's Rap" because of its graphic sexual content, James considered the networks hypocritical in light of them still playing provocative videos by Madonna and Cher.
In 1989, James's 11th album, Kickin', was released only in the UK. By 1990, he had lost his deal with Warner Bros. and James began struggling with personal and legal troubles. That year MC Hammer released his hit signature song, "U Can't Touch This", which sampled the prominent opening riff from "Super Freak". James and his co-writer on "Super Freak", Alonzo Miller, successfully sued Hammer for shared songwriting credit and all three consequently received the 1990 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. In 1997, James released Urban Rapsody, his first album since his release from prison on assault charges, and he toured to promote the album. That same year, he discussed his life and career in interviews for the VH1 musical documentary series, Behind the Music, which aired in early 1998. James's musical career slowed again after he suffered a minor stroke during a concert. In 1999, James accepted an offer by Eddie Murphy to appear in the comedy-drama Life.
Personal life [ edit ]
Relationships and children [ edit ]
James had two children with Syville Morgan, a former singer and songwriter. They had a daughter, Ty, and a son, Rick Jr.
James dated actress Linda Blair from 1982 to 1984. They met after James read an interview where Blair called him sexy. He contacted her and spent time getting to know the actress during a short stint living at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. His hit song "Cold Blooded" was about his relationship with Blair. "It was about how Linda could freeze my blood," he wrote in his autobiography.[18]
In 1989, James met 17-year-old party-goer Tanya Hijazi. The two began a romance in 1990. In 1993, the couple welcomed the arrival of their only child and James's youngest, Tazman. Following their respective releases from prison for assaulting Mary Sauger and Frances Alley,[19][20] the couple married in 1996 and divorced in 2002.
James was very close with Teena Marie, whom he met and began collaborating with in 1979. Teena Marie stated they were romantically involved for 3 months and engaged "for two weeks".[citation needed] Their professional partnership lasted into 2004, when Marie released her comeback album, La Doña, which included her and James's duet "I Got You". When James died, Teena Marie said she struggled to come to terms with his death.[citation needed]
Friendships [ edit ]
James became close friends with Eddie Murphy after the two met in 1981. Following his exit from the United States Navy in 1984, Murphy's older brother Charlie Murphy, whose first post-Navy job was working as security for his famous brother, began spending time with James, and he bonded with the singer. Murphy would later recall on Chappelle's Show his sometimes strained relationship with James, which helped to revive James's name in the public eye after years of seclusion, following his mild stroke in 1998. James also appeared in the episode recounting his memory of the experiences shared with Murphy, such as starting impromptu fights with him and staining Murphy's couch with mud.
James was also a friend of fellow Motown act performers Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, singers James idolized as a teenager. Additionally, he befriended Gaye's second wife, Janis, and he was godfather of Gaye's daughter Nona. James's relationship with Robinson began shortly after James signed with Motown and, in 1983, the duo recorded the hit "Ebony Eyes".
James also idolized former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin and Ruffin's self-proclaimed cousin, bass vocalist Melvin Franklin, and grabbed at the chance to produce the hit "Standing on the Top" for them in 1982. Before that, the then-current lineup of the group recorded background vocals on two James-associated projects—James's Street Songs (singing "Ghetto Life" and "Super Freak") and Teena Marie's It Must Be Magic (singing on the title track). In "Super Freak", "It Must Be Magic", and "Standing On The Top", James famously shouted out, "Temptations SING!"[citation needed]
Drug abuse and health problems [ edit ]
James's drug abuse began in his teens, first with marijuana and heroin.[3] James began using cocaine in the late 1960s. His cocaine use became an addiction by the 1980s, and he began freebasing by the end of the decade. James smoked crack cocaine in his Beverly Hills mansion and often put aluminum foil on the windows to block onlookers.
His drug use led to major health problems. In April 1984, he was hospitalized after being found unconscious in the middle of his house by a friend.[21] James claimed that he quit cocaine when he entered prison, although his autopsy showed there was a small amount of the drug in his bloodstream at the time of his death.[22]
Kidnapping and assault convictions [ edit ]
By the beginning of the 1990s, James's drug use was public knowledge. He was mainly addicted to cocaine and later admitted to spending about $7,000 per week on drugs for five years straight. In 1991, he and future wife Tanya Hijazi were accused of holding 24-year-old Frances Alley hostage for up to six days (although accounts vary on how long she was actually held),[citation needed] tying her up, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and burning her legs and abdomen with the hot end of a crack cocaine pipe during a week-long cocaine binge.[20] In 1993, while out on bail for that incident, James, under the influence of cocaine, assaulted music executive Mary Sauger at the St. James Club and Hotel in West Hollywood. Sauger claims she met James and Hijazi for a business meeting, but said the two then kidnapped and beat her over a 20-hour period.[19]
James was found guilty of both offenses but was cleared of a torture charge in the crack pipe incident that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. He served two years in Folsom Prison and lost a civil suit to Sauger, who was awarded $2 million.[23] He was released from prison in 1996.[24] In 1998, James was accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman, though charges were later dropped.[25]
Final years [ edit ]
Chappelle's Show [ edit ]
In early 2004, James participated in a comedy sketch on Chappelle's Show, in a segment called "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories". James and Murphy recounted humorous stories of their experiences together during the early 1980s. During the sketch, James's character, played by Dave Chappelle, utters the now famous catchphrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" The sketches were punctuated by James, explaining his past behavior with the phrase, "cocaine is a hell of a drug!"
Autobiography and final music projects [ edit ]
At the time of his death, James was working on an autobiography, The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak, as well as a new album. The book was finally published toward the end of 2007 by Colossus Books and features a picture of his tombstone.
Noted music journalist/biographer David Ritz, who had been employed by James to work on the book with him, later said that this version did not truly reflect how the musician wanted it published. In 2014, Ritz published his own, re-edited version, Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James.
He was also supporting Teena Marie's tour of her album La Doña and toured with her in May 2004, playing with her at the KBLX Stone Soul Picnic, Pioneer Amphitheatre, Hayward, California.[26]
Death [ edit ]
On the morning of August 6, 2004, James's caretaker found him dead in James's Los Angeles home at the Oakwood Toluca Hills apartment complex, just outside Burbank. He had died from pulmonary failure and cardiac failure, associated with his various health conditions of diabetes, a stroke, pacemaker, and heart attack. His autopsy found alprazolam, diazepam, bupropion, citalopram, hydrocodone, digoxin, chlorpheniramine, methamphetamine, and cocaine in his blood.[27] However, the coroner stated that "none of the drugs or drug combinations were found to be at levels that were life-threatening in and of themselves".[27]
James was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.
Digital releases [ edit ]
James's entire Motown Records back catalogue was released in 2014 on iTunes for the first time in digitally remastered form. This marks the first time many of his albums have been widely available since their initial releases. Physical copies of James's albums, namely Fire It Up, Garden of Love and The Flag, have become rare and highly sought-after by fans.
Discography [ edit ]
Studio albums
References [ edit ]
SourcesToday is my birthday! I am 29, and now filled with a creeping, unyielding dread, as if I have accomplished nothing of worth for the past decade. Welp, hope you like the comic!
The Benign Kingdom Kickstarter was a massive success! We ended up raising a whopping $140,617, dwarfing our initial goal of $15k. Thanks so much to everyone who contributed, and for those who didn’t, my book will eventually be available in the Topatoco Store, once it’s printed!
In other book related news, I can finally announce that I’m putting the finishing touches on the first ever full Dresden Codak book! It’s called The Tomorrow Girl, and it will include all of Dresden Codak aside from Dark Science and a few of the super early strips (as I don’t have print resolution copies of them). I’ll let you guys know when that’s ready to go!Draghi told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he would be ready to come to Berlin to answer criticism from German MPs about his handling of the euro crisis.
"If the Bundestag invites me, I would be happy to come," he told the paper. "That would be a good opportunity to explain what we're doing."
But he is unlikely to be asked to make a speech in the chamber, instead he would probably appear before the parliament's budget and Europe committee - though no date has been set.
Bundestag President Norbert Lammert thanked Draghi for his offer and said he would do his best to find an appropriate format for a discussion with "particularly interested and engaged MPs."
Recent polls suggest that half of Germans mistrust the ECB president, which, Draghi said, makes his job harder. "I must do more to explain our measures," the Italian admitted.
The parliamentary faction of the Christian Democratic Union - Chancellor Angela Merkel's party - dismissed any talk of Draghi making a speech in the chamber itself.
"A big appearance in the plenum will not be announced, because that could easily be misunderstood as a sign that the ECB is becoming dependent on governments," a spokesman said. "But there is no reason there can't be discussion in front of specialist committees."
Draghi has been criticized recently for allowing the ECB to buy unlimited state bonds on high interest rates. He maintains these bonds will only be bought if strict conditions are applied.
Draghi also told the paper that the programme is already proving successful, and that global trust in the euro is increasing. "Fund managers are bringing their money back to Europe," he said. "That is good for the economy."
The Local/DPA/bkDespite all the amazing cocktails to emerge from the recent cocktail revolution, the proverbial vodka soda still continues to be one of the most popular drinks in bars and night clubs (runners-up would be Jack and Coke or Rum and Coke). This quick and easy drink has helped make the vodka category literally explode with volumes of sales that downright eclipse other spirit categories.
The big question is, of course, is the love affair with the vodka soda tied to vodka as a spirit? Brands like Grey Goose and Ketel One have done an exceptional job of imbuing their fairly neutral spirits with brand personality and identity, but what if there were other, easier options available for drinkers to get their booze in the same fairly tasteless and effervescent way? Enter Air, Alcohol Inspired Refresher, an interesting take on the vodka soda. The folks behind Air have done something rather interesting: instead of creating a pre-mix of vodka and soda, they’ve taken fermented malt and put it through a patented process to make it virtually odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Sounds like vodka right? By using fermented malt as their source of alcohol and keeping the ABV at 4%, Air can be sold in grocery and convenience stores right alongside beer. Because Air is in a can, it can go places that bottles can’t go, including in the hands of people at dance and night clubs. Even though Air is technically a malt beverage, the company has gone to great lengths to distance themselves from a category that includes such legendary lowbrow products as Colt 45 and Zima.
It’s all pretty inventive, but in the end, you are getting less alcohol per can of Air than you would in your average vodka soda. Vodka is 80 proof, or 40%, so a 2 ounce shot plus 4 ounces of soda water would net you a total of.8 ounce of alcohol or 13% ABV. Air is 4% ABV and a can of Air gives you.48 ounce of alcohol, so it’s a little more than half of what you’d get in a standard vodka soda, and close to what you’d get in a beer. Also the alcohol is different, malt sourced rather than distilled, so the buzz you get is more like a beer than a hard spirit.
Air is sold in four packs for a suggested price of $6.99 or just $1.74 per can. It comes in berry, citrus, and club versions (the latter is the closest to club soda). The prime focus of Air is its neutrality – even the flavored versions are very lightly flavored. At 95 calories per can, it’s significantly less than most malt beverages on the market, and even the low calorie beers from the major beer companies. Air is fairly highly carbonated and it’s best chilled, so pouring it over ice greatly enhances the experience. Air has done a fantastic job of masking the malt source of its alcohol. We were only able to detect a slight hint of it in the citrus Air, which was served closer to room temperature. The berry Air which we tried iced cold had no suggestion of malt. Both Air flavors were much more dry than sweet and reminded us more of lightly flavored seltzer water than a sweet malt beverage.
Air is launching on the west coast in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle with expansion plans to the rest of the country.I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch and weigh in on the illuminating online chat I had yesterday with Inside Climate News publisher David Sassoon, editor Susan White and reporter Lisa Song.
We explored the comprehensive series of articles on environmental risks from America’s fast-growing maze of oil pipelines that earned the tiny, foundation-supported Web site the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting on Monday.
This is the third online news outlet to win a Pulitzer (one prize for Huffington Post and two for Pro Publica). There’ll surely be more. [Read Brian Stelter’s column, as well: “A Pulitzer Prize, but Without a Newsroom to Put It In.”]
In our Google+ Hangout, we talk about the site’s reporting package, which charted the causes, impacts and significance of a million-gallon spill of diluted bitumen in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010 but expanded to look at the outdated rules for pipeline monitoring and safety. Bitumen is the very crude oil extracted from Canada’s enormous deposits of oil sands. Early on, Inside Climate News began using the shorthand “dilbit” for this substance and the name is catching on, including in the title of the new e-book consolidating the reporting — “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of.”
One of my questions:
Is the solution to ban pipelines or to have more rigorous oversight?
Susan White replied:
The idea that we’re building pipelines using rules and regulations that are out of date is appalling. Forget whether you want pipelines or you want Canadian crude oil. That’s a separate debate…. More than 10,000 miles of new or repurposed pipelines are planned for the United States in the next few years. Why aren’t we making sure that they’re safer?
I noted that it appeared to me that prominent environmental groups don’t want to discuss safer pipelines:
As soon as you say you want to make it safer you’re basically saying it’s okay.
Sassoon said this dynamic exists, and shifted the chat toward the pipeline of the moment, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline extension that would allow more Canadian oil to flow to American refineries:
We don’t have an energy and climate policy in this country. So Keystone is the fulcrum around which that discussion is happening, even though it’s not a particularly deep discussion.
He called for President Obama to hit the “pause” button, given the big environmental stakes and implications for climate change. [Please have a look back at Sassoon’s 2012 Op-Ed article for The Times, “Crude, Dirty and Dangerous,” for more.]
Lisa Song described the technologies that are available, at a cost, to improve pipeline reliability and safety. The final piece in the Pulitzer submission noted that the Keystone plan doesn’t include advanced spill-protection technology.
Then we shifted into a discussion of the financial model for Inside Climate — which was launched with grants from the Energy Foundation, Grantham Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other philanthropies — and mused on whether this kind of media outlet can be sustained and replicated.
White, in part, said:
I think the ones that survive and prosper will be the ones that focus on what we try to focus on — following the basic core tenets of good journalism and building that trust over time.
There’s much more.Update 3: Improved the code for extraction of fillchar from ‘fillchars’ option and taking ‘foldcolumn’ into account.
Update 2: Fixed the regex for removing the fold marker from the displayed text by splitting the ‘{{{‘ in the regex to ‘{{‘. ‘{‘ so that it is not treated as a fold marker by vim. Thanks to Amadan on reddit here.
Update: Fixed ‘NeatFoldText()’ to get foldchar from ‘fillchars’ settings.
Initially when I started using VIM, I had borrowed configs from my mentor Vagmi Mudumbai (to whom I am eternally thankful!!!).
He used folding in VIM actively. I on the other hand though, barely got around using VIM itself, found folding to be quite confusing and hard to work with. The first folding mapping I learnt was ‘zR’, which is for recursively opening all folds in the current documents, so I don’t have to deal / worry about them. I became so habitual to using ‘zR’ that one day I decided I was better off without folding altogether, after all I was clearly not using folding anyways. That day I removed folding related configs from my ~/.vimrc. Much later as I became more comfortable using VIM, I came back to folding and have not looked back ever since!
I have always thought though that the vim’s default folding look and feel could use some beautification, and although I have been aware about ‘foldtext’, I never really got around to understanding how to take advantage of it to customize things like I wanted.
After quite a bit of effort and quite a few iterations, I now present to you my ‘NeatFoldText()’, a vim function that makes the fold line look really impressive, meaningful and neat at the same time! It puts focus on what’s most important (the text in the start of the fold). And right aligns the number of lines in the fold. Also formats it to fixed size which makes it look neat and consistent.
Put this in your $VIMRC (~/.vimrc) :
function! NeatFoldText() "{{{2 let line =''. substitute(getline(v:foldstart), '^\s*"\?\s*\|\s*"\?\s*{{'. '{\d*\s*', '', 'g').'' let lines_count = v:foldend - v:foldstart + 1 let lines_count_text = '| '. printf("%10s", lines_count.'lines').'|' let foldchar = matchstr(&fillchars, 'fold:\zs.') let foldtextstart = strpart('+'. repeat(foldchar, v:foldlevel*2). line, 0, (winwidth(0)*2)/3) let foldtextend = lines_count_text. repeat(foldchar, 8) let foldtextlength = strlen(substitute(foldtextstart. foldtextend, '.', 'x', 'g')) + &foldcolumn return foldtextstart. repeat(foldchar, winwidth(0)-foldtextlength). foldtextend endfunction set foldtext=NeatFoldText() " }}}2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 function! NeatFoldText ( ) "{{{2 let line =''. substitute ( getline ( v:foldstart ), '^\s*"\?\s*\|\s*"\?\s*{{'. '{\d*\s*', '', 'g' ).'' let lines_count = v:foldend - v:foldstart + 1 let lines_count_text = '| '. printf ( "%10s", lines_count.'lines' ).'|' let foldchar = matchstr ( &fillchars, 'fold:\zs.' ) let foldtextstart = strpart ( '+'. repeat ( foldchar, v:foldlevel * 2 ). line, 0, ( winwidth ( 0 ) * 2 ) / 3 ) let foldtextend = lines_count_text. repeat ( foldchar, 8 ) let foldtextlength = strlen ( substitute ( foldtextstart. foldtextend, '.', 'x', 'g' ) ) + &foldcolumn return foldtextstart. repeat ( foldchar, winwidth ( 0 ) - foldtextlength ). foldtextend endfunction set foldtext = NeatFoldText ( ) " }}}2
And this is how the fold text look like :
This example should also prove to be a great starting point / example for those who wish to tweak the folding text further.Written by: The Environmental Investigation Agency
New evidence of Japan’s failure to control illegal ivory trading at a time when Africa’s elephants face extinction is revealed in a damning report.
The report from the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals the identities of four Japanese ivory trading companies that offered to sell elephant tusks to undercover investigators for illegal export to China. The report, titled The Dirty Secrets of Japan’s Illegal Ivory Trade, also documents a 20-year history of broken commitments by Japan to enact effective controls to prevent poached tusks from being sold domestically or for illegal export.
The report follows shocking new elephant census data revealing a 30% decline from 2007 to 2014 in populations in 15 of 18 African nations surveyed. This amounts to an unsustainable 8% annual decline from intensive ivory poaching, which threatens the species’ long term survival.
EIA’s report is released as a critical meeting of 183 nations Party to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is underway in Johannesburg, South Africa. Major proposals from Kenya and nine other African elephant range states, and one from the United States, aim to close domestic ivory markets of Japan and other Parties to help protect Africa’s elephants.
“Japan’s efforts to promote continued ivory trade while opposing the domestic ivory ban proposals is a slap in the face to the 29 African states seeking to end domestic ivory trade to protect their elephants ” said Allan Thornton, president of EIA. “It’s time for Japan to join the global efforts to protect elephants and to permanently ban its domestic ivory trade.”
The EIA report, The Dirty Secrets of Japan’s Illegal Ivory Trade, reveals:
– The identities and undercover video of four Japanese ivory companies that admitted to EIA investigators to conducting daily ivory sales to Chinese buyers and boasted of the vast amounts of ivory being illegally exported to China and Hong Kong.
– 30 of 37 Japanese ivory traders contacted by an undercover investigator offered to engage in some form of illegal activity to buy, sell, or fraudulently register a tusk that did not qualify for registration.
– Most of Japan’s ivory tusk imports dating from before the 1989 ban on international trade in elephant ivory were from poached elephants. As a result, the government’s tusk registration scheme is effectively a tool for granting amnesty to large quantities of pre-1989 poached ivory
– An influential report by the wildlife trade monitoring group, TRAFFIC, supporting Japan’s 1997 bid to reopen ivory trade found that Japan could not control ivory trade, but the conclusions were amended and supported Japan’s successful bid to reopen ivory trade.
The EIA report also reveals that, since 1997, Japan has consistently failed to enact CITES commitments to:
– Verify the legality of origin and acquisition of ivory tusks presented for registration, thereby enabling poached tusks to be legalised onto the domestic market with the widespread use of fraudulent declarations.
– Require registration and marking of cut ivory pieces over 1kg and 20cm in height or larger, making it impossible to track the trade chain of ivory.
– Enact “demonstrably effective” controls over worked ivory.
– Control unregistered ivory traders selling large amounts of ivory online shopping and auction sites like Yahoo! Japan and Rakuten Ichiba.
– Prevent illegal export of ivory to China, Thailand, and other nations.
“EIA investigations and research over the past 18 months demonstrate that Japan’s ivory control system is plagued by loopholes and undercut by weak legislation to such an extent that no meaningful control exists at even the most basic level,” said Danielle Fest Grabiel, EIA Wildlife Senior Policy Analyst.RAISING TRUMP
By Ivana Trump
304 pp. Gallery Books. $26.99.
THE KARDASHIANS
An American Drama
By Jerry Oppenheimer
336 pp. St. Martin’s Press. $27.99.
There are those who have fame thrust upon them, and those who thrust themselves upon fame like an invasion force. It is the latter troupe of shameless, relentless thrusters that occupies us here, the Trump and Kardashian clanships. Until fairly recently, family dynasties — whatever skeletons they may have had in their closets — thrived on a mantle of achievement handed down from generation to generation, whether we’re talking about the Adamses, Roosevelts, Rockefellers, Kennedys, Bushes or Flying Wallendas. Such a quaint ideal and needless effort this service obligation seems now, when exhibitionism in the pseudoraw is what gets rewarded, thanks in large measure to the phony theatrics of reality TV, which turned the social theorist Daniel Boorstin’s notion of a celebrity — someone famous for being famous — into a terrarium thronged with dance moms, mob wives and Honey Boo Boos. It has elevated into omnipresence those who would have otherwise played out a normal cycle in public awareness and then disappeared to pester us no more. Without “The Apprentice” and its successor, “The Celebrity Apprentice,” Donald Trump would have remained an egregious real estate self-promoter and gossip-column fixture, and his children minor adjuncts and boardroom props; without “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the brood bearing that name would have been living footnotes to the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Instead, one family wields incalculable political power, the other pervades pop culture and fashion like an incurable virus. The two books under review offer peep-show views of preening lives and impostures before they went panoramic.
“It’s so many freaking Trumps,” marvels Ivana Trump near the end of her memoir, “Raising Trump,” our author glowing with maternal pride at the fruitful multiplying of the three bundles of delight she and her ex-husband Donald produced — Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric — who in turn begat nine grandchildren: “Nine little monsters!” A self-proclaimed “Glam-Ma,” Ivana did a pretty nifty job rearing the three primary heirs, if she says so herself. And she does, numerous times, taking satisfaction in not raising a dreaded Kardashian or two. Where so many spoiled-rotten brats of the superrich spiral into drug rehab, jail, divorce court or a shoddily produced sex video, the Trump children, she proclaims, grew up to be faithful spouses, superb parents, accomplished business people and sterling assets during their father’s presidential campaign. “I believe the credit for raising such great kids belongs to me. I was in charge of raising our children before our divorce, and I had sole custody of them after the split. I made the decisions about their education, activities, travel, child care and allowances.” The Donald, as she immortally dubbed him during their marriage, was too busy being a big shot to attend to such domestic trifles. He had casinos to open, bankruptcies to declare. “If Donald wants to write a book about fatherhood,” Ivana says, “I would be happy to read it, but ‘Raising Trump’ is my story, from my perspective, about what I did, and still do, for my family.”
Image
The title, then, is a misnomer. It should be “Raising Trumps,” plural. It’s a book about child-rearing, not husband-wrangling. And in this I fear Ivana has mistimed her memoir and misread the mood of the troubled country, which isn’t interested in heartwarming holiday tales, family recipes, cute anecdotes about her trying to order a glass of Chablis at a Taco Bell, tips on teaching kids manners and the grown-up kids’ rote testimonials reiterating throughout the text what a swell mom she was and is (Ivanka’s initial entry has all the warmth and personality of a ribbon-cutting ceremony). We’re past the point of indulging hokum with a high thread count. Uppermost on the reader’s inquiring mind is how Ivana’s intimate perspective might help us unlock how the slick wheeler-dealer who charmed and courted her when she arrived in Manhattan in the 1970s — “an all-American good guy,” her instincts told her — mutated over the decades into a president so seething with ignorance, malice, prejudice and destruction. Some hints, that is, of how we got into our present predicament of being held hostage by a throbbing blister. And here Ivana is little help whatsoever. The Trump at the center of this mystery melodrama is mostly a phantom, a fitful gust of pique and an offstage rumble.At VidCon 2010 conference today, YouTube announced compatibility for the type of video that you typically see on 25 foot IMAX screens.
Hunter Walk, YouTube’s Director of Product Management, keynoted the VidCon 2010 Conference and had some interesting information regarding YouTube video.
YouTube will now support 4096 x 3072 video, otherwise known as 4K.
That’s if your computer and Internet can handle the huge requirements to stream that kind of video using Adobe’s Flash. Below a sample is embedded, four more can be found here.
It may make more sense to use one of the many tools out on the Internet to extract the MP4 file and play it in a standalone player. The downloads are still pretty huge.
It is hard to imagine what Google plans on doing with this new capability but they will now support the types of resolutions that the new filmmakers are getting with products like the RedOne camera.
Perhaps this will spur some new innovation in displays and computer GPUs.Faint hopes of clemency have been kept alive by Indonesian leaders agreeing to delay the executions and hold a press conference to face questions, which appeared to demonstrate that Australian concerns have been taken seriously. Tony Abbott and Joko Widodo at the G20 in November last year. Credit:AFP On Wednesday, however, Mr Abbott appeared to depart from the diplomatic script to promise an "absolutely unambiguous" response if the executions went ahead. Mr Abbott linked the threat to Australia's generous humanitarian aid program following the Aceh tsunami of a decade ago. Mr Abbott's comments not only attracted a heated response from Jakarta but have also caused dismay at senior levels of the Australian government, including inside cabinet. "It's awful," said a senior source, requesting anonymity.
"It undid a lot of the good work," said another. Andrew Chan. Credit:Anita Kesuma Tim Lindsey, director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at Melbourne University, said Ms Bishop had been consistently and respectfully articulating Australia's interests while "elegantly" pointing out deep legal and policy flaws in the Indonesian position. Mr Abbott's comments, on the other hand, were "probably counterproductive" and certainly "unnecessary". Julie Bishop has been running a campaign to save the lives of the Bali nine pair. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
"Rightly or wrongly, when it comes to diplomacy, Indonesia can respond positively to measured persuasion and historically it has always responds very negatively to threats," said Professor Lindsey. Mr Abbott yesterday clarified that he was not imposing conditions on Australia's generous aid program. Legal analysts are dismayed that Indonesia could proceed to carry out the executions while court processes are ongoing and foreign policy analysts have pointed out that Indonesia would greatly compromise efforts to uphold the rights of its own citizens in similar circumstances abroad. Australian officials are loath to draw historical comparisons but Fairfax has become aware of one case, in China, in which a convicted drug smuggler was saved from likely execution after strenuous diplomatic interventions. The convicted Australian drug smuggler was spared the death penalty in April 2011, just days before the arrival of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Fairfax has agreed not to publish the prisoner's name in order to respect the privacy of her son, who is studying in Australia and was five years old at the time. It comes as the two prisoners asked their supporters to make "respectful" representations on their behalf, expressing their gratitude for the surge of support for their cause in Australia. The mens' lawyer Michael O'Connell, SC, relayed the information after seeing the duo who are facing execution by firing squad in Kerobokan prison on Thursday afternoon. "Andrew and Myuran are very concerned that people remain respectful when they make representations on their behalf but, of course, they want those representations firmly made," Mr O'Connell said. Mr O'Connell declined to comment on Mr Abbott's remarks and said the message from Chan and Sukumaran was not directed specifically at any campaign or remarks.
He added that the two were "humbled" by growing support for them in Australia and "to an extent" in Indonesia. Mr O'Connell also said revelations in Fairfax Media reports that Indonesian President Joko Widodo did not have the men's documentation in support of their clemency bid when he made the decision to reject mercy. He said that these concerns about process would form a "large part" of their case before Jakarta's administrative court, where they are appealing that the clemency rejection was flawed. with Tom Allard, in Bali Follow us on TwitterFeatures
Point-Sound-Source Speaker System Technics’ newly developed flat coaxial two-way speaker unit combines a tweeter for high frequencies and a woofer for mid-range and bass. Because the tweeter is at the center of the woofer, the speaker acts as a point sound source, providing a coherent, integrated sound across the frequency range, without directional anomalies. As a result, the Technics Speaker System deliver a live superb soundstage focus, excellent imaging and the ambience required to deliver the ‘live music’ experience.
Phase Precision Driver (Flat Coaxial 2-Way Speaker Unit) The flat coaxial two-way speaker drive unit is an original Technics development, designed for the faithful reproduction of mid-range and high-frequency sound. The flat woofer diaphragm has a sandwich-structure using lightweight, high-rigidity carbon fibre skins and a honeycomb core, and is designed for a highly accurate pistonic motion over a frequency range extending beyond the crossover frequency with the tweeter, thus ensuring smooth integration.
The flat design eliminates the frequency anomalies due to the cavity effect caused by conventional cone diaphragms, while the magnetic circuit employs a large magnet, copper cap and shorting ring, and a short voice coil with concentrated edgewise winding for high power with low distortion. The drive unit chassis is in highly rigid die-cast aluminium, with the chassis ‘legs’ having a resonance dispersing structure to eliminate even the smallest unwanted vibration, to help the drive unit deliver accurate and powerful bass.
High Rigidity Entasis Form Cabinet The SB-C700 cabinet is designed to support the Point Source drive units securely, preventing unwanted resonance and ensuring a smooth flow of sound without diffraction or reflection. The front baffle is designed for maximum stiffness and resonance-damping, while the side panels are convex high-rigidity boards with a maximum 42-mm thickness, designed to damp down resonance while also preventing internal reflections.
The monocoque cabinet offers high rigidity, as each side of the cubic structure reinforces the adjacent panels. This reduces unwanted resonance by controlling the movement of the individual panels, as well as that of the structure as a whole, while internal acoustic absorbent material was selected, and its position optimized, to suit both a drive unit and the cabinet volume, thus suppressing undesired standing waves.
The bass reflex port on the rear panel is of a ‘parabola’ design, its curvature continuously varying from the inlet to the outlet to suppress turbulence at the exit as well flow-noise within the port, thus delivering smooth and powerful bass sound with minimum noise.
The glossy cabinet is created by repeated coating, sanding, polishing and finishing with a high degree of craftsmanship. This creates a cabinit not just attractive to look at, but also able to suppress fine vibrations generated at the enclosure surface, thus contributing to the accuracy of its sound.
High-quality Network Circuit The High-quality Network Circuit was created as a result of extensive designing and listening, in order to maximize the performance of each speaker unit and achieve a balanced sound. To prevent interference between the drive units and minimize the effect of vibration, separate network boards |
woman and another woman climb back out through the window, hurl some loud threats, then get in their car before driving away.
"It was shocking to see what was happening," said McNeely, who is from Texas and was visiting Indianapolis with her daughter for a band competition. "I was like 'What happened? What did I just witness?' "
At any point did she fear for her own safety?
"I was worried that they were going to see me. If you see the video, you can see me trying to hide behind the wheel. There was a point where I knew they saw me, but then they just got back in their car and drove off."
She does catch the license plate of the suspects' car for a few moments in the video. McNeely went back to her hotel room, posted the video on Facebook and shared it with a few friends. She also turned it over to the restaurant, who gave it to the police.
And then McNeely went to sleep. When she woke up, her phone had blown up with messages and calls. When she went downstairs, she heard hotel employees talking about the "Chicken McNugget incident." Later the day, she was interviewed by reporters and the story went viral.
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No one could be reached at the McDonald's, but the incident appeared to be over an order of McNuggets. According to WISH-Channel 8, the manager said the women complained that they hadn't been given all the McNuggets they had ordered. However, the manager said they had placed an order for only four McNuggets, not 10, and he showed them the receipt. When they asked to order more, he told them they had to drive around to order again at the sign board.
The manager then reportedly told the two women to "Have a nice day" and the fight broke out.
According to a report filed with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the suspects, if found, could be charged with battery and vandalism charges. The report said: "Two females, upset that they didn't get their chicken mcnuggets (sic.), climbed through the drive thru window, damaging property and assaulting an employee." There's no word yet from police on any arrests.
A similar incident happened in 1999, when then-University of Kansas player Dion Rayford became famous for the wrong reasons, after he angrily attempted to crawl through a Taco Bell drive-through window in Lawrence, Kan., to get to employees who forgot a chalupa in his take-out order. The 6-foot-3, 260-pound senior defensive end didn't quite make it all the way inside the restaurant, however. He was seen stuck halfway through the 14-by-46-inch window opening when police arrived.
Rayford was arrested on disorderly conduct charges, suspended for the final game of the season and he became the butt of "Drop the Chalupa" jokes.
In the Indianapolis incident, McNeely said she knew she was taking a chance, but decided that capturing video was the right thing to do.
"I wanted to do the right thing, so I just kept recording," she said. "I just hope those girls learned their lesson. I really hope that the employees are OK. You shouldn't treat people like that."
Follow Dwight Adams on Twitter: @hdwightadams
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2i6lxXzLast month, Brian Harry, corporate vice president of Microsoft, received an unexpected complaint on his blog. Is Microsoft too focused on Agile? “It is obvious,” a reader (Kasper L) wrote, “that you have focused on agile tools the last 6 months… My question is how long are you going to focus on this area?”
The idea that Microsoft is focused on Agile at all will come as news to some. "Microsoft? Agile? Are you kidding?" The image that many have had of this giant corporation with 2014 revenues of $86 billion and 128,000 employees is that of a giant battleship that is strong and powerful but slow to maneuver and not always customer-friendly.
In fact, that was the image came to mind in April 2015 when Aaron Bjork, a group program manager in Microsoft’s Developer Division, contacted us and offered to share the story of Microsoft’s “Agile transformation journey” with the Learning Consortium for the Creative Economy. (The Learning Consortium is a group of firms, sponsored by Scrum Alliance, that have committed themselves to learning from each other about the management practices of the Creative Economy, or, as Fortune has called it, “the new industrial revolution.” Scrum Alliance is a membership association of more than 400,000 members with the mission of transforming the world of work.)
Several months later in July 2015, when the members of the Learning Consortium visited Aaron and Microsoft’s Developer Division, what we found was less like a giant battleship and more like a flotilla of speedboats operating and maneuvering in an orchestrated fashion.
The Developer Division is about 4,000 people, working in hundreds of teams, each of 10 to 12 people, working in 3-week sprints. Aaron's specific group is Visual Studio Online. This group comprises 35 teams totaling about 450 people. Aaron himself oversees five teams.
The Developer Division as a whole ships a range of products and services, including Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online, Team Foundation Server, Release Management, and TypeScript. Other groups at Microsoft, like Windows, Office and Bing, are separate, but all of them are in various stages of an Agile transformation. The Developer Division is leading the Microsoft charge to become Agile. It owns the “first party engineering system charter” (IES) and is driving that across the company. There are monthly scorecards on how the big divisions are doing in adopting it.
“We are very much a Scrum organization,” says Aaron. “If you observed a day in the life of a team, you would see a daily stand-up, in a team room. You would see sprint planning. We have implemented Scrum at scale.”
Can Big Corporations Be Truly Agile?
Four years ago in July 2011, when Microsoft corporate vice-president, Brian Harry, announced a corporate commitment to Agile in a blog post that was almost a love-letter to Scrum, many were skeptical. Was it conceivable that a giant firm like Microsoft could become truly Agile?
The co-founder of Scrum, Ken Schwaber, spoke for many when in a blog post he questioned whether a big corporation like Microsoft would ever able to emancipate itself from the bureaucratic tendency to “view people as assignable, parsed, optimized resources.” Just as only a very small percentage of US adoptions of Lean manufacturing reflect its core principle of “respecting, valuing and engaging the workers,” would the commitment to Scrum announced by Microsoft be a commitment to the outward forms of Scrum, but without its values? Would this be the same old “predictive manufacturing model, wrapped in Scrum tools,” that would be unable to generate creative, sophisticated, quality products?
Happily, we can report from our site visit in July 2015, four years later, that Agile values are alive and well in the Developer Division of Microsoft. The division is not only implementing the regular practices and methodologies of Agile, Scrum and DevOps for itself but also promoting them for others. Everyone we talked to—including unscripted conversations with the developers—is living, thinking, talking and acting with Agile values. It is not only doing Agile. It is being Agile. There is a pervasive Agile mindset in which respecting, valuing and engaging those doing the work in response to customers’ needs is at the core.
Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose
A guiding light for managers like Aaron is Daniel Pink’s book Drive. The commitment to creating a workplace characterized by autonomy, mastery and purpose is explicit. That implies a balance of power between management and team-level work that is quite different from top-down bureaucracy, where people are treated like things and no one grasps that the term “human resources” is an oxymoron. In the Developer Division, managers help create the common understanding of purpose, roles, teams, cadence and vocabulary, while also creating the space where the members of teams can be truly autonomous, contribute their own mastery and genuinely own the work.
In this “new industrial revolution,” teams have the autonomy to be the masters of the features they deliver and a virtuous cycle can be seen where a more effective and engaged workforce operates faster, with better quality, is more readily able to connect with and understand customer’s needs and respond faster so customers are regularly delighted.
The connection to the customer is close and interactive. The Developer Division maintains an on-line list of requested features so that customers and developers can carry on a conversation about and even vote on. So the product evolves with continuous social inputs from their daily users. In cloud-based software, it is also easy to measure the adoption and use of features to keep track of, and guide, the direction of product development.
During the site visit, we spoke with one developer, an engineer team-member who has been on board for the entire journey, with both experience in the old ways and the new. We asked him: “How has this transformation gone for you?” He answered candidly, as engineers are prone to do, “Not always easy.” We followed up, “Would you go back to the way it was before?” His reply was instant and emphatic: “No way!”
The Commercial Imperative To Go Agile
The commitment to Agile is driven by commercial necessity, not just a recognition that it generates more vigor, energy, vision and vitality in the workforce and that it is after all a better way to get work done. The days when new releases of software were delivered in a box every few years are gone. Now software is delivered online with updates in weeks or months, not years. In order to keep up, Microsoft had no choice but to go Agile.
Back in 2010, there were already pockets of Agile within the Developer Division. Aaron himself was all-in—a “true Scrum believer,” even as the organization was still doing things the old way. There was talk of being more agile, but it was just talk. It wasn’t working.
There was a growing realization across the division that they had to do things differently. Then Brian Harry, the corporate vice-president, decided that they were going to go Agile. He saw the need for change. “Do it,” he said, “and report back and tell me how it goes.” He didn’t try to manage it or control it. He let the developers make it happen. And it grew from there.
The Way Things Used To Be
This was a huge change for Microsoft. In the past, the production cycles would be two or three years, not three weeks. For six months or more, the developers would write specs and develop a beautiful plan. They believed they knew what to build and, what’s more, they knew that they were right. They knew exactly when the product would be ready.
But it never was. They never shipped on time. They always felt that they were going to ship on time. “This time is going to be different,” they would say to each other. But it never was.
There would be two distinct phases: a coding phase, and then a test-and-stabilization phase. They would have a big celebration at a milestone which they called “code complete.” They would hold a big party, because it was a big achievement. They had written all this code! Amazing!
It was when they moved on to testing and stabilizing and delivering the beta version of the code that the trouble started. They would find an unexpectedly large number of bugs in the code. And they kept discovering more bugs. They would also get feedback that some of the features they had built were not quite right. But now they had no time available to deal with these issues, since they were so busy fixing bugs. So the issues would become change requests to be dealt with in the next release, still several years away. “It was a train wreck,” says Aaron. “A death march. Long hours. Weekends. Crazy. Employee morale was in the toilet. Nobody enjoyed that.”
What they hadn’t realized in those celebrations at the end of the coding phase is that they were actually sitting on top of a mountain of unresolved quality problems. They had no idea that instead of a huge achievement, they had just incurred a massive amount of technical debt. And yet here they were, celebrating! In retrospect, says Aaron, it was ridiculous, but that’s how it was.
The real moment of truth came in 2010. Aaron’s team had been working on a product. They had worked intensively and they felt they had done really well. But when they looked around and compared their work to what was on the market, they saw that what they had produced was like a bicycle while their competitors had produced Ferraris. That’s what set off the decision to launch the Agile transformation.
Microsoft’s Agile Transformation Took Time
Aaron had begun experimenting with Agile and Scrum with his team back in 2008. About a year later, several teams began implementing Scrum, and there were other pockets of Agile in various places. In 2010, the Visual Studio Online team and the Team Foundation Server decided to “go Agile,” with all their teams operating with Scrum practices and roles in 3 week sprints, all in the same cadence. Based on the success of these efforts, in July 2011, corporate vice president, Brian Harry, publicly announced in his blog the commitment to Agile and Scrum. In late 2011, the entire Developer Division decided to “go Agile.”
By July 2015, Visual Studio Online was in week #1 of sprint #87. The three-week sprints continue in a steady rhythm, through holidays and corporate upheavals, come what may. Over the holidays, it’s just a lighter sprint. The teams like the rhythm. They like the balance that it brings.
But the Agile transformation journey was anything but a straight path from A to B. Introducing the practices of Scrum—sprint planning, backlogs, daily stand-ups, retrospectives—were only part of the challenge. More important—and difficult—was the shift in mindsets for all involved.
It is a journey and the journey never ends. The journey is neither a train wreck nor a tale of unbroken triumph. It’s more like ups and down. They did some things right and some things wrong. There are places where they have improved.
Initially there was a lot of pain. It took a long time before they could actually ship at the end of a three-week sprint. “In reality, we were running three-week milestones,” says Aaron. “That’s all they were. We would get to the end of a sprint and a team would claim that a feature was done and be celebrating and then you would go and try to use it and it wouldn’t work. The team would say, ‘Oh, we didn’t do the set-up and upgrade for it.’ And we would ask, ‘I thought you said it was done?” And they would reply, “Well, yes, it’s done. We just didn’t do the setup and upgrade.” It took a long time for everyone to grasp that we needed to get fully done in every sprint.”
It took about a year to get through the transition of learning really how to do it. “You do something,” says Aaron. “And you find it doesn’t work. So then you agree: we shouldn’t do that anymore.”
Like, “Let’s not be date driven, let’s be value driven. Let’s ship the product when it’s ready. We learned not to change ship dates based on external events. We follow the rhythm of the sprints. The cadence stays consistent always.”
If there is a problem, the team fixes it if they can. If they can’t, they just don’t deploy that feature. The team decides. The team does its own stress testing and documentation.
“It felt awkward and weird for a long time,” says Aaron. “For a lot of people, it was very disruptive. But it doesn’t feel weird any more. Now it’s part of our DNA. It’s just the way we work.”
The Agile Workplace
What was visually striking in the site visit was the physical space, which were dramatically different from traditional workplaces. With open space, fresh, vibrant colors, comfortable meeting rooms, and multiple variations and opportunities to encourage collaboration in a pleasant and informal atmosphere, along with pervasive “information radiators,” the physical space looked and felt Agile.
All the individual offices, including those of senior managers, that formerly occupied the windows have been replaced by team rooms with mobile desks, and the entire space has been reconfigured in unexpected shapes and patterns. (Interestingly, the buildings we saw were the second iteration of office redesign. The first was for complete open space, which they found to be ineffective. One unintended outcome was a “library effect,” where people felt discouraged from having open communication.) The current iteration is being expanded to other buildings in the Microsoft campus.
The sight of senior executives routinely sitting at mobile desks of exactly the same size as the most junior staff member is a powerful visual signal of the shift from a top-down, authority-based culture. The implicit message here is clear: Anyone can talk to anyone.
The physical arrangements also become a powerful recruiting tool. These workspaces are “cool.”
“It takes time,” says Aaron. “We are already five years into this. We didn’t make all these changes at once. The physical space change is one of the last changes we’ve made. If we had moved into a team room, put all the disciplines together, tried to do three-week sprints, it wouldn’t have worked. It has to evolve. People need that time to let it evolve. Emotionally, it takes time. You can’t make all that change at once.”
Agile at Scale at Microsoft
Doing Agile and Scrum in a single team or even a couple of teams is one thing. Doing Agile and Scrum in hundreds of teams that have to coordinate their world is a whole different ballgame. How are dependencies handled? How do the teams keep in sync? How does management know what’s happening if the teams are autonomous? These issues are discussed in in Part 2 of this article: “Microsoft’s Sixteen Keys To Becoming Agile At Scale.”
And read also:
The Learning Consortium Is Launched
Scrum Is A Major Management Discovery
Why Do Managers Hate Agile?
More On Why Managers Hate Agile
How To Make The Whole Firm Agile
Follow Steve Denning on Twitter @stevedenningReading Time: 3 minutes
In my previous article about elasticsearch, I discussed how readers could use elasticsearch with custom PHP sites. In this article, I will talk about using elasticsearch with Yii and Yii2. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Installing Elasticsearch in Yii2
Go to basic folder and open composer.json. Add the following line in the require section.
"yiisoft/yii2-elasticsearch": "~2.0.0"
After adding the line, run the following command in the terminal, inside the basic folder.
composer update
Elasticsearch extension is now installed on the system. In order to verify it, open the main page of Yii2 in the browser. Open the Yii2 developer toolbar and in the configuration scroll down till you find the installed extensions heading.
Look for the newly added extension i.e. elasticsearch. if you could see it, you have successfully installed it.
Related: How To Host Yii 2 Framework On Cloudways Using Composer
Step 2: Configuring Elasticsearch
Now that the extension have been installed successfully, let’s configure it. Now head to config folder and open web.php file. In the file, add the following lines inside ‘components’ before ‘db’ and save the file:
'elasticsearch' => [ 'class' => 'yii\elasticsearch\Connection', 'nodes' => [ ['http_address' => '127.0.0.1:9200'], // configure more hosts if you have a cluster ], ],
Now that elasticsearch has been configured with Yii2 let’s use it.
Step 3: Using Elasticsearch with Yii2
In order to to use elasticsearch, you need to create a Model class for elasticsearch first and extends it from \yii\elasticsearch\ActiveRecord.
Create a new class inside the model folder and name it elastic. Paste the following code in it.
<?php namespace app\models; use Yii; class Elastic extends \yii\elasticsearch\ActiveRecord { public function attributes() { return['name', 'email']; } }
The above code resembles ActiveRecord for accessing a database. Now let’s create a Controller and insert a new record in elasticsearch. Inside Controller folder, create a new folder and name it ElasticController. Paste the following code in it.
<?php namespace app\controllers; use app\models\elastic; use yii\web\Controller; class ElasticController extends Controller { public function actionIndex() { $elastic = new elastic(); $elastic->name = 'ahmed'; $elastic->email = '[email protected]'; if ($elastic->insert()) { echo "Added Successfully"; } else { echo "Error"; } } }
Insert() inserts new data in elasticsearch record. Let’s call up this controller in the browser and see if it works. In my previous articles on Yii2, I have teach user how to call different controllers. If you need a refresher on the topic, check out my getting started guide for Yii2..
Now run the controller in your browser. If you see the following message:
Then you have successfully added the data. It also means that elasticsearch is working perfectly with Yii2.
What More?
Elasticsearch don’t ends here. Read the complete Elasticsearch API guide and implement all the possibilities that elasticsearch can do. If you need further clarification about the topic or have something to contribute, please leave a comment.
Share your opinion in the comment section. COMMENT NOW
Ahmed Khan Ahmed was a PHP community expert at Cloudways - A Managed PHP Hosting Cloud Platform. He is a software engineer with extensive knowledge in PHP and SEO. He loves watching Game of Thrones is his free time. Follow Ahmed on Twitter to stay updated with his works. You can email him at [email protected] Get Connected on: Twitter Community ForumThe Portland Timbers will unveil the 2015 MLS Cup Championship banner at their home opener against the Columbus Crew on March 6 at Providence Park.
The Timbers beat the Crew 2-1 on December 6 to win their first-ever MLS Cup title.
Jim Serrill, the Timbers' original mascot fondly known as Timber Jim, and Joey Webber, the club's current mascot, known as Timber Joey, will help unveil the banner.
The Timbers will also celebrate their MLS Cup victory at the game by giving away commemorative MLS Cup Championship pennants to the first 7,500 fans to arrive at Providence Park and giving supporters the opportunity to see and take photos with the MLS Cup trophy at the game.
The Timbers have more details about the celebration on their website.
-- Jamie Goldberg | [email protected]
503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldbergRose and the rest of the Zestiria cast go out to exterminate monsters in an unearthed set of ruins. Sorey and Mikleo are uncontrollably excited to venture deep into unknown territory while the rest of the party are interested to learn more about an area they've never experienced before. Sara and co. finds themselves also in the same ruins and offers to help with the extermination. An interesting scenario awaits!
Hero Stones x2 (After stage 2 and 4)
Transcript
Mikleo These are the ruins Rose mentioned? They're much larger than I'd expected.
Sorey This is so exciting! I bet they extend pretty far underground too!
Lailah My, look at that sparkle in Sorey and Mikleo's eyes!
Edna Little boys do love ruins... No matter how old they may appear.
Dezel Nobody loves 'em half as much as those two do.
Rose Okay, the team meeting is over! We came here to do a job, and it's time to get to it!
Sorey Oh, right. Sorry Rose.
？？ Oh, hey! It's Sorey and Rose!
？？？ And it appears all your seraphim are with you as well!
Sorey Oh, hey Sara! Hey Lippy! How's it going, (user)?
Lailah How funny running into you like this! I'm so pleased to see you all looking so well.
Dezel Running into someone way out here? That's more than just "funny."
Mikleo Indeed. I trust that you have business here as well?
Sara Yeah! The guild sent us to clear out the monsters from these ruins.
Edna An extermination job, huh...
Lippy Might I ask what purpose has brought all of you out here?
Sorey We're helping Rose with a job. She came to investigate the ruins.
Rose I can't disclose the details, but this location was referenced in an ancient text passed down through my client's family, and he asked me to investigate.
Sara An ancient text, huh? That's so cool!
Lippy Your client must be from a family with deep roots indeed! I wonder if they're aware of some undiscovered treasure within these ruins?
Rose You're speaking my language, Lippy! I don't know if there's treasure or not, but if we do good work, there might be more well-paying jobs to come!
Lippy It sounds like this is quite the business opportunity for you!
Sorey That's what Rose was saying on the way here... Personal connections—
Rose...are a merchant's best friend! Speaking of which, (user)... Can we talk?
It looks like there's an awful lot of ground to cover here. What do you say we help you wipe out those monsters, and you help us explore the ruins?
Sorey Thanks a lot, (user)!
Dezel Well, a few more bodies wouldn't hurt, especially when there's a bunch of monsters to deal with.
Mikleo These ruins are so shrouded in mystery that even Lailah and Edna didn't know they existed! So we don't have a lot of information to—
Edna So now Meebo's saying we're useless, basically.
Lailah I am sooooo sorry Mikleo! *sniff* How could I have lived so long and yet learned so little? I am useless!
Mikleo N-No! That's not what I was trying to say! I wasn't implying that at all!
Rose Anyway, Sara, (user)— thanks.
Sara It's our pleasure! But were you able to find out anything about these ruins at all?
Sorey All we know is that these ruins were a mausoleum built at the orders of a royal family of antiquity.
Dezel We don't even know what the design is like on the inside. Just that it's big.
Sara Definitely sounds like we're missing some pieces of the puzzles. Maybe we'll find them inside?
So this is the door? It seems to be sealed up pretty tight...
Lailah It doesn't appear as if pushing it would be very effective.
Rose Not at all... It didn't budge an inch! And I don't see a handle anywhere.
Sorey Maybe there's some sort of mechanism that opens it? We should look around the area a bit.
Sara Good call!
Rose Find anything?
Mikleo I was just about to call for you, Rose. Take a look behind that fallen pillar there.
Lailah Hmm...
Edna Yeah, that statue looks pretty fishy.
Rose Sure looks like it could be hiding some sort of mechanism. I'm gonna take a closer look.
Dezel Hold it, Rose! Careful what you touch!
Rose Hmmmm? Did you guys just hear something click?
Sorey Uh-oh! The ground's rumbling!
Rose Did it cause a tremor or something?! That can't be goo—
Sara Bwah!
Dezel Damn it!
Rose *Cough* *cough* What the...
Sure felt like we fell a long ways there, but it didn't hurt at all...
Dezel Everyone! On your feet!
Rose Dezel? Oh! You used the wind to save us?
Sara Is that what happened? Wow, Dezel, thanks!
Lippy It appears that Lady Sara, Lady Rose, Master Dezel, Lady Edna and myself are the only ones here. We must have gotten separated from the others.
Rose Eh... heh heh... Sorry about that.
Dezel Enough with the chit-chat! Draw your damn weapons!
Edna Looks like we're surrounded. I knew this job would be a disaster.Medics say it is virtually unprecedented for successful full term births from such abdominal pregnancies. Picture: Nashi Novosti
The recent birth of the 4.1kg (9.1lbs) girl in the Altai region of Siberia is to be the subject of a paper in a forthcoming medical journal. Medics say it is virtually unprecedented for successful full term births from such abdominal pregnancies, and the new born'miracle baby' has been described as one in 625 million because of the rarity.
Healthy Veronika - her name means 'faith in victory' - is shown on pictures with her 31 year old mother who has not been identified. The baby was 56 cm (22 inches) in length at birth.
The woman, who came to Siberia to flee shooting in the civil war in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, had minimal checks during her first pregnancy, possibly for religious reasons, and doctors only understood her almost unique condition the day before surgery to deliver the child.
The baby in the protective amniotic sac and surrounded by normal amniotic fluid in the abdomen. Pictures: Nashi Novosti
From a scan'shocked' medics realised the baby was not in the womb but the abdomen.
Surgeon Vladimir Borovkov, deputy head doctor at Altai Regional Prenatal Centre, said: 'Most likely, the baby was conceived naturally. But the egg was implanted in an untypical place. The baby was growing outside the uterus.'
Dr Borovkov said: 'There are not more than a dozen such cases in the world. Abdominal pregnancy happens and is not so rare, but the cases when the child survives at full term are almost unique.'
Another doctor Dmitry Erin, in charge of blood transfusion, said: 'This surgery had a high risk.'
Surgeon Vladimir Borovkov, deputy head doctor at Altai Regional Prenatal Centre, said: 'Most likely, the baby was conceived naturally. But the egg was implanted in an untypical place.' Picture: Nashi Novosti
The mother said: 'I wanted this to go the natural way, without the interference of other people. With my husband, I did not think it is necessary to go to the doctors. We have our own views.
'I did not want to have scans or take pills. We thought we would call the doctors only when my contractions began. I felt the baby moving inside me and I was sure that all was normal. It was my first pregnancy and I was certain that it should be like this.
'But when the time came and there were no contractions, I decided to check. After the scan I was urgently sent for surgery.' She thanked the doctors for bringing her through the life-threatening surgery.
Ten doctors in Barnaul assist at'miracle' arrival of Veronika in 41st week of pregnancy. Picture: Nashi Novosti
Another doctor in the Barnaul team, Marat Zhazhiev, said: 'We understood the surgery was a success when the delivered baby girl began to scream. It seemed to me there was nothing more important than this scream.'
In 2014, a woman in Tanzania gave birth to a healthy baby at 32 weeks. Her fertilised egg initially implanted in her fallopian tube from where it was expelled, allowing it to implant again in her abdomen, it is believed.
In the Barnaul case, doctors are now seeking to understand the cause of the baby growing in the abdomen.Posted on 16 April 2009 by Quaid
It looks like it’s finally going to happen. After more than a decade, the Ghostbusters are suiting up to do battle with occult forces, and this time they’re training a whole new crop of nerdy, atypical hero types.
This is good news. The first Ghostbusters movie is a comedic classic, a kind of movie they rarely make anymore where plot, character, and comedy are perfectly balanced in an adventure story that should be unbelievably silly…but isn’t.
More than that, “Ghostbusters” is bigger than a single story. With their first go-round we got an origin story, but after that there are an unlimited number of adventures they can get into. When shit goes bad, you call the Ghostbusters. And a new movie begins. For once, a sequel actually makes sense.
The question, then, is how do you approach creating a new story (with new characters) that satisfies fans of the original but offers more than a basic retelling of the original story? While I love the first sequel (creatively dubbed Ghostbusters 2), I admit that it has its flaws, and one of the biggest of these is that it stays far too close to the formula and structure of the original film. You have a segment of the guys getting together (again, after a long layoff), then you move into the Ghostbusting montage while the main plot and villain are slowly revealed. Venkman pursues Dana Barrett (again, though now with baby Oscar in tow), and finally there is a huge ghost-ridden crisis that involves on ancient evil being. Instead of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, we get the statue of liberty walking through the streets of New York.
When watching the movie, you have this weird feeling of “Haven’t I seen this before?” For me, though, this is forgivable. The Ghostbusters are just cool, and one more adventure of a similar nature is just fine with me.
But a third? That’s pushing it. We basically got a third Ghostbusters film with the Ivan Reitman directed Evolution, a movie that followed the aforementioned formula to a tee (but had David Duchovny yucking it up in place of Bill Murray). Now it’s time to take what works best about the Ghostbusters and plug it into the current comedic climate.
Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about Apatow. Not Apatow the person, but Apatow the brand. From Superbad to Pineapple Express…Knocked Up to Role Models…there is a slowly evolving comedic sensibility that people, including myself, can’t seem to get enough of. It’s a rolling, improvisational and irreverent style, filled with clever dialogue, free-flowing interaction and a lot of heart.
And you know what? Whenever I watch an Apatow-style movie, I am reminded of Bill Murray in Stripes, meandering through military training with a reluctant Harold Ramis at his side. That character would be perfectly at home playing opposite Seth Rogan or, better yet, verbally sparring with a wild-eyed Jonah Hill…
Maybe teaching him how to trash-talk an overgrown blonde Carpathian trying to take over the world? You see where I’m going with this.
With Ghostbusters 3, we need something that embraces the fun and spirit and adventure of the first movie as well as the comedic timing and style of team Apatow. If (and that’s a big if) it’s all tied together in a certain way, very carefully and with attention to pacing and structure, the result will be something we haven’t yet seen.
The goal of this movie can’t be just to cash in on a once-profitable property one more time. It has to be to make something new but familiar, and creating a new beginning to a story that could continue on.
We know the story will involve the old guys training a new crop of recruits, and that’s more than fine with me. But there will be a temptation to go about this the wrong way. The absolute worst thing the filmmakers can do is attempt to find young versions of our original heroes. We don’t need characters that line up perfectly with the original cast. Instead it’s time to find new characters with a new dynamic. I already mentioned Jonah Hill, but what about Michael Cera as a neurotic and insecure young college student strapping on the proton pack for the first time. The list of current comic personas goes on and on. The key, though, is to let them do what works instead of trying to shove them into some pre-determined box that aligns with Venkman, Spengler, and Stance.
Okay, so casting is kind of a no-brainer, and finding the right tone is just a matter of working closely with talented comedic actors to find a rhythm that allows for the adventure and plot of “Ghostbusters” as well as the free-form improvisation that audiences have come to expect.
But what about plot?
It’s tricky. You have to avoid a proven (but tired) formula but give an audience something compelling and fresh. That kind of magic is hard to define. One thing is clear though…Zuul should not be part of the equation. It will be tempting to bring back the villain from the first film, but it’s tired, finished, and irrelevant. If possible, they need to find a villain that isn’t as cut-and-dry as the previous two.
All right, enough with the hypothetical preamble. Time to kick this into a level of arrogance rarely seen by mortal men. I’m going to give you my “pitch” for the new Ghostbusters movie…
We open in the middle of a shit-storm. The Ghostbusters (Venkman, Stance, Spengler and Winston) are doing badass battle with a giant ghost-monster the likes of which we’ve never seen. The whole thing has a “not again” feel with the Ghostbusters operating like a well-oiled machine on the streets of New York. It’s a friggin’ war movie, hand-held and unexpected (but still fun).
Eventually they stop the monster with some daring and creative act of heroism and destruction–like bringing down the top level of a building or wrapping the monster up in the cables of the Brooklyn bridge a la the atrocious Godzilla remake.
We end the sequence on a joke, the first joke of the movie, which is much more original than “We’re getting too old for this shit” but conveys the same kind of sentiment.
Title Card: Ghostbusters 3: The Wrath of Khan (working title).
The first thing we see after this is Paul Rudd in a business suit sitting at a table, telling the Ghostbusters how amazing they are. How legendary. How he’s dreamed of being a part of them since he heard of them as a kid. Which is why he’s buying them out.
The guys are none too happy about this, but it’s time for a change. They can’t go on like this forever, and they need new blood to ensure that the Big Apple is protected from specters and spirits |
whom he flaunted so shamelessly that his own father begged him to be more discreet for appearance’s sake, if nothing else. George ignored him, and instead took more mistresses whom he impregnated regularly. When he wasn’t violent and abusive to his wife, he acted as if she didn’t exist, humiliating her by raising his mistresses above her at court. Into this maelström walked Swedish count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck. He and Sophia Dorothea had met just before her marriage and had had an innocent flirtation. When the dashing count came back into her life, their relationship blossomed into a romance which we know quite a bit about because hundreds of their love letters have survived and are now in the collection of the Lund University library. Many of them are written in code, a necessity as the gossip around them intensified.
Some of those letters were intercepted and shown to George Ludwig’s father Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, who exiled Königsmarck from Hanover. George and Sophia Dorothea fought angrily over her affair and his many affairs (complete with illegitimate children). This argument turned violent, with George pulling out his wife’s hair and throttling her until she lost consciousness. Only the intervention of her attendants in the antechamber stopped the Prince from strangling his wife.
It all came to a head in 1694. Königsmarck returned from banishment and was appointed Colonel of the Guards. Sophia Dorotea, desperate after repeated entreaties to her own family had failed, hoped to flee Hanover with the count. He received a note written in pencil asking him to visit her rooms one night. When he appeared, she was surprised. The note was a forgery. Notwithstanding the glaringly obvious setup, he stayed for a while as she told him how untenable her position had become and asked him to arrange for their flight to Wolfenbüttel, about 40 miles away, where a devoted friend of her mother lived. This was a fatal error.
The forged letter was part of a plot hatched by Clara Elisabeth, Countess von Platen, Ernest Augustus’ long-time mistress and mother of two of his children. She and her coterie had spread nasty rumors about Sophia Dorothea since the marriage, poisoning the court against her and contributing significantly to George’s hatred and public slights of his wife. As soon as she found out that Königsmarck had fallen for the forged note gambit, she told the Elector that Königsmarck was scandalously visiting Sophia Dorothea at night, and persuaded him to order his arrest.
He allowed countess to command the operation. She got three trabants (yeomen of the guard) and their commanding officer to wait for him behind a chimney that was his sole escape route out of the palace (she had locked all the other exits), and promptly got them drunk so they might be less likely to recognize the colonel and more likely to do him harm which was her aim all along although Ernest Augustus was clueless about her real intentions. When Königsmarck approached the chimney, he was set upon by the guards. A sword fight ensued, and though he was an outstanding soldier who might have actually pulled off a one-against-four-drunks victory in the dark, Königsmarck’s sword snapped and he was mortally wounded.
The guards were horrified when realized who they had stuck, but the Countess von Platen deftly turned it around on them. She said they’d be in huge trouble for killing him, so it was best if they told the Elector Königsmarck had rushed them in some berserker frenzy, forcing them to kill in self-defense. Ernest Augustus was shocked and appalled. He’d given the countess an inch and she’d taken a life. He knew the news of the death of so famously brave, handsome and popular a noble adventurer would surely spread like wildfire throughout Germany, and the Elector would be cast as the villain of the piece.
The Countess had a solution to that problem too. She got Ernest Augustus to agree to dispose of the body in such a way that the crime would never be publically known. The 1845 Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea, a pro-Sophia biography compiled from archives, letters and diaries, describes the aftermath thus:
The Countess had little trouble in persuading the trabants to save their necks by doing as she desired them. All traces of the murder were soon obliterated. The dead body was unceremoniously cast into the most filthy receptacle that could be found for it, covered with quick lime, and the place walled up. So secretly and so skilfully were these measures taken, that no one in the palace was aware anything extraordinary had occurred during the night, although some persons had heard a slight disturbance of which they had taken little notice, and from that time to this, notwithstanding suspicions had been created by the mysterious disappearance of Count Königsmarck, nothing of a positive nature has been brought forward respecting his fate on which any reliance could be placed.
This account is derived from the Countess von Platen’s deathbed confession and to that of one of the trabants. Other stories circulated. Author, member of Parliament and son of the frst Prime Minister of Great Britain Horace Walpole was told by his father who was told by Queen Caroline who was told by King George II that the Königsmarck was strangled upon leaving Sophia Dorotea’s room and his body had been found under the floor of her dressing room when George II was visiting Hanover after his ascension to the British throne.
That’s a bit too much of a game of telephone to be reliable data, but the discovery of a skeleton during construction work at Leine Castle this summer might just be the hard evidence this intrigue has long lacked. Unfortunately the cause of death could not be determined by osteological analysis, but researchers were able to extract DNA from the bones. The DNA will now be compared to living relatives of Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck.
[youtube=https://youtu.be/5LJkKx4LzV0&w=430]
As for poor Sophia Dorothea, with her lover dead in such a messy way, George Ludwig felt empowered to divorce her and imprison her in the Castle of Ahlden in Lüneburg for the rest of her life, that’s 33 years out of 60. It wasn’t a brutal imprisonment; more of a house arrest life sentence. She had plenty of money to live in accordance with her status, was allowed her retinue and had the run of the castle, but her children were kept from her and every reference to her was erased from George’s future courts. Oh, and he kept that 100,000 thaler annuity even after her divorced her, of course. He really was a right bastard.
On her deathbed, she wrote one last letter to her husband, who had been King of Great Britain and Ireland for 12 years by then, cursing him. He refused to allow his courts in Hanover or England to officially mourn her, and even inveighed against their daughter when he heard the Prussian court in Berlin was wearing black for their queen’s mother. No wonder George II hated his father bitterly.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2016 at 11:43 PM and is filed under Modern(ish). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.Hello, fellow gamers. Welcome to the first Xbox Game Pass monthly update! As you’re aware, Xbox Game Pass launched on June 1, a new digital gaming subscription service that gives you unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 backward compatible games for just $9.99 USD per month. At Xbox Game Pass, we believe more is better, and that there should always be something new to play. Starting on July 1, even more great games are coming to Xbox Game Pass for you to enjoy. And don’t forget, if you haven’t tried Xbox Game Pass yet, you can play free for 14 days.
Dead Island Definitive Edition
First up, we have Dead Island Definitive Edition, one of the quintessential zombie games. In Dead Island, four survivors awake in a hospital, only to find themselves surrounded by an infestation of zombies. You get it all with Dead Island — a large open world to explore, multiple playable characters, a great story arc with tons of side missions, an extensive crafting system and thousands of zombies to fight. In short, Dead Island is a must-play this month, solo or with your friends. How long can you survive?
Resident Evil 6
Co-headlining July’s new releases into Xbox Game Pass is Resident Evil 6. More of a third-person shooter than its survival-horror roots, Resident Evil 6 is an incredibly ambitious effort from Capcom, delivering the ability to go solo or partner up in co-op for four different-but-integrated campaigns spanning seven different key characters. Where other Resident Evil games focused on a more crawling pace, confined spaces, and scarce resources (especially ammunition), Resident Evil 6 delivers the opportunity to create blazes of glory across a series of intense shootouts, vehicle chases, and boss fights.
We also highly recommend checking out the latest installment in the franchise, Resident Evil 7, which returns Resident Evil to its roots in one of the best true survival-horror games to release in recent memory, available today here in the Xbox Store.
F1 2015
If you enjoy racing, you’ll be thrilled to hear that F1 2015 is joining Xbox Game Pass in July. F1 2015, one of the best installments in the long-running franchise from Codemasters, offers a gripping simulation of the Formula One racing experience. Finding the right level of finesse is key to finishing in the winner’s circle, and in F1 2015 you can hone your driving skills against challenging AI competition before competing with friends.
The Flame in the Flood
We are really excited for the Xbox Game Pass community to check out The Flame in the Flood, one of the best single-player experiences of 2016. Guide Scout and her faithful pooch Aesop downriver to find resources, safety, and hope in this post-apocalyptic tale of survival (spoiler alert: there was a huge flood). Navigate your raft from island to island as your adventure for a brighter tomorrow unfolds.
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
In the world of high-octane action platformers, Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition ranks among the very best. Fluid and fast-paced with wonderfully unique, Mexican-inspired art and level design, Guacamelee delivers tons of fun with a unique flair that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else. You play as Juan, a humble farmer, tasked with defeating countless enemies on a quest to rescue El Presidente’s kidnapped daughter. Play on your own or join forces with family and friends to defeat each boss, conquer each level, and save the day in this awesome game from Drinkbox Studios.
Bard’s Gold
Guacamelee’s retro brother from another mother, Bard’s Gold, is a super fun 2D platformer with strong RPG elements and a visual style that harkens back to the days of 8-bit gaming yore, which is pretty awesome if you’re a retro gaming fan (or a child of the 80s, like many of us!). Diverse dungeon-focused level design is paired with progressively challenging gameplay (and a bunch of achievements) to create a really fun and engaging experience. Each level has its own surprises and secrets, so explore the nuances and clever design elements Bard’s Gold has to offer. It will be time well spent!
Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine
One of our favorite hidden gems from Xbox 360, Majesco’s award-winning Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine is a top-down stealth action strategy game with the team-based objective of successfully pulling off heists and robberies. Play through the solo campaign and unlock four additional characters (eight total in the game) so you and your friends can each find the right character and special skill to pull off each heist in multiplayer. Don’t get caught!
Payday 2 Most Wanted Bundle Out Now + All Payday 2 Add-ons 25% Off from 7/1 – 7/16)
And it’s not just more games you get to enjoy in July. Our friends at 505 Games are celebrating the recent release of Payday 2’s Most Wanted DLC bundle by offering Xbox Game Pass members 25% off all Payday 2 add-ons from July 1 – July 16. If you haven’t checked out Payday 2 yet, now is a great time to jump in!
Thanks for reading about all of these great titles coming soon to Xbox Game Pass in July. For all of the latest Xbox news, keep it locked to Xbox Wire. Until next month, game on!Flybase and Twilio work great together, we’ve posted several posts before about using these two services in one place, but what about if you want to go serverless?
StdLib.com is excellent for that. In their own words, StdLib is essentially a package manager for APIs that’s built upon new “serverless” architecture, meaning you never have to worry about managing servers or allocating resources for scale.
All you have to do is write a function or two (or three), deploy, and you’re done, and this is perfect for quickly building services with Flybase.
We’ve covered building a Live Blogging tool before, so I wanted to use that tool here and show how to make it work inside StdLib.
Setup
To start, you need an account with our three services:
Twilio to handle receiving text messages.
Flybase to store our data and output it to viewers in real-time.
Stdlib to handle the backend processing between Twilio and Flybase.
First install StdLib:
npm install lib. cli - g
Now, create a folder called stdlib and login:
$ mkdir stdlib $ cd stdlib $ lib init
Ok, time to create the liveblog service:
$ lib create liveblog
$ cd < username > /liveblo g $ lib function : create sms - n $ mkdir pages $ npm install -- save async ejs flybase twilio
Where <username> is the username you are logged into StdLib with.
You will now have the following structure:
functions/__main__.js
functions/sms/__main__.js
pages/
Let’s give this structure some code and make it work for us.
Open the file called env.json in the root of the project, it was created automatically for you, and copy the following:
Populate these variables with your Twilio and Flybase information.
Now, open functions/__main__.js and copy the following code:
This will set up our index, which will output your live blog posts.
Next, open functions/sms/__main__.js and copy the following:
This is our webhook to receive text messages. It will take the text message and any photos from Twilio and store it in your Flybase app, it will then send a reply to your phone to tell you the message was received.
Finally, we need to create our pages/index.ejs file:
This template file will be read by our index and used to display any useful information.
Get online
To put this app online, all we have to do is type:
lib up dev
This will upload your app and make it available at the following url:
https : //<username>.lib.id/<service>@dev/ https : //<username>.lib.id/<service>@dev/sms/
Where <username> is your StdLib username and <service> is the service you’ve created, in this case that would be liveblog.
Once you’re done developing, you can also use
lib up - r
To publish your app in release (prod) mode. The URLs would then be:
https : //<username>.lib.id/<service>/ https : //<username>.lib.id/<service>/sms/
Let’s stick to just dev mode for now.
Once this has been published, you can go to the https://<username>.lib.id/<service>@dev/ URL and see your live blog, there won’t be any content right now, so let’s create some using Twilio.
Go to your Twilio account and create a phone number, then in the settings for that number, add your /sms/ URL:
https : //<username>.lib.id/<service>@dev/sms/
Remember to update <username> with your username and <service> with the name of the service.
And now you are ready to send SMS messages to your live blog and see them on the screen.
Finishing Up
You can see the full code here at the repo, download it, extend it, play with it, do whatever you wish.
This is a pretty basic example of using StdLib, Flybase and Twilio together, but it shows some of what you can do.
You can also just drop the index file into any webpage and have it output your live blog posts, since Flybase works great that way, so it’s really up to you on how you want to use it.Japan's Cabinet Moves To Allow Emperor To Abdicate
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet approved legislation Friday allowing Japan's emperor to abdicate the throne. If the bill passes parliament and if Emperor Akihito steps down, the event will mark Japan's first abdication in 200 years.
Akihito heads the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world. In a rare televised address last year, the 83-year-old expressed a desire to retire and give his son time to rule: "When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now.'
The bill is a one-time provision for the emperor step down while he is still alive. Next in line for succession is Crown Prince Naruhito, who is 57.
As The New York Times explains, "Any decision regarding the emperor is freighted in Japan, where until World War II, he was seen as a god. The postwar Constitution, written by American occupiers, stripped the emperor of his status as a deity and set him up instead as a symbol of Japanese unity."
Imperial law is strict: Succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne must be posthumous and only males are eligible, as Kyodo News reports.
The Japanese public overwhelmingly supports allowing emperors to retire, according to Kyodo, but conservative supporters of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party want to avoid making permanent changes to the laws that govern succession.
One factor in their aversion is a fear is that changes in the Imperial Household Law would lead to women becoming rightful heirs to the throne. The bill in its current form does no such thing, but the opposition Democratic Party has been advocating for debate on allowing princesses to remain in the royal family after they marry commoners.
That issue is especially timely: News broke this week that the emperor's eldest granddaughter, Princess Mako, will soon be engaged. If and when she marries, she will no longer be royalty.
There are few male descendants eligible to succeed. As the Times notes, "Under current law, Naruhito's successor would be his younger brother, Prince Akishino, 51. Akishino's son, Prince Hisahito, 10, is the only boy of his generation in the imperial family.
If Akihito abdicates, it may happen when he turns 85 in December 2018, according to Kyodo News. A series of rituals will take place over the course of a year, based on ceremonial practices from Japan's history.
Abdication used to be a common practice; according to Kyodo, about half of Japan's 124 former emperors did so. But a law created in 1889 (and a 1947 update to it) made abdication impossible, as it sought to eliminate threats of still-powerful former emperors.
The last emperor to abdicated did so in 1817, The Asahi Shimbun reports.
"It is urgent that the system should be reformed so that female members can remain in the imperial family," Isao Tokoro, professor emeritus of legal history at Kyoto Sangyo University, told the Times. "Otherwise, we will lose more and more members from the imperial family."
Tokoro noted that before the current law was put in place in 1947, Japan had eight female emperors — who "did wonderful jobs."OSIRIS-REx is prepared for encapsulation in its payload fairing in 2016. This February, the probe searched for "Trojan asteroids" that accompany Earth in its solar orbit.
Of all the scientific advancements and achievements born from the UA, few projects are as high profile as the ongoing OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample recovery mission. Here is a briefing on progress so far, as well as the goals anticipated on being accomplished.
Less than a year ago on September 8th, 2016, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and began the first leg of its journey towards the primitive asteroid, Bennu.
Bennu, selected from thousands of other near-Earth asteroids due to its size and extremely close orbit to our planet, is a carbonaceous asteroid.
“This means that it chemically has the potential to be the kind of stuff that could have landed on Earth later and brought in organic material,” said Renu Malhotra, a regents professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
By using the spacecraft to retrieve a sample from the surface of Bennu, UA scientists hope to discover crucial information about the early formation of our solar system, and perhaps even the origins of life on Earth.
RELATED: Commencement speaker, former NASA head Charles Bolden talks space and education
Currently, OSIRIS-REx is cruising in orbit around the sun at a distance similar to that of Earth. But in just a few short months come September, the next leg of the OSIRIS-REx’s journey begins.
Roughly one year after its ascension into space, OSIRIS-REx will swoop back into close Earth orbit, where it will perform a flyby of the planet.
“OSIRIS-REx is going to have a slingshot maneuver with the Earth, change its orbital plane and then meet up with the asteroid in September of 920180,” Malhotra explained. “It’s called EGA: Earth Gravity Assist maneuver.”
By leveraging the Earth’s gravity to increase its speed, the team can save on fuel that can otherwise be used to readjust OSIRIS-REx’s orbital plane, as well as accelerate the spacecraft into Bennu’s orbit. As it gets closer to its destination, OSIRIS-REx will use its onboard thrusters in conjunction with a series of braking maneuvers to slow its approach near the asteroid.
By October 2018, the spacecraft will be in position to begin a survey of Bennu that will last for over a year. The primary purpose of the survey will be to locate an ideal site for the sample extraction phase of the mission. At which point, the true test of OSIRIS-REx’s engineering will begin.
RELATED: Wildcat science: A year in review
The spacecraft will attempt to extract a sample from the surface of Bennu without ever actually landing on it. OSIRIS-REx will float just close enough to the asteroid that it will be able to extend an articulated arm, created for gathering samples, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).
“So after the scanning is done and it’s figured out what the best location is to get the sample from, the subsequent steps will be setup from the ground and then [up]loaded to the spacecraft,” said Malhotra.
At that point, the team will have three attempts to successfully extract a surface sample. If the first attempt happens to fail, the team must then use data from the spacecraft’s onboard instruments to adjust their calculations and make another attempt.
“Like any explorer that goes to uncharted country, the first thing you do when you go... is you make a map,” said Ed Beshore, deputy principal invesigator of Osiris-REx until his retirement in October 2016, in an October 2016 interview with the Daily Wildcat. “And so we’re going to be mapping the asteroid very carefully, not only to prepare ourselves for finding that sample but to be able to study those maps later on and say, ‘OK, we think we know with the sample on hand what we are seeing here.’”
Once the sample is finally collected, the orbital window for departing Bennu and returning to Earth will open in March 2021. At that time, OSIRIS-REx will activate its main engines and leave Bennu with a trajectory that will intersect with Earth’s orbit in September 2023.
Just before the spacecraft reaches Earth’s atmosphere, OSIRIS-REx will jettison the collected sample in a specialized return capsule that will free-fall towards Earth until roughly two miles above the deserts of Utah. At that point, it will deploy a parachute, landing safely to be collected for analysis, concluding the spacecraft’s seven-year odyssey.
However, the bulk of OSIRIS-REx will not re-enter Earth. Instead, the craft will attempt to deflect its approach trajectory and place itself into a stable orbit around the sun, at which point it will spend the rest of existence floating alone through the vacuum of space, a testament to mankind’s willpower to explore the stars.
Or perhaps simply a testament to mankind’s ability to leave our stuff everywhere.
For a complete breakdown of the OSIRIS-REx mission as well as a countdown timer to the slingshot maneuver, visit the official OSIRIS-REx website.
Follow Owen Zerambo on Twitter.Abstract
Importance Over the past several years, there have been a number of mainstream media reports that the abuse of heroin has migrated from low-income urban areas with large minority populations to more affluent suburban and rural areas with primarily white populations.
Objective To examine the veracity of these anecdotal reports and define the relationship between the abuse of prescription opioids and the abuse of heroin.
Design, Setting, and Participants Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed (1) data from an ongoing study that uses structured, self-administered surveys to gather retrospective data on past drug use patterns among patients entering substance abuse treatment programs across the country who received a primary (DSM-IV) diagnosis of heroin use/dependence (n = 2797) and (2) data from unstructured qualitative interviews with a subset of patients (n = 54) who completed the structured interview.
Main Outcomes and Measures In addition to data on population demographics and current residential location, we used cross-tabulations to assess prevalence rates as a function of the decade of the initiation of abuse for (1) first opioid used (prescription opioid or heroin), (2) sex, (3) race/ethnicity, and (4) age at first use. Respondents indicated in an open-ended format why they chose heroin as their primary drug and the interrelationship between their use of heroin and their use of prescription opioids.
Results Approximately 85% of treatment-seeking patients approached to complete the Survey of Key Informants’ Patients Program did so. Respondents who began using heroin in the 1960s were predominantly young men (82.8%; mean age, 16.5 years) whose first opioid of abuse was heroin (80%). However, more recent users were older (mean age, 22.9 years) men and women living in less urban areas (75.2%) who were introduced to opioids through prescription drugs (75.0%). Whites and nonwhites were equally represented in those initiating use prior to the 1980s, but nearly 90% of respondents who began use in the last decade were white. Although the “high” produced by heroin was described as a significant factor in its selection, it was often used because it was more readily accessible and much less expensive than prescription opioids.
Conclusion and Relevance Our data show that the demographic composition of heroin users entering treatment has shifted over the last 50 years such that heroin use has changed from an inner-city, minority-centered problem to one that has a more widespread geographical distribution, involving primarily white men and women in their late 20s living outside of large urban areas.
In recent years, there have been a number of mainstream media reports that the abuse of heroin has migrated from low-income urban areas with large minority populations to more affluent suburban and rural areas with primarily white populations.1-8 Large-scale epidemiological studies have documented significant increases in heroin use9,10 and overdose-related hospitalizations9,11 nationwide, particularly over the past 10 years, but there have been few systematic studies on the demographics of today’s heroin users compared with those who used heroin 40 to 50 years ago who were primarily young men from minority groups living in urban areas.12-19
Quiz Ref IDPart of this increase in heroin use and apparent migration to a new class of users appears to be due to the coincidental increase in the abuse of prescription opioids over the last 20 years,11,12,20-23 arguably accelerated by the release of OxyContin in the mid-1990s,24,25 which made large quantities of oxycodone hydrochloride readily available for inhalation and intravenous injection. Given that prescription opioids are legal, are prescribed by a physician, and are thus considered trustworthy and predictable (eg, the dose is clearly specified on a distinctive tablet or pill), many users viewed these drugs as safer to use than other illicit substances.26,27 However, there is now growing evidence that some prescription opioid abusers, particularly those who inhale or inject their drugs, graduate or shift to heroin,12,21,24,25,28-33 at least in part because it has become more accessible and far less expensive than prescription opioids.12,28,33-37 Thus, one could assume that more recent users of heroin would share more demographic features with today’s prescription opioid abusers than with those individuals who initiated their heroin use 40 to 50 years ago.
To assess this postulate, we used a mixed-methods approach, analyzing data from (1) an ongoing study using structured, self-administered surveys to gather retrospective data on drug use patterns among patients entering substance abuse treatment programs across the country who received a primary (DSM-IV) diagnosis of heroin use/dependence (n = 2797) and from (2) unstructured qualitative interviews with a subset of patients (n = 54) who completed the structured interview.
Methods
Study Sample
Our study used data from the ongoing nationwide Survey of Key Informants’ Patients (SKIP) Program, a key element of the postmarketing Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System.38 The SKIP Program consists of more than 150 publicly and privately funded treatment centers (key informants), balanced geographically with coverage in 48 states, that recruit patients/clients to complete an anonymous survey. Participants must be 18 years of age or older and must meet DSM-IV criteria for substance abuse with a primary drug that is an opioid (prescription drug or heroin). Approximately 85% of patients approached by treatment center staff agreed to complete the survey, which was identified by a unique case number and sent directly to Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, by the respondent. Participants were compensated with a $20 Walmart gift card. The SKIP data were analyzed from third quarter 2010 to third quarter 2013. Of 9346 opioid-dependent patients who completed the survey in that time frame, 2797 self-reported heroin as their primary drug of abuse (eg, the drug used most frequently in the month prior to treatment), the focus of the present analysis.
To supplement and add context to the structured survey in the SKIP Program, a subset of patients indicated (by mailing in a postcard provided with the survey) that they were willing to give up their anonymity and participate in an unstructured interview-based study, which was named the Researchers and Participants Interacting Directly (RAPID) program. Based on the reflexive nature of qualitative research, the purpose of this program is to develop a 2-way exchange of information with participants through brief, periodic web-based interviews, where questions can be developed, administered, and answered within a short time period to establish real-time data. The collection period for this RAPID interview was during the fourth quarter of 2013; 165 treatment clients consented to participate in the study during this 3-month period by completing and returning the anonymous survey, with 54 of these clients indicating heroin as their a primary drug of abuse. Participants in the RAPID program were compensated with a $10 Visa check card. All protocols were approved by the Washington University in St Louis institutional review board.
Analyzed SKIP Variables
Substance Abuse
The SKIP respondents were asked to identify (1) the opioid used most frequently in the past month to get high (eg, their primary drug), stratified by opioid compound (eg, fentanyl, heroin, or oxycodone), and (2) how often they abused their primary drug (once a month, 2-4 times a month, once a week, 2-4 times a week, once a day, more than once a day, or more than 5 times a day). Respondents were asked at what age they began abusing opioids regularly (≥2 times per week) and were subsequently asked to specify, in their own words, the first opioid they abused regularly. In addition, respondents were asked to identify (1) all opioid compounds used to get high in the month prior to treatment and (2) past-month use of other substances for recreational/nonmedical purposes (tobacco, alcohol more than 4 times in 1 day, marijuana, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamien [MDMA, also known as Ecstasy], cocaine or crack cocaine, methamphetamine [also known as crystal meth], hallucinogens, antianxiety medications, sleep medications, muscle relaxants, or antidepressants).
Demographic Variables
The survey in the SKIP Program includes the following demographic variables: (1) sex (male or female), (2) age (continuous), (3) race/ethnicity (white, African American, Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American; Latino, or other race), and (4) self-declared area of current residence (large urban, small urban, suburban, or rural).
RAPID Interviews
The RAPID participants were contacted to complete a self-administered Internet-based questionnaire via SurveyMonkey and, if applicable, participated in follow-up e-mail exchanges to clarify ambiguous responses and expound on answers provided in the questionnaire. Other than demographics, participants were asked about their opioid abuse patterns, and those that indicated both a primary drug of heroin and past or current abuse of prescription opioids were asked to explain, in an open-ended format, why they chose to use heroin more frequently than prescription opioids. In addition, respondents were also asked to identify whether they would prefer to abuse heroin or prescription opioids in a hypothetical world where cost and accessibility would not limit drug selection, and to subsequently explain their preference.
Data Analyses
To assess time-related changes in the demographic characteristics of heroin users, we calculated the decade of a respondent’s first regular opioid abuse using the following formula: (year of survey completion − age at survey completion) + age of first regular opioid abuse = year of first regular opioid abuse. The year of first regular opioid abuse was then categorized by its decade block starting from 1960 (1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010).
Quantitative data in both SKIP and RAPID data sets were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20. The following variables were transformed into binary measures (1/0): (1) first opioid used (prescription opioid/heroin), (2) sex (male/female), (3) race/ethnicity (white/nonwhite), and (4) area of residence (large urban/small urban and nonurban [suburban/rural]). Also, in addition to population demographics, cross-tabulations were used to assess prevalence rates as a function of decade of first opioid use.
A review of the open-ended responses using the principles of thematic analysis led to the identification of just 3 primary decision-making factors involved in the selection and exclusion of particular opioids as primary drugs of abuse: (1) ease of accessibility, including monetary costs; (2) personal feelings on the “high” provided by various opioids; and (3) ease of extraction for inhalation and injection. Once these themes had been established, NVivo version 9 (QSR International) was used to code the presence of each theme (yes or no) in each individual response.
Results
Demographics of SKIP and RAPID Respondents
Our Table summarizes the gross demographic features of those participating in the SKIP (n = 2757) and RAPID (n = 54) programs. As can be seen, the RAPID subset, although much smaller, was quite similar to the larger SKIP sample. The majority of respondents who self-reported a primary drug of heroin were male, white, and in their early 30s at the time of survey completion.
Residential Location and Drug Use Patterns
A much greater percentage of heroin users completing the survey in the SKIP Program reported currently living in small urban or nonurban areas than in large urban areas (75.2% vs 24.8%) at the time of survey completion. The sample of abusers generally used heroin at least once a day (86.4%), had abused other substances in the past month (98.5%), and had concurrently abused prescription opioids in the 30 days prior to treatment (66.0%).
Opioid Abuse Initiation
Quiz Ref IDFigure 1 shows which opioids heroin users in the SKIP sample first abused, as a function of the decade in which their opioid abuse began. The number of users by decade ranged from 88 in the 1960s to more than 1600 in this century. Of those who began their opioid abuse in the 1960s, more than 80% indicated that they initiated their abuse with heroin. In a near complete reversal, 75% of those who began their opioid abuse in the 2000s reported that their first regular opioid was a prescription drug. Beginning in 2010 (2010-2013), these trajectories showed a shift in direction (ie, heroin use increased as the first opioid of abuse and prescription opioid use decreased), although the data are based on only 3 years of data collection.
Shifts in Demographic Characteristics
Quiz Ref IDAs shown in Figure 2, heroin users |
With its stint as an engine supplier in Formula 1 running through a rough patch this season, Renault is exploring other options to continue its participation in the sport without damaging its reputation. The best way to do so is to make a comeback as a factory team and the only way to do so is to acquire one of the existing teams.
Lotus may be one of the top candidates given the automaker’s history with the team and the presence of two talented and financially backed drivers. However, it’s unclear whether the team management is ready to sell or not. Over the course of last week’s Belgium GP, new developments have emerged, indicating that Renault is looking to acquire controlling stake in Sahara Force India F1 team, owned by India’s Sahara and liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
The company had reportedly held two rounds of talks with the Indian team’s management so far regarding the terms of a potential deal. After talking to Renault’s ambassador Alain Prost, Vijay Mallya told media that no decision has been taken yet and there is a proposal about board of Renault on the table.
Mallya added that the points such as details of share holding, Sahara Force India’s willingness to become a minority share holder in the team, and the team’s vision were discussed in the recent meeting. He also confirmed that Renault is talking with multiple teams with a similar proposal.
Sahara Force India F1 Team’s consistent performance has made them the best possible choice Renault has at the moment. Renault’s rejigged strategy is sure to add a whole new dimension to the 2016 F1 silly season.
Via – Autosport.comBecause state law requires two-party consent to record audio, more than half the cases against men arrested in a big August prostitution sting have been dismissed.
Misdemeanor charges filed against more than half of the 110 men arrested during a prostitution sting operation in Bellevue last summer were recently tossed out after it was discovered that police had unintentionally recorded audio between the would-be sex buyers and undercover female officers.
According to the city of Bellevue, detectives used hidden cameras to document elements of the crime of patronizing a prostitute. “Unfortunately, audio conversations were unintentionally captured between the suspect and the undercover officers in 61 of the 110 cases,” the city wrote in a news release.
State law requires two-party consent to record audio conversations.
Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett said Friday that his officers are working to figure out exactly what happened, but there’s a good chance there was a mechanical glitch with the camera equipment used in the August operation. He noted that audio was captured during a particular time frame of the weeklong operation, but not during arrests outside that period.
“Nobody was wired for sound and there were no microphones” set up in the room where undercover officers greeted men who had answered online ads and communicated with the officers by text or phone, Mylett said.
“We can’t use audio and everybody knew it. There was no way in the world that any of the officers were going to jeopardize this operation,” he said.
Hidden cameras were set up both to capture men allegedly patronizing a prostitute and for officer-safety reasons to ensure “immediate backup” for the undercover female officers, who were alone with suspects before an arrest team moved in, the chief said.
“It could be the machine was malfunctioning … We don’t know if it’s operational error or mechanical error, but we will find out,” he said, noting the cameras had been set up to capture video only.
The mistake was caught as Bellevue city attorneys reviewed evidence as they prepared to go to trial in one of the cases. That discovery led police to review the video evidence in all 110 arrests, Mylett said.
“I understand it, I respect it and I defer to his judgment,” the chief said of the city prosecutor who dismissed the 61 cases.
The recording glitch does not affect cases already prosecuted, including that of Mitch Levy, the former morning-show host on KJR 950 AM. He entered an Alford plea on a misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute. In an Alford plea, defendants do not admit guilt but acknowledge there is sufficient evidence for a conviction.
The August sting was a joint operation between the Bellevue Police Department and the King County Sheriff’s Office, and took place in a condo just north of downtown Bellevue.
Scores of unsuspecting sex buyers answered online ads posted by undercover detectives, then exchanged often-explicit text messages describing the sex acts they expected to buy. They were arrested after showing up at the condo and agreeing to exchange money for sex.
Mylett said his officers will continue to combat human trafficking, sex slavery and the demand side of prostitution-related crimes.
Police are allowed to intercept and record conversations with nonconsenting parties for a specified length of time provided they get prior authorization from a judge and can show there is probable cause to believe the person being recorded has committed, is committing or is about to commit a felony, according to state law.
In another joint operation between Bellevue police and the Sheriff’s Office, detectives obtained warrants to video- and audio-record members of a group of men known as ”The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” whose members were later charged with promoting prostitution, which is a felony.
As for police body cameras, the state Legislature has directed that police agencies using the devices must establish policies for their use, including when and how to inform someone that he or she is being recorded.
While Bellevue police don’t use body cameras, the Seattle Police Department does and has posted its policy, which went into effect in July, about use of in-car cameras and body cameras online.
According to the Seattle police policy, officers using in-car and body cameras must be in uniform and are to notify people as soon as is practical that they are being recorded, and the notification must be on the recording.
“Employees will make reasonable efforts to communicate to non-English speakers, those with limited English proficiency, deaf persons, or persons hard of hearing that they are being recorded,” the policy says.
In private homes or areas not open to the public, officers must ask for consent to record with a body camera unless there is a crime in progress or there are other circumstances in which the officer’s presence is lawful without a warrant, according to the policy.
A person with legal standing can deny permission and an officer is to stop recording with a body camera while in a private area, but can continue to record audio with their in-car camera. Officers still must notify the person that the audio recording is continuing, the policy says.ctoverdrive / flickr
Did you remember to write your grocery list today? Got the milk? The cereal? The smoked turkey? The pre-shopping freshly poured pint of microbrew beer? You heard right. Whole Foods has implemented something that will make buying the groceries the most desired of the chores: in-store bars.
USA Today reports that in the last 18 months, Whole Foods has opened up bars in pre-existing stores concentrating in local brews and beverages in five California locations and two each in Arizona, Illinois and Texas. There also is a newly opened bar in its flagship store in Austin, Texas. The bars are fairly small seating only around 20-30 people and are located in the wine and beer sections of the stores. Beer and wine by the glass is offered for $4-$10 and growlers are also available. The company hopes to open at least seven more in-store pubs by 2012.
Grocery industry analysts are reportedly pro bar, theorizing that bars will draw people into the stores and keep them coming back. They will also boost in-store beer and wine sales. While there is the fear that the bars will create a rowdier atmosphere (think the baking aisle turning into frat row), there have been no reports of any such behavior and carding for government IDs is enforced. Of course after a couple of pints you may find that your grocery list of necessary items is lacking in what you crave at the moment. Cheese sticks and bacon, anyone?
This development means that the company is walking in stride with other companies that are branching out into the realm ofboozy beverages like Walmart with its line of wine and beer and Starbucks, which has recently been testing beer and wine at some of their Seattle area locations. Having experienced grocery shopping after a visit to one of Whole Foods' California in-store bar locations, we can safely say that it certainly made buying meatloaf a lot more enjoyable. Have you visited one of the locations yet? What do you think about bars in grocery stores?A poor woman's effort to explain poverty and its psychological toll to America has taken an ugly turn, after critics charged Linda Tirado with fabricating a "tragically fictional" tale.
Tirado's moment of Internet fame began when she posted a comment on Gawker explaining why poor people like herself make bad decisions. The comment was republished on The Huffington Post and has been read millions of times. Her supporters encouraged her to expand her thoughts into a book, and she set up a GoFundMe for that purpose, which has since raised more than $60,000.
Now the authenticity of her experience in poverty is being called into question. Her critics' supposedly damning evidence has come largely from Tirado's own disclosures, which were published on her GoFundMe site and prominently featured on HuffPost in a follow-up post.
In that article, Tirado says, "You have to understand that the piece you read was taken out of context, that I never meant to say that all of these things were happening to me right now, or that I was still quite so abject. I am not." In fact, nowhere in her first essay -- first published as a comment in a Gawker forum -- does she say that she is still living in a roach-infested motel; rather, she is quite clear the experience was in the past. She describes her situation at the time she wrote the essay as "lower working class," with two low-wage jobs, school, kids and a mouthful of infected or missing teeth. It is this admission -- that she is no longer in the depths of poverty -- that is being used to dismiss her entire essay.
Or rather, the critics have focused on Tirado's teeth as chief among her allegedly fraudulent claims. And with good reason: If "poor" isn't the word to describe someone who cannot afford to stem the constant pain of infection slowly eating away at what remains of their teeth, then what constitutes "middle class" has stretched so far down that it's no longer meaningful. Explain away her rotten teeth, and one can dismiss her essay.
As research from Mark Rank has shown, far more people than one might expect will spend at least a few of their adult years in poverty. Tirado's experience in this context is not extraordinary. But the Internet is not convinced by academic research.
The backlash was launched by a writer for the Houston Press, Angelica Leicht, who wrote earlier this week that Tirado's viral reflections on poverty were based on a life story that was "tragically fictional." Leicht's piece has been the basis for subsequent articles by Mediaite, which called it a "hoax," and The National Review, which deemed it a "revealing poverty hoax."
Tirado's critics think they have spotted a fraud and lay out their evidence. "She’s married to a Marine, has met President Obama while interning for a politician (who obviously wasn't disgusted by those rotten teeth), and has plenty of time to visit Las Vegas on vacation. And blog about her privileged life on WordPress," Leicht writes in a passage quoted by both Mediaite and NRO, also noting that Tirado's parents recently helped her buy a home. "She speaks both German and Dutch, and has a well-rounded political blog that ended in 2011. It's also a blog where she quite plainly references being paid to win races."
Leicht returns repeatedly to Tirado's claim that poverty prevented her from addressing her growing dental problems, which left her with a malformed appearance that sapped her confidence and made getting a decent job more difficult.
Here's Leicht:
Oh, and not only does Linda say she's living in seedy motels and stabbing roaches, but she's also working two jobs, taking a full load of college courses, and is banished to a life as a cook in the "back of the house" at a restaurant, as she is deemed too unsightly as a waitress -- or apparently a legal secretary -- due to an unfortunate set of teeth. She's in desperate need of dental work, and her body is full of infection, but she can't afford to spend the money on medical or dental care. It's a tragic, tragic story. It's also tragically fictional.
Leicht continues: "But in this case it's a scam; you're paying the bills of a person who has the time and resources to intern and hang out at political rallies, and who has medical and dental benefits provided by way of the military spouse."
In fact, a person in Tirado's situation is not entitled to dental benefits through her military spouse because he is not 100 percent disabled, according to the Veterans Administration, which was not contacted by either Leicht or the other outlets that picked up her piece.
More:
She doesn't need you to pay her dental bill; she wants you to pay her dental bill. There's a difference. And it appears that may not even be necessary; those "rotten" teeth? They appear just fine in a 2004 political blog where her head shot is used, well after that "car accident" at 19 years of age. Her recent appearance on HuffPo Live, which was strange at best, seems to confirm that suspicion. Rotten teeth they are not.
Tirado is 31; the photo Leicht unearthed was taken when Tirado was 22, just a few years after her car accident, which wouldn't reflect how her teeth have decayed in the intervening years. And Michelle Goldberg's actual reporting for The Nation backs up Tirado's claim about her teeth.
But if seeing is believing, what choice does the woman have but to take to YouTube and expose her ruined mouth? "I don't give a fuck anymore," Tirado says in the video below.
"You don't get hired for a job if you look like this," she says, flashing her gaps to the camera. "Maybe you get hired at the corner store for the graveyard shift, but nobody's putting you out in front, buddy. Nobody wants to hire somebody like this because it will reflect poorly on them."
Tirado said that she had hoped her viral post would kick off a much-needed discussion about the reality of poverty and its psychological effects. In a way it has, because what the backlash reveals is that the country has a lot of baggage to work through before it can have that discussion. Instead of absorbing her insights into a life in poverty -- insights she could only share so eloquently because of her education -- her critics sought instead to disqualify her from the conversation.
Lots of poor people own homes and, according to Rank's research, have been or will be wealthier at some point. Tirado's journey up and down the economic ladder actually makes her more representative of poverty in America, not less. But when she wrote her post, Tirado had deformed teeth, was working two low-paying jobs, going to school and raising kids. Only the former was challenged factually, and she conclusively refutes that challenge in the video above.
Now that she has bared her raw mouth for the Internet, will her critics take a closer look at her reflections on poverty and grapple with them honestly?
Not all of them. Leicht and the Houston Press did not return requests for comment. Over at the National Review, they explained why it is so important ideologically to disqualify Tirado:
Why does this matter? It matters because the stories we tell about poverty are critical for our understanding of poverty. Generations of social science (and trillions of War on Poverty dollars) demonstrate that in the battle between terrible decisions and welfare, terrible decisions will win virtually every time. Wedded to the welfare state, many on the left have now turned to justifying bad acts to not just preserve the status quo but also (presumably) to prevent jaded Americans from turning their backs on the poor. Justification can be poignant and (seemingly) personal, like Ms. Tirado's essay, or pseudo-scientific, like this Atlantic piece describing the IQ burden of poverty. One reason why the Left strips moral agency from people who are baby-daddies of multiple kids from multiple moms, who abuse drugs, who commit petty crimes, who drop out of school, etc. is they've lost an understanding of man's fallen nature and a true theology of service. They fear that if the poor aren't seen as "deserving," then no one will help.... But it has to be the right kind of service, one that recognizes that man is fallen and that people living in desperate circumstances are quite often morally responsible for their plight. Our service has to recognize the limits of our ability to impact and influence the human heart. Terrible decision-makers don't suddenly become wise when given food stamps or disability checks. In fact, these very acts of public welfare can often reinforce the decisions that led to the need for charity.
In other words, Tirado's essay runs counter to conservative beliefs about poverty and the role of government. If it is poverty, or a lack of resources, that drives bad decision-making and holds people back from achieving their potential, then the answer is to attack the root of that poverty by providing people with resources to escape the self-destructive cycle of poverty. But if it is government assistance itself that leads to bad decision-making, as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan argued during the 2012 campaign, then the answer is to cut back on government assistance, precisely what the Ryan budget seeks to do.
But Tirado's essay is a challenge to more than just Paul Ryan. It is easier to reject Tirado as a fraud than to face the reality that someone can be smart, talented, hard-working and still be stuck in a desperate situation.
David Wood contributed reporting.The EU's top foreign policy official says high-level nuclear talks in Russia between Iran and six world powers have been suspended, but experts from both sides will meet next month to see if there is enough common ground for new negotiations.
The talks were hosted by the EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, who says she will be in touch with top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili after the July 4 experts' meeting in Istanbul to decide on when or whether to resume the talks.
Ashton spoke Tuesday after two days of talks made little progress in defusing international fears that Iran might turn its nuclear program to making weapons.
Iran denies such ambitions, insisting its atomic activities are geared only toward producing reactor fuel and making medical isotopes. It wants international sanctions lifted before it considers curbing its uranium enrichment.
Russia launched a desperate bid today to save nuclear talks between six world powers and Iran from collapse and lessen the chances of a Middle East conflict that could draw in the United States.
Failure to reach an agreement that limits Iran's nuclear activities would increase the chances that Israel, already skeptical of diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, could launch an attack, a scenario that potentially could pull in the U.S. and spread chaos throughout the Middle East.
Obama could suffer if no deal reached
Diplomats said the negotiations remained deadlocked going into Tuesday, despite pleas from the presidents of the U.S. and Russia for Iran to agree to curb nuclear activities. Iran says sanctions crippling its oil industry must be lifted before it does anything.
A top Russian official reportedly met twice with Iran's chief envoy on the sidelines of the talks Tuesday, as the host nation tried to keep negotiations on track. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, conferred with top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, said one of the diplomats.
The diplomat, like others who spoke to reporters, demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the closed talks.
U.S. President Barack Obama could suffer at home if talks fail, even if Israel holds back from attack, because a derailed diplomatic track would give Mitt Romney, his Republican rival for office, additional leeway to criticize him for being too soft on Iran.
Diplomats from several nations meeting with Iran in Moscow depicted the talks as a significant attempt to make headway in persuading Tehran to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment.
Expectations were restrained after Monday's meeting ended on a downbeat note, with diplomats saying Iran had toughened its conditions in exchange for considering demands that it stop enriching from low levels to higher purities closer to the consistency needed to arm nuclear missiles.
Tehran defends uranium enrichment
Tehran insists it is enriching only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes. But it has refused foreign offers of fuel and is stonewalling a UN probe into suspicions that it secretly worked on atomic arms, allegations it strenuously denies. It dismisses UN and other international sanctions meant to pressure it into stopping enrichment, which can also turn uranium into the core of a nuclear weapon, saying it has a right to do so under international law,
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin jointly urged Iran to show flexibility at the Moscow talks ahead of Tuesday's session.
"We agree that Iran must undertake serious efforts aimed at restoring international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program," they said on the sidelines of the meeting of G20 nations in Mexico.
But Iran said the onus was on its six negotiating partners — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — to make the first move and agree to Tehran's demands. A member of the Iranian delegation, who demanded anonymity because he was not the official spokesman for his side, said if the six accept Iran's conditions "there will be a big progress in a short period of time."
"But if they pursue the path they've been following, any progress in the talks will be stalled," he told reporters.
Ashton's spokesman, Michael Mann, spoke of "pretty tough" going after Monday's session, with Iran presenting arguments and objections that went over ground already covered in two previous inconclusive meetings in April and May.
While the Islamic Republic has previously mentioned lifting sanctions or postponing pending ones, one of the diplomats said Monday's request for "sanctions relief" was the most direct to date. That appeared to reflect the mounting pain caused by accumulating sanctions, particularly international embargoes on Iran's oil sales.
In addition to longer-term UN and other sanctions, Tehran is now being squeezed by the widening international embargo on its oil sales, which make up more than 90 per cent of its foreign currency earnings.
Sanctions cut exports of Iranian crude
Sanctions levied by the U.S. have already cut exports of Iranian crude from about 2.5 million barrels a day last year to between 1.2 million and 1.8 million barrels now, according to estimates by U.S. officials. An EU embargo on Iranian crude that starts July 1 will tighten the squeeze.
Comments by Ali Bagheri, the No. 2 on the Iranian delegation, reflected the gap between the two sides' priorities.
"We elaborated in detail... the illegality of referring Iran's nuclear issue to the UN. Security Council and issuance of UN Security Council resolutions," he told reporters, referring to Security Council demands — enforced by sanctions — that Iran stop enriching.
The six nations formally are only prepared to ease restrictions on airplane parts for Iran's outmoded, mostly U.S.-produced, civilian fleet and are offering technical help with aspects of Iran's nuclear program that cannot be used for military purposes.
While not budging on lifting existing sanctions or those already decided upon, diplomats familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that the six were also prepared to guarantee that no new UN penalties would be enacted if Tehran compromises enough. The diplomats demanded anonymity because that offer has not yet been formally made.
For Iran, the main formal demand remains international recognition of its right to enrich and related issues — with increasing emphasis on sanctions relief.
The six also want Fordo, the underground Iranian facility where most of the higher-level enrichment is taking place, shut down and for Iran to ship out its higher-grade stockpile. Fordo is of special concern because it might be impervious to air attacks, a possible last-resort response to any Iranian bomb in the making.I’m not the only one who thinks this, but Sylvester McCoy got a raw deal with Doctor Who. I’m a big fan of stories such as The Curse Of Fenric, Battlefield, Remembrance Of The Daleks and even The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, yet his tenure was cut short at a point where the show was in a rich vein of form.
Not that that stopped McCoy in his tracks. Far from it. Aside from enjoying the afterlife involved in playing the Doctor on TV, he’s been cast in The Hobbit, has a list of offers, and has now appeared in the terrific audio drama, The Minister Of Chance. And, starting with that, he spared us some time for a chat…
Let’s start with The Minister Of Chance. It’s a lovely project, and I love the ethos behind it. An audio drama that’s very fan-funded, and very close to the fans. Was that a major part of the appeal for you?
Yes. I thought it was a wonderful adventure, breaking new ground. Something very new. It’s getting rid of lots of middle men, and it gets you closer to the fans. They can fund it, by listening to it. That seems to me wonderful, not just for drama, but for other things. It’s a great experiment, and I hope it works!
What I’m finding is that audio drama in particular is where there’s lots of risk taking and innovation going on.
Yeah. That always happens, really. I think back to my time in children’s television, back in the 1970s, and the amount of innovation that was going on then. Because the mass market wasn’t focused on it, so you had a freedom to do amazing things, like Vision On, and Tiswas. And in a way, again, with this type of thing, it’s not being focused on like television or film is. You can experiment. It’s not as expensive. If this works, just think what you could do with it!
I remember watching you in the late 80s, and you did a children’s TV show there called What’s Your Story, where children rang in to suggest the following day’s storyline. What I loved about that was the risk. Although I suspect most of the kids rang up wanting Doctor Who stories! The Minister Of Chance is just as bold, though, isn’t it? Because you really can tell the stories you want to tell, just without the checking process?
Absolutely. That particular one [What’s Your Story], I thought the first series was the most successful, but the BBC suddenly decided to bring a producer of drama in. It was never quite as good, the second series, although he was massively adventurous.
There was one point where I was talking directly to the camera, live, and the set behind me had caught fire. And they were trying to make me stretch. And my brain was breaking apart, my cells were coming out of my ears! And all I could do to spread was talk slowly, while they put the fire out! It was great fun.
So presumably, once the fire was out, you’re straight back to the set, and carrying on with the live broadcast?
Oh yes, we just carried on! We had to, it was live! There were other times when we couldn’t get from one scene in the studio to the other in time, they signalled me because I was talking directly to the camera. Spread, or do something else. Keep it going, until we catch up!
I love projects that spring up when nobody’s looking. With The Minister Of Chance, you then face the flip side, though. That you can make it, but to make the fan funding model work, when it comes out you need to get the attention of lots and lots of people? It’s a double edged sword.
Yeah, and that’s what this is all about now. But also the Internet is such a fascinating means of communication. You can get to millions of people now instantly. If you can find a route into that, I think that makes it feasible.
Are you an Internet man yourself?
Not really, no! I use it to receive scripts, and send e-mails. But I prefer pigeon! They’re much more friendly, and you can talk to them as well!
When it came to the project itself is that, behind the new technology, it’s good old-fashioned storytelling at the heart of it. How did it come to you, and could you record it all together?
Well, I did record with Paul McGann and Paul Darrow, so we could do those scenes together. The other actors, I only just met at the launch. And I found out what they looked like!
But also I had done, many years before, a story comes Death Comes To Time, with Stephen Fry and others. That, again, was a great adventure. We were trying out drama on the Internet for the first time, really. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we did it as an audio. But someone drew some pictures, and put them on the screen. It was like a comic.
And that, having worked with Dan on that, I admired what he did. His soundscapes are just astonishing. He’s proved again with this that the sound quality and the detail that he puts into the sound is really, really exciting.
When Dan sent me the CD for Death Comes To Time, there’s a friend of mine, an actor called Dave Hill, who was also in it. We decided to listen to it together, and I put it into my CD player, and I pressed the button. And we listened to it for an hour, and couldn’t make head nor tail of it. All over the place. We said we suppose this is avant garde, really breaking new ground. And we hoped that after ten minutes or so, it would make some sense. But it didn’t.
So I was on the phone to Dan, and I said to him “we can’t make head nor tail of this”, while standing next to my CD player. And I suddenly noticed that there was a button that said ‘Random’, and it played any old thing. And I’d pressed that! Eventually we discovered there was another button that put it out in the right order! It shows how advanced I am!
How much more have you got to do on The Minister Of Chance? Have you recorded all the episodes you’re going to do on it for the time being?
Yes, I have. Because I’m going off to do something else, and I didn’t know what the dates were, they’ve done it so they can write me in or out of it.
You’re heading off to New Zealand to shoot The Hobbit, of course. But couldn’t you record your part in The Minister Of Chance remotely from there?
I don’t know. I would imagine you could do. Down in New Zealand, they’ve got all that technology at WETA!
Before I get to The Hobbit and Doctor Who, I’ve got to ask you about Tiswas. Sally James once said that her thought on the show looking back was that there wasn’t a risk assessment that that kind of programme would pass now. Can you give us a flavour of just how anarchic it was behind the scenes, too?
Well, it was extraordinary. And the only reason it was allowed to live was that ATV at the time didn’t have a children’s department. So there was no one there to look at it and say “my God, we can’t do that!”
We used to meet Friday night in the hotel in Birmingham, get rather drunk, and work out what we were going to do the next day on the back of a beermat. And we got up in the morning, still a bit drunk, and went and did the show. It was wonderful. The excitement of it was so astonishing.
The very first time I did the show, I felt fear, I couldn’t believe what was happening. But then gradually I grew to love it. And when things went wrong, it was at its best. You’d be doing a sketch, and the cameraman would pull away to someone else, and you’d run over and grab the camera and drag it back. And then go over and throw a custard pie in a pop star’s face, and carry on with the rest of it.
It really was alive, so alive doing it. It was chaos, and it would never be allowed.
You’re heading off next to New Zealand to do The Hobbit, then! This must be the biggest adventure of all now?
I think it is, yeah. I think it’s a big one. I’ve had quite a lot of wonderful adventures in my life, and this one, I’m so excited.
Is it pinch yourself time? Because presumably, after coming so close to landing the role of Bilbo Baggins in Lord Of The Rings, this must be the one you thought had slipped away for good?
Yeah, yeah. I nearly got Bilbo, nearly got it, and it was down to two of us in the end. And, of course, Ian Holm got it. I was hugely honoured to be in his company, as it were, but I thought that was it, really. This one, I’m told by the producers and writers, is a better part.
Is that the worst thing, knowing just how close you came? Is it tougher to deal with than thinking you’d come nowhere near?
No, actually. I was rather flattered. Wow. If Ian couldn’t have done those weeks, I would have got it. It would have been great. In acting quite a lot of the time you’re not the first choice. Usually, you’re second or third. And it can turn out to be the best thing that ever happened. You get used to that.
When did you first hear, then, that you were close to landing a part in The Hobbit? Because the rumour mill had been going for a while.
Well, last summer, Peter Jackson, Fran [Walsh] and Phillippa [Boyens] flew over, and invited me for tea. So they got me a car, and drove over for tea. I thought it was more auditioning, because I’d screentested for it. But when I got there, they said would you play the part? Would I? No! Of course not!
They knew you from before…
Well, they saw my screentest for Radagast The Brown, and Guillermo del Toro, who was going to direct it, he’d okayed it. He was keen that I play the part. I didn’t know this, but I got it from the screentest. It wasn’t until I went to see them for tea that I knew. They were asking my permission to be in it!
Do they make good tea, too?
Oh yeah! The tea and biscuits were great!
There have been, of course, many times over the past year when it looked like The Hobbit films weren’t going to happen, what with del Toro leaving, and the budget collapsing at one point. Do you fear it might be doomed?
Yeah, but every actor is always prepared for the worst when it comes to work. I was pleased that I’d got it, so that would have made me pretty happy anyway if it hadn’t gone on. But this makes me even happier!
Doctor Who questions, then!
I’ve been talking to a couple of people about making television programmes for the BBC at the moment, and their comments reflect what you’ve said in the past about Doctor Who. In their case, even though the scale of productions has gone through the roof, it’s not budget they complain about, but time. That it’s the great unresolved problem in television.
Yeah, yeah. I was surprised to hear, chatting to people, about the hours they’ve got to work to get anything half decent. The frustration they have with it.
Regarding the time constraints on Doctor Who, was there a story you ever felt was held back to a degree because of the brutality of the schedule?
Yeah. It’s a long time back, but the one where Ace arrived…
Dragonfire?
Yeah. In that, she was at the end of an episode, hanging off a cliff edge. That all made sense while we did it. But because of time, it got lost. Editing time was the big bugbear for Ghost Light. It made sense there while we did it, too, but when it came out, it didn’t.
Also, John Nathan Turner would agree a story, Survival I think it was, where he thought the BBC would accept four episodes, and they went for three. So all that was a big, big problem. Sometimes a story didn’t make as much sense as when we read them in a script, and that was frustrating.
At the moment, with Doctor Who, the show is at a point where the BBC will give an extra ten minutes to an episode if it needs it. It’s interesting, though, that you say it’s the actual editing that was as much of the problem.
The one thing that always struck me, particularly about the later stories you did, was that there was a siege mentality. Particularly in that last series, scheduled against Coronation Street, where the stories were punching very much above their weight. It feels like a “look what we can do while nobody’s looking” thing again.
Yes. We just got on with it, really. There was a feeling of optimism in that third year, because the feedback we were getting from the fanbase and the magazine sales was that we were onto something that was working. And we were turning the corner. That’s what made it very exciting, and the thought of a fourth season.
My arm had been twisted to do the fourth season. I was only going to do three, because that’s what Patrick Troughton said and Peter Davison had said. But when they twisted my arm to do a fourth, and also 26 episodes, rather than 15, I was very excited.
I think we could have really taken off. But sadly, we were not allowed to do that.
There was some exceptionally mature writing at that stage.
I agree with you. Rona Munro, she’s one of our top class playwrights now. I was very excited by the fact that it was a female writer writing for us. There weren’t too many of them around in TV at the time.
I look at something like The Curse Of Fenric. There’s a bit there where Sophie Aldred picks up the baby that I always felt had a real emotional wallop to it. And the great irony was that that’s what people were supposed to be watching Coronation Street to get, and it was on the other channel, while nobody was watching.
Yes [laughs]. Absolutely. And also, the monster in that was particularly wonderful. I thought it was the best we had. That face, it was so alive.
You talk about the fourth series, but the one thing I’m curious about was did you have your ending in mind? Because the show at that stage was going down some dark roads, and you would, presumably, have continued in that vein?
Yeah. The idea was to try and peel off an onion layer, and create a new mystery for the Doctor. To make him much more mysterious. And also, perhaps make |
agreed that on-road NOx results will be allowed to be twice as high as lab emissions for a 28-month period after the new tests are introduced. Even after that, under the new rules, on-road emissions will be allowed to hit levels 50 percent over those measured under laboratory test conditions.
EU Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska is taking heat from environmentalists over the delay in applying new rules
Environmental protection advocates have reacted to Wednesday's announcement with surprise and anger.
"This is a scandalous and cynical decision by EU governments," said EU lawmaker Bas Eickhout of the Alliance of Greens in the European Parliament, adding: "This new test... is a sham."
A scandalous response to a scandal?
The new rules were a response to the crisis generated by revelations in September that Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, had installed emissions-test cheating software in a certain type of diesel engine that it built into millions of cars. The software recognised when the car was being tested in an emissions lab - the only condition under which the wheels would spin but the car wouldn't move - and in that condition, it adjusted engine performance to minimize emissions.
Could the solution to pollution be to move from cars to unicorns?
Back on the road, the software adjusted the engines to prioritise fuel economy and performance instead - and the ensuing levels of NOx emissions were up to 35 times higher than in the lab, as US researchers discovered by using special emissions testing equipment to measure VW diesel car emissions under actual road-driving conditions.
The cheating wasn't really news
The European Commission, which is the executive body - the "administration" - of the European Union, has been aware for years that there is a big gap between the NOx emissions and fuel economy performance of cars in real-world driving conditions, and their results as measured by the regulator's standard laboratory tests. Environmental and health advocates had urged action to adopt more realistic tests for years, as well.
But it took the huge on-going scandal over'sVW emissions scam to induce the EU to move ahead with changes - even though nitrogen oxides from diesel cars have long been known to be a prime source of air pollution, and the deadly effects of that pollution have long been known, too.
NOx pollution causes more than 400,000 premature deaths in the EU yearly, according to European Commission estimates, and additionally causes up to 940 billion euros ($1 trillion) in health bills each year.
Watch video 05:08 Share VW in the US - What now? Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1Gv9o VW in the US - What now?
"We now have the political momentum for a radical overhaul," said Catherine Bearder, a British Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament, in a statement on Tuesday.
Cynicism and disappointment
But the overhaul turns out not to have been so radical after all.
"European governments are effectively rewarding the cheaters," said Jiri Jerabek of Greenpeace, an environmental conservation advocacy group. He called the EU's move "outrageous".
Greg Archer of the Transport and Environment campaign group acidly observed that: "It seems governments would rather citizens die as a result of diesel exhaust emissions than require carmakers to fit technology typically costing [just] 100 euros" per car.
Wednesday's decision was taken by a panel of experts representing each of the EU's 28 member states. It must still be vetted and approved by EU parliaments and governments. However, for procedural reasons they have limited scope to make changes.
nz / uhe (dpa, Reuters, AP)Faraday Future is planning to restart construction of its proposed factory in the Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas, but scaled back from its original size. “It’s a 650,000-square foot mini-plant that’s going to be complete about August, end of August,” said Dr. Qiong Liu, North Las Vegas city manager.
When Las Vegas Now spoke with Dag Reckhorn, vice president of global manufacturing for Faraday Future at the CES show in January, he said everything was still on schedule for cars to start rolling off the assembly line “sometime in 2018.” Originally, the factory was scheduled to be 3 million square feet in size but financial issues involving principal investor Jia Yueting brought construction to a halt in October amid charges that the AECOM, the principal contractor, had not been paid on time and in full for its site preparation work.
City manager Liu confirms that AECOM has now paid for expedited building permits so it can begin work on the smaller factory. The city itself has embarked on a series of infrastructure improvements to bring water, sewer, and road upgrades to the Apex Industrial Park. Some of that work is being aided by funds from the state of Nevada.
“We’re not really hedging bets, we’re looking for a method to put the infrastructure in at Apex, because it’s critical for more than just Faraday, in the event that Faraday doesn’t move forward,” said Steve Hill, director of the office of economic development for the state. Nevada has agreed to a package of tax incentives for Faraday Future, assuming certain production and hiring goals are met. State treasurer Dan Schwartz told the press in December that he had given up on the idea that the company would ever commence manufacturing it the state.
“Personally I think it’s over.” Schwartz tells KSNV in Las Vegas. “I think it was over pretty much before it began.” adding, “I think he’s out of money.” Schwartz says of Yueting. “Could he get more money? My sources in China say the government there isn’t financing him. I wonder where and how they’re going to continue this project.”
Faraday Future reportedly received 64,000 “reservations” for the $200k+ FF 91, following its CES unveiling. Perhaps that expression of interest — no money was required in order to reserve a car — has convinced some investors to put up more money to keep the company going. Tesla has certainly been remarkably successful starting out small and building its way into the nascent industry powerhouse it has become today. Perhaps Faraday Future can emulate that success path.
With more than a 1,000 horsepower on tap and a projected range approaching 400 miles helped by a 130 kWh, the FF 91 may find a niche in the market, albeit for affluent buyers. At the end of the day, we’re glad to see that Faraday Future’s dream still has a pulse, no matter how faint.Here is the super Pisces. O these poor tragic lost and beautiful souls. They wither and they wag and they wax ecstatic and then they die. Everything sends them to the mortuary of existence. Anything. Your poor-souled comment, your loud boot heels, your look of unkindness. Don’t even try. You make Pisces Moon want to die.
Not that they will do anything about it. They will just wither and detach and feel sorry for you that you are such a monster. Strangely enough, in the final analysis, they really don’t take it personally. Pisces moon people have the capacity to detach from this world and float off into the ethersphere. They are looking down on themselves and you and whomever else as they float out to take in the big picture. Well, that is their big gift, the ability to see the universal. And when you are seeing the cosmos compared to you and your personal situation, your lover who is so exasperating, your friends who are so helpless, and on and on, what can you really take personally. It is just the way of the world, nay, the way of the universe.
Pisces moon is already in eternity. Which is why they make such great artists and lovers. They let go of themselves and let the god pour in.
Now, if they are men and god happens to be a non-factor in their belief system, then the women of their lives sublimate god for them.
Pity, compassion, sacrifice is what Pisces moon got inside. Yet, Pisces is the most dispassionate of the three water signs. But, they aint no cold-blooded Aquarians. They feel, feel, feel. It is just displaced and dissolved in some way. And along with this dissolution can go their ego-containment, and gasp, their personality. Where has that Pisces Moon gone off to now? O, you know those Pisces Moons, they just leave the building without saying a word. “Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.” Elvis had a Pisces Moon.
And there ain’t no use in trying to understand or talk them out of their dark spells of quixotic abandon. They are lost at sea and to follow them will get you all smashed up on the rocks of those irrational sirens who swoon for love, love, love.
Yes, love. O, Pisces moon might as well just be called “love moon”, or better yet, “dream of love moon”, or more darkly, “O, just kill me now and get it over with moon.” O, where love leads and that is where they follow.
Pisces is the sign of the fishes, two fishes tied at their tails. Two fishes means that they are a bit schizophrenic. They are torn between being nice, as they naturally are, and being a sea monster themselves. Or if they are gentler temperaments, just being a siren or something silly like that.
Pisces Moons tend not to have a very good sense of humor so when you joke around with them, they can take it quite seriously. Just tell them to take you to the sea and wreck on the rocks in no-man’s land. They’ll know what to do. In matters of love, they do not fuck around. Not players, not swingers, only the one and only lover they desire. Tell them they are the only one. Well, tell them whatever you like. I don’t have to live with them.
A Pisces Moon can make even the harshest of temperaments, like an ENTJ type, a bit romantic and concerned with mystical matters. Take Axl Rose, an ENTJ at enneagram point 3. Yes, he was harsh and a cold heartbreaker fit to burn, but check out songs like Estranged, Sweet Child Of Mine, November Rain, and the ending strains of Locomotive (love is so strange). Witness how he pined for years for his muse in the form of supermodel Stephanie Seymour.
Estranged. Beautiful title for a song and just a plain beautiful word. The Pisces Moon put the roses in Guns N Roses, Axl’s band.
In sensitive and romantic temperaments such as any of the Intuitive Feeling types, forget about it. Pisces Moon occurring here makes you a super-romantic, a die-hard romantic, a dead in the water romantic. Motherfucker, it makes you Edgar Allan Poe or Percy Bysshe Shelley, an utter angel of love set to prose and darkness. O yes, darkness. They knew what love was.
So did Pisces Moon singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Heard his song, Hallelujah?
I saw your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and broken hallelujah
A cold and broken hallelujah. Indeed, because love is some uncontrollable shit and it often comes in the form of some asshole of the opposite sex and you want them so bad and it’s not cool to be fucking with me bitch, so take your territory conquering flag off of my house. It ain’t like you just bought a new Lexus. That’s my heart you fucking with. Not a game. Not a game.
And Pisces moon will let you fuck with them in the name of love because they need that love so bad. And when they alone, forget about it, the phantoms that assail them out of the haunted air of evening. “Lenore, Lenore”, cried Edgar Allan Poe, for his ghostly muse. Forget about it.
But just because Pisces Moon knows all this shit about love and the cosmic big picture doesn’t mean they have one fig of an iota of an idea about how to do a damn thing about any of the cosmic injustices that befall the lot of man and women on this blue-green marble we live on. They pretty helpless and so must take refuge in art, drugs, drink, food, love, compulsive dog-walking, you name it. If it offers a respite from the cold mechanistic world of concrete and lead and big-headed babies that call your name in the night. Pisces Moon wants that dope bad. And it is sad. Because they can’t handle any of that shit either.
So, if you see the Pisces Moon in the road, kill them. Because they already not here. So, what do they care?via ReporterLeslie's Twitter
So a guy, a girl, and a goat walk into a Midtown pizza joint and order some slices... and proceed to eat those slices at a table... with the goat, and no one seems to care? This photo shows barely a reaction from other diners at La Famiglia, and it just ends up in the wasteland of Twitter with a quick note: "saw a goat eating pizza at La Famiglia on 50th & B'way."
Is this not the same city that just celebrated a squirrel eating a slice of pizza in a tree? C'mon New York, this is a goat, sitting down at a table (with someone who looks a lot like Bethenny Frankel), inside of an establishment that just last year Sarah Palin and Donald Trump had lunch at. Let's give this goat the attention it deserves. And also maybe alert the Department of Health.
We called La Famiglia this morning, and the man who answered was genuinely shocked to hear there was a goat in the restaurant last night—"A goat? In this restaurant? Eating pizza? No!" [via Buzzfeed]On Friday, the Wild begin just their third Western Conference semifinal series since the team’s inception in 2000, meeting the Chicago Blackhawks for Game 1 at United Center. The man who led Minnesota to their first, Jacques Lemaire, is watching from a distance.
“They’re doing pretty good,” Lemaire said Wednesday. “Obviously, you need a goalie that makes the saves, but since they have it, they’ve got a chance to win every game.”
Devan Dubnyk, in fact, might be the NHL’s hottest goaltender. In 2003, when Lemaire’s team advanced to Minnesota’s only conference final, the Wild ran into that year’s hottest goalie, Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy after a 4-3 loss to New Jersey in the final.
Lemaire was Minnesota’s first coach — Mike Yeo is the third — and coached them to their lone division title in 2007-08. Now working as a consultant for the New Jersey Devils, where he won a Cup as coach in 1995, Lemaire still watches and analyzes hockey every day during the season, and still loves it.
An eight-time Cup winner as a player in Montreal, Lemaire, 69, talked hockey, coaches and old players — including the late Derek Boogaard, who played four seasons for Lemaire and died of an accidental drug overdose in 2011 at 28 — in a phone interview from his home in Florida.
Q: Do you find the Wild’s game has changed since you were coaching?
A: “I don’t think so, not that much. How they play, they seem to play a little more offense because the type of player they have. They have the type of player that can hold on to the puck, pretty good skaters. Then when they get a chance, they go on the forecheck. But defensively they’re exactly the same; neutral zone — same thing.”
Q: When the playoffs get here, we tend to talk about a team’s style, and matching styles, but I wonder how much of it is really matching players.
A: “It depends on your team. When I was coaching in Minnesota, we were considered a weaker team, so then when you look at your team and feel your team cannot score more goals than the other team, you have to check a top line — guys that are dangerous on the other side. Then you have to match. I remember at a certain time, if their first or second line were going to play against our third or fourth line, we knew it was a matter of time before the puck would go in the net.
“Now, if you have a team that can score as much as the other team, or even more than the other team, you don’t make the match; you have to stay away from the matches from the other coaches — if your team is a better scoring team.
“If you feel you’re pretty even, then you have to look at the players. Automatically, the two coaches will play pretty much line after line and roll the lines. What I’m trying to describe is you have to look at your team and the team you’re playing against. If you have more offense, they match. That’s really important.
“On the road, I used to put a center from another line, let’s say the second line, and wingers from the first line, or the wingers from the fourth line, so if they change, then just my center was coming to the bench. And if the other line was out there, at least the center was there.
“When Wes (Walz) was there with us, I could play that line against anyone. I knew they could play against the top line, tough guys — anybody.”
Q: Was having Wes a luxury?
A: “Oh, yeah. You get a guy that plays really good defensively, a guy that has speed, had his share of goals offensively, definitely.
Q: So, when you made the run in 2003, was that just a constant series of matchups?
A: “Yeah, we had to. We made two lines to play against the top lines; the other guys had to change. The other two matched up.”
Q: Is that exhausting or did you enjoy it?
A: “Oh, I loved it. I loved it. To me, it’s coaching. You look at every aspect of the game, every angle, you have to find something to do to get a little edge.”
Q: Do you look back on that season and think, we really accomplished something there?
A: “Sure! Definitely. But when I think about, I think about the players, I don’t think about the coaching staff and what we did. I think about the players how they played, how they performed, you know. They had to be at their best, and they were.
“When we played against Colorado, as an example, at the start of the series, in our mind as coaches, we wanted to win one game as quick as possible to see how it’s going to go. We just wanted to win one game. We thought that team was really strong, great players, and Patrick Roy in the net, had won the Cup a couple years earlier. It was still a great team.
“And then us, we’re thinking, let’s not get too excited here. But when you do win one game, now you want two. You want to keep going. We were in Minny in Game 6, if I recall. The series was 3-2 for them. I told the guys, ‘Hey, just win this game. The other game will take care of it.’ You go back (to Denver) and they felt they would win, but we came out with the game.
“We didn’t want to get beat in four, that’s the thing. Then you win a game, you should win two. You go on like that.”
Q: I always thought the team that lost to Anaheim (in 2006) was a good team. What do you think was your best team in terms of talent?
A: “Anaheim was a good team, and the team we had to run out was pretty good, too — as they proved. Everyone had to work hard and believe and be together. Against Anaheim, we had a lot of good chances, and then we lost Kim Johnsson in that scrum there (he was knocked out by a Brad May punch). That really put us in a hole. He was our best defenseman.”
Q: That was a cheap shot, too.
A: “For no reason. Guys were pushing. That really was hard for us. I always think about if Johnny would be there, I don’t know what would have happened. Maybe we would have beat them.”
Q: So what are you doing for the Devils?
A: “Consulting. I really enjoy it. It’s fun to talk about the game, talk about the players, stay involved in every game. Every night I’ve got a game.”
Q: Do you look ahead, then?
A: “No. Coaches don’t really need pre-scouting. They have four assistant coaches, sometimes five with the goalie coaches; everyone can pick a game, go see if they’re do anything different from the last time you played. It doesn’t take hours.”
Q: How much do you watch the Wild?
A: “I get periods here and there, but because they always play late, and I’m getting older, I have to go to bed! Sometimes after our game, I go look. In the playoffs, I looked a little more, but there’s not too many guys left from that team.”
Q: Two guys, I think. Do you still feel like a piece of that team is yours? You and Doug (Risebrough) started that team.
A: “It’s funny. I feel a little bit like that; it’s still our team. The thing is, when you move to another team, you look at your team so much. Like Montreal, I don’t look at Montreal that much more in the playoffs, and during the season I don’t look at them any more than I look at Tampa, as an example, because I’m here. No. 1 is New Jersey, then I look at Tampa because I see people here, I meet people here, we talk about the game, what Tampa did last night, all that. When you have two teams you’re looking at like that, there’s not a lot of minutes left for the other ones.”
Q: Do you still talk with Doug?
A: “We stay in touch, pretty much every month.”
Q: I wanted to ask you about Derek Boogaard …
A: “I could not believe it. I couldn’t believe it. You know, as coaches, there are certain things you don’t know are happening; you only see it if it’s before your eyes, when you’re there. I’m not a guy to get in their personal life. If he needs help, I’m there — as much as anybody. But if the guy doesn’t open, I won’t dig. I’m not that type.
“I respect everybody’s life; I just hope what they’re doing is the right thing. But when I hear that (I think), ‘Holy cow, I was missing something.’ Especially when you know the guy and know how fun he was and you think about the great moments you spent with him.”
Q: I really liked Boogaard …
A: “Everyone did. Boogey, everyone loved him. He was liked and did everything he could on the ice, that’s why — and at the time I was criticized — I made him a captain. You know back then we had the alternating captains. It was because of his determination and what he tried to do on the ice. If he scored a goal, everyone got excited. If he had an assist, everyone was excited for him. I made him a captain because of his leadership.”
Q: Have the Wild been in touch with you, asked you to come back and do the ‘Let’s Play Hockey’ call or anything?
A: “Yeah, they asked me once, and it was last year against Colorado and I could not make it. But we stay in touch. I’m always in touch with Tom Reid. He has a place here (in Florida) and we always stay in touch. As a matter of fact, I just called him two days ago.
“He asks me all the time: ‘Why don’t you come out? We’ll go to the pub and we’ll talk.’ But I’m too old to travel! I hate travel, I’ve done enough. I go to Montreal in the summer, and I’m telling you, it’s a real job. I don’t want to leave the house. Airplanes, you’re delayed, oh, no, no, no. Maybe it’s because I traveled so much.”
Q: Are you still fishing and sailing?
A: “Was fishing last year but this year I haven’t fished once because, you know, I used to go by myself with the boat and all that, but it’s a little dangerous, too. You know, bad weather, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. Because there’s no one to go with me, other guys with time on their hands who want to do a little fishing. So I sold my boat and I only go golfing.”
Q: Is your golf game improving?
A: “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a nice game now, playing in the high-70s.”
Q: We were talking about you the other day because (Ken) Hitchcock was around when the Blues were here and he likes to talk about hockey. He’ll answer anything, like you.
A: “A lot of young guys, it seems they don’t like to talk hockey. They talk only in private about the game. I don’t know where they get their ideas, but they don’t learn it from other guys who have been there. They don’t want to ask us. Maybe they think we don’t know everything, and we don’t! It’s always something new.
“As a matter of fact, (Guy) Boucher, you know, who coached with Tampa Bay, he came back from Europe this year and he called me we sat for hours just talking about the game — different stuff, angles and players. You get guys that want to learn more, hear more. (Detroit coach Mike) Babcock is like that. He wants to talk about the game, learn different stuff. But a lot of young guys, I don’t feel, want the information; I don’t know.
“I would love to talk about the game, but I wouldn’t give my answers to every question. I worked for what I know; I don’t want to give it away!
“I had a lot of fun in Minnesota and enjoyed the press and the fans. We had fun together. Now I have great memories — from home! No traveling.”
Follow John Shipley at twitter.com/shipleykid.How's this for irony?: A newly discovered plant named after the reserve in which it is supposedly found is endangered because the reserve isn't actually located where people thought it was.
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the new plant—Dorstenia luamensis, which was discovered in 2012 and described last month in the journal PhotoKeys—was named after the Luama Katanga Reserve. The little-known protected area—located near Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-deepest freshwater lake—was established in 1947, 13 years before the current Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) gained its independence from Belgium and long before the civil wars that plagued the region in the 1990s and 2000s. Unfortunately those civil wars had a long-lasting impact on the reserve: At some point during the conflicts government officials incorrectly mapped the Luama Katanga, placing it about 50 kilometers from where it was originally established. You can see the difference in the map below:
This mapping mistake means the fernlike plant—which grows on just a few rock faces near waterfalls—is not in the park for which it is named but in an area that is being heavily degraded by deforestation and cattle ranching. A good portion of what should be the reserve has also been carved out by mining concessions. The region is also home to 1,400 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) as well as numerous other wildlife species. All of those plants and animals could now be further endangered because they are not in legally protected habitat.
The most unusual part of all of this is that the WCS uncovered the mapping error a year ago and lobbied the DRC to return to the official boundaries of the reserve before the paper was published. No action has been taken, so they have now gone public with the issue during this week's IUCN World Parks Congress in an attempt to put pressure on the DRC, says Andy Plumptre, head of WCS’s Albertine Rift Program. "The moral of this story," WCS vice president of conservation strategy James Deutsch said in a prepared release, "is that keeping track of parks—and especially getting maps and boundaries correct—matters hugely for biodiversity. The call to action here is to fix the records and reprotect the reserve before this unique plant and all the biodiversity it contains, including 1,400 chimpanzees, are destroyed."
This is obviously an extreme example but it's also typical of protected areas and nature reserves around the world. Borders for these important conservation zones are rarely adequately marked and can actually be quite porous. People often live right alongside these parks and flow in and out of them with no real understanding that they have crossed a line into so-called conservation territories. We can't put walls around every protected zone, so adequately mapping and identifying them is essential. Hopefully the DRC will step up before this so-called reserve, which obviously hasn't been adequately monitored, let alone mapped, disappears into memory.
Photos and illustrations: Chimpanzee, by Andrew Plumptre. Dorstenia luamensis, by Miguel Leal. Reserve map by WCSBy Tom Holmes
Contributing Reporter
Those who imagine that the work of a hospice chaplain is depressing should talk to Bonney Rega, a Forest Park resident and hospice chaplain with Lexington Health Network Hospice in Lombard, or read her recently published book Everyday Miracles, Tales of Life Beyond Life.
Rega talks about what she does with a sense of wonder and a kind of reverent joy.
"As a hospice chaplain," she explained in the introduction to Everyday Miracles, "I've been privileged to be present with, and act as a midwife to, those who are about to cross the great divide into the next level of existence. Sitting in vigil with dying patients creates a sacred space where patients and family members can share their most profound experiences—sometimes tearfully, sometimes quietly, and sometimes joyously."
She calls herself a spiritual midwife, because when we die, she said, "we drop our bodies and go on to the next birth." She quoted one patient, who was "clinically dead" for a few minutes and then regained a pulse and normal functioning, as remarking, "Dying is so easy. You take one breath in this body and the next breath in a healthy body."
Rega emphasized that empathy is critical to the work of a hospice chaplain. She said, "When I meet a patient I find out where they are in terms of religion and spirituality, and that's where I go. I do not impose any of my theories thoughts beliefs or feelings on a patient or their family."
After trust has been created and a sense of where the patient is at has been achieved, she said "I gently ease them into talking about death, what is it that you want or anticipate or expect or are afraid of. That's what I'm after, and then I try to help them. If they don't want to go there, that's fine."
Rega's book is filled with her experiences which some might call paranormal and which confirm to her that there is no judgment or hell, that everyone will "cross over to the celestial realms" when they die. In the book's introduction she wrote, "These stories—all of them true—tell of departed souls who comfort their loved ones, of angels and guides who impart wisdom and wit, and of archetypal beings who tease and teach those who reach out to them."
The first chapter, for example, is about how people who have died communicate with loved ones through dreams. "One of the most common ways people connect from the other side," she wrote, "is through dreams. The dreams through which souls contact their living loved ones are very different from ordinary dreams."
These dreams, she explained, are vivid, rational, usually suffused with light and don't fade away when the dreamer wakes up. Often the people in the dreams pass along information. For instance, Rega tells the story of a man who became depressed after his wife's death and cried constantly for two months, till one day he told his daughter about a dream he had.
"Your mother came to me last night in a dream," he said. "It was so real. She was partying with all her dead Scottish friends and relatives … and she waved good bye to me. I think she was telling me she's moved on."
"[After that dream] his extreme depression lifted," said Rega.
Chaplain Rega is very aware that many people who read her book will respond with skepticism or even think she is crazy. She responds, usually with an understanding smile, by saying, "Even though our culture doesn't particularly value stories like these, people keep having unusual experiences despite this cultural indifference and sometimes despite downright hostility.
"In the privacy of my grief groups," she continued, "I've found that participants are eager to share their remarkable stories of life after life—and sometimes life before life."
"These stories show us the many different ways souls choose to communicate in this rich, multidimensional universe," she concluded. "Do we have explanations for all these events? Not really. I offer these tales because they happened; you can judge whether they resonate with your own experiences."
As to why more people don't have these paranormal experiences, she speculates that people don't find what they aren't looking for or open to. To explain she tells the story of two brothers who were with family members at their father's wake. One brother spontaneously said out loud, "Give us a sign that you're all right, Dad."
Just then one of the flower arrangements around the coffin started shaking violently. Explaining to his brother why this happened, he said, "Maybe it's because I'm open to these experiences."
Rega began her working life teaching art at the college level and working in advertising, but she kept having these mystical experiences which she didn't understand. To get at what this "gift" she had been given was, she studied under a series of meditation and spiritual teachers.
Contrasting her intuitive approach to connecting with the divine with western religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam which depend more on revelation in their Scriptures, she said, "You learn to trust that inner voice. Your earthly desires are certainly linked to what I would call your heavenly desires, but you have to move through that to get to the deepest desires of your spirit. It took a lot of cosmic training for me to understand my intuitions and trust them."
She found a spiritual home in the Church of All, in which she was ordained in 1987.
Rega ends Everyday Miracles by urging, "If you haven't already done so, open your heart and mind—you, too, can have an exciting experience or two. A heavenly messenger, a disembodied friend or relation may be trying to reach you through your intuition, your dreams, or your five senses."President Obama on Monday signed into law the latest version of the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a federal crime for people to pass themselves off as war heroes by wearing medals they didn't rightfully earn.
The legislation passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming majorities.
An earlier version, passed in 2005, was struck down in June 2012 when the Supreme Court ruled that lying about military heroics was constitutionally protected speech unless there was intent to gain some benefit or something of value by fraud.
The law signed Monday at the White House includes such a provision, making it illegal to make the claims with the intent to obtain money, property or other tangible benefits.
Veterans organizations were quick to applaud Congress and the President for acting quickly on the amended version of the law.
"I think this was necessary because people were using it to receive the benefits of decorations of valor, and they were getting monetary benefit from it," said John Stovall, director of national security and foreign relations for The American Legion. "That's why we supported the amended version, not to infringe on anyone's First Amendment rights but to protect the reputation and meaning of the decorations."
The 2005 law made its way to the Supreme Court after a California man challenged his conviction and $5,000 fine for unlawfully claiming to be a Medal of Honor recipient. The court declared the law unconstitutional unless the fabricator intended to get something of value by making the claims.
William "Bill" Hillar of Maryland spent years claiming to have been a Special Forces soldier with expertise in human trafficking and counter-terrorism. Colleges and universities paid him to teach classes, and law enforcement organizations paid to hear his presentations.
But the charge that got Hillar sentenced to 21 months in federal prison was wire fraud, not the 2005 Stolen Valor Act. Among Hillar's claims was that he went on a one-man search for a daughter kidnapped and sold into slavery; the story was the basis for the Liam Neeson film "Taken."
He was arrested finally in Jan. 2011 after his scam was exposed by veterans through the website ProfessionalSoldiers.com.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 was introduced into the House by Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., who has said the awards, like the men and women who earned them, are worthy of respect.
Other lawmakers shared Heck's sentiment. "I'm very happy the President signed the Stolen Valor Act," said Rep. Paul Cook, R-Calif., a retired Marine colonel. "The new law ensures that we protect and honor veterans and the sacrifices they've made. When people make false claims of military rank and heroism, it does a tremendous disservice not only to our vets, but to the public."March 27 - Collect some eggs
Happy Easter! I added Easter eggs to celebrate. They'll show up Spring 8 in-game or March 25-27 irl. Since this update is coming juuust after Easter, I've extended their duration to the 30th. So get em, get the eggs!
The other major additions this week were the journal/collection, and a bunch of combat changes. When you pause you'll get a (n ugly placeholder) journal with the Collection page open. Items you collect are added to it and organized by category. You can check their info at any time including value and craft recipe. Additionally, as you collect items some that you haven't found will have their name revealed to help you find them.
Combat has been the hardest thing to get "just right" but I think I'm on the right track now. We |
you hear the beam sing. And your head nods on to a soulful percussion. You must be strong!
XI — the march carries on. You are matched step for step by your aggressor, but he is still lagging behind slightly. There seems to be a vocal obscurity coming through the the streets, like the muffled cries of a didgeridoo. Light beams occasionally whizz by overhead, skipping spritely across the backs of floating, swirling harmonies. That percussive head-nodding is back again. These cunning sonics are luring you to your doom! The enemy is drawing closer. Its fell calls are clearer now. Snap out of it!
XII — once again you are beset by mortal danger. In your stupor you only managed a feeble attempt at making a run for it. Now, you are stuck at a dead end, cornered and seemingly without any means to circumvent certain death. But as your foe towers over you, a steady stream of pacifying, sing-song waves begins to reach your ears. The daunting beast slows its breath. It falls back onto its front legs, having reared up to show its full menace before. It seems to be in a daze of its own now, stunned. This is your chance to prolong your tenure on this barren plane. You make a run for its open right flank just as the waves come to a stand-still and that heavy, hungry breathing returns!
CHPTR004 as an instalment fits perfectly into a well-narrated story of human emotion. The tone has changed with this fourth release and it is harder and more aggressive. The entity continues in its crafting of stories that bare it all while veiling just enough to keep your attention. There is a sense of brutalism in some parts that is stark and confronting, but it is always met with a countering grace; so warm and at times almost engulfing, much like an embrace. Yet again this anonymous group has produced work that engages the mind. It may have changed in its presentation but it retains the same ability to affect.
Get CHPTR004
Listen to a special live set that CHPTR recorded for the 107th episode of our podcast:(The following requisite exit interview with Donald J. Trump was conducted close of business Friday with the Head of Human Resources.)
HR: Why are you leaving?
Donald J. Trump: What you should ask yourself is why are you leaving me? By the way, I called that first question back in February. Ask anyone. People who thought I’d leave after Iowa. Iowa. Whose idea was that? Seriously. You know what I just found out? I just found out cows cannot digest corn. Neither can humans, but we eat cows. We don’t eat each other. Not yet. You watch. It’s gonna happen. January 21, 22 at the latest. It’s gonna be like the Lord of the Rings of the Flies. It’s gonna be like Jeffrey Dahmer. You remember Jeffrey Dahmner? Jeffrey Dahmer, who, by the way, would have endorsed me if he hadn’t been shanked in the shower during the ’90s. And let me tell you something else. Those showers have only gotten worse. They’re a nightmare. What kind of country do we live in when people are afraid to take a shower?
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So, shower safety and the fact that cows cannot digest corn. Those are your main reasons for leaving?
Well, they’re up there. But I would say, if I had to say specifically, and I’m not big on that, and I’ll let you know, but if I had to say specifically, it’s that some people weren’t nice. And that rally attendance wasn’t factored into the vote total. It’s called the popular vote. Popular. It’s not called the qualified vote. Popular vote. Popular. I didn’t name it, but I respect it. I guess I’m alone. And why isn’t attention the same thing as support? Why? If I’m talking and – excuse me, excuse me – if I’m talking and you’re paying attention, why doesn’t it stand to reason – excuse me – why doesn’t it stand to reason that makes me your leader? And another thing. If I had the job, Day One, the showers are much safer. Hillary Clinton would not get shanked. She would be free to serve every day of the next 25-30 years in Attica. Yeah, Attica. She did nothing for Upstate New York, and yet she gets free room and board up there. Why? Because unlike some people, I’m nice.
Was salary a consideration in your decision?
I just found out what the job paid. $400,000. You’re kidding, right? That’s bobby pin money for me. That’s what I spend on Rosetta Stone upgrades for Melania. That’s what I made off headset and wi-fi rental on the press plane. Hell, I promised twice that to Mike Pence if he changed his conversion therapy from sexual orientation to ruble laundering. Who came up with that figure? $400,000? What am I, some undocumented utility infielder? Nobody told me this $400,000. I just assumed you grab the key to The Mint from the Treasury Secretary, or Lorne Michaels, and take what you when you need it. You know, within reason.
Did you receive proper training?
I don’t know, you tell me. You know what? Why don’t you ask Hillary if she cares that cows can’t digest corn?
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Why did you think about the culture of your department?
One night, we were on the plane coming back from, I don’t know, New Mexico? I can’t remember. It was some place where they didn’t show the crowd. That narrows it down to 48 states. By the way, bad name, New Mexico. Bad name. Call it something else. Call it New and Improved Mexico. Santa Fabulous. Trumpequerque. I would have come up with something, but they went with the JV. So, we’re on the plane and there’s no ketchup. None. And I have about 200 extreme vetted French fries in front of me. This is a giant screw-up. I start to lose my temperament, but someone, I think it was David Duke’s teenage daughter, Chrystalnacht, says, “I have, like, six packets of blue cheese dressing. You ever, like, try that?” Well, Trump hadn’t, and Trump did, and Trump never looked back. Neither have I. That’s the kind of stuff we had going on and it's now everyone’s loss, like me renaming New Mexico.
What was your opinion of our benefits, fringes, time off?
Not thrilled, not impressed. Not thrilled with the way other people take your words, reprint them exactly as you said them, in the correct context you said them, then throw them back at you. That’s freedom of speech? I don’t see any freedom there. Speaking of words, I’m big on words, since when is there a “c” in “indictment?” When did that happen? That needs to go. Are those the benefits you’re talking about? Or are you talking about pledging money to your campaign and finding out that it’s not the same as pledging money to some charity you have no intention of following through on? That kind of benefit? That is no more of a benefit than if you’re a cow and you say “I’m hungry” and some loser in Iowa gives you a bunch of corn.
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Excuse me, I can just hear you. I’m a clairvoyeur. I can just hear you thinking, “Talking cows? Really? He doesn’t mean talking cows. He means fat women. He means the first three rows at the Grand Ol’ Opry.” I didn’t say that, you thought that. And let me ask you something. When was the last time they showed the crowd at the Grand Ole Opry? Nothing to say? Yeah, I thought so.
And did you actually mention “time off?” You didn’t say “time off,” did you? I got zero. Zero. The only time off I got was when I gave my phone to my kid for six hours and he got into a Twitter fight with that overrated singer Raffi. I’m not gonna lie to you. That got away from me. I said, “Barron, I know he’s an Egyptian, but this is a disaster.” And Barron said, “Excuse me, but what are you talking about?” Turns out it was Eric who took the phone. Wrong kid.
What was the other thing? Fringes? Yes, I have to say I was very pleased with the fringes.
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Would you recommend this to a friend?
That’s not how it works. Here’s how it works. You recommend one of your friends to me. A non-smoker with a great rack wearing only a non-disclosure agreement.
Is there any area or areas we could improve to make you consider staying?
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Who says I’m leaving? You’re the one who’s leaving. But I would say cyber as an area. Cyber is a real situation. Ask yourself, why wasn’t I hacked? What, am I not attractive enough? Wait. You think I meant that? It’s called sarcasm. Calm down. Take a shower. Oh wait, I forgot. You’re afraid to shower. I don’t blame you. No, wait. I do.
Anything else?
How about how I stayed on message and talked in the calm, reassuring voice? Come on, give it to me.The King of the Netherlands has informed his country that their welfare state is finished.
King Willem-Alexander, alongside his wife, Queen Maxima, told the Dutch people that they must create their own social and financial safety nets, and that looking to the state for help was a thing of the 20th century.
The speech was part of the monarch’s annual address on the day the government presents its budget.
It was not immediately clear if the 100 million euros spent by the government on maintaining the Royal House, with its castles and parades, would be included in the austerity cuts.
Recent polls show confidence in the government at a record low and that most Dutch people believe the cabinet’s austerity policies are at least partially to blame.
The Dutch economy is expected to have shrunk by more than one percent in 2013, and is worsening while recoveries are underway in Britain, Germany and France.We’re less than a week from from the return of Vikings, History’s addictive swords-and-shieldmaidens tale of epic expansion and epic facial hair. But EW is excited to share an exclusive clip from the new season, set during conquering protagonist Ragnar Lothbrok’s battle with the English kingdom of Mercia.
Vikings creator Michael Hirst writes every episode of the show, but he is quick to share credit for the scene with Travis Fimmel, the actor who portrays the legendary Ragnar. “I think Travis had the idea for that shot,” says Hirst, who works closely with his lead actor on developing the character. “It’s a very powerful scene. The reason the Vikings had this reputation for terrible cruelty and uber-violence is that they had limited manpower. They traveled maybe three ships at a time, with twenty-five or thirty warriors. That’s the limit. There are no reinforcements. They don’t know who they’re going to meet. They might be encountering hundreds of enemy warriors.”
So how does a small fighting force fight back against a huge army? “Shock and awe,” explains Hirst. “When you see Ragnar, traveling in a boat, with the heads of all these Mercians strung out on the ship: That is shock and awe. In the show, the Mercians run away—and that’s actually what happened! The Vikings had such a reputation, and that was part of their myth.”
But shock and awe aren’t the only weapons in their arsenal. Back in season 1, Ragnar rose to fame by attacking the English shores with one ship and thirty warriors. But if you follow the arc of the Viking expansion, things snowball quickly. “Pretty soon, they’d worked out how to get across the West, and they were more interested in other countries. They’d hear rumors about other places. And if we are being true to the history, we have to get bigger.” How much bigger? “When the Vikings attacked Paris,” teases Hirst, “they had a hundred ships, and three thousand men.”Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Gravity Rush appears to be headed to the PlayStation 4 in remastered form, although Sony has not yet confirmed the project.
The Korean Game Rating Board, which has leaked the existence of games in the past, has listed (via NeoGAF) Gravity Rush Remaster for PS4 on its website.
GameSpot has contacted Sony to find out more and will report back with anything we learn. We do know Gravity Rush 2 is currently in development, although the company hasn't offered many details about it.
Gravity Rush was one of the best games released for PlayStation Vita early in its lifespan (and was originally meant to land on PS3). It's an action-platformer where players are able to manipulate gravity--hence the title.
As GameSpot's review noted at the time, the combat was somewhat lacking, although the game's visuals were widely lauded, and with good reason.When Karen Lloyd was 23, her mother cut off contact without an explanation. Her daughter’s efforts to build bridges were rejected. Decades later, she decided to try to trace her – was she still alive?
She’s still alive,” I said to my brother. We’d begun to talk about Mum again, as we did from time to time. It was July and I’d just found her house on the Land Registry, still registered in her name. We needed to know or, rather, we needed an end to the not knowing. I emailed her local council, as I’d done several times before, to ask if she appeared on its records.
Mum and Dad split up in their 80s Read more
We hadn’t seen Mum for more than 35 years, since our father left her for someone else. Shortly afterwards, Mum cut herself off from both my brother and me; it was if she was angry with us, as if we were equally to blame for his leaving. Coming to terms with this was, needless to say, difficult, but in recent years I’ve arrived at some kind of peace. I’ve forgiven Mum - and myself – for not knowing better how to deal with her silence.
Assessing my childhood, measuring happiness against unhappiness, might remain problematic, though there’s little to tell me that it was unusually difficult. Through my teenage years though, it was apparent that our parents were becoming increasingly unhappy. Every house we lived in was in some way wrong; Dad had to move for work and every few years we moved again.
Mum changed from being a self-reliant young woman who had served in the Land Army and worked in postwar Liverpool as a store detective, to someone dogged by bad health and depression. In the 1960s, she had a hysterectomy and her emotional health deteriorated. Frequently I came home from school to drawn curtains and Mum curled up in bed.
She was prescribed anti-depressants – the type we know now are hugely problematic.
Another move. This time away from Cumbria where we’d grown up, back to Merseyside. This was to be the one that gave Mum back her happiness; taking her home to the Wirral and proximity to the Liverpool she still missed. Her sister and family were there too. But the forecasted good times did not return. It was inevitable that they could not.
How I learned to get my money back Read more
While I don’t blame Dad for leaving, it soon became apparent that I was part of his master plan for extricating himself from the marriage. One of the first things Dad said to me after Mum found his incriminating letter was to ask if it was it was too soon for me to begin looking for somewhere for mum to live – near me. I felt pigeonholed; the dutiful daughter – the female as carer. Dad simply expected that I would take on responsibility for mum.
In 1981 I was 23, living in a one-bedroomed flat and working in a demanding job with anti-social shifts. I wanted to get on with my life and was planning to move from Cumbria to Edinburgh. When Dad moved out, Mum stayed with me and that week it seemed that we became closer than ever.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Karen Lloyd with her mother and brother.
We talked about things we had never had before. I thought I could see a way to make the future work for us both. We visited a garden in sunshine, a cafe in Ambleside; I believed that things were going to be OK. But I came to the only conclusion I could. I couldn’t take full responsibility for Mum alone. If she could learn to be a little bit independent then we could plan. This seemed reasonable.
I suggested that she take time to think about what she really wanted to do, rather than what Dad imagined she should. But the day Mum was due to return to the Wirral, she stopped speaking. She remained silent, refusing to look at me even, tears streaming down my face as the train pulled away from the station.
That was the last time I saw her.
After this, communication soon broke down. My letters were returned unopened, the phone put down and when we went to visit mum wouldn’t open the door. The coming months and years were so difficult, trying to encourage her to come back to me, asking her forgiveness for me not doing the right thing and trying to find a way forward. But the silence continued.
‘They take over your life and then, one day, they walk off with it’: life before and after children Read more
In addition, I didn’t see my father for 18 months as I found the prospect just too difficult. He had written telling me that I should understand that his responsibilities lay elsewhere now – with his new partner and family.
Living alone, my feelings around this time were of grief, confusion and depression; good friends provided invaluable support. I took to walking at dusk, looking in at windows to see families being normal, always unable to come to terms with the loss.
In my 30s, I met and married Steve and very soon our first son was born. I gave up work and loved being with my son full-time. I wrote to tell Mum the news of her first grandson’s arrival. I kept writing and sending photographs; surely this would be the key? But the silence grew.
Out of the blue, a parcel arrived. Mum’s handwriting was unmistakeable. Inside was a selection of family photographs and a coloured drawing of animals she’d done for my son. He asked if he could meet his gran, so we sat down to write her a letter together.
The reply, when it came, was, “Don’t use the boy as a pawn in the game.”
The reply to my email to my mother’s local council arrived a week later: “I am sorry to tell you that your mother passed away in January.”
I took in the announcement. The quiet shock; the silence of the intervening years suddenly broken. I phoned my brother; he was in a supermarket car-park. We could not cushion the blow. But perhaps now we could piece together the unknown part of her life.
We’re an alternative family but the law disagrees Read more
We drove to her house. Would it be rented out? For sale?
Mum’s garden was overgrown, shrubs penetrating the fencing and piles of accumulated post behind the glass door. Although the house seemed empty, we knocked on the door, not knowing if anyone might be there. Then we knocked on a neighbour’s door and haltingly told the lady who answered who we were. She invited us in and we exchanged stories. A little later, she passed me the telephone and I was speaking to the woman who had cared for Mum in the last years of her life. She had died, aged 91, after a fall at home.
A few days later, my brother and I went to meet the woman who had looked after our mother. She was perhaps in her 70s and had gathered her family around her; also the neighbour who put us in touch. I felt like an imposter – how to explain that I was not the one who had closed the door all those years before?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Karen and both her parents.
They must have been suspicious of us. For a while we skirted around each other but eventually were able to begin the necessary exchange and gathering of so much missing information. They knew of our existence, but that was all. They told us that Mum had friends, had not been isolated. Then the darker stories detailing mum’s stranger behaviour began. Of silent phone calls to neighbours who might have annoyed her in some unwitting way. I remember feeling an almost overwhelming sense of relief, though, that it had not been me alone who had failed her, not been good enough.
I, too, knew about silent phone calls. Once or twice a year, usually close to a birthday (mine or hers), the phone rang, but there would be only silence. (This was before cold-calling took off). Once I said, “Mum, if it’s you, it’s OK to talk to me.”
That was the last call.
“Do you think your mother might have had a personality disorder?” the carer’s son asked.
We only began to think about this in recent times, of how some underlying difference might perhaps have been the key to her behaviour – the black or white responses, an inability to empathise – even allowing for the awful effects of prescription drugs.
When I phoned Mum’s brother (from whom she had also alienated herself) to tell him of her death, he told me that mum had always been extremely difficult to be close to, even as a small girl. He said that she was beautiful (so beautiful,) but always emotionally distant. The picture was becoming clearer.
As we left the house, Mum’s carer hugged me. It was the closest I felt I’d been to my mother since I was 23. It was a strange, emotional moment.
By the time of the meeting, I had lived longer without any relationship with Mum than I had had with her. There was a huge sense of relief in knowing that she had been cared for, come what may, and that she had not become completely isolated. For this I am grateful.
The thing that troubles me still, though, is this idea of shutting out your children. I wondered just what maintaining her silence with us throughout all those years had been like for her. Even if we had failed her, I can only think that the loss of one’s children would result in more pain than resolution. To shut them out, to deny their existence, is a loss I couldn’t begin to countenance.
The Gathering Tide: A Journey Around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay by Karen Lloyd is published by Saraband, £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846Creative Assembly has insisted it did not intentionally mislead players of Rome 2: Total War after it was accused of holding back cut content to use as post-release paid-for DLC.
This week the UK developer suffered a backlash from its community to the recent Beasts of War DLC. Players claimed one of the units in the DLC, the Camel Cataphracts, was in the game prior to its September 2013 release. The evidence: it can be seen in videos, such as the one below, that promoted the game.
Players have also spotted the Mercenary Naked Swords unit in the above footage. This was released post-launch as part of the paid-for DLC Caesar in Gaul.
The revelation contradicts comments made by unit design lead Jack Lusted, who said prior to Rome 2's release: "Yes there will be DLC for Rome 2. We will detail this closer to release and also talk about why we do DLC and why it is not cut content."
Players have also complained that posts on the official Total War forum pointing out these issues have been moved to the Rants and Raves section. You need to be a registered user to see this part of the forum.
When Eurogamer put these allegations to Creative Assembly, brand director Rob Bartholomew said the issue with the camels was due to a "misunderstanding of what's being shown combined with a marketing error which I certainly appreciate doesn't look good, but wasn't our intent to mislead".
"It's certainly correct to point out that units called Camel Cataphracts and Merc Naked Swords were used in a Let's Play walkthrough before launch," he said.
"The naming is unfortunate, but these aren't the same units that were then released subsequently as DLC. As with all work in-progress content, it is subject to change and revision before the final game is shipped. Content might be revised for all sorts of reasons involving balancing or quality for example.
"The DLC we're looking at here are essentially a different version following increased design, artwork and balancing to match the quality of the other units available. The final selection of units supplied in the game were extensive and we felt they represented excellent value."
Despite this, Bartholomew issued an apology to disgruntled fans.
"At the time of this video's recording, these units were not finished in terms of art, gameplay or design and as a marketing team we should have double-checked the likelihood of them making it into the final game. Obviously we don't want to feature content that won't be in the game intentionally, especially when it would otherwise be pointless, as in this case where there was a huge variety of other great units to show off. That's our basic human error and I apologise for letting that through.
"When it comes to units for DLC, we occasionally go back to those that we liked but didn't turn out good enough, and see if they can be improved on for free or paid-for DLC. These were some of the prime contenders.
"In terms of what deserves to be released in the main game and what should be DLC, that's always going to be subjective and divisive. Given that Rome 2 shipped with more units than any other Total War game by a significantly huge margin, we are confident we got that balance right for the game, but we understand there will always be people who don't agree and we listen and try to make the right call."
Bartholomew said Creative Assembly had now enforced checks to prevent a repeat of the situation.
"They weren't working pre-launch in the sense that they were finished, being largely placeholder and subject to change," he said. "However, I completely appreciate that this sounds like a 'get out' on a technicality to a fan feeling aggrieved by this, so again I do apologise for not thoroughly checking enough that all content in that video was absolutely ready for public viewing and understanding. We've put checks in place now that should prevent that in the future."
"I completely appreciate that this sounds like a 'get out' on a technicality to a fan feeling aggrieved by this, so again I do apologise for not thoroughly checking enough that all content in that video was absolutely ready for public viewing and understanding. We've put checks in place now that should prevent that in the future."
The Beasts of War pack costs £1.99 from Steam.
Bartholomew also commented on the issue of forum posts being moved to the Rants and Raves section, saying the focus of its volunteer moderators was on "the more ranting or offensive ones", "but there are plenty of critical threads on the main forum where this topic can be discussed. As on our Facebook page".
Meanwhile, modders have dug into Rome 2's files and unlocked the DLC units after the game was released. The suggestion here is that the DLC is on-disc - and just needs to be "turned on" by Creative Assembly.
"A lot of placeholder content gets put into the game to fulfil various design, development or testing needs, but not all makes the cut for inclusion for one reason or another," Bartholomew explained.
"Knowing that some might find that of interest and obviously not minding if they found it and put it to use, some unused assets were left in the shipped game data. In fact we supplied further data to them to make more factions playable directly after launch. We wouldn't agree that this was 'complete' though, but you could piece it together in a way that might work in a fashion. Much as you could any of the other available data or resources in the same way.
"Post-release, when DLC is released, all versions of the game are updated with that content to enable multiplayer games to work between people who have it and don't, and to ensure all players are playing from the most recent build - we've done this with previous titles (as do other game devs) and we do try to explain this to our community. Here for example. We think it is the best solution all round to ensure that everyone's game is up to date.
"With the release of the beta Assembly Kit for Rome 2 recently, there's been a lot of digging around in the data and putting things together. I don't think we want to limit modding having done so much to try and support it better recently, but we are going to be in situations where modders might produce similar content to us. How we deal with that moving forward is something we will need to look at, hopefully by upping our game and producing content that modders find it more challenging or impossible to produce. We actually have our next international modding summit in March and hopefully we will have time to discuss with the attendees then."
There is of course the broader issue concerning the way Creative Assembly has released DLC for Rome 2 so far. Fans have complained that the studio has issued bitty paid-for unit DLC, and the official Rome 2 Facebook post about Beasts of War is, essentially, a tirade of abuse.
"As we announced before Rome 2 launched, we have an extensive plan for paid and free DLC of all sizes," Bartholomew said.
"Since Empire, our unit packs have been some of our biggest-selling DLC, but we appreciate that they don't float everyone's boat, which is why with Rome 2 we wanted to offer a range of different sized content packs (like the large Caesar in Gaul pack in December) and also free content updates - such as the Seleucid and Baktria playable factions, and the Epirus & Elephants unit pack just last week.
"They certainly aren't the last and players can expect to see more free content updates. Namely Carthage, whose unit roster can expect new reinforcements soon."
Even a cursory browse at threads discussing Rome 2 reveals a feeling among some players that Creative Assembly seems content to release what is considered insignificant unit DLC - and charge people for it - rather than working towards fixing the game (it suffered high-profile issues on release) or releasing what would be considered significant DLC.
"I think with the nine significant updates to the game so far and the tenth currently going into open beta soon, we've shown that we are addressing people's concerns," Bartholomew countered.
"Content and technical improvements needn't be mutually exclusive with different team members working on them. We are absolutely mindful of those technical issues which some players are experiencing and haven't stopped addressing them. We are also aware that a large proportion of fans telling us the game needs 'fixing' are referring to design decisions that aren't to their liking, and that takes more thought and evaluation over time.
"I would say that we are releasing significant DLC, whether that's Culture Packs or Campaign Packs, and again given the clear popularity we have seen with unit packs in the past,'significance' is something that is subjective and varies from player to player, We would like to cater for all tastes, and will continue to try to do so for the foreseeable future."John Alan Schwartz was on a California beach, trying to capture something life-affirming on camera. Or something that at least would contrast with death.
He had a woman and a baby in a hot tub. This was going to be the final scene of his 1978 movie Faces of Death—a low-budget stunt project that would end up shifting the whole culture. The closing credits, in fact. By doing nothing more than living, on camera, they would serve as the bookend for an hour and a half of gory onscreen pretend death.
"It was the evolution of life. How the end is just the beginning," he says now. "We were filming it, and then there was a scream about 50 yards up the beach."
It was the sound of genuine horror.
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"A dead surfer just washed up," Schwartz says. "A bloated individual still in jeans, with one sneaker on. A real surfer type."
Consider it a message from above. Or below. Wherever. The actual face of death. The mom and child were fine. But a total stranger, someone totally unrelated to the fake-snuff-film project, was dead.
Schwartz went back to work. On a thin budget and thinner expectations, he would end up changing the way the world looked at mortality, with a serious-seeming gimmick, delivered mostly on VHS tapes to a few traumatized but thrilled young viewers at a time.
With a narrator in the guise of a doctor, the film brought the audience a string of vignettes of death, both real and fake ones. The device allowed the film to easily introduce footage too shocking for a normal movie. It wasn't every day that a movie went into an operating room to show heart surgery in which the heart started beating. Or captured a motorcyclist getting broken down to limb pieces by a tractor trailer.
Some of the footage—napalm in Vietnam, seals being clubbed—was real. The media had shown death, after all. Schwartz says about half of the material was his own fabrication, though: faked images of death to haunt the living.
It's hard to appreciate the impact now, at a time when death porn, like porn-porn, has become so easily made and even more easily procured. Mobile phones give everyone a device to capture humanity in its last stages; surveillance cameras watch store clerks being gunned down. You can pull up beheading videos on a laptop.
That Schwartz anticipated this was remarkable. Even more remarkable, in retrospect, is the outrage he drew from a world that hadn't seen it coming.
"There was an innocence about this back then," he says.
I.
Why Did John Alan Schwartz Steal Our Innocence?
In the credits, he was listed as "Alan Black." Schwartz is one of few involved—those among the living—who are willing to embrace the film as part of their oeuvre. His then-boss's son, who collaborated with him, "doesn't want it as part of his legacy," says Schwartz. To this day, he honors the others' wishes that their names not be mentioned in connection with the film that changed his life.
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Despite the nom de plume, his own real name is out there. So is he. And where he is today, in part, is doing YouTube movie reviews with his wife Joan. It's called "Two Jews On Film." When you watch it, you'd think he was goofy, not morbid or creepy. It's just your everyday couple that likes to get in front of a camera and disagree about the movies they watch together. The guy who made Faces of Death and the woman who married him are just like us!
He was more than happy to discuss the project. Insightful. Open book. Seinfeldian vocally. Born in Manhattan. Raised in Mount Vernon, by way of a boarding school in Storm King Mountain. Off to Cal Arts where he studied in the theater department, the only undergrad studying direction.
His roommate was an actor named David Hasselhoff. Schwartz is not a gossip, so all he'll say is that the Hoff was and is a great guy, and that his roommate did join him for the screening of Faces of Death at the Fox Theater in L.A.
Schwartz figured he'd "come to Hollywood and make a fortune." He was a runner. He was a production assistant on In Search Of, the Leonard Nimoy-hosted investigation of the paranormal. He did all sorts of episodic work. Shows called Scandals, Made in the USA, Fantasies of the Stars.
In the late '70s, Schwartz was working for an entertainment company owned by the family whose name he politely declines to divulge. He was editing an animal documentary when a Japanese crew came in. They wanted to make a movie about death.
"Society doesn't like to look at death," Schwartz says. The Japanese, he says, "are totally fascinated with death and the macabre. Not the way we are. We take a look and then turn away."
Schwartz didn't see this as an opportunity to build a career. He never intended it to be that. "It was just an incredible adventure to go around the world and tell a story about death," he says.
He brainstormed and got to thinking about The Hellstrom Chronicle, a 1971 film that had presented an imaginary insect takeover of the world as documentary fact. Influenced by the Hellstrom structure, with its fictitious scientist narrator, he came up with the narrative construct of a doctor discussing "real" cases. That was the money thought. The doctor would enable the movie to bounce from death to death in a conceivably realistic framework.
"The muse inside took me over when I wrote the narrative," Schwartz says. "Of all the things I've written, the most organic was Faces of Death. It was the creation of the doctor as a mouthpiece to say whatever I wanted to say, with nobody censoring me. We were our own censors, but we didn't censor anything. The darker we got, the more excited we were.
"Part of the challenge creatively was how to make it look like real life, to actually fool people. We were way ahead of ourselves on that ground. It was a subject nobody was doing anything like this then, the odyssey of death. What is this reality we live in for a finite amount of time and then, all of a sudden, we're a memory? I still feel haunted by the images."
II.
Monkey Brains
The monkey didn't die.
Of all the images—the napalm bombing, the clubbing of the seals—the scene that's always stuck with me is the one with the monkey's brains. The one where there are three people sitting around a table and, apparently, breaking open a captive monkey's head to dine on the insides.
"Cauliflower for the brains," Schwartz says. "Theater blood for the blood."
I was still in grammar school when I saw that monkey. I can't remember exactly which friend's older brother passed it down the line to mangle our minds. But that monkey, oh that monkey.
Schwartz doesn't remember the monkey's name. He doesn't remember the trainer's, either, only that the guy was dressed in Middle Eastern garb. They made a special table to restrain the monkey |
-year all-cause risk-adjusted readmission rate also declined from 57.2% in the pre-HRRP implementation phase to 56.3% in the HRRP penalties phase. At the same time, 1-year risk-adjusted mortality rate increased from 31.3% in the pre-HRRP implementation phase to 36.3% in the HRRP penalties phase. The survival analysis showed hazard of 1-year risk-adjusted readmission rate declined significantly after the implementation of the HRRP (HRRP penalties phase vs pre-HRRP implementation phase, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89-0.96; P <.001) (Table 3 and Figure 2). In contrast, the hazard of 1-year risk-adjusted mortality increased significantly after the HRRP implementation (HRRP penalties phase vs pre-HRRP implementation phase, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.06-1.14; P <.001) (Table 3 and Figure 2).
The 30-day and 1-year HF-specific readmission hazards also declined from the pre-HRRP implementation phase to the HRRP penalties phase similar to the decline in the all-cause readmission hazards (eTable 1 and eFigure 2 in the Supplement).
The findings of time-series and survival analyses for 30-day and 1-year risk-adjusted readmissions and mortality outcomes were robust in the sensitivity analysis after including transferred patients in the study cohort (eTable 2 in the Supplement) as well as in the subset of patients from hospital sites that continuously participated in GWTG-HF registry throughout the study period (eTable 3 in the Supplement).
In a secondary analysis of index hospitalizations after excluding patients discharged to hospice, the decline in hazards of 30-day and 1-year all-cause risk-adjusted readmissions was similar to the main analysis (eTable 4 in the Supplement). The 30-day and 1-year risk-adjusted mortality rate also increased with the implementation of the HRRP, but the increase was attenuated after excluding patients who were discharged to hospice (eTable 4 in the Supplement).
Interactions testing revealed no significant interactions by race/ethnicity, teaching hospital status, and rural or urban hospital location for risk-adjusted 30-day all-cause or HF-specific readmissions (eTable 5 in the Supplement). However, there was a significant interaction by teaching status for 1-year risk-adjusted all-cause and HF-specific readmissions with a larger reduction present for the nonteaching hospitals compared with teaching hospitals in the HRRP penalties phase (eTable 6 in the Supplement). There was a significant interaction in 30-day risk-adjusted mortality rate by race/ethnicity, with the largest increase after the implementation of the HRRP in Hispanics (eTable 5 in the Supplement). The 1-year risk-adjusted mortality rate did not differ by race/ethnicity, teaching hospital status, and rural or urban hospital location (eTable 6 in the Supplement).
Discussion
Among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older who were discharged after an HF hospitalization, we found that implementation of the HRRP was associated with a reduction in 30-day and 1-year risk-adjusted readmissions. However, the HRRP was associated with an increase in both short-term (30-day) and long-term (1-year) mortality. The results persisted despite extensive risk adjustment with prospectively captured clinical data and consideration of hospice use. These findings raise concerns that the HRRP, while achieving desired reductions in readmissions, may have incentivized hospitals in a way that has compromised the survival of patients with HF.
Recent studies have suggested that implementation of the HRRP has been successful in reducing readmission rates in fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.8,9 Zuckerman et al9 showed a temporal decline in readmissions following HF, pneumonia, or acute myocardial infarction hospitalizations from 21.5% to 17.8% with the implementation of the HRRP. Our study also found a decline in all-cause and HF-specific readmissions following HF hospitalizations after the implementation of the HRRP.
However, a key question is whether the HRRP implementation had unintended consequences for mortality. In this study, we found that the 30-day and 1-year mortality rates among patients with HF increased with the implementation of the HRRP. Previous studies examining the association between hospital 30-day readmission rates and mortality rates in patients with HF have raised concerns that those hospitals with lower 30-day risk-standardized readmission rates may have higher mortality rates.5-7 In cross-sectional studies of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, there was an inverse, although weak, association between 30-day readmission rates and both short-term (30-day)5 and long-term (1-year)6 mortality following discharge with HF. Similarly, a study within the Veterans Affairs health care system found divergent temporal trends in 30-day mortality and readmission rates following HF hospitalizations.7 A recent analysis of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with HF along with other conditions covered by the HRRP from 2008 to 2014 reported on hospital 30-day readmission and 30-day mortality rates after discharge using claims data for risk adjustment.13 With the HRRP implementation, 30-day risk-adjusted postdischarge mortality increased from 7.9% in 2008 to 9.2% in 2014 for patients with HF, a 1.3% absolute increase. These findings are consistent with the results of our study, and use of clinical data in our study helps diminish the possibility that temporal shifts in administrative coding are what account for these findings.
A slight decrease in mean (SD) length of stay was observed in our study from 5.4 (4.1) days in the pre-HRRP implementation phase to 4.8 (3.3) days in the post-HRRP implementation phase. A potential concern is that a reduction in length of stay may lead to a shift in inpatient mortality to postdischarge mortality, leading to a decline in inpatient mortality but a concomitant increase in postdischarge mortality. However, in our data set, there was no evidence of a decline in inpatient mortality from HF admissions over the study period: Inpatient mortality rates were 3.01% in the pre-HRRP implementation phase, 3.08% in the HRRP implementation phase, and 3.32% in the HRRP penalties phase.
There are several potential reasons that a policy incentivizing reductions in readmissions may be associated with an increase in mortality. First, there have been concerns that the statutory financial penalties established by the HRRP for higher readmission rates would incentivize hospitals to “game” the system, using strategies such as delaying admissions beyond day 30, increasing observation stays, or shifting inpatient-type care to emergency departments.4 In a study of Medicare beneficiaries, there was a 3.1% reduction in within-hospital readmission rates with a concurrent 0.8% increase in within-hospital observation stays during the implementation phase of the HRRP, although their correlation was not statistically significant (Pearson correlation coefficient = –0.03; P =.07).9 This study also found that the rate of observation stays grew significantly faster after the HRRP penalties went into effect for the HRRP-target conditions but not for the nontarget conditions.9 Another analysis of Medicare data between 2011 and 2012 showed that among the top decile of hospitals with the largest reduction in readmission rates, a mean drop of 15.7% in readmission rates was associated with a 25.4% increase in observation stays.14 Further research is needed to examine the association of these “gaming” strategies for reducing readmission rates with mortality risk.
Second, the financial penalties from the HRRP have been shown to fall disproportionately on the academic medical centers and safety-net hospitals where higher readmission rates in these hospitals are associated with the higher case-mix complexity and lower socioeconomic status.15-18 The HRRP-related financial penalties may hinder the ability of these hospitals to provide care for vulnerable and sicker populations. Whether penalties have resulted in adverse consequences for these hospitals is not known. In the present study, we found increased 30-day and 1-year mortality risk for both teaching and nonteaching hospitals, without any significant interaction by hospitals’ teaching status.
Third, there is a competing risk between readmissions and mortality such that the hospitals with higher short-term mortality rate have fewer patients to readmit.19 However, in our analysis, we excluded patients who suffered in-hospital mortality to avoid competing risk. Furthermore, to be conservative, for the analysis involving readmission rates, we modeled mortality as a competing risk. In addition, our study demonstrated an increase in not only short-term 30-day mortality, which is of main concern for competing risk, but also in long-term 1-year mortality. Therefore, it is unlikely that competing risk accounted for the divergent trends in readmissions and mortality rates in our study.
In a secondary analysis after excluding patients who were discharged to hospice, we found similar but attenuated temporal trends of decrease in readmissions and increase in mortality following the HRRP implementation. The attenuation was most prominent in the increased 30-day risk-adjusted mortality. We also observed a trend toward increasing use of home and inpatient hospice in the HRRP penalties phase, compared with the pre-HRRP implementation phase. Whether this trend reflects honoring of patients’ wishes among those with otherwise poor quality of life or reflects an incentive for coercion toward hospice discharge to reduce any readmissions penalty is not known. Regardless, the 1-year risk-adjusted mortality was significantly increased even after excluding patients discharged to hospice. Thus, the policy directed at reducing readmissions was still associated with increased long-term mortality risk, even after accounting for hospice use.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, it is an analysis of index HF hospitalizations from hospitals participating voluntarily in the GWTG-HF clinical registry and may not be generalizable to other hospitals. However, participating hospital sites are from across the United States and comprise both small to large teaching and nonteaching hospitals in rural and urban locations. Previous studies have suggested that the Medicare beneficiaries in the registry are nationally representative.20 Second, as an observational study, it cannot establish cause and effect among the HRRP implementation, readmissions reduction, and increased mortality risk. Because sociodemographic and care-of-transition factors strongly influence readmission risk, it is possible that interventions incentivized by the HRRP may have favorably influenced readmission trends, whereas trends in mortality could reflect secular trends for patients hospitalized with HF that placed them at higher risk for 30-day and 1-year mortality. Although we adjusted for clinical factors influencing mortality, patient severity of illness and intrinsic mortality risk may have increased in a way that was not adequately captured or adjusted for in this study. Factors other than the HRRP may also have influenced the findings. However, the temporal associations, even after extensive risk adjustment using prospectively captured clinical data and plausibility for increased risk raised previously, are suggestive. Third, this study is a patient-level analysis of readmissions and mortality and does not directly establish the association of change in readmission rate at a given hospital with change in its mortality rate.
Our findings have substantial public health and policy implications given that HF is the leading diagnosis associated with readmissions in Medicare beneficiaries with high associated costs. Public policies targeting readmissions after HF hospitalizations may be associated with a serious unintended consequence of higher mortality in both the short and long terms. Our study is also a reminder that, like drugs and devices, public health policies should be tested in a rigorous fashion—most preferably in randomized trials—before their widespread adoption.21
Conclusions
In fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries discharged after HF hospitalizations, implementation of the HRRP was associated with a reduction in 30-day and 1-year readmissions yet an increase in 30-day and 1-year mortality. If further confirmed, these findings may require reconsideration of the HRRP in HF.
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Corresponding Author: Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, Division of Cardiology, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center, 10833 LeConte Ave, Room 47-123 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1679 ([email protected]).
Accepted for Publication: October 5, 2017.
Published Online: November 12, 2017. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2017.4265
Author Contributions: Drs Gupta and Fonarow had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Study concept and design: Gupta, Allen, DeVore, Peterson, Yancy, Fonarow.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Gupta, Allen, Bhatt, Cox, DeVore, Heidenreich, Hernandez, Peterson, Matsouaka, Fonarow.
Drafting of the manuscript: Gupta, Fonarow.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.
Statistical analysis: Cox, DeVore, Peterson, Matsouaka.
Obtained funding: Gupta, Fonarow.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Allen, Hernandez, Peterson, Fonarow.
Study supervision: Allen, Peterson, Yancy, Fonarow.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Dr Allen reported receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), PCORI, and American Heart Association (AHA) as well as consulting fees from Novartis and Janssen. Dr Bhatt reported being on the advisory board of Cardax, Elsevier Practice Update Cardiology, Medscape Cardiology, and Regado Biosciences; being on the board of directors of Boston VA Research Institute and Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care; being chair of the AHA Quality Oversight Committee; serving on the Data Monitoring Committees of the Cleveland Clinic, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Harvard Clinical Research Institute, Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Population Health Research Institute; receiving honoraria from the American College of Cardiology, Belvoir Publications, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Harvard Clinical Research Institute, HMP Communications, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Slack Publications, Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care, WebMD, Clinical Cardiology, NCDR-ACTION Registry Steering Committee, and VA CART Research and Publications Committee; receiving research funding from Amarin, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chiesi, Eisai, Ethicon, Forest Laboratories, Ironwood, Ischemix, Lilly, Medtronic, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi Aventis, and The Medicines Company; receiving royalties from Elsevier; being a site coinvestigator for Biotronik, Boston Scientific, and St. Jude Medical (now Abbott); being a trustee for the American College of Cardiology; and conducting unfunded research for FlowCo, Merck, PLx Pharma, and Takeda. Dr DeVore reported receiving research support from the AHA, Amgen, and Novartis as well as being a consultant with Novartis. Dr Fonarow reported receiving research support from the NIH; consulting with Abbott, Amgen, Novartis, and Medtronic; and serving as a member of the AHA Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) Steering Committee. No other disclosures were reported.
Funding/Support: This study was funded in part by grant 5T32HL094301-07 from the NIH and by a Young Investigator seed grant award to Dr Gupta from the AHA GWTG-HF program. The GWTG-HF is sponsored in part by Amgen Cardiovascular and has been supported in the past by Medtronic, GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho-McNeil, and the AHA Pharmaceutical Roundtable.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Disclaimer: Dr Hernandez is associate editor, Dr Yancy is deputy editor, and Dr Fonarow is associate editor of the Health Care Quality and Guidelines section for JAMA Cardiology, but they were not involved in any of the decisions regarding the review and acceptance of the manuscript.Still teachin' the controversy.
Still teachin' the controversy.
Heritage Academy uses two books by controversial anti-communist author Cleon Skousen — The 5,000 Year Leap and The Making of America — that “push ‘Christian nation’ propaganda and other religious teachings on impressionable, young students,” according to Alex Luchenitser, the associate legal director for Americans United.
[Law professor Garrett Epps] noted that “parts of his major textbook, The Making of America, present a systematically racist view of the Civil War,” adding that a “long description of slavery in the book claims that the state [of slavery] was beneficial to African Americans and that Southern racism was caused by the ‘intrusion’ of northern abolitionists and advocates of equality for the freed slaves.” In The Making of America, Skousen included an essay by Fred Albert Shannon, in which he argued that “if [black children] ran naked it was generally from choice, and when the white boys had to put on shoes and go away to school they were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates.”
We may have discovered one of the reasons why certain folks in Arizona turn out as they do. It seems the charter schools there can have (ahem) an interesting curriculum Of course, if you attend something called the Heritage Academy I suppose it's pretty clear what you're going to get. It's one of those words that has long since been appropriated to mean... things. Skousen, for his part, is one of the people incessantly peddled by noted history-puncher Glenn Beck, and was known for his let's-say-eccentric interpretations of history, ones that posited the United States to be a country created by God Himself and that slavery was just America's way of giving black people Jesus hugs:Teach the controversy, I suppose.
Heritage says it will be de-emphasizing Skousen next school year—not because of his interesting views, but due to school-year time constraints—but they'll still be teaching from those books. You wouldn't want the kids to grow up without knowing all the perks of being a slave, after all.People often ask me what I think the industry will be like in five years, and I answer that if I knew, I’d get bored and leave. If you would’ve told anyone in 2010 what games would look like in 2016, you’d probably get laughed at. In 2016, consoles are more like mobiles, with multiple hardware devices sharing SDK. Mobile is more like console, with pre-orders and connections to TV’s. PC has no idea what it’s doing, but I guess no one is really in charge of PC, so that’s no surprise. Nobody has fully figured out VR yet, and in the meanwhile AR and MR are somewhere around the corner. It’s all rather incredible.
In 2016, the industry finds itself at a strange impasse. As an economy, this industry is hitting a lot of records. As a community, we’re slowly improving our diversity, our ability to deal with toxicity and harassment, and our support structure for developers from countries outside of the traditional game-making world. As a culture, we have seen some of the most impressive gameplay and game narrative ever this year.
I can’t help but feel that the AAA industry is feeding off of the last remnants of ancient IPs, with only a few new titles punctuating a steady drip of rereleases, remasters, and sequels targeting the nostalgia of the audience that has so far kept the traditional AAA blockbuster alive. On the other hand, if there’s anything you can’t accuse the behemoths of our industry of, it’s a lack of genuine enthusiasm: it felt like each blockbuster might be the magnum opus of its series, with no effort or money spared.
In the independent space, my home, the battle for visibility rages on amongst increasingly polished titles with increasingly large budgets. “Indie” in 2016 is barely recognizable from the frustrated counterculture making games for the hell of it in 2010, and while I must admit a certain fondness for that period of time, the games that the scene produces today are of such quality and relevance to the medium, that I don’t think I’d ever wish to go back.
As the mobile space earns more and more each year, with a projection that it will earn more than PC and console in 2017, I can’t help but feel that 2016 might have been the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. Microtransactions, loot boxes, and gachapon mechanics have snuck their way into some of the most popular AAA games of today. Infinite replayability in the Twitch-era almost comes for free for online multiplayer games, and eSports are an enormous part of games culture in 2016. With the increasing pressure of the finances of blockbuster games, I feel like we’re going to see much more of that in the future.
Oh, and before we get started, I didn’t like how the action feels in Overwatch. It’s brilliant game design, it’s a perfect blend of genres, and it’s a piece of craftsmanship, and it has well-designed, diverse characters, and it has gorgeous aesthetics. You should absolutely play it--and it’s not in my list.
So, let’s go. 2016 - the ever-odd transitional year full of masterpieces.
Best Game: Final Fantasy XV (XB1, PS4)
I’ve been hoping for a road trip game for almost a decade, and this is the first open-world game where the controls encourage and allow you to drive a giant world according to the law.
I could spend time talking about how clever the mechanics are, the beautiful mechanics applied to the day-night cycle, the amazingly clever trick of using maximum HP as a variable, the smoothness of the combat, the impact of the series’ summons--but they’re all not relevant.
Final Fantasy is defined by people navigating a world of crystals and monsters and magic and gods, but roadtrips are defined by the people you travel with, the stops you make, and the stories you experience during the trip. Final Fantasy XV spares no effort to let the player feel the moments that matter, and the moments that matter aren’t the enormous set-pieces or towering monsters. It’s the pat on the back when someone stumbles, the jokes that are snarky but never at the expense of someone, and the frank conversations only four people entirely comfortable with each other can have. When your party rests at a camping site, you can choose a meal that offers stat boosts. Not only are there an obscene number of beautifully rendered meals to choose from, they’re rendered to the point of applying different physics to the food based on its consistency. It’s such a small detail, but it does so much to sell the trip.
This game is the best. Final Fantasy XV aimed to retain the soul of a Final Fantasy game, while breaking from the disappointments many felt with recent installments in the series--to reclaim the Throne as the best JRPG. The result is a fresh, unique, courageous, and confident game with a flavor of fantasy I’ve never seen before.
Favorite touch: The way Final Fantasy XV turned “Max HP” into a variable that’s central to most of its systems. When your characters "die", they don’t faint, instead going into a highly limited "Danger" state. While in Danger, your maximum HP slowly drains, and any damage you take is instead deducted from your maximum HP. Characters in danger can be healed with potions or rescued by party members, but if your maximum HP reaches zero, the character faints. At the end of battles, your HP fills back up to its current maximum, but your maximum HP remains lowered--which can be recovered by making camp (and later on, elixirs). At camp, your gained experience points get tallied and you can make a meal for a stat boost for the next expedition, thus tying back into the whole road trip. I just love it when a small system does so much.
Least favorite thing: The second half of the game accelerates and decelerates the game in so many strange and unique ways that it’s bound to cause controversy, but I loved it. My main complaint was that the trope of ‘the maze with the maniacal narrator’ returns in FFXV, and while it does a great job of emphasizing the bleakness the scene is meant to evoke, it probably poses the weakest moment in the game on all accounts.
Alternatively: In a year where Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare both delivered some of the best FPS campaigns in recent memory, it’s almost surprising that both were easily outclassed by id’s DOOM. Blendo Games’ Brendon Chung--one of my favorite designers--summarized the game in a tweet: “Doom 2016 feels like it had one design pillar: is it speed metal?”
Best AAA Game: Titanfall 2 (XB1, PS4, PC)
2016 felt like a return to form for the FPS genre. In the gorgeous world of Titanfall, Pilots are elite soldiers capable of adapting quickly to any situation and any terrain, and their prowess on the battlefield is enhanced further when they are piloting their Titan. There’s an absurd level of comfort and confidence the developers show in that exact premise. There’s a fluidity in the movement that rivals Mirror’s Edge at times, as you wall-run, double-jump, and slide under and over obstacles while shooting your targets. But the real confidence shows in how the game uses entire mechanics for only a single mission, or sometimes even mere seconds, Titanfall never fails to throw you into a new situation to adapt to.
Favorite touch(es): Titanfall 2 uses pretty much every possible scenario in the game to squeeze more uses out of the remarkably simple main mechanics. From moving between realities to auto-headshots, from moving platforms to holo-arenas, from giant battlefields in your Titan to platforming puzzles as a Pilot. At the end of Titanfall 2 it’s hard to think of anything fun left to do with the mechanics.
Least Favorite: Where BT-7274’s character shines as an endearing execution of the ‘robot learning humanity’ trope, the protagonist of Jack Cooper could not be a more bland character if Respawn tried for it. It makes it hard to care for anything that happens to Jack, and it makes some of the later sequences in the game difficult to care about.
Alternatively: Remedy’s Quantum Break broke every expectation in delivering a game that was half game, half episodic television series. While much of the gameplay wasn’t particularly inspired, the integration between the media was so well done that immediately after finishing the game, I genuinely couldn’t remember which parts I'd played in-engine and which parts I'd watched in the real-life series. Mixed with the unique perspective-switching between protagonist and antagonist, Quantum Break managed to do something unique and interesting.
Best Multiplayer: Inversus (PS4)
Inversus is an abstract two-to-four player versus game (online and local) in which players try to shoot each other. It is the cleanest distillation of minimalist versus design I’ve played in a long time. Players control a square that can move on tiles of their own color, and every bullet they fire (limited to vertical and horizontal directions), turns every tile it touches into a tile of the players’ color. There’s a charge shot, and a fast shot power-up, and that’s about it. The mechanics mix together into an incredible way, giving every shot such an opportunity cost that every shot matters in more ways than one.
Most Favorite: The way every split-second in the moment-to-moment gameplay is important enough that you could spend a minute discussing the optimal strategy. To make that level of strategic complexity available through a single analog stick and the four face buttons is remarkable.
Least Favorite: The levels in which Inversus keeps things focused on the moment-to-moment are phenomenal, but quite a few levels focus on wrapping and other mind-bending tricks to spice things up--and those levels often end up being the weakest part of the game.
Alternatively: Overcooked! is the most wonderfully chaotic cooperative multiplayer game I’ve played this year. It’s an adorable-looking game in which everyone simultaneously has to complete extremely simple tasks under absurd circumstances as you yell at your friends that the onion soup is overcooking while they’re yelling at you that you’re late with a tomato. I’m not sure if it’s a good time or a stressful time, but either way it’s memorable.
Best Emergent Territory: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (PC, Android, iOS)
Part of my work is traveling around the world to find games that could never have been made in the traditional centers of the gaming world. This year, the winner is a bit of a cheat from my end, because iNK Stories is technically based in New York. But there’s no denying that 1979 Revolution: Black Friday shows how games can bridge the cultural gaps between countries. Black Friday is a tense, choice-driven adventure set in 1978 to 1980, the years around the Iranian Revolution. Throughout the game, players control an Iranian protagonist through a historically faithful representation of the situation in Iran at the time. Where other choice-based adventure games can be tense, 1979 Revolution adds an additional layer of intensity by proposing that the events in this story aren’t unlike those that actually happened.
Most Favorite: The main character is a pragmatic photographer that prefers to "choose no sides" in a politically confusing time. That allows the players--who might be completely unaware of Iranian history--to share the confusion and bewilderment of the main character as he gets caught up in the vortex of a political revolution.
Least Favorite: Sometimes, the game turns into a bit of a "click the pixel" exercise, something that--while it encourages you to look closely--also sometimes just feels ever-so-slightly broken.
Alternatively: I do also want to specifically point out ليلى و ظلال الحرب, or Liyla: Shadows of War, a Palestinian-made platformer game that, while somewhat crude in its delivery, is a perfect example of the power of games to communicate perspectives and stories through agency and immersion.
I’ve always wondered what it’d feel like to be Dave in the HAL scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Event[0] answered that question. In an abandoned spacecraft, you have no way of doing anything except for reluctantly working together with the spaceship’s AI, a dubious but apparently friendly computer system named Kaizen, accessible through chat terminals throughout the spaceship. The way you interact with the computer is entirely through chat, forcing developer Ocelot Society to reinvent first person movement and interaction to allow complete use of the keyboard for typing.
The most clever thing about the game is the inversion of reliance that only an interactive story could bring. In the real world, if Siri or Google or Alexa or Cortana doesn’t understand you, that’s an annoyance. In the world of Event[0], it can be the difference between life and death. By building itself around the "what if" of being reliant on a fallible system built with a different logic, Event[0] forces us to evaluate human-computer interaction and conflict, to think about what it means to exist, and to learn to communicate with something that isn’t like yourself--and eventually, maybe even trust them.
Favorite touch(es): Event[0] is full of magnificent little touches, but there’s a moment early on where the computer asks you to do it a favor by not moving into a room as it prepares it for you. It’s a simple way of world-building, and a way of establishing that both of you are reliant on each other, and that your ability to trust each other is going to be a factor in the game.
Least Favorite: There’s a single sequence in the game that is so extremely “video game”, a three-part fetch-quest, that it temporarily reminded me that I was playing a video game.
Alternatively: I have never played something like nilo’s Asemblance before. It’s a mix of Stanley Parable, Myst, and a psychological thriller. It’s a thing.
In Stephen’s Sausage Roll you roll sausages with an aerodynamic fork. It’s $30, has a terrible Steam page with a trailer that explains nothing, and the full text on the page is "a simple 3d puzzle game." It is what happens if Stephen Lavelle--one of the best puzzle designers in the world--decides Snakebird is a bit too easy, and The Witness is a good warm-up exercise.
Most favorite touch: The game has an absolutely redundant day-night cycle, that is just there to stare you in the face as it laughs at your failure.
Least favorite: After hours of sublime puzzling, the later puzzles feel less about understanding a mechanic, or finding a leap of logic, and more about keeping track of the logistics of executing a four-billion step sequence.
Alternatively: No Man’s Sky is a miracle. We can argue in circles about what it could’ve been, what it should’ve been, what it would’ve been, but let’s talk about what we got. What we got was a game that fulfilled its promise of every good screenshot being a sci-fi book cover. While there’s enough to criticize, I have enough great stories to tell from my 40-ish hours of No Man’s Sky that I easily consider the game a success.
Best Mobile: Clash Royale (iOS, Android)
Only four days into 2016, Clash Royale became my favorite mobile game ever. It was cemented at that top spot for almost the entire year. The sublime Reigns made a huge leap for the spot, but fell short in the endgame. Pokémon Go deserves a mention but not an award. It wasn’t until Ridiculous Fishing collaborator Zach Gage released Really Bad Chess that I thought I had found a game that could replace Clash Royale. But ultimately, even Really Bad Chess’ brilliance couldn’t topple Clash Royale’s simplified MOBA. The tiniest details in the design give the game an enormous amount of depth, and the entire game is built in such a way that it remains fun for months, even without paying.
Favorite touch(es): The brilliance of how variable a spawned unit’s performance is depending on their placement. Even the tiniest change in placement can fully change how a unit functions, while never actually changing any variables or functionality in the units. It’s simple, it’s intuitive, it’s a skill to master, it’s a sight to behold for someone who loves good design.
Least Favorite: Eventually, you do hit that paywall. It might be months into the game, eventually the progression curves even out at a point where the only way forward is through your wallet. I can barely fault the game for that, and I’ll happily admit I bought some gems to thank Supercell for hundreds of hours played.
Alternatively: Reigns is a Tinder-esque interface-meets-kingdom management sim. It’s fiendishly clever, and even though it eventually overstays its welcome, the experience is positive enough that Reigns is easily one of the most interesting mobile games ever created.
Best B-Game: Devil Daggers (PC)
Devil Daggers is first person shooters at its most pure. It’s a game about dodging, jumping, shooting, and combining those three. The goal is to grab the titular Devil Dagger, and survive the demon onslaught that results as long as possible. You will die. If you’re pretty good, you’ll last 30 seconds to a minute or two. If you last for 8 and a half minutes, you beat the game. If you’re the world record holder, you’ll maybe last for almost ten minutes. It’s simple, it’s tense, no pretense, tightly scripted, all gameplay. It also has some of the best audio design I’ve ever come across in a game.
Favorite touch(es): Devil Daggers looks like the most simplistic FPS in years, but it is remarkably complex. There’s reload through the gems only coming to you when you’re not shooting. There’s shoot-‘em-up in crowd management. There’s FPS in the enemy weak spots. There’s level design in the enemy spawns. There’s weapon management and crosshair leading and strafing and bunny hopping and rocket jumping. Devil Daggers is more FPS than most blockbusters will ever be able to claim.
Least Favorite: A useful trope of shoot-‘em-up design, the “shotgun” in Devil Daggers feels like it prefers ‘active clicking’. If you hold the mouse button, it fires slightly slower than if you rapidly click the mouse button--which is both tedious and stressful for player hands--not to mention near-impossible for people with disabilities or pain in their hands that could otherwise still get a perfect run. In design, it’s always worth looking at the costs and benefits any choice has, and active clicking has such a minor effect on the skill ceiling, feel, or gameplay, that I don’t feel it’s worth it.
Alternatively: Duskers sets itself up to be the ultimate B-game. Sci-fi drones being remote controlled through a console interface and a visual representation that would’ve made '90s hacker movies proud. Poke just beyond that, and you’ll find a remarkably deep game with layers of existential crisis and terror. The way it should be, really.
Best Indie: Thumper (PS4, PC)
Thumper describes itself as a “violent rhythm action game”. I’ve been trying to come up with a better way to describe it, but I can’t. Thumper is like boxing with music if music was twice your size and twice your speed. Thumper is Audiosurf if Audiosurf had only custom-written tracks and wanted to hurt you. Thumper is like bringing a Guitar Hero guitar to a Vanquish fight. It’s intense, relentless and oppressive. It is overwhelming on a screen, and all-consuming in VR.
Most Favorite: The way the obstacles’ play sound effects twice, once for the obstacle to appear and one for the obstacle to be passed, while entirely fitting the flow and track of the music.
Least Favorite: The first few levels of Thumper are entirely accessible, while remarkably challenging. They play with reflex, flow, and music. The latter levels of Thumper feel remarkably less interesting for their almost cruel pacing and mechanics, although some of the best sequences in the game outside of the sublime first world can be found near the end.
Alternatively: I didn’t like Limbo. Limbo was that game that felt like it was trying to be a thing, but Playdead just couldn’t push itself to make it. It’s |
a.m.
An Ohio truck driver says the man accused of killing eight people with a truck in New York City was argumentative, seemed to harbor radical views and saw his work life spiraling down.
Mirrakhmat Muminov says Sayfullo Saipov lived in Stow, Ohio, for a few years. He says he knew Saipov because they were both Uzbek truck drivers.
Muminov says Saipov lost his insurance on his truck because of a few traffic tickets. He says companies stopped hiring Saipov, so he left for New Jersey.
Muminov said he heard from Saipov’s friends that Saipov’s truck engine blew up a few months ago in New Jersey. He says that “probably hurt him more than anything.”
Muminov also says Saipov was “not happy with his life” and would get into arguments with his friends and family.
Officials say Saipov left a handwritten note referring to the Islamic State group. Muminov says Saipov never spoke about the group, but he could tell Saipov held more radical views.
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10:40 a.m.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Belgian counterpart are vowing to step up counterterrorism cooperation after the New York truck attack that killed eight people, including a young Belgian.
Meeting Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, Tillerson said Wednesday “we have seen the evil face of terror in our borders.”
Reynders noted previous attacks in Belgium and voiced solidarity with the U.S.
He said “homegrown terrorism” is as real in Europe as the United States. Together, he says, they can combat the global challenge.
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10:20 a.m.
FBI agents investigating the Manhattan truck attack have emerged from a Paterson, New Jersey, apartment building with a black plastic bag.
They put the bag in a vehicle on Wednesday, then went back into the cordoned off area where the truck driver lives.
On Tuesday, a man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path in lower Manhattan, near the World Trade Center, killing eight people.
The Uzbek immigrant who was the truck driver was wounded by police.
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9:55 a.m.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says the rented pickup that mowed down pedestrians and bicyclists in New York, killing eight and injuring 11 others resembles “very much” the “coward attack” in Stockholm earlier this year.
In April, an Uzbek man, Rakhmat Akilov, drove a stolen beer truck into a crowd of afternoon shoppers outside the upmarket Ahlens store in Stockholm, killing four and injuring 15 others.
Lofven said Wednesday “how a person can take a vehicle and use it to kill innocent fellow human beings is beyond my understanding.”
Lofven told Swedish radio that the world community “must be stronger than terrorism.”
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9:40 a.m.
One of the people injured in an attack on a New York City bike path is a native of Argentina who lives just outside Boston.
The Argentine foreign ministry says Martin Marro is recovering from his injuries at a Manhattan hospital.
Several of Marro’s high school classmates from Argentina came to the U.S. to visit him and celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation. Five of them died in the attack.
Marro works as a biomedical researcher and lives in Newton. Last week, he hosted a fundraiser for a local Republican candidate that was attended by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. Photos of Marro and his wife posing with Baker were posted to Facebook.
Marro’s friend, Tom Mountain, calls him “one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet.”
___
9:30 a.m.
A school next to the New York City bike path where a deadly truck attack occurred is open amid tight security measures.
Stuyvesant (STY’-veh-sehnt) High School says on its website that it’s making crisis counselors available for its students and staff on Wednesday.
It says students must remain in the building during free periods and lunch.
The truck fatally mowed down eight people Tuesday afternoon on a bike path near the school and the World Trade Center site.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says law enforcers have a note referencing the Islamic State. But he stresses that the investigation is ongoing.
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9:20 a.m.
The head of the Arab League has condemned the deadly truck attack on a New York City bike path that killed eight people and injured 11 others.
In a statement Wednesday, Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed his condolences to the U.S. government and the victims’ families.
He also said such incidents place more responsibility on the international community to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
On Tuesday, a man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path in lower Manhattan, near the World Trade Center.
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9 a.m.
A law enforcement official says investigators are trying to talk to the 29-year-old suspect accused of killing eight people in a truck attack in a bike lane near the World Trade Center and hoping to glean information from him.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the ongoing probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Sayfullo Saipov. They say he came to the U.S. legally from Uzbekistan in 2010.
He was shot once in the abdomen by an officer after he crashed the rented truck into a school bus during the rampage Tuesday afternoon. He underwent surgery and remained hospitalized.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a note found at the scene referenced the Islamic State and that the suspect had been radicalized in the U.S. He says the contents of the note were under investigation.
Cuomo calls the driver a “depraved coward,” and says the attack “did not instill terror” among hardy New Yorkers.
— Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed.
___
8:55 a.m.
The Senate’s top Democrat is hitting back after President Donald Trump faulted him for an immigration program that Trump says allowed the man in the deadly New York City bike path attack to enter the United States.
Chuck Schumer says in a statement that “I have always believed and continue to believe that immigration is good for America.”
The New York lawmaker says Trump is “politicizing and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times of national tragedy.” Schumer says the president should focus “on the real solution — anti-terrorism funding” — an area that Schumer says Trump has proposed cutting in his most recent budget.
Tuesday’s attack killed eight people and injured at least 11.
Trump says on Twitter that the driver “came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty.”
Officials have said the driver — a native of Uzbekistan — came into the country legally in 2010.
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8:40 a.m.
Israel’s prime minister says his country stands with the United States following the deadly truck attack on a New York City bike path.
Benjamin Netanyahu (neh-ten-YAH’-hoo) issued a statement Wednesday addressed to President Donald Trump, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Netanyahu decried “yet another horrible Islamist terror attack” and says Israel prayed for the victims and their families. He says: “Together we will defeat this scourge.”
Israel is one of the United States’ closest allies.
Eight people were killed and at least 11 seriously injured in Tuesday’s truck attack by an Uzbek immigrant near the World Trade Center.
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8:10 a.m.
President Donald Trump is calling for “Merit Based immigration” following the deadly truck attack in New York City that killed eight people and injured 11.
Trump says on Twitter on Wednesday that the driver in Tuesday’s attack “came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty.”
Officials said the attacker is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who came to the U.S. legally in 2010. They haven’t said whether he came in through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which covers immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.
Trump tweeted, “We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter).”
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7:55 a.m.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says investigators probing the deadly truck attack along a popular bike path near the World Trade Center have a note referencing the Islamic State.
Cuomo stressed Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” that the investigation is ongoing.
Law enforcers are working to determine what led the pickup truck driver to plow down people on the bike path on Tuesday afternoon. The driver is in critical condition after police shot him in the abdomen.
Cuomo calls the driver a “depraved coward,” and says the attack “did not instill terror” among hardy New Yorkers.
___
7:15 a.m.
France’s prime minister says the deadly truck attack on a New York bike path is a reminder that the threat is high everywhere, and that authorities must remain “as humble as we are determined” to fight extremism.
After checking security measures at the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the Manhattan attack shows that “the means used by those who want to hurt us can be of formidable effectiveness, and formidable simplicity.”
Philippe said ordinary people should remain vigilant and not forget “that the threat level is high, and it is high everywhere in the world.” He said authorities should give “credible responses” and focus on intelligence as well as security barriers like those installed around France after multiple deadly attacks.
Eight people were killed in Tuesday’s truck attack by an Uzbek immigrant near the World Trade Center.
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7 a.m.
FBI agents and police are searching for evidence in the Paterson, New Jersey, neighborhood where the man suspected of plowing down people on a New York City riverfront bike path lived.
Law enforcement cordoned off an apartment building early Wednesday. Officers also searched a garage.
The building’s manager told The Record that Sayfullo Saipov lived with his wife and two children in a two-bedroom apartment.
The man, who identified himself only as Ali, says he rented the apartment to the 29-year-old several months ago.
A man who identified himself as Saipov’s neighbor told NJ Advance Media he often saw Saipov standing on the corner talking to friends.
The city is home to a large Muslim population and a mosque is near the apartment.
___
6:55 a.m.
An eerie emptiness hovers over a major New York City traffic artery, one day after a deadly truck attack along a popular bike path near the World Trade Center.
Morning rush-hour traffic has been banned Wednesday along a stretch of the highway in Lower Manhattan. Police helicopters circled overhead.
Some runners and bicycle riders did their best to maintain their normal routines. But police blocked off the bike path north of where the rampage began.
Truck drivers steered clear of the frozen zone to make their morning deliveries.
Investigators worked to determine what led the pickup truck driver to plow down people on the riverfront bike path, killing eight on Tuesday. The driver is in critical condition after police shot him in the abdomen.
___
6:25 a.m.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the truck attack in New York City that killed eight people and seriously injured at least 11, referring to it as a “terrorist” assault.
That’s according to a report Wednesday by the semi-official Fars news agency. It quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.
Ghasemi said in a statement that “a serious approach coinciding with honesty and transparency of all nations” is the only way to “uproot” terrorism.
Ghasemi also expressed sympathy with the relatives of the “innocent” victims of the attack.
Tensions are high between Iran and the U.S. as President Donald Trump recently refused to re-certify the nuclear deal Tehran struck with world powers.
___
6:15 a.m.
The German government says a German citizen is among the injured in the truck attack on a bike path in New York City.
The Foreign Ministry didn’t identify the female German citizen or give any details about the severity of her injuries in a note on its website Wednesday.
Eight people were killed and at least 11 seriously injured in Tuesday’s attack.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, wrote on Twitter: “Horrified at the evil terrorist #ManhattanAttack. Our hearts go out to the victims + families. From Berlin to NYC: We stand with you.”
___
5:45 a.m.
Saudi Arabia says it strongly condemns the deadly truck attack in New York City that killed eight people and seriously injured 11.
The kingdom on Wednesday offered its condolences to the families of the victims and reiterated its “rejection and condemnation of such terrorist acts.”
Other Gulf allies have also issued similar statements.
Kuwait’s ruling emir sent a cable to President Donald Trump expressing his condolences.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, meanwhile, issued statements supporting efforts and measures taken by the U.S. to combat terrorism and enhance security.
Earlier, Qatar said it, too, offers its “full solidarity with the U.S. government and its support for all measures taken to maintain security.”
___
5 a.m.
The president of Uzbekistan has sent his condolences to U.S. President Donald Trump and offered his country’s assistance in investigating Tuesday’s attack in New York by an Uzbek national.
Eight people were killed when a truck plowed down a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center.
Officials who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity identified 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov as the attacker. They say he came to the U.S. legally from Uzbekistan in 2010.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev also offered condolences to families of the victims in a statement Wednesday.
Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan and is one of the most closed off post-Soviet republics. Previously, Uzbek officially never commented or acknowledged any security incidents abroad involving Uzbek nationals.
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4 a.m.
The Argentine foreign ministry has identified its citizens killed in the bike path attack near the World Trade Center.
They are Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij, and Hernan Ferruchi.
The ministry also says one of its citizens, Martin Ludovico Marro, is recovering from injuries at Manhattan’s Presbyterian Hospital.
The victims were part of a group of friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation from the Polytechnic School of Rosario, Argentina.
The government gave its condolences and said that all Argentines are sharing in this terrible moment of profound sadness.
___
12:05 a.m.
Investigators are working to determine what led a pickup truck driver to plow down people on a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center, killing eight.
New York’s mayor called Tuesday’s attack “a particularly cowardly act of terror.”
The driver is in critical condition after police shot him in the abdomen.
Authorities said after crashing the truck, he brandished air guns and yelled what witnesses said was “Allahu Akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is great.”
Officials who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity identified the attacker as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov. They say he came to the U.S. legally from Uzbekistan in 2010.
One of the dead is from Belgium and five others were from Argentina.4 Reasons We’re Not In a Stock Market Bubble
And 4 ways things could change
Otávio Dalarossa Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 10, 2014
As the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial reach all-time highs, many investors are clamoring that we are in a stock market bubble. We’ve been hearing it for a while. “The bull run has lasted for too long”, “The market is just too high” and “We’re overdue for a correction.”
While a lot of that may be true, does it mean we are in a bubble?
To answer that question, I called up my friend. His name is Data. He’s one of the most honest people I’ve ever met. Let’s see what he said — his words, not mine:
1. The S&P 500 P/E Ratio Is Under 20
Please take a moment to study the S&P 500 P/E ratio over time. You may observe that while a P/E of 18.5 is not cheap, it is also not high, and certainly not in bubble territory.
During the dotcom bubble, P/E broke 30. Later, it broke 40 and 50 as the recession hit.
S&P 500 P/E Ratio over time, courtesy of Multpl.com
So you, like some of my friends, might argue that the Case Schiller P/E is too high. I’ll gladly hear you out if you’re already well aware that the Case Schiller P/E takes 10 years of data and averages it out, and that means this means that you are including P/E data from the 2008–2009 to compare to other bubble periods. Maybe it’s just me, but IMHO it’s a bit skewed to include data from the greatest recession in US history and compare it to other periods to call bubble.
2. GDP Continues to Grow
Sure, growth is not outstanding by any measure. But consensus is that US GDP will grow (source: http://knoema.com/qhswwkc/us-gdp-growth-forecast-2014-2015-and-up-to-2060-data-and-charts). Take a glance at US GDP projections for 2015+. Surprise: They are steady and positive.
US GDP Growth Forecasts, courtesy of Knoema
3. High Risk Assets Are Getting Crushed
A telltale sign of a bubble is rising prices across most (all) asset classes. What we have now, however, is a falling small cap index as measured by the Russell 2000. This means that investors are dumping smaller, high risk companies, implying a rotation into other, potentially less risky, asset classes. That shows prudence, which is the opposite of the exuberance witnessed near the peak of a bubble. Here’s a chart of the Russell 2000 Index ETF, courtesy of our friends at TradingView: https://www.tradingview.com/e/tAYA6HeO/
4. The VIX Is Up, So Naturally, You Are Panicking
I absolutely love seeing panic headlines as the VIX spikes dramatically. The VIX, for those who aren’t yet familiar with it, is a volatility index. It measures the prices of options on S&P 500 futures. When the S&P 500 fluctuates wildly, its option prices rise as investors seek protection, and as a result, so does the VIX.
The VIX is also called the “fear index”, and perhaps rightfully so, because it generally gauges investor fear. So it seems quite natural that as investors are panicking, the VIX is rising sharply.
Another thing I love about the VIX in bull markets — and this is not a proven or repeatable statement, just a general observation — is that it usually spikes and drops dramatically as investors overreact and oversell. This generates great buying opportunities for those who have been sitting back instead of tracking every dollar decline in their portfolio. Check out these nice panic moments, followed by very sharp declines as people regained their cool. It’s like a dysfunctional couple that issues life threats to each other and moments later is making love. The yellow highliths the life threats (“making love” withheld to keep it PG).
So What Could Go Wrong?
Not everything is rosy. Here are afew things that worry me right now — these are just my opinions:
Weakness in Europe and Russia as the DAX breaks support and Russia braces for recession;
Resulting weakness in demand for China;
Continuation of asset class rotation, leaving some investors in the dust as they fail to keep up with the new;
Lofty valuations in large cap internet tech stocks that trade on absurd revenue multiples and rely on earnings beats for share price increase; and
Perhaps this doesn’t worry as much as it interests me — this chart of the VIX, same as above, but zoomed out:
Please share if you have a bubble-calling friend and comment to disprove or strengthen any points.
Have a nice weekend!Simon Wilson is fresh back from France and filled with enthusiasm for ways to make Auckland better. Here’s the first: a great big bike share scheme.
Ten days ago I rode a bike around the Place de la Concorde. It’s that roundabout in Paris with about 10 lanes, none of them marked on the road, and more streets leading on and off than I could count. I’m not ashamed to admit, I sat and watched for a while before I tried. But hey, I’m still here. So is every other bike rider I saw there. All of us in street clothes, none in a helmet.
Paris traffic can be scary. You get a green light and head out, along with the cars and trucks and bikes all lined up next to and behind you, only to find another set of traffic has also been released into the intersection and they’re coming at you side on. And then some of the vehicles leave their bunch and start to push their way across the lanes. No one slows to do this; instead, they all head firmly for the gap in front. You’re lost without confidence. And when you’re on a bike, you don’t signal with an arm out horizontal, but raise it to about 45 degrees and repeatedly wave your hand back and forth. The gesture is aimed at the cars behind you and it means stay back, I’m changing lanes.
I don’t pretend to know how French traffic works. But there’s a lot to learn from that gesture. It tells drivers you’re going to do it and you’re not looking back so it’s on them to let you. It belongs in a world where bikes have no less a right (and no more) than cars to nudge their way through traffic and everyone accepts it. Where there is no obvious hierarchy of road users, no sense of superior rights, and no one – not the drivers, not the riders and not the pedestrians – gets angry.
I spent two days riding a bike around Paris, courtesy of the Vélib’ bike hire scheme. Vélo = bicycle; liberté = so much fun. It cost me €1.70 for bike hire each day. Bike stations were everywhere. So were bike lanes, although not at the Place de la Concorde. You can probably tell, I really loved riding a bike in Paris.
The bike hire system in Paris is brilliant, although not so brilliant that it can’t be improved on. By the end of the year a new contractor with a new system is going to make it even better.
Right now, though, you can join online or do it casually at the stations. You can buy a year’s worth of riding, or a week’s, or a day’s, or an hour or two. You can take a bike from one station and leave it at another. It doesn’t cost the council much because the service is offered by the company with the concession for bus stop advertising. It was a requirement of their contract. How inspired is that?
Most bikes you see in the central city are hire bikes and most of the people you see riding them are locals. In other words, many Parisians use hire bikes as their preferred form of transport for short trips in the city. That’s why it works.
Why do Parisians do that? Here are 10 good reasons.
Lots of bikes and stations
There are close to 15,000 bikes and 1200 stations all over central Paris. Wherever you are, you’re close to a bike you can hire, or a place you can leave it.
Free for the first half hour
For short trips, you don’t have to pay anything. That single factor turns the bikes from “good to have” into “first choice” for getting about town.
Easy to use
Signing up is easy online, while casual use, paying with a credit or debit card, is easy too. The bikes themselves have three gears, adjustable seats and a sturdy step-through frame. Using them could not be easier.
Convenient add-ons
The bikes have a carrier basket in front, to throw your bag or shopping in. They have a simple security lock so you can make short stops along the way. For short-hop commuters and people going to meetings or hooking up for lunch, they’re extremely fit for purpose.
Bike lanes
There are bike lanes (often doubling as bus lanes) on almost all the main roads of the city. Some are physically separated from other traffic but many are just painted on. There are also bike routes that cars can’t take: along the Seine, for example.
And get this: on most of the narrow one-way streets, a bike route is painted on the side of the road heading the wrong way. That’s right: in Paris, it’s legal to ride a bike the wrong way up a narrow street.
Because of those five things, cycling is positively enabled. And there’s more.
Traffic lights for bikes
At the larger intersections bikes have their own traffic lights. They’re in phase with the car lights, but sited at bike rider eye level. This has obvious use-value but the symbolism is powerful too. They remind everyone the city encourages cycling.
A culture of cycling
Nobody looks twice at a cyclist. In a country where cycling is a national sport and in a city that’s inordinately proud of its traditions as a civilised society, cycling is normalised. You’re not doing a weird or dangerous thing.
Related to this, the Parisian bikes are grey. A subtle, smart, normalised colour. Not some garishly painted “look at me I’m silly tourist” colour. It makes a difference.
It’s so cheap
It’s ridiculously cheap, and not just for casual users taking a free half-hour hop. It’s also really cheap for longer use: the 24-hour fee of €1.70 is less than the price of a café au lait. A year costs €29.
Riding a bike in Paris is wonderful
On both the left and right banks, Paris slopes very gently to the river running through it, the Seine. There are very few hills. Being essentially flat makes riding easy; having that gentle slope means whenever you get lost it’s easy to find yourself again. Being on a bike, in Paris as everywhere else, puts you among the people, makes you part of the life of the city. The streets lined with plane trees, the beauty of the 19th century facades, the buskers, the Parisians, the palaces and parks, the boulevards that sometimes seethe with life but are often surprisingly relaxed and human scale.
In a day, you can cover 10, 20, 50 kilometres if that’s what you want. You can get lost, find yourself, get lost again. You can also head off to the museum of your choice, dock the bike at the nearby station, take in the art, pick up another bike and ride to a café for lunch, dock the bike, pick up another after lunch, repeat.
No helmets
Helmets are compulsory for children under 12 but not for adults. You see almost no bike helmets in the city. This works because of all the other factors that help make the city safe for riding: respect for cyclists, having lots of cylists around and having lots of bike lanes.
These things are mutually reinforcing: not having to wear a helmet encourages lots more people to ride; lots more people riding makes it safer not to wear a helmet.
So now what?
This great bike share scheme will soon be replaced by an even better one, with 25 percent e-bikes, stations located in a much wider suburban area and extra services like wifi. Yes you did read that right. Wifi on bikes.
But now what in Auckland? The council is already considering how to introduce a big bike share scheme here. Good on them. But it has to be big and bold enough to force a big bold disruptive change on the inner city. We’ve got hills, so we’ll need e-bikes. In most other respects, though, the Parsisian model would work very well – especially on the cost-to-customer side.
Make it cheap enough to make it preferred. And remember this: when it comes to the dreaded infrastructure costs, they’re a damn sight cheaper than every other transport option except walking.
Would it really work here? Of course it would. Just think cafés for a moment. Until the 1980s the prevailing view in New Zealand used to be that European-style outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants would not work, so councils protected us by forbidding it. Our weather was wrong (I don’t know, too much wind?), our culture was wrong (we’re too indoorsy or something), we didn’t have room on the footpaths. I’m not making this up.
Talk about a disruptive change. Took less than a year, I reckon, once it started. How long after a decent bike share scheme starts for Queen St and Albert St and High St/Lorne St to fill up with cyclists off to meetings and lunch and shows in the summer evenings? And K Rd and Ponsonby Rd and Victoria St too?
And, especially, the waterfront. You could pick up a bike in the early evening and ride west to Silo Park or all the way to Westhaven, dock, meet a friend for a drink or whatever you like to do with your friends. Go the other way, to the Parnell Baths, Okahu Bay or further. Bikes throughout Wynyard. Bikes busy on Quay St, forcing the council and Ports of Auckland to open up more of the council-owned port land to the public.
All we need to do is just do it.
Simon Wilson visited Paris as a guest of the French government, where his head got filled up with all sorts of ideas for Auckland. Hold on to your croissants, this post will be one of many. Contact him at [email protected]
The Spinoff Auckland is sponsored by Heart of the City, the business association dedicated to the growth of downtown Auckland as a vibrant centre for entertainment, retail, hospitality and business.For the Dutch musician, see Philip van Wilder
National Lampoon's Van Wilder (released internationally as Van Wilder: Party Liaison) is a 2002 comedy film directed by Walt Becker and written by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner. This movie was inspired by the real life experiences of "The Real Van Wilder" Bert Kreischer while he attended Florida State University.
National Lampoon's Van Wilder stars Ryan Reynolds as the title character alongside Tara Reid, Kal Penn, and Tim Matheson. The film follows the misadventures of its lead character Van Wilder, a seventh year senior, who has made his life goal in helping undergrads at Coolidge College succeed in the future. An article is then written for the campus newspaper by a fellow student, Gwen Pearson, played by Reid, bringing to light Van Wilder's college life. This attracts the attention of Van's father, played by Matheson, which leads to his tuition being cut off. Van Wilder gets stuck in the middle of a love triangle between Gwen and her mean-spirited boyfriend, Richard "Dick" Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove) while struggling to graduate. Van tries various schemes to earn enough money to pay his tuition and graduate, with help from Gwen and the rest of the student body, except a couple of sinister enemies who attempt to sabotage his efforts.
A sequel, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, was released on December 1, 2006. A prequel, Van Wilder: Freshman Year, was released straight-to-DVD on July 14, 2009.
Plot [ edit ]
Vance “Van” Wilder (Ryan Reynolds) is a confident and sardonic seventh year senior at Coolidge College. With no ambition to graduate, Van spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, organizing soirees for his peers and interviewing for a new assistant, whom he eventually finds in the sexually repressed Taj Badalandabad (Kal Penn).
Upon learning that his son is still in school, Van’s father (Tim Matheson) decides to sever Van’s financial support. Faced with disenrollment due to unpaid tuition, Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar, Deloris. After Van has sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place.
Gwen Pearson (Tara Reid) works for the school paper, and despite her talents for journalism, her articles do not generate interest from the student body. Her editor assigns her to get an “unattainable” human interest story on Van Wilder. After a couple of attempts to get money fast, Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity, offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party and boost their popularity.
Overhearing two of the Lambdas expressing their excitement over the party’s success and their satisfaction with Van’s work, Gwen writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Though Van hates the article at first, he realizes it can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school. Van eventually agrees to sit down with Gwen for the follow-up piece.
Gwen’s boyfriend, Richard “Dick” Bagg (Daniel Cosgrove), is a pre-medical student and the president of his fraternity Delta Iota Kappa. As he learns of Gwen’s work with Van and suspects a growing bond between them, he moves to sabotage their prospective romance. Van and Richard exchange escalating pranks until it culminates in Van, Taj and Van’s roommate Hutch (Teck Holmes) replacing the cream filling of a batch of pastries with canine semen taken from Van’s English Bulldog Colossus.
Gwen accesses Van’s records from the Admissions & Records office while doing background work on her piece, learning that Van has actively avoided graduating for the past seven semesters. Angry that Gwen dug into such personal details, Van dissociates himself from Gwen and takes a contemplative look at his life.
Richard arranges to sabotage Van's latest party with Jeannie (Emily Rutherfurd), a member of a sister sorority by smuggling underaged children into the party and getting them drunk, then calling a campus police officer to the scene. As a result, Van is arrested for selling alcohol to minors and faces expulsion from Coolidge. The student body pools its resources to defend Van against the charges before a university panel featuring, among others, Van’s collegiate adversary Professor McDougal (Paul Gleason), Deloris and Richard.
While the law club invests time coaching Van to plead innocent to the charges, the rest of the student body works to generate support for Van. Having learned from his past mistakes and what Gwen has shown him, Van goes off book during the hearing and takes responsibility for the kids at the party. He throws himself at the mercy of the court and asks that rather than expelling him they force him to graduate since he is only 18 units shy of his degree. Professor McDougal surprises everyone with his swing vote, casting the 3-2 vote in favor of Van’s reinstatement, and Van studies for the quickly-approaching finals.
In retaliation for Richard's underhandedness (and his later-revealed infidelity with Jeannie), Gwen spikes Richard’s ritual protein shake with a powerful laxative just prior to his taking the Medical College Admission Test. Unable to hold out (since bathroom breaks are forbidden during the test), Richard “dials down the middle” of most his multiple-choice exam sheet, and hurriedly exits the exam room. As he rushes to find a bathroom, he is intercepted by one of the doctors from the group meant to interview him for admission to Northwestern Medical School, who pulls him into an office to meet with the others. Unable to hold himself any longer, Richard strips off his pants and has violent diarrhea in the waste basket in the room, to the revulsion and horror of the doctors present.
Van utilizes the entire exam period for his last final with Professor McDougal, finishing with a negative attitude. McDougal himself delivers the news to Van that he passed. McDougal notes that he had been so hard on him all those years because he believed Van wasn't living up to his potential.
The university celebrates Van’s graduation with a wild party held in Van’s honor. Van’s father appears, admitting he was wrong and expressing his pride in Van’s success. Gwen then arrives, lovingly reuniting with Van.
Cast [ edit ]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
National Lampoon's Van Wilder Soundtrack album by Various Artists Released 26 March 2002 Recorded 2000, 2001 Length 45 : 42 Label Ultimatum Records, Artemis Records Producer Gwen Bethel Riley and Chris Violette
The soundtrack album was released on March 26, 2002. It omits the song "Hello" by Sugarbomb, "Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Stuck in America" by Sugarcult. Other artists with songs omitted from the soundtrack included Atomic Kitten, Michelle Branch, Sprung Monkey, Bird 3, Spymob, Mint Royale, and Tahiti 80.
Release [ edit ]
Box office [ edit ]
Van Wilder opened with $7,302,913, ranking number 6 in the domestic box office. It grossed $21,305,259 domestically with $16,970,224 overseas for a worldwide total of $38,275,483. Based on a $5 million budget, the film was a box office success.[2]
Critical reception [ edit ]
The film received negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 19% based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The website's critical consensus describes the film as being "A derivative gross-out comedy that's short on laughs."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a 26 out of 100 score based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4]
Home media [ edit ]
Despite being theatrically released from Lions Gate Films, Van Wilder was released via VHS and DVD by Artisan Entertainment on August 20, 2002. The DVD was presented in rated and unrated editions, both editions containing a cropped full-frame transfer, and a widescreen version in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The two-disc set also contained deleted scenes, outtakes, three Burly Bear TV specials, a Comedy Central: Reel Comedy TV special, "Bouncing Off the Walls" music video performed by Sugarcult, trailers, and other promotional material like television ads and poster art.
On November 28, 2006, in a way of promoting the sequel to Van Wilder, The Rise of Taj, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a 2-disc special edition DVD with new bonus features including a "Drunken Idiot Kommentary" (featuring National Lampoon editors Steven Brykman and Mason Brown), behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and crew.
The film was also released on Blu-ray on August 21 |
some Muslims should not open him to the charge that he is talking of all Muslims, but that since it probably will, he will spell it out explicitly. Fat lot of good it did him.
11:28 AM McConchie to cross-examine. He’s going through the expanded version of her Melbourne presentation. In it, she mentions the Ontario (McGuinty) government’s decision to do away with “faith-based arbitration panels” in family disputes rather than allow sharia courts to be set up. McConchie recounts the controversy that surrounded this question, specifically over what the implementation of sharia law would mean for women’s equality. Eventually (Dec. 2005) the Ontario government decided against proceeding, passing a law (Bill C-27) to that effect. The decision was supported, inter alia, by the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, the YWCA, and the Muslim Canadian Congress. Not sure where he’s going with this, except I guess to show that these are legitimate questions of public debate.
Now he’s asking for the “terms of reference” sent to her by the complainants asking her to appear as an expert witness. These set out the task they want her to perform, and are normally provided to opposite counsel as part of her file. They weren’t.
11:55 AM We’re back. Her file has been produced. It’s, um, thin. There’s a bunch of other stuff that’s not in, she says, like emails between her and one of the Islamic law students. In one of these, she says, the student described the complaint they were bringing against Maclean’s. McConchie’s ears prick up. “She told you the nature of the complaint?” There’s an implied suggestion of something improper, though I don’t get what it is. But certainly it seems less than full disclosure.
We’re breaking for lunch.
* * *
1:30 PM Back from lunch, and the first witness is Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub, an expert on the Koran, and Islam. Again, the Maclean’s side is raising questions about what terms of reference he was given in his retainer letter. I think they’re trying to suggest, or at least hint, that these expert witnesses were coached or pointed down a certain path, which is a no-no in most courts, and perhaps even here.
The letter, which Julian Porter is reading aloud, is quite bald in setting out the complainants’ objectives. “This case is very important to Muslim minorities who are consistently misrepresented in the media.” They cite approvingly the BC human rights legislation. “We anticipate that success in this case will provide the impetus for prohibiting discriminatory publications in the other provinces.” So there you have it.
Ayoub assures him this would have no influence on the evidence he offers in court, that he will provide his unbiased opinions based on his expertise. “I am an intellectual,” he offers, and will comment only on the accuracy or otherwise of the depictions of Islam in Steyn’s article.
1:43 PM Professor at the Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley. Scholar in residence at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticutt. First blind student to enter American University of Beirut. BA Phil there, then MA religious thought U Penn. PhD Harvard 1975 in comparative religion, with special emphasis on Islamic studies. Active in “interfaith dialogue” with Jews and Christians. First Muslim scholar to teach a course in Islamic thought at the Vatican. Conclusion: pretty major-league guy.
Now commenting on Steyn piece. It’s mostly a demographic argument, he says. There has been rapid growth in Islamic numbers, yes, but this is not part of some conspiracy to take over the world. Finds it distressing to see an article by an intelligent man making the same arguments that Jews have faced. The vision of Islam in the Koran is pluralist. Sometimes he has to tell fellow Muslims that they are not living up to this spirit of pluralism.
What is jihad? Article equates it with Al Qaeda: fighting, suicide bombing etc. But word actually means, originally, “to strive, to do one’s best.” Koranic sense is that religious struggle we must all engage in within our souls against evil tendencies. There is also “social jihad,” the obligation to change things that are wrong. This does not mean violence. The Koran is not a book of violence.
The notion of armed struggle, or violent jihad, is mentioned in the Koran. “Permission has been given to those who have been wronged only because they say God is our lord that they fight in self-defence.” (Sura 22.) So jihad is not limited to fighting — it’s just one type of jihad, and should only be done in self-defence. The extremist, violent types are an anomaly. “They are more a problem for us than for the west.”
In early history of Islam, there was a group claiming exclusive knowledge of the faith, and terrorizing others, as there are now. But Islam is a religion of “the middle way.” Not too keen on turning the other cheek, but war is also out, unless as a last resort. People are mistaking the actions of a violent fringe group for the majority. By analogy, why do we call them Basque terrorists, rather than Catholic terrorists?
Obliged by the Koran to respect the People of the Book, ie Christianity and Judaism.
2:03 PM Returning to critique of Steyn’s article. “Portrays Muslims as an underground movement trying to take over the world — that’s not true.” They’re missionaries, they want to spread their faith, just like Christianity does. But neither religion wants to take over the world. He’s a Canadian citizen, and believes in Trudeau’s vision of a multi-faith, multicultural society.
Arabic is the sacred language of Islam, but not all Muslims are Arabs. Only about a quarter of all Muslims are Arab. The largest Muslim country is not an Arab country, it’s Indonesia – “one of the most gentle and open societies in the world. And they are good Muslims.”
Another inaccuracy (he says): Steyn says Muslims don’t recognize nations, because their core identity as Muslims “leaps over continents.” That’s only partly true, he says. There is a Muslim umma across the world, but there is diversity of languages, countries, races, etc within, “and Islam accepts that.” Article is based on broad statements that are meant to create negative feelings about Muslims, overlooks complexities.
2:12 PM Now on to the Amiel article. Talks about the burning of the library of Alexandria in the 4th century, allegedly ordered by the Muslim caliph at the time. Says that last bit’s a “fiction,” though he says even some Muslims believe it.
Julian Porter to cross-ex. Some Muslims, Ayoub acknowledges, especially in the 20th century, have emphasized the “jihad of the sword.” Islam, he notes in passing, does not have a concept of “holy war”: the phrase was invented by Pope Urban II when he was whipping up enthusiasm for the first Crusade.
Porter suggests that the Koran, like the Bible, has both peaceful and violent verses, and that “we have to choose.” Ayoub says the peaceful ones are more prevalent. Says Mohammed had to govern in times of both war and peace. Wonders if Christ had been in the same position, “probably Christians would have been less bloody than they have been.” Not sure I follow.
2:24 PM Porter is reading him passages from a collection of Bin Laden’s statements. “I swear by God almighty … that neither America nor anyone who lives there will enjoy safety until safety becomes a reality for those in Palestine and until all of the infidel have left the land of Mohammed.” It’s true, he says, that Islam is a vast religion with many groups, but “there is an element within it running amok.” Ayoub agrees, but repeats that Al Qaeda is more a problem for us than you.
Porter says you are giving an opinion, and you’re entitled to give it. Hint, hint. “It’s not an opinion, sir,” he replies. Oh.
More Bin Laden. “We’ve been inciting for years. We’ve released decrees and documents… Incitement is a duty… We have incited and urged the killing of Americans and Jews, that’s true.” Porter: that’s worrisome, isn’t it? Journalists have to write about this without your knowledge and background. “It may not be that every journalist has your nuance, but isn’t that something that they should be worried about, and writing about?” He’s making the case that Steyn may be wrong, but he’s not hateful: he’s starting from a legitimate concern.
Ayoub says he believes in free speech, “but my freedom ends where it begins to do harm to any community… I don’t think freedom of speech should include inciting the general public to hate a group, whatever the group may be.”
2:39 PM I’ve just noticed Steyn is here. Not sure how long he’s been sitting there. I suspect things are about to get interesting.
2:41 PM Porter is now quoting Ayoub from a story in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, in which he’s quoted as speculating that the planes on Sept. 11 might have been flown by evangelical Christians. He denies saying it. What he said, he said, is that there are evangelicals who want to hasten the day of Armaggedon and the Rapture.
“I am (also) an American, and I love America, and I would never do anything to harm either of these two countries. I don’t live in Quebec because their taxes are too high.”
3:26 PM We’re back from a break, and Faisal Joseph is announcing … they aren’t going to call any more witnesses! They’re not going to call their third and last expert witness, as it would merely repeat previous evidence, he says, and they’re not going to call Naiyer Habib, one of the complainants!
Julian Porter is furious. Then I’m calling Habib! This is contemptuous of the process, he says, and disgraceful. He should be here to answer having laid the complaint. I was told I’d get a chance to cross-examine him. “I cannot believe” – he’s practically growling – “that they would have the audacity not to expose either one (meaning Elmasry, the other complainant) to cross-examination!”
Joseph: Talk about audacity. Steyn’s here, and he’s not testifying. I’m upset that I don’t get a crack at him.
Steyn snorts in laughter. (Possible reason: He was supposed to be in a radio debate with Joseph some time ago, but Joseph never showed.) Joseph expresses displeasure at this.
Porter (to the tribunal, quietly): “Do you have any idea how bad this looks?” He asks for five minutes to prepare, and then, I presume, he’s going to call Habib as … a hostile witness. Stay tuned!
4:04 PM We’re going to adjourn for the day! We don’t even know whether we’re calling any more witnesses. If so, we’re back at 10 tomorrow. Otherwise, we hear final arguments on Friday.
Talk about a cliffhanger! Will Porter get to call Habib? Will Joseph cross-examine? Tune in tomorrow… same kangaroo-time, same kangaroo-channel…
Wait! Porter in on his feet: “If Habib and Elmasry are afraid to testify, I don’t want them as my witnesses. They’re a pair of scaredy-pants, and…” I swear to God that’s what he said. The proceedings dissolve in even more confusion than usual…
CODA: Okay here’s the deal. Maclean’s is definitely — as of this writing — not going to call Habib. The only question is whether the other side, ie Habib’s lawyers, do: apparently they may change their mind.
If they don’t, then we will have gone through an entire hearing about Muslims exposed to hatred in British Columbia without hearing from one single, solitary outraged British Columbian Muslim (though Habib, unlike Elmasry, at least had the decency to show up). We heard from an outraged Muslim — Joseph’s articling student, Kurrum Awan — but he’s from Ontario. And we’ve heard from a British Columbian, the Islamic scholar Andrew Rippin, but he’s neither particularly outraged nor, it seems, Muslim. Even the lawyers were from Ontario, except McConchie.
And if they do call him? Then Porter gets his wish. See you tomorrow.Talk about a sting operation! A busy Midtown Manhattan block—47th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue—was shut down by the NYPD today because of…a gigantic hive of bees breaking loose. All cars were denied access and made to turn north on Madison as some sort of beekeeper, unprotected, tried to wrangle with the pesky pollinators.
At this time, it is unclear where the bees originated and, perhaps most importantly, if they have been contained. While the outbreak may seem unusual, the New York City Beekeepers Association does offer swarm removal—which is to say, such a service could be more common than we’d think. The Association, “an ever-growing group of beekeepers, bee enthusiasts and honey lovers who live, work and pollinate in the greatest city in the world,” also offers a $200 four-session, 12-hour course on Urban Beekeeping 101.
According to The New York Post, a similar swarm of bees landed on London last month. In May, Jessica Chrustic, an independent beekeeper and educator in New York City, told the Post that urban bees are “really unlikely to bother anyone because they’re in quite a vulnerable state.” On the loose like this, she explained, bees aren’t in an offensive mode—as they’re not trying to protect the queen. Instead, they’re focused on finding a new home. Sure enough, nobody was stung in London. Today in New York, the casualties are TBD.Advertisement
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Earlier this season, Georgetown lost an inexcusable game to Arkansas State in front of a raucous home crowd at McDonough arena. On Wednesday night, Georgetown lost another inexplicable game at home to DePaul as a 13.5 point favorite. Despite the poor year, the Hoyas were still on the bubble thanks to its historical weakness. This loss pretty much ends any tournament hopes the team might have had and should result in the termination of John Thompson.
A Broken System.
The Georgetown Hoyas play in an outdated Princeton offense that limits the general ability of the offense to score points. The offense is too slow for today's game and relies far too much on backdoor courts, which have become predictable.
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This predictability allows teams to create multiple turnovers by simply being in the right place at the right time. This system was originally developed to help mid-major schools compete with conference powerhouses like Georgetown, but it doesn't have a place in the game when a team is as athletic as Georgetown.
Three Point Percentage.
It's time to recognize that the makeup of the recruits at Georgetown needs to change. It's great that the team has so many physical players who can drive to the basket, but you also need a change of pace player as well. Georgetown shot just 23% from three point range, an alarming trend that also doomed them against Seton Hall. If the Hoyas want to perform better, they're going to need to start recruiting some knockdown three point shooters who can improve upon the atrocious three point shooting from the entire team recently.
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What Needs to Happen for John Thompson to be Fired?
Even in this rough season, the Hoyas have wins against Oregon, Syracuse, and Creighton. Those sneaky good wins could have been enough for Georgetown to sneak into the tournament if they managed to win at home against Villanova. But a home loss against a really bad 9-19 DePaul team means that there's almost no chance they make the tournament. If the Hoyas lose two of their next three games, they will again not make the NIT. That's two years in a row! And it's not like Thompson was delivering results in previous tournament years either. It's time to fire the man who is leading Georgetown to another embarrassing season below.500 and look for a replacement."Graham crackers" redirects here. For the 1997 Graham Chapman book, see Graham Crackers The graham cracker is a type of cracker that originated circa the early 1880s, and is a mass-produced product in contemporary times. It is eaten as a snack food, sometimes with honey, and is used as an ingredient in some foods.[1] The name can be pronounced as or in North America. Modern mass-produced graham crackers Alternative names Graham wafer Type Cracker Place of origin United States Main ingredients Graham flour Cookbook: Graham cracker
Cookbook: Graham cracker Media: Graham cracker
History Edit
The graham cracker was inspired by the preaching of Sylvester Graham, who was a part of and strongly influenced by the 19th-century temperance movement; Graham believed that a vegetarian diet anchored by home-made whole grain bread, made from wheat coarsely ground at home, as part of a lifestyle that involved minimizing pleasure and stimulation of all kinds, was how God intended people to live and that following this natural law would keep people healthy. His preaching was taken up widely in the US in the midst of the 1829–51 cholera pandemic.[2]:15–27 [3]:29–35 [4][5] His followers, Grahamites, formed one of the first vegetarian movements in the US, and graham flour, graham crackers, and graham bread were created for them and marketed to them; Graham neither invented nor profited from these products.[2]:29[4]
Production Edit
The main ingredients in its earlier preparations were graham flour, oil, shortening or lard, molasses and salt.[6] Graham crackers have been a mass-produced food product in the United States since 1898, with the National Biscuit Company being the first to mass-produce it at that time.[7] The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company also began mass-producing the product beginning sometime in the early 1910s.[8][9] The product continues to be mass-produced in the U.S. today.[1] In earlier times, mass-produced graham crackers were typically prepared using yeast-leavened dough, which added flavor to the food via the process of fermentation, whereas contemporary mass-production of the product typically omits this process.[10][11] The dough is sometimes chilled before being rolled out, which prevents blistering and breakage from occurring when the product is baked.[11]
Uses Edit
Graham cracker crumbs are used to create graham cracker crusts for pies and moon pie, and as a base, layer or topping for cheesecake.[1][12][13][14][15][16][17] Graham cracker pie crusts are also mass-produced in the United States, and consumer versions of the product typically consist of a graham cracker crumb mixture pressed into an aluminum pie pan.[18] The graham cracker is a main ingredient in the preparation of the s'more.[19][20]
Gallery Edit
See also Edit
References EditWhat was supposed to be a response to a call about a trespasser in Pasadena, Calif., took an unusual twist when police found an altar with human bones in a backyard, and now they are investigating how they were sold on eBay.
Pasadena police responded to the 800 block of North Oakland Avenue on Sunday after a woman living in the home reported an individual trespassing on her property.
"The officers went there on a whole different call. When they checked the area there was a makeshift altar that included some bones," Lt. Terysa Rojas with the Pasadena Police Department Crimes Against Person's division told ABC News. "The coroner determined them to be human bones."
According to Rojas, the woman cooperated with police and was interviewed while the bones were turned over to the coroner's office.
Investigators say the altar serves a religious purpose for the woman living in the home, more specifically a West African and Caribbean religion known as Santeria. However, throughout the investigation over the past couple of days police learned the woman ordered the bones on eBay.
"There are some sites where you can order human bones or skulls through eBay," Rojas said. "I don't know where they get them or how they get to put them on eBay. That's part of our investigation."
Police say there were not only human bones, but also those of animal heads along with burned incense and candles. While the investigation is still preliminary, Rojas said there is nothing the woman can be charged with due to the religious purpose.AMG
The rumors seethinking seriously about acquiring more shares from MV Agusta. Even more, some financial newspapers say that the two companies have already been in heated talks about the subject, and a possible outcome may be expected as early as next week.We remind you that at the end of 2014 - beginning of 2015, Daimler bought a 25% minority stake in the Varese brand. In mid-January 2015, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche dismissed any rumors about a potential takeover. At NAIAS 2015, Zetsche said, “We have no intention to take over MV Agusta, not to start building motorcycles. When it comes to building bikes, MV Agusta is so much better than us,” but it looks like some of the circumstances have changed since then.With the recapitalization made with Daimler’s money, MV Agusta fared quite well in 2015, releasing even more models, and enjoying a solid growth of over 30%, with the sales in some countries reaching record increases of up to 140 per cent, as it was the case in the UK. But ll Sole says that the figures are one thing, whereas the reality shows a much different picture.The newspaper we mentioned reports that, apparently, MV Agusta is in a bit of trouble, with around €40 million ($43.6 mil) owed to suppliers and banks. Presumably, the Castiglioni family would prefer to reach a settlement with the banks, quite the opposite of what Daimler/AMG has in mind.Il Sole mentions a €15 million ($16.4 mil) loan MV Agusta took from Banca Popolare di Milano, and which becomes due in its entirety as soon as AMG, directly or indirectly, owns less than 20% of MV Agusta. If an agreement is not reached and AMG threatens to sell their stock, the house of Schiranna may be in even more trouble.Will MV Agusta become the second Italian motorcycle manufacturer owned by a German automotive group after Ducati was bought by Audi? Possibly, check back and we’ll let you know. By the way, the header photo comes from this EICMA set.TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Tuesday it was revising teaching manuals to make clear that two sets of remote islands at the center of disputes with China and South Korea are integral parts of its territory, prompting protests from an angry Seoul and Beijing.
Japan's Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in this photo taken by Kyodo January 28, 2014. REUTERS/Kyodo
Japan’s ties with the two countries are increasingly strained over a host of issues, including the territorial rows and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit late last year to the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with millions of war dead.
The conservative Abe has said he wants to revise Japanese history to have a less apologetic tone, a sensitive topic for Asian neighbors such as South Korea and China, where memories linger of Japanese aggression before and during World War Two.
Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said the ministry was revising the manuals to teach “properly” about Japanese history and that it would make diplomatic efforts to explain the move to Japan’s neighbors.
“It is extremely important that the children who will bear our future can properly understand our territory,” he told a news conference.
He said the teaching manuals would be changed to make clear that the rocky islets controlled by South Korea but claimed by both nations, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, were Japanese territory.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry promptly summoned the Japanese ambassador to protest.
Earlier, the Ministry urged Japan to repeal the changes, which it said were teaching children a false claim to the islets.
“Our government strongly condemns this and asks Japan to immediately withdraw it,” it said in a statement.
The manuals will also add reference to the Senkakus, at the center of a dispute with China, which calls them the Diaoyus, and reiterate Tokyo’s stance that these are an integral part of Japanese territory and there is no dispute over their ownership.
China has also lodged a protest, saying the islands have always been Chinese, said Hua Chunying, spokeswoman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“We once more urge Japan to respect historic realities, stop provocations and teach the younger generation a correct historical perspective,” she told a daily news briefing.
Japan’s changes will affect classes in history, geography and civics in junior and senior high schools, but are not legally binding.
Asked about the territorial rows, Shimomura said he felt it was too bad that there were competing claims to the islands and repeated that historically, the islands were part of Japan.
A set of remote islands called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese is seen in this picture taken from a helicopter carrying South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (not pictured), east of Seoul in this August 10, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/The Blue House/Handout
“We must make efforts to politely explain our position to both nations and seek their understanding,” Shimomura said.
The announcement came just days after the head of Japan’s public broadcaster triggered a furor in Asia with comments on military brothels during World War Two. On Monday he expressed regret, terming his remarks as “extremely inappropriate.”
Both China and Korea suffered under Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied in the 1930s and Korea colonized from 1910 to 1945.Honey bees at a hive entrance: One is about to land and another is fanning.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and were known by various names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease),[1] the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in late 2006[2] in conjunction with a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in North America.[3] Most European countries observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially marked in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[4] Switzerland, Germany [5] and the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.[6] The phenomenon became more global when it touched some Asian and African countries too.[7] [8]
Colony collapse disorder causes significant economic losses because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by western honey bees. According to the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the worth of global crops with honey bee pollination was estimated at close to $200 billion in 2005.[9] Shortages of bees in the US have increased the cost to farmers renting them for pollination services by up to 20%.[10]
In the six years leading up to 2013, more than 10 million beehives were lost, often to CCD,[11] nearly twice the normal rate of loss. In comparison, according to U.N. FAO data, the world's beehive stock rose from around 50 million in 1961 to around 83 million in 2014, which is about 1.3% average annual growth. Average annual growth has accelerated to 1.9% since 2009.
Several possible causes for CCD have been proposed, but no single proposal has gained widespread acceptance among the scientific community. Suggested causes include: infections with Varroa and Acarapis mites; malnutrition; various pathogens; genetic factors; immunodeficiencies; loss of habitat; changing beekeeping practices; or a combination of factors.[12] A large amount of speculation has surrounded a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids as having caused CCD.
History [ edit ]
Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1869[13][14] and this set of symptoms has, in the past several decades, been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease).[1] Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to varroa mites (the "vampire mite" scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. The cause of the appearance of this syndrome has never been determined. Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally restricted, and that it may not be a "disease" in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed.[2]
A well-documented outbreak of colony losses spread from the Isle of Wight to the rest of the UK in 1906. These losses later were attributed to a combination of factors, including adverse weather, intensive apiculture leading to inadequate forage, Acarine (tracheal) mites, and a new infection, the chronic bee paralysis virus,[15] but at the time, the cause of this agricultural beekeeping problem was similarly mysterious and unknown.
Reports show this behavior in hives in the US in 1918[16] and 1919.[17] Coined "mystery disease" by some,[18] it eventually became more widely known as "disappearing disease".[19] Oertel, in 1965,[20] reported that hives afflicted with disappearing disease in Louisiana had plenty of honey in the combs, although few or no bees were present, discrediting reports that attributed the disappearances to lack of food.
From 1972 to 2006, dramatic reductions continued in the number of feral honey bees in the U.S.[21] and a significant though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors, such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers' retiring and going out of business. However, in late 2006 and early 2007, the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and people began to use the term colony collapse disorder to describe this sudden rash of disappearances (or sometimes spontaneous hive collapse or the Mary Celeste syndrome in the United Kingdom).[3][22]
Losses had remained stable since the 1990s at 17–20% per year attributable to a variety of factors, such as mites, diseases, and management stress.[23] The first report of CCD was in mid-November 2006 by a Pennsylvania beekeeper overwintering in Florida. By February 2007, large commercial migratory beekeepers wintering in California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas had reported heavy losses associated with CCD.[23] Their reports of losses varied widely, ranging from 30% to 90% of their bee colonies; in some cases, beekeepers reported losses of nearly all of their colonies with surviving colonies so weakened that they might no longer be able to pollinate or produce honey.[24]
In late February 2007, some larger nonmigratory beekeepers in the mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest regions also reported significant losses of more than 50%.[23] Colony losses also were reported in five Canadian provinces, several European countries, and countries in South and Central America and Asia. In 2010, the USDA reported that data on overall honey bee losses for 2010 indicated an estimated 34% loss, which is statistically similar to losses reported in 2007, 2008, and 2009.[24] Fewer colony losses occurred in the U.S. over the winter of 2013–2014 than in recent years. Total losses of managed honey bee colonies from all causes were 23.2% nationwide, a marked improvement over the 30.5% loss reported for the winter of 2012–2013 and the eight-year average loss of 29.6%.[25]
After bee populations dropped 23% in the winter of 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture formed a task force to address the issue.[26] In the six years leading up to 2013, more than 10 million beehives were lost, often to CCD, nearly twice the normal rate of loss.[11] However, according to Syngenta and the F.A.O., the total number of beehives worldwide continues to grow.[27] An insecticide produced by Syngenta was banned by the European Commission in 2013 for use in crops pollinated by bees.[28] Syngenta together with Bayer is challenging this ban in court.[29]
Signs and symptoms [ edit ]
Visit to a bee colony in West Virginia
CCD is not the same as colony decline that can be caused by various issues such as queen health, varroa mite infestation, nutrition, and various diseases.[30] In collapsed colonies, CCD is suspected when few adult bees are in the colony. Unlike other acute causes of dieoff such as pesticide exposure, few if any dead bees are found in or in front of the hive.[31] A colony that has collapsed from CCD is generally characterized by all of these conditions occurring simultaneously:[32][33]
Presence of capped brood in abandoned colonies: Bees normally do not abandon a hive until the capped brood have all hatched.
Presence of food stores, both honey and bee pollen: that other bees do not rob immediately with significantly delayed attacked by hive pests such as wax moths and small hive beetles [30]
Presence of the queen bee: If the queen is not present, the hive died because it was queenless, which is not considered CCD.
Precursor symptoms that may arise before the final colony collapse are:
Inability to maintain current brood due to low workforce
Colony includes mostly young adult bees
Bees are reluctant to consume provided feed, such as sugar syrup and protein supplement.
Scope and distribution [ edit ]
United States [ edit ]
US honey bee hives 1982-2015
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported 2.44 million honey-producing hives were in the United States in February 2008, down from 4.5 million in 1980, and 5.9 million in 1947, though these numbers underestimate the total number of managed hives, as they exclude several thousand hives managed for pollination contracts only, and also do not include hives managed by beekeepers owning fewer than five hives. This under-representation may be offset by the practice of counting some hives more than once; hives that are moved to different states to produce honey are counted in each state's total and summed in total counts.[34]
In 2007 in the US, at least 24 different states[35] had reported at least one case of CCD.[36] In a 2007 survey of 384 responding beekeepers from 13 states, 23.8% met the specified criterion for CCD (that 50% or more of their dead colonies were found without bees and/or with very few dead bees in the hive or apiary).[36] In 2006–2007, CCD-suffering operations had a total loss of 45% compared to the total loss of 25% of all colonies experienced by non-CCD suffering beekeepers.[34][36]
A 2007–2008 survey of over 19% of all US colonies revealed a total loss of 35.8%. Operations that pollinated almonds lost, on average, the same number of colonies as those that did not. The 37.9% of operations that reported having at least some of their colonies die with a complete lack of bees had a total loss of 40.8% of colonies compared to the 17.1% loss reported by beekeepers without this symptom. Large operations were more likely to have this symptom, suggesting a contagious condition may be a causal factor. About 60% of all colonies that were reported dead in this survey died without the presence of dead bees in the hive, thus possibly suffered from CCD.[34]
Between 2007 and 2013 after CCD was described in the US, annual winter colony losses doubled from 15% pre-CCD to 30%. Such loss rates fell to 24% from 2014 to 2017 and CCD symptoms were not as commonly associated with hive losses.[37] While CCD has increased hive losses, honey bee colony numbers in the US have remained stable or grown since the identification of CCD.[38]
Throughout the year in 2017, NASS reported total US hives ranged between 2.63 and 2.99 million throughout the year for operations with more than five colonies, and 35 to 43 thousand hives for those with fewer than five colonies. In the same here, operations with more than 5 colonies lost 77.8 thousand hives (2.6 to 3.0%) with CCD symptoms and those with fewer than 5 colonies lost 6 thousand hives (14 to 17%) with CCD symptoms.[39]
Europe [ edit ]
According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), in 2007, the United Kingdom had 274,000 hives, Italy had 1,091,630, and France 1,283,810. In 2008, the British Beekeepers Association reported the bee population in the United Kingdom dropped by around 30% between 2007 and 2008, and an EFSA study revealed that in Italy the mortality rate was 40–50%. However, EFSA officials point out the figures are not very reliable because before the bees started dying, no harmonisation was used in the way different countries collected statistics on their bee populations. At that time (2008), the reports blamed the high death rate on the varroa mite, two seasons of unusually wet European summers, and some pesticides.[40]
In 2009, Tim Lovett, president of the British Beekeepers' Association, said: "Anecdotally, it is hugely variable. There are reports of some beekeepers losing almost a third of their hives and others losing none." John Chapple, chairman of the London Beekeepers' Association, put losses among his 150 members at between a fifth and a quarter. "There are |
city’s venues. Is her focus culture or the economy? Can she do both? “It may be more economically beneficial for a development company to build luxury flats than keeping a pub going, but actually, when you tot up how many jobs are supported by the night-time economy – one in eight jobs – there are economic benefits to keeping people in a locality.” She cites Dalston, in east London, as an example of people flooding into an area for its nightlife, and spending money in its shops, restaurants, takeaways and taxi firms.
But much of east London has undergone a crackdown by the Metropolitan police on what they term “alcohol-related crimes”, which has left proprietors in “a constant panic” about whether their licenses could be revoked. Dalston was deemed a Special Policy Area in 2014, to tackle “anti-social behaviour and noise”, despite 84% of people surveyed there opposing the measure. This year saw the closure of two of its best venues, Passing Clouds and the Dance Tunnel. There is a risk that London could end up with a sanitised, palatable kind of nightlife, rather than the real deal – and something similar is happening across the country. “I can’t pretend that this isn’t a tricky issue,” Lamé says. “I want to make sure everyone in London has the kind of nightlife that they want, whether it’s raving til 4am or getting a good night’s sleep.”
One of the ways she aims to help people sleep was part of Kahn’s mayoral manifesto: a principle called “agents of change”, which says that if property developers build near clubs or venues, it is their responsibility to make sure the sound-proofing is sufficient. The Curzon cinema in Mayfair, for example, is at risk of closure after 80 years owing to noise potentially seeping into the new flats that are being built above it. Lamé says the scheme has already been successful in Elephant and Castle, where flats were built next to the Ministry of Sound club with provisions for extra noise. It’s a sensible idea. Will it be compulsory? “Well. In a few years, that is the hope. It will take a little while to get that in place. But the developers I’ve spoken to have been very receptive.”
End of the party: how police and councils are calling time on Britain’s nightlife Read more
In August, following the separate drug-related deaths of two teenagers, the superclub Fabric had its license suspended by Islington council; it was permanently closed in September, in part due to what the council called a “culture of drugs”. Following a campaign to save the club, supported by many in the music world, and by Khan, an agreement was reached last month by which the club would reopen with strict new measures in place. These include a ban on under-19s on some nights, “covert surveillance” inside, lifetime bans for anyone caught with drugs and “enhanced searching procedures and controls”.
Lamé says she is “thrilled” that Fabric has reopened. “It’s really good news for the night-time economy.” Even with such strict rules? “They wouldn’t have signed up to them if they didn’t feel they could adhere to it.” Had she been in charge when it was closed down, she says, her hope is that it would not have reached crisis point in the first place. “Obviously lines of communication had severely broken down, between police, owners, punters and the council. My role is to be able to get everybody around the table and talk these things through. Everybody wants to have a safe night out. It’s tragic those boys died. I would never want anything like that to happen ever again, and we have to do everything we can to prevent that.”
But is it really the responsibility of the venue to stop its punters taking drugs? Lamé shifts a little in her seat. “Drugs are illegal,” she says, toeing the line. “Drugs are illegal and the police do everything they can to ensure everyone has a safe night out. Fabric is clear – they released a statement saying there is no such thing as taking drugs safely.”
The fact is, though, that people on nights out do sometimes take drugs. The UK has the highest cocaine use among young people in Europe. Ecstasy and LSD use is increasing year on year. It is another juggling act for a night tsar to work out whether it is possible to have a frank conversation about drugs in a climate where she is already, a month in, so heavily scrutinised. “It is a fact of life, and if we ignore it we’re ignoring something that’s a huge part of society. I’ve had some very productive conversations with the police in my first few weeks in the job.” But, she says delicately, it’s important for her not to take sides. “It’s just as important that I listen to police as to people who do want to go out and rave and take various substances. And that those voices are heard in balance – until now that maybe hasn’t been the case.”
Lamé is a long-time Labour party member. She spent the night before her wedding at an LGBT event at 10 Downing Street, when Gordon Brown was prime minister, and unsuccessfully stood for Labour candidate selection in 2014 in Dulwich and West Norwood. She is cautious about discussing the current state of the party, calling it a “big family with room for lots of different personalities” but will point out that Labour is in “an incredibly strong position in London at the moment. Sadiq’s mandate is enormous.” That isn’t reflected outside of London, I say. “Yes, but we’re in London.”
What of the semi-serious post-Brexit suggestion floated by some Remain supporters that London should splinter off into its own state? “We’ve seen the benefits of having people from all over the world in this city. It’s one of the things that makes us so strong, so vibrant, so successful. There is this disconnect in a way, because as Londoners we appreciate that and then you go outside of London and a huge majority of people voted for Brexit and are anti-immigration or want curbs on it. It’s a debate we have to have, but for Londoners I think it’s particularly difficult because we just see the great benefits of multicultural society.”
When Lamé was first appointed, Gareth Bacon, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, quoted several of her old tweets, in which she called George Osborne a “cunt”, Ruth Davidson “Tory scum” and said “Ding dong the witch is dead” on the day Thatcher died. Lamé has been largely diplomatic and by the book in our conversation so far, but she is crisp when I bring it up today. “I’ve apologised, profusely,” she says, looking exasperated. She has also deleted the tweets. “I’ve never lived my life like I was preparing to do a job in public service. But now, I won’t be tweeting like that any more. I’ve apologised to the people who were offended.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amy Lamé on stage at Duckie, the cabaret and performance art group she helped found
Much of the criticism levelled against her by Conservatives has been wrapped up in the implication that she is a famous face in a ceremonial position without the expertise necessary to handle the “economy” part of the “night-time economy”. It was initially reported that the tsar would also take over the London Night Time Commission; the roles now appear to have been split. “The Night Time Commission is a group of stakeholders that work across the night-time sector. And I will be a part of that. I will definitely be a part of that. I’m just not going to chair it,” she says. “People have made a really big deal about this, but I don’t feel like it was much of an issue to be honest.”
Well, it implies that you won’t have any real power. “I have 21 years’ experience of running my own nightclub, on the front line of the night-time economy. I’ve worked for the last three-and-a-half years and chaired a community organisation to save our local pub. Some of the things the Tories have been saying I just don’t recognise, because my experience on the frontline is copper-bottomed.”
The brutality of the shift from club night to City Hall was expected, but there have been times when the toxicity of the political world has been surprising. “I’ve had death threats, I’ve had rape threats,” she says, sadly. “Someone sent me a tweet that said: ‘I hope you get raped to death by Muslims.’ With a smiley face at the end. It’s shocking. Block, report, block, report. You have to build resilience to be a woman in the public eye in 2016.”
Lamé says she’s optimistic that she can make London’s nightlife better. I tell her I think she’s facing an impossible task. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s easy. It isn’t. But I love London at night so much. Growing up in America, but living here for the last 24 years, I have a kind of optimistic cynicism. It’s all the cynicism of being British with the optimism of being American.”
After all, she came to London for its nightlife, to live in the place she’d heard Morrissey singing about. “All I wanted to do was dance until the small hours and be with my friends and have a few drinks and soak all that up.” And she’s still doing it – she’s off to DJ at the Labour Women’s Network Christmas party tonight, and Duckie, which started in 1995, still happens every Saturday. “After 21 years! It doesn’t lose its potency.”Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen once wrote, " is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies." This simple statement sets a perfect scene in our minds of what jealousy feels like; Others are happy, overtly joyful or secretly mocking, while we are left alone to look like a fool.
However, what drives us to feel jealous and suffer over this stirring emotion isn't always the "smiling enemies" we formulate in our minds. The "sexy secretary" and "college love" are rarely the threats we think they are, but the overwhelming, possessed state of suspicion we enter because of these characters, can be a real hazard to our closest.
Jealousy itself can take on a sort of wicked presence in our lives. Actions taken on its behalf have been known to crush a budding romance, slowly erode a longstanding union or even lead to serious abuse. In a blog I recently wrote for The Huffington Post on "sexting" cheating couples out of real intimacy, I described how the ease and accessibility of technology now breeds even more distrust and between couples. Email, text messaging and can be a perfect platform for forging new connections. And as the floodgates of communication open, the green waves of jealousy begin to flow.
Jealousy isn't something we have much control over. In truth, it is a natural, instinctive emotion that everyone experiences at one point or another. The problem with jealousy is that it masks other feelings and attitudes that are even more hurtful to us and those closest to us. Its intensity is often shielding deep-seated feelings of possessiveness, insecurity or shame. I believe that what lies at the heart of jealousy very often isn't the threat itself, but a drive we have within us to torment ourselves and berate ourselves with self-critical thoughts.
Think about the thoughts we have when we feel jealous. Lurking behind the toward our partners, or the criticisms toward a perceived third-party threat, are often critical thoughts toward ourselves. Thoughts like, "What does he see in her?" can quickly turn into "She is so much prettier/thinner/more successful than me!" Even when our worst fears materialize and we learn of a partner's affair, we frequently react by directing at ourselves for being "foolish, unlovable, ruined or unwanted."
These critical inner voices and the feelings of that they foster can be more painful to us than the threat itself. They can also be more real. This negative self- accompanies us into our personal relationships and instills in us a level of doubt and criticism that keeps us from perceiving ourselves as truly lovable. It reminds us to be suspicious with thoughts like, "She doesn't really care about you" or "You can't trust him. Just keep him at a distance."
This internal coach was formed from negative experiences we had as children. Whether we were witness to a destructive interpersonal relationship or were made to feel bad about ourselves by a significant parental figure, we internalized these experiences by identifying with the destructive attitudes that were being expressed. If we felt insignificant because we were ignored, it is very likely we have carried this insecurity with us into adulthood and into any romantic relationship we form.
Many of us are often unaware of the basic shame that exists within us, because it comes so naturally to think self-critical thoughts about ourselves. Yet, shame from our past can heavily influence the degree to which we feel jealous and insecure in the present. In a serious relationship, real hurt from rejection or betrayal can trigger old feelings that there is something basically wrong with us.
In the same way, this inner critic turns on us, it also turns on those closest to us. When we notice ourselves fostering unwarranted suspicions or accusing our partners of being "distracted, rejecting, insensitive or cruel," it is important to consider how much of this is our real point of view and how much is a product of the coaching of our critical. Are these criticisms based on real events or actions? Are our unfavorable reactions disproportionate to the situation?
While real rejections do hurt, long-term harm is primarily caused by how our critical inner voice continues to criticize and influence us long after the incident is over. When we listen to destructive self-coaching that fuels our insecurity and distrust, we risk acting on our emotions to a degree that hurts both us and those close to us. Over time, we become less like the person we really are and more like the person our critical inner voice is defining us as.
For example, when we end up searching our partner's cell phone for suspicious texts or restricting our partner from having of the opposite, we may be acting on old self-doubt and mistrust that has nothing to do with current circumstances. Even if we do then find a text message from an ex in our partner's phone or hear that our partner hung out with an attractive co-worker at a company event, we may overreact in a way that neither we nor our partners are likely to respect.
Accepting these negative attacks and not challenging them can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy by creating actual distance between ourselves and our partners, pushing them further away from us, perhaps ultimately into another person's arms. Even when our "worst fears" are realized, no act of dishonesty or even should be used as evidence for the attacks our critical inner voice has been leveling against us.
the roots, triggers and reasons for our feelings of jealousy is an important part of maintaining a healthy relationship. To do this, we must be aware of the critical inner voices driving our uncertainties and self-doubt. If we can identify these thoughts, we can challenge them as the "smiling enemies" they are, the ones that want us to wind up alone. We can act against the thoughts that tell us to be suspicious, mistrusting and accusatory.
Though challenging these thoughts may initially make us and may even intensify the voice attacks in the short run, in the long run it will strengthen us as individuals and improve our trust and communication with our partners. The more we weaken this internal enemy, the more we strengthen a positive sense of self. This will enable us to accept the reality that we are loved and reject the misperception that we are going to be betrayed. And if there were an infidelity, we would be much better able to get through it if we weren't letting our critical inner voice get the better of us.
To read more from Dr. Lisa Firestone on relationships visit PsychAlive -- Alive to IntimacyKYIV -- The leading contender to represent Ukraine in this year's Eurovision song contest is a 32-year-old Crimean Tatar with a heart-rending song recalling how Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the mass deportation of her entire nation to Central Asia in 1944.
Singer Jamala won the national quarterfinal competition with her song 1944, receiving the highest scores both from the judges and from the text-message voting -- even though the vast majority of Crimean Tatars were unable to cast ballots because they live in Crimea, which was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014. (Ukrainian telecom companies were kicked out of the region following the Russian takeover, and now their equipment is being used there by Russian firms.)
"It makes me very sad," Jamala told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. "I know that many of my supporters are in Crimea. Many people wrote to me that they would send texts anyway, because they support me. I tell them they are wasting their money and their votes don't count, but they tell me they are sending them anyway."
Nonetheless, Jamala's performance at the February 6 quarterfinals in Kyiv produced an outpouring of support on social media.
"Your music today made me understand the pain of our loss of Crimea," wrote a user identified as Ruslan. "I simply wept along with you."
WATCH: Jamala Sings 1944
With English lyrics and a chorus in Crimean Tatar, 1944 evokes the Soviet Red Army's deportation of nearly 250,000 Crimean Tatars in May of that year. The Soviet government had accused the Crimean Tatars of collaborating with the Germans while the Nazis occupied the peninsula, so the nation was forcibly resettled to Central Asia and remote regions of Russia.
"Where is your mind?" Jamala sings in English. "Humanity cries. You think you are gods. But everyone dies. Don't swallow my soul. Our souls."
Then she switches to the chorus in Crimean Tatar, which borrows from a sort of unofficial national anthem of Crimean Tatars called Winds Of Alushta, a reference to a town in Crimea: "I couldn't enjoy my youth. I couldn't live there. I couldn't enjoy my youth. I couldn't live there."
Somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of the deportees died within the first two years of exile, a tragedy Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada recognized in November as genocide.
'Difficult' Song
"This song really is about my family, my grandmother," Jamala told RFE/RL. "I had to write it. I really go through that time both when I wrote it and when I perform it. It is a memorial song and it is difficult for me to sing it."
Many Crimean Tatars writing on social media noted that the song reflects the situation in Crimea today, where Russian authorities have been accused of massive human-rights violations against Crimean Tatars.
Jamala, whose full name is Susana Dzhamaladinova, was born in Kyrgyzstan in 1983, where her family settled after her father's parents endured the deportation. Jamala and her father are Muslims, while her mother is a Christian of Armenian descent.
She began studying classical music as a child in Soviet Kyrgyzstan and later studied at the Simferopol Music College after her family was able to return to Crimea. However, her true love was jazz and she began entering vocal competitions while still a teenager. She won the grand prize at the New Wave festival in Jurmala, Latvia, in 2009.
In 2011, Jamala reached the finals of Ukraine's Eurovision competition with the song Smile (below). However, she withdrew from the competition before the final round to protest perceived irregularities in the voting procedures.
Crimean Tatar leaders have pledged to work with Ukrainian Eurovision organizers to develop a system to enable people in Crimea to vote in the second semifinal on February 13 and the final on February 21.
"If Crimeans are not able to vote in such Ukrainian competitions, we are silently agreeing with those who say Crimea is not part of Ukraine," said Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov.
Jamala noted that 1944 is not only about the past. When she sings it, she said, she remembers her own family, which is still in Crimea.
"Now the Crimean Tatars are on occupied territory," she told RFE/RL. "And it is very hard for them. They are under tremendous pressure. Some have disappeared without a trace. And that is terrifying. I would not want to see history repeat itself."
WATCH: Jamala Performs 1944 (A Cappella Version)
RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report from PragueNew York Times Tries and Fails to Cover Up Extensive Links to ISIS by Senator McCain, Chairman of the International Republican Institute, National Endowment For Democracy
Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
October 21, 2014
“Conspiracy Theory!!!” cried the New York Times in its recent attempt to defend John McCain against revelations that show the Senator from Arizona providing material support to terrorism. The NY Times was called into action to “debunk” the evidence that McCain had met with terrorists, cannibals, and ISIS militants in Syria after the photographs of those meetings began circulating in the alternative media and more mainstream figures began to pick up on and run with them over the last few months. From the New York Times, Rick Gladstone writes,
Senator John McCain was one of the earliest advocates of American military action against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. So it has been vexing for Mr. McCain to be battling persistent — and false — Internet rumors that he not only helped invent the group but also knows its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslim world and America’s latest Public Enemy No. 1. The rumors are based partly on images of a Syrian fighter who resembles Mr. Baghdadi, seen in photographs with Mr. McCain — some originally posted on Twitter by the senator — during his visit in May 2013 to northern Syria. He met members of the Free Syrian Army, an insurgent group that opposes ISIS and that President Obama, in a speech Wednesday on his new strategy for battling ISIS, has vowed to strengthen. Nurtured by conspiracy blogposts, social media and photo-altering tricks, the false rumors of Mr. McCain’s relationship with ISIS have taken on a life of their own.
While the NY Times denies the photographs showing John McCain and Baghdadi together, it freely admits that McCain met with the Free Syrian Army, itself a terrorist organization responsible for indiscriminate killings, imposition of sharia law, murders, rapes, cannibalism and more.
Although Gladstone and the NY Times attempt to portray the FSA as moderate rebels, the writer and the publication should remember one of its own articles from as far back as April, 2013, written by Ben Hubbard. Hubbard wrote,
In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of. [emphasis added]
Even one of the FSA commanders, Bassel Idriss, recently admitted to openly collaborating with ISIS and al-Nusra, revealing yet another example of the fact that the “moderate rebels” are not moderate at all.
In an interview with the Daily Star of Lebanon, Idriss stated “We are collaborating with the Islamic State and the Nusra Front by attacking the Syrian Army’s gatherings in... Qalamoun.... Let’s face it: The Nusra Front is the biggest power present right now in Qalamoun and we as FSA would collaborate on any mission they launch as long as it coincides with our values.”
Idriss also admitted that many FSA fighters had pledged allegiance to ISIS. He said, “[ISIS] wanted to enhance its presence in the Western Qalamoun area. After the fall of Yabroud and the FSA’s retreat into the hills [around Arsal], many units pledged allegiance [to ISIS]”.
Abu Fidaa, a retired Syrian Army Colonel who is now a part of the Revolutionary Council in the Qalamoun, corroborated Idrisss’ statements by saying that “A very large number of FSA members [in Arsal] have joined ISIS and Nusra. In the end, people want to eat, they want to live, and the Islamic State has everything.”
Not only the FSA, but also the Syrian Revolutionary Front has also openly admitted to working with Nusra and al-Qaeda. The leader of the SRF, Jamaal Maarouf admitted that his brigades coordinate with Nusra and al-Qaeda regularly.
Salem Idriss, one of the men seen in the photograph with John McCain, is the commander of the FSA, the “opposition group” touted as a “moderate rebels.” In reality, of course, the FSA is nothing of the sort. As Daniel Wagner wrote for the Huffington Post in December, 2012,
In the outskirts of Aleppo, the FSA has implemented a Sharia law enforcement police force that is a replica of the Wahhabi police in Saudi Arabia — forcing ordinary citizens to abide by the Sharia code. This is being done in a secular country which has never known Sharia Law. This type of action is currently also being implemented in northern Mali, where the West has officially declared its opposition to the al-Qaeda government that took control earlier this year. If what is happening near Aleppo is representative of what may happen if the FSA assumes control of Syria, the country may become an Islamic state. Is that really what the U.S. and other Western countries are intending to tacitly support? […] Indeed, the FSA has also been targeting the infrastructure of the country. One of the main power plants in Damascus was knocked out for three days last week, impacting 40 percent of the city’s residents. Do ‘freedom fighters’ typically attack critical infrastructure that impacts ordinary citizens on a mass scale? The FSA long ago stopped targeting solely government and military targets.
The FSA is no stranger to atrocities. The FSA is the “moderate opposition” that was filmed forcing a young child to behead a Syrian soldier. It is also the “moderate opposition” that maintained “burial brigades,” a system of mass murder and mass executions against soldiers and those who support the Syrian government. The burial brigades were only one small part of a much wider campaign of terror and executions implemented by the Free Syrian Army.
Of course, the Free Syrian Army is merely the umbrella group of death squads carefully crafted to present a “moderate” face on what is, in reality, nothing more than savage terrorists. Thus, the FSA encompasses(d) a number of smaller “brigades” of al-Qaeda terrorists in order to cover up the true nature of its own ranks.
One such brigade was the Farouq brigade, to which Abu Sakkar was a member. Sakkar, also seen in photographs with John McCain, was the famous rebel videotaped cutting the heart out of a Syrian soldier and biting into it.
Yet, for all its noble attempts to protect McCain’s terrorist sympathies, the evidence the organization provides in his defense is incredibly weak. Note that the only thing the Times can produce in the way of evidence is a counter-claim that simply says the accusations are “internet rumours” and that the person in the picture with McCain simply looks like Baghdadi. The idea that he is Baghdadi is considered an impossibility.
The only other offering in the way of McCain’s defense is a statement by his own Communications Director, Brian Rogers, who claims that the man in the picture was not Baghdadi but another individual associated with the Northern Storm Brigade, ironically a terrorist organization in its own right. Northern Storm was famous for kidnapping a group of religious pilgrims crossing through Syria in September, 2012.
Nevertheless, the comparisons of the photographs and the individuals in them lean toward the idea that the terrorist in the picture is Baghdadi. Regardless of who it was, the individual was a terrorist since McCain’s defense is that it was a fighter/commander with Northern Storm.
The New York Times’ Gladstone might also be surprised to learn that “the false rumors of Mr. McCain’s relationship to ISIS” was confirmed by none other than John McCain himself. On the Sean Hannity Show, when responding to some tepid criticism by Rand Paul regarding the methods taken to support the death squads in Syria, McCain stated,
Has Rand Paul ever been to Syria? Has he ever met with ISIS? Has he ever met with any of these people? No. No. We’re gonna have a fight because it’s patently false. This is the same Rand Paul that said we didn’t want to have anything to do with anything by the way. I don’t want to get in a fight with him at all. But it’s not true. I know these people. I’m in contact with them all the time and he is not.
Earlier in the interview, after stating that he could personally show Obama places on the map to bomb in Syria to kill ISIS, he also stated that, in regards to the death squads, “I know these people intimately. We talk to them all the time.”
McCain’s also referred back to the tired line of Syrian death squads actually being peaceful protesters “fighting for freedom.”
So McCain has met with at least three terrorists and terrorist organizations in Syria. But these groups are by no means the end of the trail of McCain’s treachery or his connection to terrorism. After all, it must be remembered that McCain traveled to Libya during the assault against Ghaddafi in order to meet with terrorists in that country and promote the barbarism which they would ultimately bring. As Tony Cartalucci writes in his article, “John McCain Claims Al-Qaeda Thugs Have ‘Inspired The World,’”
It should also be noted that McCain is extremely close to the color revolution apparatus organization, the International Republican Institute, a wing of the National Endowment for Democracy and USAID.[1] In fact, he is the current Chairman of the IRI.
As it currently stands, the fact that some people are more equal than others is clearly proven in the case of John McCain. While any other American would be immediately imprisoned and possibly tortured as a result of their connections to terrorism, John McCain is rewarded with the title of U.S. Senator and the false label of “war hero.”
While John McCain has proven his disloyalty to the United States time and time again – from his scuttling of Congressional inquiries into the existence of American prisoners of war in Vietnam to the support for obvious terrorists overseas, the mainstream media has consistently given him a pass on his treasonous behavior.
It is thus important for every American to know that not only is there no such thing as a moderate opposition in Syria but that John McCain is no American hero. If the Americans mentioned in the recent AP report can be investigated, tried, and convicted of providing support for terrorists operating abroad then surely John McCain has earned his day in court.President-elect Donald Trump on Friday released the names of members of his presidential transition team – and it is bristling with conservative names such as Flynn, Giuliani, Sessions, Blackburn, Collins, Mercer and Bannon.
The team will address the thousands of decisions that need to be made as Trump prepares to be sworn into the office of president on Jan. 20, from the thousands of appointments to legislative priorities.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence was named chairman, and Dr. Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions will be vice chairs.
The executive committee:
Congressman Lou Barletta
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
Congressman Chris Collins
Jared Kushner
Congressman Tom Marino
Rebekah Mercer
Steven Mnuchin
Congressman Devin Nunes
Anthony Scaramucci
Peter Thiel
Donald Trump Jr.
Eric Trump
Ivanka Trump
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Trump Campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon
Sign the precedent-setting petition supporting Trump’s call for an independent prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton!
Trump explained, “Together this outstanding group of advisers, led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, will build on the initial work done under the leadership of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to help prepare a transformative government ready to lead from day one.
“The mission of our team will be clear: put together the most highly qualified group of successful leaders who will be able to implement our change agenda in Washington. Together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding this nation – specifically jobs, security and opportunity. This team is going to get to work immediately to Make America Great Again.”
Also confirmed was the appointment of Rick Dearborn, chief of staff to Sessions, as the executive director of the team.
And Richard Bagger, executive director during the preparation phase, will return to the private sector but will remain with the team as an adviser, as will preparation-phase general counsel Bill Palatucci.
Other appointments include Kellyanne Conway as senior adviser, David Bossie as deputy executive director, Stephen Miller as national policy director, Jason Miller as communications director, Hope Hicks as national press secretary, Dan Scavino as director of social media, Don McGahn as general counsel and Katie Walsh as senior adviser.
Advising Pence will be Nick Ayers, Josh Pitcock and Marc Short.
“President-elect Trump will bring about fundamental change in Washington, and these are the right people to make that happen,” Pence added.
“This team of experienced leaders will form the building blocks of our Presidential Transition Team staff leadership roster, and will work with elected officials and tireless volunteers to prepare our government for the transfer of power on January 20th.”
Sign the precedent-setting petition supporting Trump’s call for an independent prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton!Experts say it would not be logistically possible for India to deploy its troops in land-locked Afghanistan and that it would best suit India to continue developmental assistance to the war-ravaged country.
New Delhi (Sputnik) — India has cleared the air regarding any possibility they'll engage militarily in Afghanistan under the South Asia policy of the US. During a joint press conference with visiting US Defense Secretary James Mattis, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India will continue with its developmental and medical assistance to Afghanistan but will not send troops.
Speculation about the deployment of Indian troops in Afghanistan had been fueled by last month's announcement of America's new South Asia policy.
"There shall not be any boots on the ground from India," Sitharaman said in response to questions in New Delhi on Tuesday.
© AP Photo / Manish Swarup India, US to Expand Defense Cooperation After Mattis' Visit - Minister
"As you are aware, India welcomed [US President Donald Trump's] new US strategy for Afghanistan announced last month. Today, I had useful discussions with Secretary Mattis on how we could strengthen our cooperation bilaterally as well as with the government of Afghanistan in pursuit of our common objective of a peaceful, democratic, stable and prosperous Afghanistan," Sitharaman said in a joint statement.
Mattis landed in India on Monday for his maiden visit, the first by a cabinet member of the Trump administration. "As we work to strengthen our defense relationship, we seek to expand our co-operation in building partnerships across the region. In particular, we applaud India's invaluable contributions to Afghanistan and welcome further efforts to promote Afghanistan's democracy, stability and security," Mattis said.
Experts in India welcomed the statement and said that it does not suit India to position its troops in the landlocked country. "You need a secure air, rail or road access to Afghanistan to maintain 24/7 support to our military that is not possible in the current scenario as you cannot use it through Pakistan and the Iran route is also not feasible in the backdrop of tension between Tehran and Washington. Therefore, in this kind of uncertainty, you cannot position your forces in Afghanistan and make them operate over there," retired Brigadier Rumel Dahiya, a defense and strategic analyst, told Sputnik.
The Indian government had announced defense assistance to Afghanistan including 116 High Impact Community Development Projects in 31 provinces earlier this month. In the last 15 years, India has pledged assistance worth over $3 billion towards various capacity building and infrastructure development projects and has successfully implemented several large, medium and small development projects spread across Afghanistan.Germany discount grocer Lidl isn’t standing still in its grand US entrance as reports of store planning in Ohio and Texas have been confirmed to be underway, making it the company’s first big push to the west as its initial round of stores have so far held to the upper East Coast states.
Planed Grocery, a group that tracks records of proposed, planned and under construction grocery stores, has been able to track down 130 Lidl sites, up from the store’s initial 100 location rollout. Another data firm, MTN Retail Advisors, believes they have more than 233 Lidl locations on the map.
Two of the locations that Planned Grocery claims to have official confirmation on are said to be in the Houston, Texas area, but signs show this specific expansion southbound to be an isolated rollout. States along the Gulf Coast may have to wait for their own Lidl stores.
Expansion into the Midwest however seems to be moving in line. On Thursday, Lidl confirmed interest in an Ohio rollout to Supermarket News, but that the move could take some time. While the Lidl spokesman would not formally say the expansion was a done deal, local media reports in Ohio say otherwise. A site near Youngstown is said to be under consideration and several other locations near Dayton and Cincinnati are being looked at as possibilities.
Looking to find whether a Lidl location is coming your way? Check out our list of towns believed to be among the first to experience the Lidl experience.UPDATED: "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" still enjoys an OK opening to come in No. 2 despite nasty weather; "The Wolf of Wall Street" beats "American Hustle."
Disney's Frozen continued its remarkable ride at the box office on the first weekend of 2014, topping the chart in North America with $20.7 million and skating past the $600 million mark worldwide. The family tentpole, released at Thanksgiving, took in $52.5 million overseas from 49 markets for a world total of $639.9 million through Sunday.
It's virtually unheard of for a movie to rocket back to No. 1 more than six weeks into its run (the only other time Frozen placed No. 1 was over the Dec. 6-8 weekend). Frozen is now the most successful title of all time from Disney Animation Studios.
Placing No. 2 domestically was the weekend's only new release, Paramount's Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. The spinoff took in a solid $18.2 million but, like |
films, massive hits in their day, might have trouble getting made in the current environment regardless of the name above the title. That’s a problem because diminishing star power means that the number of people who can get risky projects greenlit has narrowed, and studio executives are not routinely known for taking the path of more resistance.
Fortune may favor the bold, but not in Hollywood.Cape Town - Lock Eben Etzebeth is set to become the youngest Springbok to reach the 50-Test milestone when he faces the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday.
Kick-off is at 12:05 (SA time).
Etzebeth, 24, made his Test debut at the age of 20 against England in Durban in 2012 and has since established himself as the Springboks' first-choice No 4.
Wales' George North is the current record holder for the youngest player to 50 Tests when he achieved the feat ages 22 and 322 days.
To commemorate the occasion, Etzebeth’s sponsors have created a specially embroidered yellow GEL-Lethal Scrum boots for him to wear during the match.
"Being the youngest Springbok to reach 50 caps speaks volumes of the hard work that Eben puts in both on and off the field. Achievements such as these don't come from simply wanting them. Eben has shown in his desire and hunger to achieve and perform that he wants it more and we expect him to reach even greater heights in the future", says Sarah Mundy, ASICS South Africa Marketing Manager.
The Springbok team to play the Wallabies will be announced at 19:00 (SA time) on Wednesday.China's censors have reacted to news that President Xi Jinping had a species of beetle named after him by erasing the discovery from the Internet.
The 63-year-old, who is known as Big Daddy or Daddy Xi, is nurturing something of a personality cult and the comparison with a lowly insect has apparently not going down well with him.
The taxonomist responsible - Cheng-Bin Wang, from the southern island of Hainan – apparently named the beetle as a ‘tremendous honour’ for the president and will have been mortified to learn that it was taken as an insult.
China's President Xi Jinping, seen here in Tacoma, Washington, during a visit to the US last year, is the subject of a personality cult and censors keep a close watch for negative references on the Internet
INSECTS NAMED AFTER FAMOUS PEOPLE Anophthalmus Hitleri - beetle, named after Adolf Hitler Aptostichus Barackobamai - spider, named after US President Obama Marxella and Marxiana - wasps, named after Karl Marx Mirina Confucius - moth, named after Confucius Orontobia Dalailama - moth, named after the Dalai Lama Aegomorphus Wojtylai - beetle, named after Pope John Paul II Pheidole Roosevelti - ant, named after former US President Theodore Roosevelt Cheguevaria - beetle, named after Che Guevara Agathidium Rumsfeldi - beetle, named after Donald Rumsfeld Aptostichus Chavezi - spider, named after Cesar Chavez
Mr Wang, who is affiliated to the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, christened the species Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) Xii when he discovered it recently.
Writing in the taxonomy journal Zootaxa, he said: ‘The specific epithet is dedicated to Dr Xi Jin-Ping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, for his leadership making our motherland stronger and stronger.’
His eight-page paper, published last month, went into great detail about the magnificent creature which has a ‘genital segment...moderately long and narrowly rounded at tip’.
Mr Wang told the AFP news agency he greatly admired the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and saw the beetle as a symbol of Mr Xi’s achievements.
He said: ‘The Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) is very rare – you might not encounter a single one even after 10 field collection sessions – and it also eats rotten wood for food.
‘So it’s a metaphor for Xi Jinping, a rare person you only encounter once a century, and specifically his controls on corruption, which will allow Chinese corruption to gradually disappear.’
But the US-based China Digital Times said references to the bug have been deleted from the Internet that is visible to web users in China.
Large numbers of external news websites and information sources – varying from the BBC to Zootaxa – are either blocked entirely or interfered with by Chinese censors on a regular basis.
President Xi Jinping, who took over in 2012, is revered in a way that has not been seen in China since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. His image is seen here on a poster as Chinese soldiers march past
China Digital Times claimed the authorities in Beijing issued a stern warning to Chinese news producers: ‘All websites find and delete the article “Entomologists Report: Scholars Use Daddy Xi to Name a New Type of Beetle” and related information.’
A search for the beetle’s Chinese name on the hugely popular Weibo social media platform came up with a message stating that no search results could be shown due to ‘relevant laws and policies’.
President Xi is not the first world leader to have had a strange creature named after him.
In 2013 a trapdoor spider was named Aptostichus Barackobamai after the US President and in 1999 a sea slug was christened Mandelia Mirocornata in honour of former South African president Nelson Mandela.
Mr Wang said his gesture had been ‘deliberately vilified’ by people with ‘no culture’.FORT CARSON, Colo. - A female soldier in the U.S. Army pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of desertion after fleeing to Canada to avoid a second tour of duty in the Iraq war.
Pfc. Kimberly Rivera was sentenced to 10 months in prison and a bad-conduct discharge after entering her plea at a court-martial.
Rivera, 30, was a wheeled-vehicle driver in Fort Carson's 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and served in Iraq in 2006. She has said that, while there, she became disillusioned with the U.S. mission in Iraq.
During a two-week leave in the U.S. in 2007, Rivera crossed the Canadian border after she was ordered to serve another tour in Iraq.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that when judge Col. Timothy Grammel asked Rivera on Monday how long she remained absent, Rivera replied: "As long as I possibly could, sir.... I intended to quit my job permanently."
After fleeing to Canada, Rivera applied for refugee status but was denied.
Rivera then applied for permanent residency, but Canadian immigration officials rejected that application, too. Authorities also rejected her requests to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Rivera was first ordered to leave Canada or face deportation in 2009, but she appealed that decision. The mother of four faced another deportation order issued in 2012.
She was arrested at the U.S. border and taken into military custody.
Roughly 19,000 people signed an online petition in Canada protesting Rivera's deportation order, and rallies were held in a number of Canadian cities calling on the government to let her stay in the country.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the U.S. veterans organization Veterans for Peace also protested the deportation order.
During her sentencing hearing, government lawyers argued that Rivera, who was granted leave shortly into her tour to work out marital issues, failed to return because her husband threatened to leave her and take their children, The Gazette reported.
Rivera's civilian defense attorney, James Matthew Branum, argued that Rivera never filed for status as a conscientious objector because she didn't know the option was available to her. He said Rivera should have been informed about it when she met with a chaplain in Iraq over concerns that she couldn't take a life, The Gazette reported.
In 2012, the War Resisters Support Campaign, a Canadian activist group, estimated that there were about 200 Iraq war resisters in Canada. It said two other Iraq war resisters who were deported, Robin Long and Clifford Cornell, faced lengthy jail sentences upon their return.
Long was given a dishonorable discharge in 2008 and sentenced to 15 months in a military prison after pleading guilty to charges of desertion.
The lower house of Canada's Parliament most recently passed a motion in 2009 in favor of allowing U.S. military deserters to stay, but the Conservative Party government was not persuaded.
During the Vietnam War, as many as 90,000 Americans won refuge in Canada, most of them to avoid the military draft. Many were given permanent residence status that led to Canadian citizenship, but the majority went home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in the late 1970s.
Some Canadian politicians say the situation is different now because Iraq war deserters like Rivera enlisted in the U.S. military voluntarily.A storm rolling in
Back alley vistor
Down the rabbit hole
I call this one,"Off to the plant" - my wife calls it, "Why are you naming screenshots?"
"And on that farm he had some brains" AKA "Now you're just being ridiculous"
A storm rolling inBack alley vistorDown the rabbit holeI call this one,"Off to the plant" - my wife calls it, "Why are you naming screenshots?""And on that farm he had some brains" AKA "Now you're just being ridiculous"
Hello all,We’ve not done a proper update for a couple of weeks and just wanted to quickly reach out and try to stay connected. We’re making good progress. We’ve had a few set backs too. Our build machine went down on us this week due to a faulty CPU fan and power supply. Actually, it’s likely due to the fact that we beat it to death on a daily basis. We have gotten that repaired and we’re now able to continue to test builds. Things are really starting to come together and we're nearing a release. @Jayty has made great progress with general issues and we’re moving forward at a decent clip now. We’ll continue to kill small issues and backend problems and get things stable enough to manage. We can’t end up in a position where we’re managing server builds, the community, patching issues, client builds and on top of that stupid little game stoppers we could have easily found on our own. The team at this stage is just too small for that.We’ll be releasing keys just as soon as things are stable and easy enough to manage to avoid a total mess upon release.In the coming weeks, you can expect to see a video from @Jayty shortly before receiving your keys. He'll do his best to explain exactly what you can expect including what's working, what's planned and how to go about reporting issues.Once again, we’d like to remind everyone that this first alpha build is only going to backers (anyone that has pre-ordered) this is NOT a Steam Early Access release although you will be downloading STN via the Steam Client! Backers will help us find our initial bugs and once everything is stable we'll then move forward with our Steam EA release. We’ve said it 100 times now but we’re only a tiny team of new developers. This is our first project of any kind and it’s a beast. The backer release would be a build that in most cases gets released to a large internal team to work through issues. We don’t have the option so you’ll need to help us out. Things aren’t going to be smooth and we’re going to need your remarkable patience to carry over through backer builds. Survive the Nights has been in development for just two years now and we know it will be a great game but we’ll need your help to pull that off.We’ll get back to it now, just a reminder - check out the UV thread here if you’re interested in designing some in game clothing. We’ve received some amazing work already! Don’t forget you can reach @JB_ anytime on our official discord channel Here are a few screens just to wet your whistleOn a side note, while waiting for build machine repairs @Jayty has implemented water machines. You'll be able to gather rain water shortly after a storm from nearby water barrels. with a craftable variant in the works. In the future, water could be provided to entire towns via 'pump houses' much like our planned electrical sub-stations. If you and your team can manage to power a pump house, all taps, sinks and water sources in the affected area will provide clean water.This brings us to a question for the community. Do you feel aggressive AI like Zombies should attack machinery along with fortifications? For example, if you and your team power a pump house, should one member always be in eye shot of the generators and machinery running it? Should zombies be attracted to the noise these machines make? This is our current plan and would like to get some opinions on it so feel free to comment herewww.pixael.com/en/shop thanks!You can follow me onhttps://www.facebook.com/giuseppemilophotohttps://twitter.com/pixael_comhttps://instagram.com/pixael/" data-caption="If you like my pictures please support me buying a print from my shop www.pixael.com/en/shop thanks!You can follow me onhttps://www.facebook.com/giuseppemilophotohttps://twitter.com/pixael_comhttps://instagram.com/pixael/" data-credit="Flickr">
The son of a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh and his NRI friend were allegedly robbed of Rs 1.5 lakh by a woman escort and her accomplice at knife point outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai on Sunday, according to reports.
Mehar Singh Tanwar (40), son of BJP MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar, had hired the woman from an escorts agency during a trip to Mumbai with his friend. He told the Times of India that he picked the woman out of several whose images were sent to him by an operator named Samir from the agency, on Whatsapp.
The woman and her driver arrived at the hotel at around 1 AM and wanted to talk with the duo outside. Tanwar and his friend drove out of the hotel in Santacruz (East) with her and struck a deal of Rs 30,000. They were returning to the hotel when the driver pressed a knife to his stomach and robbed them of the cash. They were also threatened to get off the car once they reached the hotel. The driver sped off with the woman once they did.
Police picked up two persons from the agency for questioning from a rented room in Vakola where they allegedly operated, according to the TOI report.
The CCTV footage showed no violence. But the 10-minute footage from the hotel's lobby showed Tanwar and his friend entering the hotel premises in a car with the woman seated next to them, the report stated.
Tanwar is said to have called up police commissioner Rakesh Maria, who asked him to file a complaint at the Vakola police station, which he did.
Police registered a case under sections 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.
"We are also recording the statements of the hotel staff and security personnel," inspector Mahadev Vavhale was quoted as saying by HT.Sacrificed (The Last Oracle, Book 1)
Emily Wibberley
isbn: 9781505896787
language: English
format: paperback
categories: Fantasy, YA, Action & Adventure, Paranormal
A KINDLE TOP TEN BEST SELLER YOUNG ADULT for 3 MONTHS
2015 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS FINALIST
2015 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FINALIST YOUNG ADULT
2015 BEVERLY HILLS BOOK AWARDS FINALIST YOUNG ADULT
2015 PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL HONORABLE MENTION YOUNG ADULT
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Knowing the future can save her city - but not her heart.
Born to serve the merciless Oracle, Clio wants nothing more than to break free. But when her entire family is murdered by Mannix, the king's adviser, Clio inherits the Oracle's power, a power she never wanted and doesn't understand.
Hunted by Mannix, Clio is forced to flee her home in Sheehan and seek refuge in a foreign city where oracles are forbidden. If she's found out, she will be sacrificed atop its great pyramid.
Clio has no choice but to win the trust of Riece, an enemy warrior. Despite the undeniable attraction between them, Clio knows that if he finds out who she really is, he won't hesitate to execute her.
Clio tries to hide her budding powers, but the Visions she keeps having of Mannix and his barbarian army slaughtering her people torture her conscience. She alone has the strength and foresight to stop him, but only if she can embrace her destiny and sacrifice everything.
"Must-Read Romantic Fantasy" - USAToday.com
"Unique fantasy action packed with must-read swoon warrior..." - Pandora's Opened Box Book Blog
"I definitely recommend it for people who love female heroines!" - Kiana Nguyen, Rad Reviews
"A wonderfully fast-paced, plot-twisting page-turner! This book hit all the right notes: strong female protagonist, love triangle, creative new world. I could not put it down and I cannot wait for the next one!" - Goodreads Reviewer
"Recommended for fans of The Winner's Crime/The Winner's Curse" - Goodreads Reviewer
"After finishing The Hunger Games trilogy, I tried filling the YA void with the Divergent trilogy, but was left far from satisfied. With Sacrificed, I've found a trilogy I can dig my teeth into with relish." - Goodreads ReviewerA lot more new cels from the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon show have surfaced on ebay. This show which was only ever made into a single episode pilot and has only been seen in this short clip, is infamous amongst fans.
We now have a great look at Queen Beryl’s ship from the Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon show. Ever know Queen Beryl was in the show? Ever know she had a ship? It can be seen in this Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon cel auction. Here we have a look at “The Dark Galleon” which is Queen Beryl’s nasty looking ship previously seen only briefly in the online clip when it shoots a laser at another ship, destroying it. We know this name because in the script we talked about yesterday the Dark Galleon was mentioned as being Queen Beryl’s ship (it’s on page 3…).
SUDDENLY THE DARK GALLEON OF QUEEN BERYL APPEARED ON THE HORIZON AS HER FORCES DESCENDED ON THE GATHERING IN A BRUTAL ASSAULT.
What a cool looking ship! One sketch included in this auction even mentions “CHANGE ALL HEADS TO THIS”. What heads? Maybe there were other sketches with different or no heads? Maybe some other object has … multiple heads? Who knows! The auction also comes with other cels and refers to the show as “Project Y”, a name that also appeared on the script.
Many other auctions have popped up in the last few days. Some auctions are by kittyandcharlie, the same ebay seller mentioned earlier. This includes the Dark Galleon cel we just mentioned. Others, such as this one, which show Sailor Moon standing diagonally are selling for just $49.99, a far more reasonable price than the cels posted earlier. Browse kittyandcharlie’s Sailor Moon auctions to see all cels sold by this seller.
A different ebay seller, vintagejunkster, has also started to sell some Sailor Moon cels. All of these cels feature Sailor Moon herself and are selling for $79.99 a piece. At this price fans have starting buying these up so if you’re interested check out vintage junkster’s Sailor Moon auctions to find all of these cels. These include shots of Sailor Moon using her tiara and wearing her Star Pendant.
With news cels from this show popping up many times this week we can probably expect more great finds in the coming days. Keep your eyes on ebay for more. We’ll be sure to share anything interesting that pops up.
Possibly Related PostsLucas Mireles is a native Texan and former shot putter for the University of Houston and the Mexican National Junior Olympic team. In 2013, he received his MFA degree in film directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His films have premiered at such festivals as: Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW and Austin. He is a Film Independent: Project Involve fellow and was selected to participate in the Berlinale Talents Program at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival. Lucas lives and works professionally in Los Angeles, CA.
Tanisha Joe-Conway credits faith and family as being the anchors of her life. She strives to keep those values and a strong work ethic at the forefront of each decision and action she makes. She currently resides in Conway with her husband, Charnley, and their two children, Taylor and Carson.
Joe-Conway's work has won numerous awards including a Videographer's Award of Distinction, the Arkansas Press Association Award for Community Service, Worldfest Houston Gold Special Jury Award, the PASS Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and a National Educational Television Association Best Documentary Award. Joe-Conway has received a regional EMMY for the documentary Precious Memories: Our Vanishing Rural Churches. She also has three regional EMMY nominations for Mothers in Prison. Children in Crisis, Delta Dreams, and U.N.I.T.Y. documentaries.
Tanisha Joe-Conway has spent over 20 years working with public affairs television. During this time, she has and continues to develop, produce, and coordinate public affairs programming for the Arkansas Educational Television Network. Her job includes live call-in programming, on-air promotion, taped specials, documentaries, and crew/staff supervision. Joe-Conway is also instrumental in grant writing, budgeting, and other office management activities. The AETN Public Affairs division produces close to 100 hours of yearly programming.
Gabe Mayhan
Gabe Mayhan has compiled a diverse body of work over the course of his cinematography career. Whether it was from his time covering breaking news, to shooting in remote locations in South America for an adventure show or crafting stylistic narrative stories, he approaches each project with dutiful ambition, respectful collaboration, and innovative technique. His work has been screened at film festivals such as Slamdance and Tribeca, broadcast on networks the likes of HBO, Showtime and PBS, and screened theatrically across the US. Many of the films have been recognized and awarded for the cinematography.
Last year, 2016, was a pretty big year for Gabe, having two films released theatrically, Greater and Lazy Eye. Greater is a heartfelt drama set in the world of college football. Lazy Eye is a bittersweet romance about reconnecting with a lost love,. Although very different in style and content, both films have been well received. Gabe also returned behind the lens for the second season of Mineral Explorers, a travel show that explores the origins and geological stories of minerals from around the world.
Other forthcoming works are the feature films; All the Birds Have Flown South, a southern gothic drama that deals with despair and addiction, and Antiquities, a coming of age story about a young man encountering loss and finding himself in the journey.
Whether behind the lens or in the director's chair, his work on documentaries is gaining attention as well. In 2012, he shot All About Ann, an HBO documentary chronicling the life and legacy of Texas Governor Ann Richards. Champion Trees, a documentary for PBS that explores the relationship between art and nature. The show captured two Emmy's for Cultural Documentary and Cinematography in 2014. Slated to air spring of 2017, the documentary Dream Land tells the history of an African American neighborhood during segregation and the lasting impact of Urban Renewal. (In both Champion Trees and Dream Land, Gabe held double duties as the films' director and cinematographer.
Gabe's unique vision and strong understanding of story have quickly gained the interest of filmmakers and audiences around the country. He brings an understanding that each project has its own way to be crafted visually, and within each story there is a unique opportunity to evolve the narrative emotionally through the cinematography, allowing the film to be seen — in its best light.Featureflash / Shutterstock.com
The super producer’s payout from Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats gave him the biggest single-year payday of any musician in history.
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper and entrepreneur. Fifteen years ago Dr. Dre wondered aloud whether people had forgotten about him. If there was a question then, it has certainly dissipated throughout the next steps of a career filled with highlights—most recently the sale of Beats, the company he cofounded, to Apple for $3 billion. Dr. Dre took home $620 million this year before taxes, thanks largely to that deal, making him the world’s top-earning musician of 2014. More remarkably, that number also marks the largest single-year haul of any musician, ever.
Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, 50 Cent, The Game, and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats.
Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru and later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. His 1992 solo debut The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single “Let Me Ride”. That same year he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Dogg’s quadruple platinum debut Doggystyle.
In 1996, he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced a compilation album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996, and released a solo album titled 2001 in 1999. During the 2000s, he focused on production for other artists, while occasionally contributing vocals to songs. Dr. Dre signed Eminem and 50 Cent to his record label in 1998 and 2002 respectively, while contributing production on their albums. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year. Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day. Rolling Stone ranked Dre at 56 on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All-Time”. (Source: Wikipedia)In our industrial food production system, broiler chickens are genetically manipulated to grow so fast, they’re barely able to walk by the end of their lives, which is usually only about 47 days. Photo by iStockphoto
We’re building major momentum with our new campaign to improve the lives of broiler chickens, with Panera Bread and Sodexo this week committing to work with U.S. suppliers to implement on-the-farm reforms. These are big, powerful brand names in the food sales world, and they are two very strong companies we’ve worked with on a set of prior reforms for animal welfare.
Within the last two years especially, you’ve heard from me about joint announcements we’ve made with companies to eliminate the confinement of calves in veal crates, breeding pigs in gestation crates, and egg-laying hens in cages. Whether it’s with Walmart, McDonald’s, Kroger, ConAgra, or the dozens upon dozens of others, we’ve established a new norm in the industry that immobilizing animals does not line up with consumer sentiment about how farm animals ought to be treated. We are working to end the era of extreme confinement of animals in cages and crates, and that day is coming.
While these advancements are something to celebrate, we also know there’s more to be done in creating a more humane food system. And at the top of the list for The HSUS is the treatment of chickens raised for meat. In our industrial food production system, broiler chickens as a matter of routine are genetically manipulated to grow so fast, they’re often barely even able to walk by the end of their lives, which is usually only about 47 days. (Yes, all chicken meat comes from baby chickens.) Because of their forced rapid growth, one of the most common forms of mortality on the factory farm is heart attacks, something unheard of in any other type of animal agriculture for animals so young. The living conditions are typically spare and unforgiving, with most birds being forced to live jam-packed inside barren, windowless warehouses without any forms of enrichment — even modest ones like hay bales or perches. At slaughter, they’re shackled while fully conscious, and then put through a killing process that is not governed by any federally mandated humane slaughter standard. The federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act is applied to cattle and pigs, but not to chickens or turkeys – an appalling and ethically inconsistent gap in the law.
But there’s hope for the nine billion chickens raised and slaughtered every year in the United States for consumption.
You may remember that back in June, we worked with Perdue — the fourth-largest poultry producer in the United States — to begin addressing the core issues outlined above. Since November we’ve been working with Panera Bread and Pret a Manger to be the first restaurant chains to enact broiler chicken welfare policies. Besides Sodexo, we also worked in recent weeks with Compass Group, Aramark, Delaware North, and Centerplate – collectively, the nation’s five largest food service companies that run the dining operations at tens of thousands of colleges, universities, hospitals, prisons, event centers, and stadiums — to do the same.
We’re confident that just like the confinement issues before, we’re going to make progress with other major food sellers in the United States to address the broiler welfare issue head-on. The Panera Bread and Sodexo announcements are just a start, and we’re gearing up for 2017 to be the year when the fate of the broiler chicken turned dramatically for the better.
P.S. We’ve also received some great news for egg-laying hens: AccorHotels, an international hotel group that operates 4,000 hotels across 95 countries, announced today that it is partnering with Humane Society International to implement a global free-range egg policy. AccorHotels will eliminate caged eggs from its liquid and shell egg supply chain in Europe by 2020, and in remaining markets within eight years. The Brazil Fast Food Corporation, one of Brazil and Latin America’s largest restaurant companies, has also committed to switching to exclusively cage-free eggs in its more than 1,250 restaurants, after talks with HSI.Photo By Chelsea Werner
Fedde Le Grand Releases Long-Awaited Full Studio Album “Something Real”
After months of anticipation, Dutch legend Fedde Le Grand has released his fourteen-track studio album Something Real via Ultra Music. After over 3 years of production, Fedde’s second studio album has been released to the electronic dance music community featuring collaborations with Cobra Effect, Jared Lee, Jonathan Mendelsohn, Erene, Espa, and Grammy winner MoZella.
Something Real showcases Fedde Le Grand’s versatility as a producer taking listeners on a musical journey steering away from the hard-hitting mainstage anthems we’ve seen from him over the years. Check out Fedde’s exclusive album mix below and be sure to grab your copy today!
Fedde Le Grand – Something Real | buy Album |
“Follow” Fedde Le Grand: | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud |
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commentsA member of the IHH, designated a terrorist organization by Israel, was killed killed during US airstrikes in Syria on Tuesday according to Turkish reports, after having made the leap from attacking Shayetet 13 elite commandos on the Marmara flotilla in 2010, to serving the will of Islamic State (ISIS) militants accused of committing atrocities during a swift military advance across the Middle East.
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Ya'akov Bolinet Alniak, a well-known figure within the IHH, even wrote a book about the violent incident aboard the Marmara that was boarded by Shayetet commandos as it tried to run the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Nine of those aboard the ship were killed in the ensuing violent clashes and Alniak was apparently one of those who were directly engaged in attacking the Israeli troops.
Ya'akov Bolinet Alniak, killed in US strikes in Syria.
According to the Turkish reports, Alniak, father of two, joined the ranks of ISIS recently and was directly involved in combat in Syria. One of his last Facebook posts before being killed in US strikes on an ISIS camp in Syria read, "My life and death are for Allah".
Related stories:
Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry Emanuel Nahshon called the reports, "a direct line that connects the extremists of the IHH organization to the murderers in ISIS. He who tried to harm IDF soldiers found himself a career as an executioner in the service of extremist Islam."
The US military, in cooperation with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, began attacking ISIS targets in Syria last Tuesday. By Friday, it was reported that some 150 fighters from ISIS and the al-Nusra Front were killed in the American strikes in Syria, most of which weren't Syrian citizens.
Kurdish sources reported yesterday along with a UK based human rights organization that coalition jets had attacked ISIS forces near the northern city of Kobane for the first time. The city, close to the Syria-Turkey border, faces continuous attacks from ISIS militants who've apparently been employing heavy weaponry including tanks and artillery in the area. Reports indicated that 23 fighters were killed in the air strikes.Weekly post already? But it seems like the last one was just the other day! It’s true, it has been less than a week since the last one, but I feel like the weekend is a good time for me to write these so you’re getting another update. This post is going to be very tech heavy. So I’m going to put the less tech heavy stuff in the next couple paragraph or so, then I’m going to explain my implementation for educational purposes.
I’m currently reading Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory and one of the early chapters focused on development tools and how important they are. My previous full time job was building development tools for web developers so I’ve already developed an appreciation for having them. Also, you may remember my last post where I talked about debugging tools I’ve added to my game.
Games require a lot of thought and consideration to the performance of the code that is written and one of the primary metrics that the game industry uses is FPS, or Frames Per Second. This is the number of times the full screen is rendered to the screen per second. A common standard for this is 60FPS which is what most “high definition” monitors and TVs can produce. Because the frames need to be roughly evenly spaced it means that each frame gets about 16.6 milliseconds to be fully calculated and rendered.
So, I built a tool to let me analyze the amount of time each frame took to render. I knew I’d want to graph the data, and I didn’t have the ability to make graphs using my game engine. I don’t even have the ability to display text. So I went with a setup called Electron to let me use the sort of code and techniques I use for web development and am very familiar with. And this screenshot is the results:
In the background is my text editor with some code, and a bunch of debug information in my terminal. On the right with the pretty colors is my game. It is over there rendering about 400-450 FPS on my mac. On the left in the black and white is my stats viewer. Right now it just shows the duration of every frame. The graph dynamically sizes itself, but at the moment it was showing 2ms-25ms range. Interesting things to note is that I’m averaging 400FPS but I have spikes that take over 16.6ms, so the frames are not evenly spaced and it looks like ~58FPS.
Ok, that’s the tool I built and a brief explanation. Next, I’m going to go into the socket server I wrote to have the apps communicate. This is the very tech heavy part so friends just reading along because they want to see what I’m up to, but aren’t programmers, this is the time to hit the eject button if you find that stuff boring and you kinda wish I’d just shut up sometimes.
To start with, this gist has the full code that I’ll be talking about here. I’m going to try to use snippets cut up with text from that, so you can refer to that gist for context if needed. This is a very simple socket server I wrote to export a few numbers out of my engine. I expect to expand this and make it more featureful as well as bidirectional so I can opt in or out of debugging stuff or tweak settings.
Lets first look at the imports, I say as if that’s interesting, but one thing to note is I’m not using anything outside of std for my stats collection and socket server. Keep in mind this is a proof of concept, not something that will need to work for hundreds of thousands of users per second or anything.
use std::io::Write; use std::net::TcpListener; use std::sync::mpsc::{channel, Receiver, Sender}; use std::thread;
I’ve pulled in the Write trait from std::io so I can write to the sockets that connect. Next up is TcpListener which is the way in the standard library to listen for new socket connections. Then we have channels for communicating across threads easily. Speaking of threads, I pull in that module as well.
Ok, so now that we know the pieces we’re working with, lets talk design. I wanted to have my stats display work by a single initializing call, then sending data over a channel to a stats collection thread. Because channels in rust are MPSC channels, or Multiple Producer Single Consumer channels, they can have many areas sending data, but only 1 thing consuming data. This is what lead to the interesting design of the initializing function seen below:
pub fn run_stats_server () -> Sender<Stats> { let (stats_tx, stats_rx) = |
completely different conversation the princess had with her sometime beau James Gilbey." "‘It's absolutely outrageous,' says a woman friend who heard the tape last week, but was too polite to ask her hostess if she could make a copy for 'Confidential'. 'It's full of sexual innuendo, and far more explicit than the one we all heard before'."
Hutchins concluded:
"I must remember to take it up with Diana next time we find ourselves on adjacent running machines at our West London gym."
The second "Squidgygate" tape disappeared from the media without trace, before it had even had a chance to appear, with no further information on its contents, origins, or on its sudden surfacing in private hands after a gap of some seven years.
Surveillance of Diana after Squidgygate [ edit ]
After a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Guardian newspaper in 1999, the NSA told the paper that it was—and is still—holding reports under both "secret" and "top secret" classifications, and that: "these documents cannot be declassified because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security." The agency said it also needed to protect its sources: "The reports contain only references to Diana, Princess of Wales, acquired incidentally from intelligence gathering. It is neither NSA policy or practice to target British subjects in conducting our foreign intelligence mission. However, other countries could communicate about these subjects; therefore, this agency could acquire intelligence concerning British subjects."[29]
U.S. journalist Gerald Posner was played innocuous extracts from the NSA tapes of Diana's conversations in early 1999.
Diana, and other international figures including Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa of Calcutta, were all listened in on by the Echelon monitoring system, a world-wide monitoring network capable of processing millions of messages every hour. "'Anybody who is politically active,' said Madsen, 'will eventually end up on the NSA's radar screen.'"[20]
In December 1998, the French magistrate who investigated Diana's death, Hervé Stephan, wrote to the American secret services to request the 1,056-page dossier of transcripted calls.[30] This request was refused a month or so later.
August 2006 developments [ edit ]
Although many theories still exist as to who was behind the various "Squidgygate" tapes, events in August, 2006, highlighted that there are continued attempts to intercept high level communications in the UK. On 10 August 2006, two men were charged with intercepting phone messages after an investigation was sparked by complaints from Royal Family staff members. News of the World royal editors, Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, were charged with having accessed voicemail messages on eight occasions between January and August, 2006, and conspiring to intercept communications.
Complaints by staff at Clarence House, the official residence to the Prince of Wales, prompted the investigation that led to the arrests.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]NEW DELHI: A DTC bus driver and the conductor of another stared death in the face, but turned the tables on the group of men who attacked them, all the while shouting their support for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, saving the lives of over 150 passengers in Jyoti Nagar in north-east Delhi.“Four men, all of them wearing black helmets, came in front of my bus,” narrated Ramesh Kumar, who was driving the familiar red DTC bus. “I slowed down, thinking the men wanted to cross the road. But in seconds, more than 40 people, all in black helmets, appeared out of nowhere and started breaking the windows and doors of the bus.”He remembered with a shudder that they first broke the window next to his seat and threw petrol at him. “Even then, my only thought was to get the 70 or so commuters out of the bus safely,” said Kumar. “I ripped off my petrol-soaked shirt and threw it before opening the door at the back to let everyone out,” continued Kumar. “But some attackers entered the bus and pushed everyone back to their seats. I could see my life ending, but dared to fight them off and free the passengers.” Once everyone was off the bus, the helmeted men set the bus on fire.Meanwhile, Anil Kumar, the conductor of a green DTC bus that was behind Kumar’s vehicle, saw what was happening and asked the driver to halt immediately. “The passengers of the red bus ran towards our bus, but I opened the door of our bus and urgently asked the 70-80 passengers to disembark,” Anil Kumar told TOI.When the attackers saw what was happening, they ran toward the green bus and started pelting stones at the driver, conductor and passengers. They then set the bus ablaze, but Anil Kumar had by then assisted everyone off the bus. “I was the last one to leave the vehicle,” he said.All the shops in the area, including quite a few petrol pumps, were shut down immediately after the buses were burnt down and police personnel were deployed there in huge numbers.People thwarted attacks elsewhere in the city too. In west Delhi’s Khyala, Ashok was passing by when he saw two men, their faces obscured by helmets, throwing petrol on a bus. “I raised an alarm and gathered a crowd. After we caught the duo, we informed police and handed the two men, Shyam Lal of Bihar and Shatrughan of Haryana, to them,” Ashok told TOI.In Badarpur in south-east Delhi, the local people similarly caught Amit Kumar trying to set fire to a bus and handed him to the cops.I Welcome Your Marijuana Case
In Utah, we’re surrounded by states that have seriously reformed their pot laws–Colorado, Nevada and California, for instance–but not only is possession still a crime here, there are aspects of Utah’s marijuana laws that might shock and dismay you (see below).
Marijuana Charges and Your Utah Driver’s License
Under Utah statute 53-3-220, your driver’s license may be suspended for sixth months for any conviction under the Utah Controlled Substances Act or Utah Drug Paraphernalia Act—so that includes any charge of possessing marijuana or drug paraphernalia! There are ways to try and avoid that suspension, so this is another good reason to talk to an attorney before pleading guilty.
Please see my information on Driving with a Measurable Controlled Substance or “Metabolite DUI.”
Medical Marijuana (Utah’s Proposition 2)
In November of 2018, Utah passed a medical marijuana law by ballot initiative. It is good news, but it does not mean that it is safe or easy to get medical marijuana here or legal to possess marijuana for most people. I’ll try to keep this information updated as best I can as the law changes more (which it surely will), but for now check out this blog post: Utah Legalizes Medical Marijuana! Kinda! Sort of!
Marijuana Criminal Penalties
For a long time, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana has been a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 6 months in jail and $1,900 in fines. It used to be that possession of one ounce to one pound was a Class A misdemeanor, and possession of 1 pound to 100 pounds was a Third Degree Felony, and possession of over 100 pounds was a Second Degree Felony. However, Utah made a major revision to its drug laws, which went into effect last October, and now it seems that possession of any amount less than 100 pounds is only a Class B misdemeanor! See Utah Code 58-37-8. BUT (and this is a big BUT), don’t expect that you won’t be charged with a felony if you have 99 pounds of marijuana. That’s because there’s no lower cutoff amount for a charge of Possession with Intent to Distribute. So if you have more than a “personal use” amount of pot, you’ll still get slapped with a felony charge.
Possession of paraphernalia is also a Class B (see Utah Code 58-37a-5), with the same possible penalties. (See my blog post about Utah Paraphernalia Law)
If the police find a pipe with some marijuana resin in it, it’s very possible you’ll be charged with both possession AND paraphernalia (that resin counts!), and the sentence can be consecutive. So if you got caught with a well-used bong, will you go to jail for a year? Probably not, unless you used it to bludgeon a puppy. But these maximum penalties are technically possible, and some judges do send marijuana possessors for a stay in jail, and it’s very likely that any judge will order drug treatment and impose hefty fines, in addition to the collateral consequences such as a criminal record and a driver’s license suspension (see above). So a possession/paraphernalia charge is still a big deal.
Constructive Possession (“That baggie wasn’t mine!”)
So the police found a baggie in the side-pocket of a car you were riding in, and you’ve been charged with possession. You can still be guilty, even if you didn’t physically possess the controlled substance. That’s the doctrine of “constructive possession.” Under the law, that means you had both the “power and intent to exercise dominion and control” over the controlled substance. What does that mean? Well, we attorneys argue about that very question every day of the week, and it’s ultimately up to the judge or jury to decide what it means. But this is one of the few Utah laws which is slightly favorable to defendants (compared to other states), and if there’s any question over who actually possessed the contraband, you might have a viable defense. It’s definitely something to talk to an attorney about.A 25-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with using a carrier service to menace, harass or cause offence, after allegedly posting derogatory comments about a Sydney woman whose Tinder profile was widely shared on social media.
In August, a different man named Chris Hall publicly shared a screenshot of Olivia Melville’s Tinder profile on Facebook.
Ms Melville’s Tinder bio referenced a lyric from Canadian singer Drake’s hit song Only. “Type of girl that will suck you dry and then eat some lunch with you,” her bio read.
Mr Hall posted the screenshot on his Facebook page with the caption, “Stay classy ladies. I’m surprised she’d still be hungry for lunch.” Mr Hall was later fired from his job for violating his employer’s social media policy
Ms Melville’s friends shared Mr Hall’s post and criticised him for “sl** shaming” their friend.
Zane Alchin, the man charged, allegedly commented on several of these posts with offensive comments. One of his alleged comments read: “It’s people like you who make it clear women should never have been given rights.”
News.com.au has chosen not to republish the rest of Mr Alchin’s alleged comments due to their extremely graphic nature.
Ms Melville’s friends formed an activist group called Sexual Violence Won’t Be Silenced (SVWBS) and campaigned for Mr Alchin to be charged.
“SVWBS was formed after these threats were made over Facebook. Local police initially told us that little could be done, but we refused to let that be the case,” the group said in a statement.
“Thanks to the swift public response to the advocacy group we had a tally of over 8,000 Facebook followers and over 15,000 signatures on their petition that aims to change the way law enforcement responds to these threats.
“SVWBS would like to thank the Newtown Local Police for their hard work on this case. [We] also thank every person who signed the petition, followed the page and supported the movement.”
Mr Alchin will appear in Newtown Local Court on Thursday.About The Film
Warwick Wilson is the consummate host. He carefully prepares for a dinner party, the table impeccably set and the duck perfectly timed for 8:30 p.m. John Taylor is a career criminal. He’s just robbed a bank and needs to get off the streets. He finds himself on Warwick’s doorstep posing as a friend of a friend, new to Los Angeles, who’s been mugged and lost his luggage. As the wine flows and the evening progresses, we become deeply intertwined in the lives of these two men and discover just how deceiving appearances can be. With outstanding performances by David Hyde Pierce and Clayne Crawford, cowriter/director Nick Tomnay takes us on a suspense-filled ride where nothing is as it seems. The Perfect Host is a slippery psychological thriller that exposes true human nature and reveals just how far we’re willing to go to satisfy our needs.Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn
The good news is that the Fed is unlikely to raise rates in the near future. The bad news is that the Fed is unlikely to raise rates in the near future. How can two mutually exclusive claims both be true? If you can’t embrace contradictions, then you are not a true macroeconomist. (I’m looking at you Bob.)
The good news is that given the condition of the economy, the Fed is unlikely to raise rates soon.
The bad news is that the Fed’s unlikeliness to raise rates soon shows the poor condition of the economy, caused by the Fed itself.
The Fed is unlikely to raise rates soon because in 2015 they signaled that they were anxious to tighten monetary policy, which lowered expected NGDP growth. The market also knows that (just as in 1937) the Fed is reluctant to admit mistakes, because it makes them look bad. So they wait too long to change course (as in 1937-38.) That’s already priced in, already being factored into investor’s decisions. So if a negative shock comes along (say a fall in velocity) the Fed is not prepared to react.
Here’s a fed funds futures bleg. Am I reading the table below correctly, that the markets expect roughly a 0.9% fed funds rate in December 2017? If so, it would be below the 1.0% figure that Fed insiders laughed at back in September, when Kocherlakota’s dot was trailing far behind all the others. Now it looks like even he was too pessimistic optimistic (and I was even further off course, but at least not as far off as the Fed.) Just as Jimmy Carter “promoted” G. William Miller to the meaningless job of Treasury Secretary after just 18 months on the job, and replaced him with Volcker, Obama should promote Yellen to Treasury Secretary, and replace her with Kocherlakota.
Kocherlakota was right, the Fed should have cut rates in September. I’m embarrassed to admit that I missed that call.
The much, much, much bigger story here (which I predict readers will overlook) is that the Fed desperately needs a new policy regime. It’s the lack of level targeting, stupid.
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This entry was posted on January 20th, 2016 and is filed under Monetary Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.The Bow Group, the UK’s oldest conservative think-tank, today calls on European leaders to adopt the Australian maritime immigration policy of stopping the boats that bring thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean each week.
A new research paper by highlights the humanitarian crisis and looks to Australia for the only realistic and humane way to stop migrants putting their lives in danger.
The paper, entitled ‘Stop the Boats’, calls for European Union-operated Migration Processing Centres (MPCs) to be set up in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia.
The paper also argues for any migrant boats in the Mediterranean to be rescued or redirected to the MPCs, where migrants can be identified and applications for political asylum and other forms of legal migration into European nations can be considered.
Nic Conner, the paper’s author and The Bow Group’s Social and Home Affair Research Fellow said:
“The migrants have to survive a desert death march before making it to the sea. Many are raped and tortured, and all risk death at many stages of the journey to Europe.”
“As a civilised nation, we have a moral duty to stop the exportation by the traffickers of the migrants”
We need to make clear migrants, If you want to come to Europe and start a new life, do it legally without the mortal risk”.
Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney said:
"The United Kingdom has rejected the EU's proposal to distribute quotas of migrants throughout Europe, and rightly so, but we haven't yet identified a realistic way to deal with the crisis, which is placing a huge burden on the nations of Southern Europe. Our proposal doesn't simply dismiss the EU proposal, it presents a workable alternative."
Bow Group Research Secretary Peter Smith said:
“We need to do anything that encourages people to not get on these boats. That is why I call on the British Government to take that lead and establish Migration Processing Centres in either Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia”
“The only realistic way to stop migrants putting their lives in danger is to by stopping the boats”.
“The problem with the debate on the Mediterranean crises is that no one is calling for the most realistic way to tackle the problem: stopping the boats. This is due to the fear that the media will lead stories of left-wing advocate groups; posing as refugee or asylum charities, calling them racist whilst they use this humanitarian crises as a way to lobby for open borders’.
“Stop the boats” proposes:
That the EU and other European nations hold talks with Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in order to establish Migration Processing Centres (MPCs).
That the MPCs be run and operated by EU nations.
To offer financial aid to any host nation of MPCs.
To encourage the host nation to adopt skilled migrants.
To allow migrants who wish to apply for asylum to have two attempts at applying from an MPC to two EU nations.
To allow migrants who wish to enter an EU nation legally to apply for the appropriate visas at an MPC.
To return home any migrant who fails in their application for asylum or a visa.
To stop any migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean, with EU nations being responsible for rescuing and towing the migrant boats to the nearest MPC in North Africa.
To create a limited and capped boat-buying scheme.
To increase aid and anti-corruption efforts across the migrants nations of origin.
Key facts from “Stop the boats”To 14-year-old Milton Hervishbolt, the thrill of an efficient checkmate used to be the most rousing bodily sensation imaginable.
A pawn promotion for a last-second Queen assault used to stoke the fire of life’s passion. A careful study of grandmasters like Ponziani, Fisher and Karpov used to occupy every synapse of his mind.
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But no more.
“Milton recently had his first sexual experience,” chess coach Sergei Kostronvich said. “And his interest in the subtleties and beauty of the game of chess has been usurped by a newfound interest in ejaculation.”
Hervishbolt’s experience, delineated by Kostronvich at a press conference, took place at a downtown hotel where a juniors chess tournament was held last weekend. According to Kostronvich, the busty wife of a tournament organizer lured Hervishbolt to her hotel room and rubbed his genital region briefly, causing him to ejaculate. He then promptly fled.
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“I’m not sure what she did,” Hervishbolt said, “But it felt even better than when I beat Ned Tiedelman with a Muzio gambit in the third-level junior masters last fall.”
Many young chess masters leave the game after discovering sex, according to a recent Chess Monthly study.
“The human orgasm is reportedly very pleasurable,” chess analyst Doris Gyklina said, herself once a grandmaster. “From the time of first orgasm on, a chess prodigy, if given the choice between the carnal forces of human sexuality and playing a game of chess, will invariably choose sex. Especially if it is with another human.”
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According to his coach, Hervishbolt’s only previous contact with a female took place in a tri-state rank trial. Hervishbolt was pitted against a 9-year-old female opponent, Sandra Kloust, renowned in her upstate New York school district for her undefeated elementary chess record.
“It didn’t matter to Milton that she was a female,” Kostronvich said. Reportedly, the girl’s flat chest and underdeveloped pheromone glands made her incapable of arousing the boy.
Hervishbolt’s seductress, 43-year-old Wendy Menkis, supports Hervishbolt’s decision to give up the game.
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“I have always fantasized about tea-ching a fresh young boy the art of making love,” Menkis said. “I find their youth and inexperience an in-credible turn-on.”
When asked, Men—kis admitted she does not care about chess, nor does she have any interest in learning the intricacies of the game. Hervishbolt, also no longer interested in chess, plans to pursue more sexual experiences.
“I will employ the technique of encirclement to ensnare a female,” he said, outlining his plans for the immediate future. “Threat-ening a for-king check, i.e. N-K7ch, I will capture her En Passant, much like the pawn. It is at that point that I will be in position to touch her boob.”A striking result apparent in Figure 1 is that the chemical cost of new battery chemistries has in general systematically increased rather than decreased over 60 years of battery development. We believe that to a large extent this trend can be attributed to the pursuit of higher energy density, as exemplified by the deployment of Li-ion batteries in portable device and transportation applications once dominated by NiMH, NiCd, or Pb-acid batteries. Figure 1 shows that Li-ion technology itself spans nearly a 3-fold range of chemical cost, from ∼US$35/kWh (C/0.3LiMnO-0.7LiMnNi) to ∼ US$100/kWh (C/LiCoO). Given that energy density has generally increased over time, the rising chemical cost implies that the high cost of new materials has more than compensated. Figure 1 also shows that while several aqueous electrochemical couples have chemical cost below US$10/kWh, the lowest cost of which is Zn-air, which as a primary chemistry dates to the year 1878, several aqueous electrochemical couples have chemical costs greater than low-cost Li-ion. This again reflects the high cost of synthesized active materials relative to stored energy. The case of Na/S is instructive; while it has the lowest chemical cost in our plot, excluding present results, it is known that high-temperature Na/S batteries are among the most expensive at system level (∼US$800/kWh). This is due to the high cost of supporting components and balance of plant. Conversely, an ambient-temperature sodium-sulfur chemistry has the potential for exceptionally low system cost, given a starting chemical cost of ∼US$1/kWh. These considerations led us to explore new ambient-temperature alkaline-sulfur chemistries, culminating in the air-breathing aqueous polysulfide couples, denoted in Figure 1 as Li/air and Na/air, the lowest-cost members of which have
Chemical cost represents a floor on the cost of the complete battery and is computed here from the unit costs (e.g., US$/kg) of the cathode-active material, anode-active material, and electrolyte, normalized to the stored energy (e.g., Wh/kg). Exemplars of each of the major rechargeable battery families are included. Numerical values and electrochemical details are given in Table S2, and details of the calculations appear in Supplemental Information. For the present approach, Li/air and Na/air, the range of costs shown represents varying utilization of the theoretical sulfur capacity from 25% to 50%.
A reasonable starting point for bottom-up analysis of the economics of any battery technology is the cost of the cathode, anode, and electrolyte, normalized to the stored electrical energy. We define this quantity as the chemical cost of energy storage (abbreviated as chemical cost and given in US$/kWh), building on an earlier studythat analyzed the elemental costs of electrochemical couples. The chemical cost for about 40 battery chemistries is plotted in Figure 1 against the year that each electrochemistry was introduced (all costs are in 2017 US$). Although we have not attempted to exhaustively list all extant electrochemical couples, exemplars of each of the major classes of bulk rechargeable batteries are included. The numerical results plotted in Figure 1 are tabulated in Table S2, and details of the calculations, including input parameters, key assumptions, and literature sources, are given in the Supplemental Information
In the remainder of the paper, we first demonstrate key performance characteristics of the proposed electrochemical couples. Since both catholyte and anolyte are fluids, our electrochemical couples lend themselves to a flow battery design, which is also demonstrated. An attribute of flow batteries is the ability to independently size the power stack and chemical storage capacity to meet desired energy to power ratios. In such architecture, the contribution to system cost of the power stack can be minimized by sizing it only as large as is necessary to meet the maximum power requirement. Using the methodology in a recent techno-economic analysis of flow batteries,we show that the proposed electrochemical storage system has attractive performance and cost attributes very similar to those of pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS) and underground compressed air energy storage (CAES), which are currently the lowest-cost energy storage technologies.Finally, the exceptionally low chemical cost allows electrochemical storage to address a new domain of long-duration discharge that was not previously accessible in a cost-effective manner.
In order to determine the chemical cost, the stable speciation range of the polysulfide must be taken into account. Although polysulfide solubilities in aqueous solutions can reach as high as 12 M sulfur concentration,stability issues (see below) may limit the practical capacity to less than that for complete reduction of sulfur according to the reaction 2A + S → AS (where A is Li or Na). However, even with a more limited range of sulfur reduction, exceptionally low chemical cost is attainable while reaching energy densities higher than many previous flow batteries. This is shown in Tables S4 and S5, where energy density and chemical cost for catholytes and anolytes having 5 M of Li or Na and 5 M of S, respectively, have been calculated. If the entire sulfur reduction capacity is utilized, the energy densities are 121 and 58 Wh/L for acidic and alkaline catholyte, respectively. Increasing the anolyte S concentration to 10 M raises the upper bound to about 145 Wh/L and 70 Wh/L for acidic and alkaline catholyte, respectively. If cycling is restricted to just 25% of the full sulfur reduction capacity, the corresponding energy densities are 60 and 29 Wh/L when using acidic and alkaline catholyte, respectively. This capacity range corresponds to the solution range Li-Lior Na-Na, for which we later demonstrate stable cycling over ∼1,000 hr. For sodium-polysulfide chemistry, the chemical cost is remarkably low, only US$0.4–1.7/kWh (using acidic catholyte at 5 M S), depending on the utilization of sulfur theoretical capacity (100%–25%). At 50% utilization or higher, one reaches the lowest chemical cost to our knowledge of any rechargeable battery ( Figure 1 ). When using lithium polysulfide rather than sodium polysulfide, the chemical cost is US$2.0–5.0/kWh, still lower than existing flow batteries.
In the present approach, cells may be assembled in the discharged state, in which case the alkali-metal working ion is provided by one of several possible low-cost salts dissolved in the catholyte. In the examples below we use Li 2 SO 4 and Na 2 SO 4. Cells may also be assembled in the charged state, in which case the working ion is provided by lithium or sodium sulfide dissolved in the anolyte. To avoid H 2 S formation at the anolyte, adequately high pH (≥12) is maintained by the addition of a suitable base (here, LiOH or NaOH). The catholyte may be either acidic or alkaline, providing cell voltages of ∼1.68 V and ∼0.85 V, respectively, at standard state equilibrium, as explained via the cell reactions.
Specifically, during operation, Liand Na(or other metal ions) shuttle between the electrolytes. In the anolyte, these working ions participate in the polysulfide redox reactions. In the catholyte, in order to maintain electroneutrality, ions are generated or consumed through oxygen electrochemistry, using water as both solvent and reactant. The reversible capacity of the cell is determined by either the total concentration of alkali-metal ions, or by the sulfur concentration in the anolyte, whichever is limiting. The generation and consumption of protons (for acid catholyte) or hydroxyls (for alkaline catholyte) lead to pH swings in the catholyte. In the alkaline catholyte case, hydroxyl crossover is not anticipated to be detrimental to performance, while in the acid catholyte case, protons must be confined to the catholyte chamber to prevent mixing with the alkaline anolyte. Here, we use ceramic membranes as the separators. Note that this scheme is not a sulfur-air battery, as there is no direct reaction between any sulfur species and oxygen. We searched for related concepts in the literature, and found a recently proposed Zn-air battery that also utilizes acidic catholyte and alkaline anolyte separated by a solid electrolyte (LiSICON) membrane,but in a stationary (non-flowing) design. We also found a published patent applicationthat proposes an all-alkaline flow cell in which an air cathode is paired with a solid sulfur-polysulfide anode; here the working ions are hydroxyl ions and the system requires an anion exchange membrane.
The anolyte (left) is an aqueous polysulfide solution within which the working ions (here, Li + or Na + ) carry out the sulfur redox reaction. The catholyte (right) is an acidic or alkaline solution containing the working ion as a dissolved salt, e.g., Li 2 SO 4 or Na 2 SO 4.
Whereas nonaqueous lithium-sulfurand high-temperature sodium-sulfur batteriesuse sulfur as the cathode, an all-aqueous system must use sulfur as the anode material to preserve aqueous stability while reaching a meaningful cell voltage. Solubilized aqueous sulfur electrodes have previously been paired with halogenated catholytes in flow batteries,used as the catholyte versus “protected” lithium metal anodes,and used as the anolyte with lithium intercalation cathodes.(Here, “anode” and “cathode” refer to solid-phase active materials, whereas “anolyte” and “catholyte” refer to fluids with solubilized active materials.) In each of these cases, the chemical cost of storage is dominated by the nonsulfur electrode. Thus, we reasoned that if aqueous anolytes of highly soluble metal polysulfides (up to 12 M)could be matched with a similarly low-cost catholyte, unprecedented low storage economics could be achieved. Our scheme, illustrated in Figure 2, is an aqueous flow battery that pairs a polysulfide anolyte with an oxygenated/aerated salt solution as the catholyte. At the anolyte side, charge transfer occurs to a negative current collector connected to the external circuit. At the catholyte side, a single or dual oxygen evolution/reduction cathode configuration is used. This configuration pairs two half-reactions, namely polysulfide oxidation/reduction and oxygen evolution reaction (OER)/oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which unlike conventional rechargeable couples, do not share a common working ion.
(A–D) Confirmation of ORR as the catholyte discharge reaction for cells with (A) acidic catholyte (1 M Li 2 SO 4 + 1 M H 2 SO 4 ) and (B) alkaline catholyte (2 M LiOH). Cell voltage responds immediately as oxygen/argon flow conditions are changed. Unmodified platinum mesh was used as the cathode current collector and carbon foam on stainless steel as the anode current collector. The anolyte solution is 2 M Li 2 S 4 + 0.25 M LiOH in water. Discharge current density for both experiments is 0.065 mA/cm 2. Confirmation of Li- and Na-salt limited capacity in modified H cells using 4 M S anolyte with (C) 0.5 M Li 2 SO 4 catholyte, and (D) 0.5M Na 2 SO 4 catholyte. Each was cycled over the entire capacity range afforded by the salt concentration in the starting catholyte.
Using H cells ( Figure 3 A), we confirmed that OER/ORR occurs at the catholyte side by observing the changes in cell voltage induced by changing the gas composition or by cycling the gas flow on and off. An immediate response of the cell voltage to a change in gas flow conditions is clearly seen in Figures 4 A and 4B for acidic and alkaline catholyte, respectively. Then, to determine whether the charge-storing capacity of the catholyte corresponds to the concentration of added salt (LiSOor NaSO), cells with an excess of anolyte were prepared using the modified H-cell design in Figure 3 B. Results in Figures 4 C and 4D show that the measured capacity of these cells corresponds almost exactly to the theoretical capacity calculated from the Lior Naconcentration. In addition, the cell voltage is the same for both alkali ions, as expected from the cell reactions. In the anolyte, polysulfide redox activity was readily discerned from changes in color with state of charge.
(A) Selected GEIS data plotted as area-specific impedance. In order of descending impedance, the data are for the following conditions. Red circles: low Pt loading, 20°C, 0.5 mA/cm 2. Black squares: low Pt loading, 20°C, 2.5 mA/cm 2. Blue triangles: low Pt loading, 30°C, 2.5 mA/cm 2. Green triangles: high Pt loading, 30°C, 2.5 mA/cm 2. The dotted lines are the corresponding fitted data for the two major semicircles based on the equivalent circuit shown in the inset.
Two Pt loadings were investigated: A high loading of 0.21 mg/cm 2 and low loading of 0.03 mg/cm 2, at two discharge current densities (0.5 mA/cm 2 and 2.5 mA/cm 2 ) and at five temperatures (20°C, 30°C, 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C.) A LiSICON membrane of 150 μm thickness was used, the catholyte contained 15 mL 0.5 M Li 2 SO 4 + 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 and anolyte contained 15 mL 0.5 M Li 2 S 2 + 0.25 M Li 2 S 4 + 1.25 M LiOH. The electrolyte flow rate was 0.5 mL/min and the air flow rate was 10 cm 3 /min. Fixed amplitude (0.1 mA/cm 2 ) and frequency range (1 MHz to 100 mHz) were used throughout.
Another important cost factor is the cost of catalyst required to support a given power density. Several non-platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts for OER and ORR in acid media have been proposed,which we are in the process of evaluating. However, we have also investigated the impact of Pt black loading on the charge-transfer resistance of the experimental flow cell ( Figure 3 D), using galvanostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (GEIS). The US Department of Energy's (DOE) future PEM fuel cell total PGM target for Pt loading is 0.15 mg/cmbut this loading accommodates about 100 times higher power density (800 mW/cm) than is assumed in our model. Experiments were conducted using two Pt black loadings, one higher (0.21 mg/cm) than the DOE target and one a factor of five lower (0.03 mg/cm). We found that the impact of temperature was much greater than the impact of loading. Figure 7 A shows selected Cole-Cole plots from these measurements, in which the higher frequency arc is due to membrane impedance and the lower frequency arc is correlated with ORR kinetics.A small inductive loop at the lowest frequencies is observed in each case, consistent with the literature,which we did not attempt to fit. Figure 7 B summarizes the GEIS results as a plot of total cell area-specific resistance (ASR) versus temperature. It is seen that the curves converge with increasing temperature such that at 50°C and above, neither current density nor loading significantly changes the ASR. At lower temperature where results are more differentiated, increasing discharge current density (comparing the red and black curves in Figure 7 A) primarily decreases the ORR charge-transfer resistance, consistent with Butler-Volmer behavior whereby a larger overpotential results in faster kinetics. Increasing temperature (comparing blue and black curves in Figure 7 A) decreases both membrane and ORR impedance. Increasing the catalyst loading with other parameters held constant (comparing blue and green curves) decreases the ORR charge-transfer resistance, but only at the lower temperatures, and does not change the membrane resistance. We use these results later for T-E modeling of the flow battery. Unlike Pt black, IrOis not readily available as high surface area powder, so the impact of its loading on OER kinetics during charging was not investigated. In the T-E modeling, we assume similar loadings as for Pt black.
The cell with the 50-μm-thick membrane shows reduced polarization and a higher power density (peak value of 5.1 mW/cm 2 at 7.1 mA/cm 2 ), compared with the cell with the 150-μm-thick membrane of the same composition (peak power density of 3.4 mW/cm 2 at 5.5 mA/cm 2 ).
Further evidence that polarization and power density in the current unoptimized design are primarily limited by membrane resistance appears in Figure 6, where the polarization and power density of H cells were measured for two LiSICON membranes with different thicknesses (both at 55°C using a |
, where women are more rare) as well as how much they work when they get there. Women are more likely to work part time, particularly when children are young.
Put together, the wage gap seems less the result of deliberate discrimination by employers and more a case of women as competent economic thinkers who are trying to balance work, life, and family. That more women make these tradeoffs than men is significant, but may also be changing as more men choose to stay home and take care of children.
Given that women’s share of higher education has been growing dramatically and that they are poised to take over large areas of law, medicine, and other professional fields, we may well see a similar shift in male negotiating tactics in the future.
2. Mandatory Maternity Leave
Another major policy being floated is mandated maternity leave. The problem with this solution is not, as in the case of the wage gap, that it doesn’t solve a real problem. In fact, lack of maternity leave affects breastfeeding rates, postpartum depression rates, and infant outcomes.
Instead, the problem with mandating maternity leave is that maternity leave itself leads to other kinds of unintended consequences for women. Research from Pew shows that countries with the most generous maternity leave policies also have the largest wage gaps between men and women. Taking 10 months to a year off at a time does not place one in the best position for promotions or raises, after all.
But perhaps most damaging is that mandated maternity leave harms the very women who have the most to lose — unskilled workers. Companies who hire highly trained and skilled women may see generous maternity leave policies as a way to attract highly qualified women who will stick around much longer than their leave, more than making up for their temporary absence.
Mandated maternity leave harms the very women who have the most to lose.
Unskilled workers do not have those same benefits to offer. Their work is largely interchangeable, characterized by high turnover, and employers do not compete for such workers the way they compete for skilled laborers. Mandatory maternity leave means, not better options for low-skilled women, but rather an increase in discrimination and bias against women, particularly low-skilled women, in their childbearing years. Employers will simply shift their focus to men and older women, who they won’t have to risk paying while on leave or training replacements.
3. Subsidized Child Care
A final piece of the agenda for working women is lowering child-care costs by providing state-sponsored subsidies to allow both parents to work outside the home. Child care costs have been soaring of late, and most families, particularly those with one partner who earns a lower wage, may find that the most sensible financial plan is for the lower-wage partner to stay home with children. Since the lower-wage earner is still more likely to be female, many women choose to stay home for economic reasons, even when they would rather be working.
The problem with subsidizing child care with government money is that it fails to pay attention to why child care is so expensive in the first place. Research by the economists Diana Weinert Thomas and Devon Gorry found that as much as 20% of child care costs could be linked to regulations that add neither safety nor quality to child care. These regulations included the requirement for child care workers to have high school or college degrees, which is shown to add considerably to costs but does not contribute at all to either safety or quality of care. Yet encouraging more college graduates to choose employment at child care facilities is part of Senator Gillibrand’s agenda for working mothers.
Such a plan would provide tax credits to college graduates who go into child care work. The result would actually increase the cost of care overall, rather than helping families afford child care. Instead of encouraging people with costly undergraduate educations to take jobs as daycare workers, why not take a hard look at the regulations daycares face and eliminate the ones that don’t help anyone except the regulators?
It’s a trap!
This Women’s History Month, let’s avoid the trap of looking at women’s equality as a problem that only politicians can solve. Let’s look instead at women’s issues as the result of a complex series of choices women and men make, choices that are dynamic and where incentives are changing even as I write.
There are, of course, very real barriers to women’s equality out there, but let’s not forget how often these take the form of government policies like higher tax rates on second earners and restrictive occupational licensing laws that prevent women from entering the workforce.
Before we start adding more government policies on top of other problematic government policies, let’s take a hard look at how government restricts women’s choices. Whatever we do, let’s not pass laws and policies that help middle and upper class women out at the expense of the most vulnerable women. To do that is to place the biggest burden of inequality on those who are the least able to shoulder it.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A gay man who went to a tribunal over being refused the position of a priest at the Anglican Church, has said he is “grateful” the commission took his case, and that he may apply again in future for the job.
Geno Sisneros, gave up his attempts to be accepted to a training course to become a priest, and claimed that he was discriminated against because he is gay.
His case against the Bishop of Auckland, Ross Bay, who turned down his training application, was taken up by the Human Rights Tribunal, which ruled that he was discriminiated against, but which is still to decide whether the church broke the law by doing so.
“I take comfort in knowing that we have already made an important concession from the church in that in not allowing gay and lesbian Anglicans who are living in same-sex relationships to test their calling is discriminatory,” he said.
“I want to say that I’m grateful to live in a country that provides a forum like the Human Rights Tribunal where marginalised people can have a voice and be hear,” he continued.
Lawyers for Mr Bay said he was following the regulations of the belief system of the church, which, they argued, can’t legally be controlled by the court.
Mr Bay said: “One of the points of issue here is the application of the Human Rights Act in ensuring there is the right to freedom of religious doctrine and belief.”
“We are dealing with sensitive issues and with the human lives that are affected. The church is engaging with processes of discussion. But there are a wide variety of views around the issue,” he said.
The decision by the tribunal is expected to take several weeks, as it has several hundred pages of evidence to consider.(Long story + Videos + Ass-ton of Comments = Occasional Page Lockup. If you would rather view this with each video + story being separate, click here.)
I recently moved into my dorm room starting as a Sophomore in college and a friend of mine gave me his old Nintendo 64 to play. I was stoked, to say the least. I could finally play all those old games of my youth I hadn't touched in least a decade. His Nintendo 64 came with one yellow controller and a rather shoddy copy of Super Smash Brothers and, while beggers can't be choosers, it didn't take long before I got bored of beating up LVL 9 CPUs. That weekend, I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods about twenty minutes or so off-campus, hitting up the local garage sales. I was hoping to score some good deals from ignorant parents. I ended up picking up a a copy of Pokemon Stadium, Goldeneye, F-Zero, and two other controllers for two dollars. Satisfied, I began to drive out of the neighborhood when one last house caught my attention. I still have no idea why it did; there were no cars there and only one table was set up with random junk on it. However, something sort of drew me there. I usually trust my gut on these things, so I got out of the car and was greeted by an old man. His outward appearance was, for lack of a better word, displeasing. It was odd. If you asked me why I thought he looked displeasing, I couldn't really pinpoint anything. There was just something about him that put me on edge. I can't explain it. All I can tell you that if it wasn't in the middle of the afternoon and there weren't other people within shouting distance, I wouldn't have even thought of approaching this man. He flashed a crooked smile at me and asked what I was looking for. Immediately, I noticed he must be blind in one eye; his right eye had that "glazed over" look about it. I forced myself to look to his left eye, trying not to offend, and asked if he had any old video games. I was already wondering how I could politely excuse myself from the situation when he would tell me he had no idea what a video game was, but to my surprise he said he had a few in an old box. He assured me he'd be back in a "jiffy" and turned to head back into the garage. As I watched him hobble away, I couldn't help but notice what he was selling on his table. Littered across his table were rather...peculiar paintings - various artworks that looked like ink blots a psychiatrist might show you. Curious, I looked through them. It was obvious why no one was visiting this guy's garage sale; these weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing. As I came to the last one, I noticed it looked almost like Majora's Mask, with the same heart-shaped body with the little spikes protruding outward. Initially, I just thought that since I was secretly hoping to find that game at these garage sales, some Freudian bullshit was projecting itself into the ink blots. However, given the events that happened after, I'm not so sure now. I should have asked the man about it. I wish I asked the man about it. After staring at the Majora-shaped blot, I looked up and the old man was suddenly there again, arms-length in front of me and smiling. I'll admit, I jumped out of reflexa nd laughed nervously as he handed me a Nintendo 64 cartridge. It was the standard gray color and had no label. Someone had written Majora on it in black permanent marker. I got butterflies in my stomach as I realized what a coincidence it was and asked how much the old man wanted for it. The old man smiled and told me I could have it for free. He said it used to belong to a kid around my age that didn't live here anymore. There was something weird about how he phrased that, but I didn't really any attention then. I was too caught up in not only finding the game, but getting it for free. I reminded myself to be a bit skeptical since this looked like a pretty shady cartridge and there was no guarantee it would work. However, the optimist inside me interjected that maybe it was some kind of beta or pirated version of the game. That was all I needed to be back on cloud nine. I thanked the man, who smiled and wished me well, saying "Goodbye then," which at the time is what it sounded like to me. All the way in the car ride home, I had a nagging doubt that the man had said something else. My fears were confirmed when I booted up the game (to my surprise, it worked just fine) and there was one save file simply named, "BEN." The man was saying, "Goodbye, Ben." I felt bad for him. He was obviously a grandparent going senile. I, for some reason or another, reminded him of his grandson, "Ben." Out of curiosity, I looked at the save file. I could tell he was pretty far in the game; he had almost all of the masks and 3/4 boss remains. I noticed he had used an owl statue to save his game. He was on Day 3 by the Stone Tower Temple with hardly an hour before the moon would crash. I remember thinking it was a shame he had come so close to beating the game but never finished it. I made a new file named "Link," out of tradition, and started the game. I was ready to relive my childhood. For such a shady looking cartridge, I was impressed at how smoothly it ran - literally just like a retail copy of the game, save for few minor hiccups here and there (textures being where they should be, random flashes of cutscenes at odd intervals, nothing too bad). However, the only thing that was a little unnerving was that, at times, the NPCs would call me "Link" and call me "BEN" at other times. I figured it was a bug, maybe a fluke in the programming, that caused our save files to get mixed up or something. It did kind of creep me out after a while, though. Around the time I beat Woodfall temple, I regretably erased the "BEN" file. I had intended to preserve the file out of respect for the game's original owner. It's not like I needed two files anyway. I hoped that would solve the problem. It did and didn't. Now NPCs wouldn't call me anything. Where my name should be in the dialogue was a blank space (my save file was still called "Link," however). Frustrated and with homework to do, I put the game down for a day. I started playing the game again last night, getting the Lens of Truth and working my way toward completing Snowhead Temple. Now, some of you more hardcore Majora's Mask players know about the "4th Day" glitch. For those who don't, you can google it. The gist of it is that right as the clock is about to hit 00:00:00 on the final day, you talk to the astronomer and look through the telescope. If you exit the telescope just as the timer hits 00:00:00, the countdown disappears and you essentially have an endless amount of time to finish whatever you were doing. Deciding to do the glitch to try and finish Snowhead Temple, I went in and tried. I happened to get it right on the first time and the counter at the bottom disappeared. When I exited the telescope, I found myself in the Majora boss room at the end of the game (the trippy boxed in area), staring at Skull Kid hovering above me. There was no sound, just him floating in the air above me and the background music, which was regular for the area (but still creepy). Immediately, my palms began to sweat. This was definitely not normal. Skull Kid NEVER appeared here. I tried moving around the area and, n omatter where I went, Skull Kid would always be facing me, not saying anything. Nothing would happen and this kept up for around sixty seconds. I thought the game was bugged or something, but I was beginning to doubt that very much. I was about to reach for the reset button when text appeared on the screen. "You're not sure why, but you apparently had a reservation..." I instantly recognized that text. You get that message when you get the Room Key from Anju at the Stock Pot Inn. Why was it playing here? I refused to entertain the nothing that it was almost as if the game was trying to communicate with me. I started to walk around the room again, testing if that was some sort of trigger that enabled me to interact with something before realizing how stupid I was. To even think that someone could reprogram the game like this was absurd. Sure enough, though, another message appeared on the screen fifteen seconds later and, like the first one, it was already a preexisting phrase. "Go to the lair of the temple's boss? Yes/No" I paused for a second, contemplating what I should press and how the game would react, when I realized I couldn't select No. Taking a deep breath, I pressed Yes and the screen faded to white, with the words "Dawn of a New Day" and the subtext "||||||||" beneath it. Where I was transported to filled me with the most intense sense of dread and impending fear I have ever experienced. The only way I can describe the way I felt here is having this feeling of inexplicable depression on a profound scale. I'm not normally a depressed person, but the way I felt here was a feeling I didn't even know existed. It was such a twisted, powerful presence that seemed to wash right over me. I appeared in some kind of weird Twilight Zone version of Clock Town. I walked out of the Clock Tower (as you normally do when you start from the 1st Day) only to find all the inhabitants were gone. Usually with the 4th Day glitch, you can still find the guards and the dog that runs around outside the tower, but they were all gone. What replaced them was the ominous feeling there was something out there, in the same area as me, and it was watching me. I had four hearts ot my name and the Hero's Bow, but at this point I wasn't even considering for my avatar. I felt that I personally was in some kind of danger. Perhaps the most chilling thing was the music. It was the Song of Healing, ripped straight from the game and played in reverse. The music would get louder, building up so you should expect something to pop out at you, but nothing ever did and the constant loop began to wear on my mental state. Every now and then, I would hear the faint laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman in the background. It was just quiet enough that I wasn't sure if I was just hearing things, but just loud enough to keep me determined to find him. I looked in all four zones of Clock Town only to find nothing...and no one. Textures were missing, too. West Clock town had me walking on air and the entire area felt...broken. Hopelessly broken. As the reverse Song of Healing repeated for what must have been the 50t time, I remember standing in the middle of South Clock town realizing that I had never felt so alone in a video game before. As I walked through the ghost town, I don't know whether it was the combination of the out-of-place textures, the atmosphere, and the haunting melody of the once peaceful and soothing song being butchered and distorted, but I was literally on the verge of tears and I had no idea why. I hardly ever cry, but something had gripped me here and caused this powerful sense of depression that was both foreign and crippling. I tried leaving Clock Town, but every time I went through one of the exits, the screen would fade to black and I would enter another zone of Clock Town. I tried playing my Ocarina. I wanted to escape; I did NOT want to be here. However, every time I played the Song of Time or Song of Soaring, it would only say, "Your notes echo far, but nothing happens." By this point, it was obvious the game didn't want me to leave, but I had no idea why it was keeping me here. I didn't want to go inside buildings; I felt I would be too vulnerable to whatever I was terrified of. I don't know why, but I came up with the idea that if I drowned myself at the Laundry Pool, I could spawn elsewhere and leave. As I ran toward the pool, it happened. Link grabbed his head and the screen flashed for a brief moment of the Happy Mask Saleman smiling at me - not Link, but ME - with the Skull Kid's scream playing in the background. When the screen returned, I was staring at the Link Statue usually created by playing the Elegy of Emptiness. I screamed as the thing stared back at me with that haunting facial expression. I turned around and ran back to South Clock Town. To my horror, the fucking statue followed me in a way I can only describe as being similar to the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Every so often, at random intervals, the animation would play of the statue appearing behind me. It was like the thing was chasing me, or - I don't even want to fucking say it - haunting me. By this point, I was on the verge of hysterics. However, not even once did the thought of turning off the console occur to me. I don't know why, but I was so wrapped up in it. The terror felt all so real. I tried to shake the statue, but it would literally appear right behind me every single time it went off-screen. Link started to make weird animations I had never seen him do. He would flail his arms around or spasm randomly. The screen would cut to the Happy Mask Salesman smiling again for a brief moment before I was face to face with that fucking statue again. I ended up running into the Swordsmaster's Dojo and ran to he back. I don't know why, but in my panic I wanted some kind of assurance I wasn't alone. To my dismay, I found no one. As I turned to leave, the statue cornered me in the cubby in the back. I tried attacking the statue with my sword, but to no avail. Confused and backed into a corner, I stared at the statue and waited for it to kill me. Suddenly, the screen flashed again to the Happy Mask Salesman and Link turned to face me, standing upright as a mirror image of the statue and looking at me with his copy. Literally staring at me. Whatever was left of the fourth wall was completely shattered while I ran out of the dojo, terrified. Suddenly, the game warped me to an underground tunnel. The reverse Song of Healing queued up again as I was given a brief moment of rest before the statue started appearing again...this time aggressively. I could only take a few steps before it would be summoned behind me again. I hurriedly made my way out of the tunnel and appeared in Southern Clock Town. As I ran aimlessly in a sheer panic, a ReDead suddenly screamed and the screen faded to black. "Dawn of a New Day" and "||||||||" appeared again. The screen faded in and I was standing atop the Clock Tower with Skull Kid overing over me again, silent. I looked up and the moon was back, looming just meters above my head, but the Skull Kid stared at me hauntingly with that fucking mask. A new song was playing: the Stone Tower Temple theme played in reverse. In some sort of desperate attempt, I equipped my bow and fired off a shot at Skull Kid. It actually hit him and he played an animation of him reeling back. I fired again and, on the third arrow, a text box appeared that said, "That won't do you any good. Hee, hee." I was picked up off the ground, levitated upwards on my back, and Link screamed as he burst into flames, instantly killing him. I jumped when this happened. I had never seen this move used by ANYONE in the game and, in addition, Skull Kid didn't even have any moves! As the dead scene played, my lifeless body still burning, the Skull Kid laughed and the screen faded to black. I reappeared in the same place. I decided to charge him, but the same thing happened. Link's body was lifted off the ground by some unknown force and burst into flames, again killing him. This time, during the death scene, the faint sounds of the reverse Song of Healing could be heard. On my third and final try, I noticed there was no music playing; all there was was eerie silence. I remembered that in the original encounter with Skull Kid, you were supposed to use the ocarina to either travel back in time or Summon the Giants. I attempted to play the Song of Time, but before I could hit the last note Link's body once again burst into flames and he died. As the death scene neared its end, the game began to chug. It was as if th cartridge was trying to process a lot of something. When the screen came to, it was the same scene as the first three times, except Link was lying on the ground, dead, in a position I had never seen in the game before. His head was tilted toward the camera and Skull Kid was floating above him. I couldn't move or press any buttons. All I could do was stare at Link's body. After around 30 seconds of this, the game faded out with the message "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" before kicking me to the title screen. Upon getting back to the title screen and starting again, I noticed my save file was gone. Instead of "Link" was "YOUR TURN." "YOUR TURN" had three hearts and no masks or items. I selected this file and was returned to the Clock Tower Rooftop scene of Link dead and the Skull Kid hovering over, with the Skull Kid's laugh looping again and again. I quickly hit reset and when the game booted up again there was one more save file added below "YOUR TURN": "BEN." That save file is right back where it was before I deleted it, at the Stone Tower Temple with the moon almost crashing. I turned the game off at that point. I'm not superstitious, but this is WAY too fucked up - even for me. I haven't played it at all today. Hell, I didn't even get any sleep last night. I kept hearing the reverse Song of Healing in my head and couldn't get past that sense of dread I felt while exploring Clock Town. I drove back to the old man's house today with a buddy of mine (no way was I going there alone) to ask him some questions, only to find there's a for sale sile in the front yard. When I rang the doorbell, no one was home. So now I'm back here, writing down the rest of my thoughts and recording what happened. Sorry if some of this has grammatical errors and whatnot; I'm running on no sleep here. I'm terrified of this game, even moreso now that I relived it a second time just writing this down. However, I feel like there's still more to it than meets the eye and there's something calling me to investigate this further. I think "BEN" is something in this equation, but I don't know what. If I could get hold of the old man, I would be able to find some answers. I need another day or so to recuperate before tackling this game again, however. I feel it's already taken a toll on my insanity, but next time I do this I'm going to record the entire thing. The idea to record only came to me toward the end, so you only see the last few minutes of what I saw (including the Skull Kid and Elegy statue), but it's on Youtube here.
I'm going to post what happened and link to the video footage, but everything got too real for me last night. I think I'm done messing around with this. I passed out pretty much immediately after making that thread. Last night, however, I had a dream about that Elegy of Emptiness statue. I dreamed it was following me, that i would be minding my own business when I'd feel my neck hairs stand up on end. I would turn around and that thing...that horrible, lifeless statue would be staring at me with those empty eyes right at me, merely inches away. In my dream, I remember calling it Ben. Never bore had I had a dream I could remember so vividly. The important thing is that I did get SOME sleep, I suppose. Today, putting off playing the game as long as I could, I drove back to that neighborhood to see if the old man returned. As I expected, the car was still gone and no one was home. As I was walking back to my car, the man next door came up and asked me if I was looking for someone. I told him I was looking to talk to the old man that lived here, to which he told me what I already knew: he was moving. Trying a different avenue, I asked if the old man had any family or relatives I could talk to. I discovered this old man had never been married, nor did he have any children or grandchildren through adoption. Starting to become worried, I asked one final question (one I should have asked from the beginning): who was Ben? The man's expression turned grim and I learned that four door down, around eight years ago on April 23rd (the man informed me that it was the same day as his anniversary, which is why he knew the specific date) there was an accident with a young boy named Ben in the neighborhood. Shortly after, his parents moved. Despite any further attempts to talk to the man to get more information, he wouldn't divulge anything else. I went back home and started playing the game again. I loaded up the game and immediately jumped at the sequence where the mask flies by. The sound that played was not the normal "whoosh" sound, but something much more higher pitched. I pressed start and braced for the worst, but just like two nights ago the files "YOUR TURN" and "BEN" were displayed. Truth be told, I looked at the BEN file earlier and it seems to fluctuate between displaying the owl icon and not. I brought up the BEN file and hesitated for a moment as I noticed the stats were not the same as they were two days ago. It looked like he had already completed the Stone Tower Temple this time. Summoning my courage, I selected it. Immediately, I was thrust into complete chaos. Sure enough, I was outside Stone Tower Temple, but that's about all that was expected. The area itself wasn't called Stone Tower Temple, but rather "St o n e," and immedately a dialogue box of complete gibberish I couldn't make out greeted me. Link's body was distorted. His back was cocked violently to the side and his posture was permanently disfigured. Link's expression was dull, almost monotonous. He had an expression on his face I didn't recognize. It was a blank look, as if he were dead. As Link stood there, his body spasmed irregularly back and forth. I examined what had become of my avatar and noticed a C-button item I never saw before. It was some kind of note, but pressing it did nothing. Sounds played back and forth that I didn't recognize from the game. They were almost demonic nature. There was some kind of high-pitched yip or some kind of laugh or something playing in the background, too. I had all of two minutes to take in the environment before another of those fucking Elegy of Emptiness statues was summoned. Immediately after, I was cut to the "Dawn of a New Day" screen, except this time without the "||||||" subtext. I was a Deku Scrub in Clock Town. This scene would normally play after the first time you traveled back in time. Tatl would say, "Wh-What just happened? It's as if everything has..." but instead of saying, "Started over," she finished her remark in broken text as the laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman played in the background. I ws put back in control of my character, but from a screwed up angle. I was looking from behind the door to the Clock Tower, watching my avatar run around as a Deku Scrub. Seeing as I had no place to go because I couldn't see anything, I begrudgingly went inside. There, I was greeted by the Happy Mask Salesman. He simply told me, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" before the screen whited out. I was in Termina Field as a Hylian again. I might as well have not even even been playing the same game anymore. I was being warpd around and there was no sign of a clock or anything. I took a moment to get my bearings as I looked around the field and, immediately, I could tell this wasn't normal. There were no enemies and a twisted version of the Happy Mask Salesman's theme was playing. I decided to run toward Woodfall before I noticed a gathering of three figures off to the side; one of them was Epona. As I approached them, I saw the Happy Mask Salesman, the Skull Kid, and the Elegy of Emptiness statue standing there as well. I fugred maybe they were bugged out, but by then I should have known better. Nevertheless, I approached them carefully and found Skull Kid and Epona were doing some kind of idle animations on loop. The Elegy of Emptiness statue was doing what it had been doing all along: standing there eerily. It was the Happy Mask Salesman that scared me profoundly more than the other two. He, too, was idle and wearing that shit-eating grin. However, wherever I moved, his head slowly turned and followed me. I had no engaged in any dialogue with him nor was I in combat with him, yet his head still continued to follow my movements. Reminded of my first encounter with the Skull Kid on top of the Clock Tower, I pulled out my Ocarina (to which the game played the ding sound that tells you you're supposed to play it) and tried a song I hadn't played yet - the Happy Mask Salesman's own song and the song that had been playing on loop back in Day 4: the Song of Healing. As I finished playing the song, an ear-piercing shriek blasted the TV speakers. The sky immediately started flashing and the Happy Mask Salesman's twisted theme sped up, intensifying the fear inside me. Link exploded into flames and died. The three figures stayed lit up during the death scene as they watched my lifeless body burn. I can't describe to you how sudden and terrifying the transition from eeriness to terror it is. You're going to have to watch the video if you want to see that firsthand. That same fear that caused me to lose sleep two days ago started to grip me again as I was met with the text, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" for the third time. There has to be some kind of meaning behind that. I had little time to ponder as I was immediately given another small cutscene of transforming into a Zora. Now I found myself in the Great Bay. Hesistant, but curious to see what the game had in store for me, I slowly made my way toward the beach, where I found Epona. I wondered why the game had decided to put her here. Was the game implying she was trying to get a drink? Unable to take mask off, I decided that riding the steed wasn't the reason she was placed there. Suddenly, I realized that Epona kept neighing. The way she was angled made it look like she was trying to signal a point to me off in the distance. It was a hunch, but I dove into the water and started swimming. Regardless, my character choked to death and died. Again, the statue was the only thing that was highlighted in my death. I didn't respawn this time. I was booted back to the main menu as if I restarted the console. The title screen was before me and I knew the only reason it would put me here is because the save files had changed again. Taking a deep breath, I press start and found out I was right. The new save files told me about Ben. Now it made sense why the statue appeared when I tried to go to the Laundry Pool. The game must have anticipated how I would have tried to escape the Day 4 Clock Town. The two save files told me his fate. As I suspected, Ben was dead. He had drowned. The game obviously isn't through with me. It taunts me with the new save files. It wants me to keep playing. It wants me to go further. I'm done with this shit, though. I'm not touching any more of the files. This is already way too horrifying for me and I don't even believe in the paranormal, but I'm running out of explanations. Why would someone send me this message? I don't understand it and I just get too depressed thinking about it. The footage is up here for those who want to see it and try and analyze it. Maybe there's some kind of coded message in the gibberish or something symbolic in what I went through, but I'm too emotionally and mentally drained to fuck with it anymore.
I know it's early in the morning. I've stayed up all night. I can't sleep. I don't care if people see this. That's not the point. I just want the word to get spread so I don't suffer for nothing. I've lost the will to type about this. The less I well on this the better. I think the video just speaks for itself. I did what you guys told me to. I played the Elegy of Emptiness at the first prompt by the game I was given, but I think that's what the game or Ben (Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm even humoring the absurd idea he exists in the game) wanted me to do. He's following me now, but not just in the game; he's in my dreams. I see him all the time, behind my back, just watching me. I haven't gone to any of my classes. I've stayed in my dorm room with the windows closed and the blinds shut. That way I know he can't watch me. However, he still gets to me when I play. When I play, he can still see me. The game is scaring me now. It talked to me for the first time, not just using the text already in the game, but literally spoke to me. It referenced Ben. I don't know what it means or what it wants. I never wanted this. I just want my old life back. Stuff like this doesn't happen to people like me. I'm just a kid not even old enough to drink yet. It's not fair. I want to go home and see my parents again. I'm so far away from home here at this school, but I just want to hug my mom again. I just want to forget that statue's horrible, blank face. My original game file is back, just the way I left it before it was gone. I don't want to play anymore, though. I feel like something bad will happen if I don't, but that's impossible. It's just a video game; haunted or not, it can't hurt me, right? Like seriously, though. It can't right? That's what I keep telling myself, but every time I think about it I'm not so sure.
Let me just clear things up. I know you guys are worried, but "Jadusable" is okay. He finished moving out today and said he's going back home to take the semester off. I'm not really sure what's happened. I have a vague ideea, but you guys probably know more than I do. I'm "Jadusable's" roommate and, obviously, I've known something was wrong with him for a few days now. He stayed in his room all the time, fell out of contact with literally all of his friends, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't been eating hardly anything. After the second day, I |
truth. Public figures include those who hold public office, candidates for public office, movies stars, and the like. A person who is not a public figure has to prove only negligence.
The Times did attempt to backtrack somewhat from its original editorial, but the Palin suit contends that they made only “half-hearted Twitter apologies — none of which sufficiently corrected the falsehoods that the paper published. In fact, none mentioned Mrs. Palin or acknowledged that Mrs. Palin did not incite a deranged man to commit murder.”
While the outcome of this case as a legal matter is clearly uncertain, it demonstrates that the New York Times, as a leading part of the American liberal establishment, is often willing to unfairly and personally attack the reputation of leading conservatives — especially if that person is a woman.
Image of Sarah Palin: Screenshot of an ad at sarahpalin.comA federal investigation into Health Diagnostic Laboratory could soon come to a close with a multimillion-dollar fee.
A Wall Street Journal report (paywall) published Monday states that HDL has reached a “tentative” agreement with the Justice Department after a seven-month investigation, the terms of which include a $47 million fine.
The investigation into potential anti-kickback violations has been ongoing since at least September. It centers on the legality of fees HDL and four other laboratory companies paid to doctors using its blood testing services.
HDL released a statement Monday in response to the WSJ’s report that confirms that the company will be “concluding a settlement with the Department in the very near future that will enable our company to avoid potentially expensive and protracted litigation.” The statement does not put a dollar figure on the agreement.
It says that the report was published before “the Department’s planned formal announcement of the settlement.”
The agreement with the Justice Department will include “an explicit denial of any wrongdoing,” according to HDL’s statement, as well as a “five-year corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
“HDL, Inc. has worked cooperatively with the Department of Justice since the inception of its investigation of various diagnostic laboratory industry practices, many of them common within the industry,” the statement continues.
The WSJ’s report says that the Justice Department’s investigation into the other laboratory companies is ongoing. It is unclear whether they will have to pay similar fines.
The fallout for HDL, founded in 2008, has been ongoing since the investigation became widely known. Founder and CEO Tonya Mallory resigned from her post in September, two weeks after the WSJ’s initial report that called the company’s practice into question.
It has since reduced its charitable giving and in November slashed 132 positions, reducing its staff to about 740.
And HDL is also dealing with two multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Health insurer Cigna filed an $84 million lawsuit in October, alleging fraudulent billing, and BlueWave HealthCare Consultants, HDL’s former longtime sales contractor, filed a $205 million suit against the company in January.The world can be split into two groups of people: those who like Kevin Smith‘s films, and those who don’t. This week, Smith’s third feature film, Chasing Amy, celebrated its 20th anniversary. The off-beat romantic comedy starring Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams was a game-changer on multiple levels; for Smith as a filmmaker, and for the genre as a whole. Smith put Affleck, then a little-known rising star, on the map, and solidified Smith’s spot amongst Hollywood’s new age of auteurs. Chasing Amy follows a comic book artist (Affleck) who falls for a lesbian (Adams), and throws his relationship with his best friend (Jason Lee) into contention in the process. Some of Chasing Amy‘s depictions of the LGBTQ community may come off as #problematic nowadays, but the film’s authentic emotional aspects and clever, gritty humor make it one of Smith’s finest flicks to date. Smith’s understanding of modern romance and friendship is one that not many directors possess, and his penchant for cringe-worthy comedy and true-to-life dialogue is largely part of what’s kept his work relevant for years. He’s paved the way for a number of comedic directors working today, and it all started with Clerks.
The premise for Clerks was pretty mundane; it’s simply a day in the life of Dante and Randall, the respective clerks of a convenience store and a video store in New Jersey. When Dante gets called in on his day off (“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”), he is confronted by a slew of problems: obnoxious customers, his ex-girlfriend getting married, his current girlfriend revealing a surprising sexual past, and a duo of drug dealers (the infamous Jay & Silent Bob) loitering outside the store all day. There wasn’t much to the flick, but the groundbreaking authenticity of the characters and the mundanity of middle-class existence, $27,000 microbudget (and eventual $3 million box office performance), and bare-bones production style got Smith the attention of critics and audiences alike, and gained the film a cult classic status. Smith’s humor is certainly not for everyone – it’s uproariously profane – but his weird, natural sense of human nature and dialogue is what got Clerks its well-deserved attention.
Smith followed up Clerks with a prequel of sorts titled Mallrats, a film that ultimately was not as beloved by critics as its predecessor due to the studio’s heavy hand in production. The flick takes place the day before Clerks does, and focuses on a pair of best friends (Jason Lee and Jeremy London) who are dumped by their girlfriends on the same day and seek out refuge in their local mall. Mallrats is also rife with the comedy that made Clerks a success, but there’s a hamminess to this film that makes it clear that it’s not all Smith. Despite its initial critical backlash, it later gained the same cult love that Clerks had – after all, Smith’s signature knack for real-life dialogue and crude humor still rang true, and Jay & Silent Bob were given a lot more to do here than they’d done in Clerks.
Chasing Amy came after Clerks, and the film’s performance and reception evidently led to Smith becoming something of a fixture in the Hollywood scene. Dogma, Smith’s controversial religious satire, followed Amy, and he enlisted the talents of Affleck, Matt Damon, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, and more to tell his irreverent tale of fallen angels. The last few films in the View Askewniverse were essentially sequels to his existing work; Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II most notably among them. While Smith has directed a slew of features and episodes of television series, it’s just these particular handful of his films that exist within the View Askewniverse. The fictional universe is named for his production company, View Askew Productions, and connects the same characters, motifs, and settings throughout the films. The content that exists within this universe is essentially what defined Smith as a filmmaker, and allowed him to take his career to the place it currently resides. He places everyman characters into their most comfortable locale and explores the depth that exists in the seemingly banal occurrences of everyday existence, and puts his own twisted, often crass spin on it.
Smith’s distinctive style of storytelling has not gone overlooked by some of today’s most popular filmmakers. Comedy writer and frequent Judd Apatow collaborator Seth Rogen has even credited Smith for showing him what comedy could be: “I really think that’s what let us know it was OK to try writing Superbad — just that something like that could exist,” Rogen spoke of Clerks. “I just thought it was the funniest stuff ever, just how dirty it was. Even when we were making 40-Year-Old Virgin, I was a heavy proponent of making it really dirty and pushing the envelope with the friends and just making them very real guys’ guys, and a lot of that came from my love of Clerks and Kevin Smith. I would say I’m a direct product of his work.” Rogen and Smith worked together on Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which finally connected the seemingly destined-to-be-together Apatow and Smith. Smith’s subtle, prosaic influence is also prominent in the work of newer filmmakers like Joe Swanberg (Smith is certainly not an example of Mumblecore, but still). “Kevin Smith laid down the track,” Judd Apatow told fans at Comic-Con in 2007. While Apatow certainly owns the gross-out, sweet, stoner comedy turf nowadays, he’s quick to acknowledge that there had to be someone before him. And we’re damn glad Smith was there to pave the way.
While Smith’s work as of late (Tusk, Yoga Hosers) has certainly made a departure from the work that put him on the map (I was admittedly completely horrified by Tusk), what’s fascinating about these recent flicks is that his growth is apparent on screen with each one. Maturity, fatherhood, and newfound interests shine through each project he creates, and there’s something thrilling about being completely in the dark about what he’ll do next. Yes, his films are polarizing – but wouldn’t it be boring if they were all crowd-pleasers? There’s no one quite like Smith in Hollywood, and that’s what makes him so great – his prolific career, appreciation for everyday life, and reach across genres (and endearing geek identity) is one that will likely remain unmatched for years to come.CLOSE Asheville Scene's top picks for things to do in Asheville, May 18-24. Wochit
Buy Photo Scenes from Downtown After 5 with Cracker. (Photo: Libby Gamble/Citizen-Times)Buy Photo
1. Downtown gets brassy for the season's first free show
What's that sound downtown? Follow your ears (or cut the guesswork and head straight to North Lexington Avenue) for the very first free favorite of the season. It's Downtown After 5, and it's back for another summer of monthly outdoor concerts, starting May 19 with the High & Mighty Brass Band. Combining New Orleans funk and R&B with afro-beat and hip-hop influences, the group will funk up downtown with opening act Josh Phillips Big Band from 5-9 p.m. Downtown After 5 is hard to miss, with large crowds swarming the closed-off streets and vendors lining the sidewalks with food and drinks. Proceeds from beer wristbands, which are sold for $2 at the event, go toward local nonprofits, and the wristbands allow concert-goers to purchase alcohol from craft beer and wine vendors.
2. Color the RAD at Burners and BBQ
Head to The Foundation this weekend for Burners and Barbecue. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
"One of our main goals is to make it so that, when people come down (to the River Arts District), it reflects what’s happening inside the studios," said Burners and BBQ co-organizer and artist Ian Wilkinson. "We want people to unmistakably arrive in an arts district."
At Burners and BBQ, May 19-21, 30 to 50 local, regional and nationally renowned street artists and muralists will come together for a fourth consecutive year to help paint the River Arts District. They won't paint it brown or purple or green — they'll paint it a whole spectrum of colors, slowly turning each nook and cranny in the RAD into a work of art. Come watch the magic happen at 5 Foundy St. at The Wedge's Foundation location and treat yourself to some barbecue from 12 Bones Smokehouse anytime Friday through Sunday. An official art opening and artist meet-and-greet will be held Friday, and Saturday, a graffiti documentary premieres at Grail Moviehouse at 9:30 p.m. Click here for the full story on Burners and BBQ.
3. Catch the carnival that is Tour de Fat
The fun never ends at New Belgium Brewing. The brewery's signature beer, Fat Tire, is the inspiration behind the national event Tour de Fat, back in 2017 for its 18th season — and bigger and bolder than ever. The traveling philanthropic beer, music and bike festival kicks off a 33-show season on May 20 at its brewery in Asheville and wraps up Oct. 7 in Tempe, Arizona. In addition to musical headliners — which, in Asheville, is Third Eye Blind — a touring ensemble of artists, cirque performers and general mayhemists will appear alongside local buskers and street performers. The local carnival benefits Asheville on Bikes and parties from 4-9 p.m. May 20. Tickets are $25 at the gate or online at newbelgium.com.
New Belgium's Tour de Fat is a carnival of music and beer. (Photo: Photo by Michael Oppenheim)
4. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, best friends forever
Laura Rikard and Anne Thibault star in "Matt & Ben," a comedy originally written by "The Office" star Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers. (Photo: Courtesy of Nina Swann)
A two-person show written by "The Office" star Mindy Kaling and actress/writer Brenda Withers, "Matt & Ben," is up for audiences at the North Carolina Stage Company. "Matt & Ben" first premiered in 2002 and starred its two writers, Kaling and Withers, as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The show depicts the duo's relationship circa 1995, when both were struggling actors, and, with some creative liberties, the authors imagine: What if the script for "Good Will Hunting" — for which, in real life, Damon and Affleck won an Oscar — fell from the sky into their laps, literally? Laugh out loud as the BFFs go on a journey to stardom in a performance that won the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival for best overall production.The NC Stage version of the show stars Laura Rikard as Affleck and Anne Thibault at Damon. Tickets range from $16-$34 and are available at ncstage.org or at 15 Stage Lane in downtown Asheville. The performance runs Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., now until June 11.
5. Rock out to a couple of cute couples
If knowing that the guys of Gringo Star are married to the ladies of Shantih Shantih doesn't interest you, feel free to ignore that little fun fact. Both bands stand on their own and put on an awesome psychedelic indie rock show, husband-and-wife gimmicks aside. But, over here at the Asheville Scene, we think it's pretty adorable. Head to the Mothlight on May 24 to see the 1960s surf-rock-inspired Gringo Star and Shantih Shantih, along with Asheville band Shaken Nature. It's going to be a great show, cute or not. The music starts at 9 p.m. Wednesday for $8 in advance at themothlight.com or $10 at the door.
Catch Gringo Starr and Shantih Shantih in Asheville on May 24. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
Read or Share this story: http://avlne.ws/2qw0Vx1on democracy and socialism and capitalism
on working for justice
on poverty
on capitalism
on military spending
on philanthropy
on the media
on love and equality
“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.” —Martin Luther King"Privileged classes do not give up their privileges voluntarily." —Martin Luther King"In the treatment of poverty nationally, one fact stands out: there are twice as many white poor as Negro poor in the United States. Therefore I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike." —Martin Luther King"I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income." —Martin Luther King"The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism." —Martin Luther King"And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America?... When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, Who owns the oil? You begin to ask the question, Who owns the iron ore? You begin to ask the question, Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?" —Martin Luther King"Today the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences by being branded as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty. The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available." —Martin Luther King"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." —Martin Luther King"We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged small hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered." —Martin Luther King"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." —Martin Luther King“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” —Martin Luther King“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” —Martin Luther King"Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, "We can't do it this way." They applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, "Be non-violent toward Bull Connor"; when I was saying, "Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark." There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, "Be non-violent toward Jim Clark," but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children." There's something wrong with that press!" —Martin Luther King"This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." —Martin Luther KingMarvel Shares First Full Minute Of All Hail The King By Sean O'Connell Random Article Blend
Trevor Slattery, the "villain" Iron Man 3, is back in action in the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King. We have been reporting on this seemingly important short film for weeks, banking on the fact that it might share a little more information on the REAL identity of The Mandarin. Well now we have an exclusive look at the beginning of the short, right here...
What are we seeing? Scoot McNairy (of Argo) is playing a documentary filmmaker who is trying to get to the heart of Trevor’s identity. He admits that the man is simply an actor who pretended to be The Mandarin, and we learned in Iron Man 3 that Guy Pearce’s character IN FACT was the Mandarin all along. Or was he? There were hints and suggestions in an earlier EW interview saying that Marvel maybe is keeping a secret stashed up its sleeve that Trevor and Aldrich Killian were stealing the identity of an ACTUAL Mandarin.
Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just holding out hope because I was
But why stir that pot again if we don’t have to?
The One-Shot introduction stops short of Trevor actually telling us anything important. I’m guessing the "meat" of this short still waist or us in the clip. Maybe Trevor, while in prison, runs into members of The Ten Rings, and realizes what a mistake it was to impersonate a legit threat like The Mandarin. It was suggested a few weeks back that the new short All Hail the King could lead to
We’ll know more very soon. The short film All Hail the King will be a part of the upcoming Thor: The Dark World DVD and Blu-ray release. Where it builds from there is anyone’s guess. The Seagate prison references in the short could lead to new Marvel Netflix shows. They could all feed into Avengers: Age of Ultron. The future is bright for Marvel… and the foundation keeps getting stronger.
"It’s not exactly the Ritz, is it?"Trevor Slattery, the "villain" Sir Ben Kingsley played in Shane Black’s, is back in action in the Marvel One-Shot. We have been reporting on this seemingly important short film for weeks, banking on the fact that it might share a little more information on the REAL identity of The Mandarin. Well now we have an exclusive look at the beginning of the short, right here...What are we seeing? Scoot McNairy (of) is playing a documentary filmmaker who is trying to get to the heart of Trevor’s identity. He admits that the man is simply an actor who pretended to be The Mandarin, and we learned inthat Guy Pearce’s character IN FACT was the Mandarin all along. Or was he? There were hints and suggestions in an earlier EW interview saying that Marvel maybe is keeping a secret stashed up its sleeve that Trevor and Aldrich Killian were stealing the identity of an ACTUAL Mandarin.Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just holding out hope because I was disappointed in the way I thought Black and crew handled what should have been Iron Man’s chief nemesis.But why stir that pot again if we don’t have to?The One-Shot introduction stops short of Trevor actually telling us anything important. I’m guessing the "meat" of this short still waist or us in the clip. Maybe Trevor, while in prison, runs into members of The Ten Rings, and realizes what a mistake it was to impersonate a legit threat like The Mandarin. It was suggested a few weeks back that the new shortcould lead to a fourth Iron Man movie. Will that possibly bring the Mandarin back into the fold, in proper form?We’ll know more very soon. The short filmwill be a part of the upcomingDVD and Blu-ray release. Where it builds from there is anyone’s guess. The Seagate prison references in the short could lead to new Marvel Netflix shows. They could all feed into. The future is bright for Marvel… and the foundation keeps getting stronger. WATCH: New Captain Marvel Trailer Teases Epic Space Battle Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topUber Drivers Criticize Company For Shady Firing Practices
Imagine that instead of your boss telling you — eye-to-eye — you get the news as an alert on your phone. That's how it works at Uber, and the Uber app's move to fire is sometimes made in error.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
If you've ever been fired, you know how bad that can feel. Well, now imagine that instead of your boss or HR telling you that face to face, you get the news as a pop-up alert on your smartphone. Well, that's how it works at Uber. This afternoon, NPR's Aarti Shahani continues her series on the experience of Uber drivers.
AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Uber driver Eric Huestis thought it was any other day.
ERIC HUESTIS: I went and filled up my car for the night. I went to the car wash.
SHAHANI: He was in Burlington, Vt., about 25 miles from home. He loaded his Chrysler 300 with bottles of water, a nice and somewhat expected courtesy for Uber passengers. He slid into the front seat, opened his Uber app.
HUESTIS: And the app wouldn't work.
SHAHANI: By that, he means he got an alert.
HUESTIS: Your account needs attention. Please contact customer support.
SHAHANI: It's counterintuitive, but in the world of Uber, Huestis is a, quote, unquote, "customer." He benefits from the company's signature service - the iconic black app that matches him with riders. Huestis hit the button, which directed him to a form, not a person. And moments after submitting, he got a message from a company Uber uses to do criminal background checks called Checkr. It's another Silicon Valley startup.
HUESTIS: I had a charge of possession of marijuana on my record that needed to be reviewed by Uber in order for me to drive.
SHAHANI: The timing threw him off. The 42-year-old who lives with his girlfriend and her kid absolutely had a record for three marijuana possessions - most recently in 2010. He says when he started driving for Uber last year, it wasn't an issue. He passed the check. And the only thing that's changed since is that on January 1, New Year's Day, he got a pardon from the governor of Vermont. A pardon is a way to clean, not dirty your record. Plus, Huestis says...
HUESTIS: It wasn't a DWI. It wasn't a felony. It wasn't a rape charge. It wasn't a kidnapping. It was nothing violent or anything that would stop me from being an Uber driver, so I was like, why is this happening?
SHAHANI: Huestis was sweating bullets. He'd recently bought a used car just to drive for Uber. While he was invested in them, he says, they're not invested in him. Uber didn't have a number for him to call even though this was an emergency. Huestis says state officials whom he could reach didn't have a way to call the company either. So the Uber driver found himself trapped in a maze of online forums and generic emails. At first, they said it would take 15 days to review his case, then, 30. It was the worst of, quote, unquote, "customer service." And he says if it doesn't sound like a big deal...
HUESTIS: What if you got booted off your cellphone provider? That would - that would change everything. I mean, I got booted off my income provider for no reason.
SHAHANI: This may be a window into the future of work. For years, workers have enjoyed how technology creates distance from the boss. You can join meetings from home or from Hawaii. But with Uber, we're coming to a strange inflection point. The company has designed an app that is so efficient, cheap, scalable it can manage 600,000 drivers in the U.S., but the system lacks the most basic sympathy. And so Huestis is left checking his Uber app, waiting to learn the fate of his career the way some people check Facebook to see if a selfie got liked.
HUESTIS: Yeah, and that was checking it constantly.
SHAHANI: Huestis called NPR the day he was axed. And over the weeks, we followed his ups and downs. On May 1, he texted (reading) I'm in tears today. Rent's due. No income from Uber in over 20 days.
He did make a bit of money by picking up scrap metal from nearby farms and recycling it - kind of like you do with soda cans - only he can't do that work alone. He needs a friend to help because he's an amputee.
HUESTIS: I'm missing a leg - left leg above knee amputee, all the way to the hip - motorcycle accident, yeah.
SHAHANI: That's why he really liked driving for Uber.
HUESTIS: Uber is great for me because I don't need anybody. I can get in my car and go.
SHAHANI: Eric Huestis is not a one-off. NPR interviewed more than a dozen drivers who've been, quote, unquote, "de-activated." That's the word Uber uses. Many don't know why exactly it happened. Some were let back on mysteriously. This is not news to Uber's chief of driver and rider relations, Janelle Sallenave.
JANELLE SALLENAVE: I absolutely acknowledge that we have had some serious work that we've needed to do to improve how we how - we handle those situations where we need to evaluate if a driver should be removed from the platform.
SHAHANI: She says Uber is undertaking significant policy changes right now but declined to provide details. In Eric Huestis' case, the company says, the proper appeals procedures were followed with the third party background check company. After nearly a month without work, Huestis was let back on. He'd like to sue Uber for lost wages, which he says would be about $3,000. That's a lot of money for him but not enough for a lawyer to bother with his case. Aarti Shahani, NPR News, San Francisco.
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.One man has spent 15 years making a hyper-realistic Ghost Recon mod and you can play it now
After almost one and a half decades of relentless fanatic one-man development, the mod’s creator Apex reports to be working on the finishing details for a full 1.0 version, scheduled for release “when it’s ready”.
Heroes Unleashed offers the redux of a wide variety of content and ideas from the myriad of mods classic Ghost Recon inspired over the years. The huge project aims to incorporate those elements of the game’s rich modding history into an ultimate collection of the best game content, meticulously complemented by significant refinements and additions, all with a distinct emphasis on hardcore tactical realism.
Since its humble beginnings and first public release in 2008, the popular mod has matured immensely. Containing over 125,000 files, Heroes Unleashed now weighs in at about 20 GB fully installed (the download package is ultra-compressed to under 7 GB), and next to the mod’s rejuvenating audio-visual makeover for the classic original, its impressive catalog of hardcore realism enhancements, and a host of other novel and innovative features, the latest update to this monumental expansion pack delivers more than 200 maps and missions, over 400 weapons and equipment items, 100+ military and civilian vehicles, in excess of 1,000 character models, and upwards of 100 single and multiplayer game types.
Hundreds of thousands of mod downloads are an impressive testament to the lasting appeal of Red Storm’s Ghost Recon from 2001, the legendary “Thinking Man’s Shooter” generally credited by industry experts with defining and refining the tactical realism FPS genre, and widely considered to still be one of the best tactical shooters in existence today.
Key Features • Intensified focus on hardcore tactical realism gameplay • Enhanced and extended original Ghost Recon trilogy campaign • Wide choice of 400+ authentic weapons and equipment items • Huge variety of more than 200 maps and over 100 game types • New multiplayer units, e.g. SEALs, Delta, SAS, Spetsnaz, KSK • Countless new high-resolution textures and detailed 3D models • Boosted audio dynamics and scores of authentic new sounds • Tons of technical and gameplay fixes, adjustments, fine tuning • 50+ included add-on mods for personal customization Download Here : http://www.ghostrecon.net/files2/index.phpAnimal abuse investigators across Ontario are working in “shocking” and “very difficult” conditions that some fear could lead to fatal accidents, a recent report suggests.
The
study
, co-authored by Amy Fitzgerald, a professor in the department of sociology, anthropology and criminology at the University of Windsor, found investigators with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals often work alone and do not have access to police intelligence databases or reliable communication equipment.
“What really got our attention was when the majority of study participants said they expect it’s only a matter of time until an OSPCA officer is severely hurt or killed on the job,” said Fitzgerald.
The report, released Monday, surveyed 64 per cent of the nearly 90 field officers staffed by the organization at branches and affiliate groups, the majority of whom are women.
OSPCA investigators act as the lead enforcers of animal protection laws. And while they can obtain warrants and even lay charges, the organization still operates as a non-profit and the bulk of its funding comes through donations, not the government, the report found.
“Doing fundraisers like bake sales to fund law enforcement is really inadequate,” said Fitzgerald. “If we’re going to have officers upholding provincial and federal laws, they need to be funded appropriately.”
In 2012, the provincial government pledged to provide $5 million annually to support animal protection officers, but the study found that contribution covers less than a third of the organization’s animal protection budget, meaning donations are still heavily relied upon.
According to Melanie Coulter — director of the the local OSPCA affiliate and executive director of the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society — local donors are generous but the organization has needed increased government funding for years.
“People wouldn’t expect police forces to self-fund or raise money to have officers on the road investigating the Criminal Code, so to ask for that to occur just because it’s animal welfare is something pretty unusual,” she said.
The report makes a number of recommendations which Fitzgerald and her co-author, Brock University Prof. Kendra Coulter, believe would help investigators do their jobs.
Recommendations include government funding for two-way radios for OSPCA officers, more public funding for cruelty investigations, donated BlackBerry cellphones for reliable communication, and access to the Canadian Police Information Centre — which is available to other law enforcement bodies.
Without changes, the report suggests officers doing difficult and dangerous work could remain at-risk and the animals they’re charged to protect could suffer.
Fitzgerald said officers who participated in the focus groups for the report provided multiple examples of situations where officers were potentially in danger because of understaffing or inadequate equipment.
In one case, an investigator working alone was confronted by an angry dog owner wielding a hatchet. Later the officer learned the enraged dog owner was also facing murder charges.
Coulter declined to elaborate of specific calls her investigators have responded to, but said officers have dealt with “people who make them nervous.”
“We also have had situations where officers are dealing with someone who has a history of violent offences,” she explained.
In those cases, Coulter said the humane society takes steps to ensure its officers stay safe such as attending calls with a partner, arranging for phone calls before an officer arrives and after they leave an address and even asking police to respond to calls with animal protection officers.
Despite having only three investigators — two of whom work full time — Coulter said that in the last year alone the humane society responded to more than 1,000 calls.
While the organization investigates every call it receives, she added that with further government funding officers could do even more to keep animals in Ontario safe.
“For decades our community has been basically funding animal law enforcement,” she said. “But shelters could do a lot more collectively if the government was actually funding the cost of the services we’re providing.”
[email protected] hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of moth. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Distribution [ edit ]
The hummingbird hawk-moth is distributed throughout the northern Old World from Portugal to Japan, but it breeds mainly in warmer climates (southern Europe, North Africa, and points east). Three generations are produced in a year in Spain.[1]
It is a strong flier, dispersing widely in the summer. However it rarely survives the winter in northern latitudes (e.g. north of the Alps in Europe, north of the Caucasus in Russia).
Moths in the genus Hemaris of the family Sphingidae |
ulent buildings," Cook protested in her mass missive. "Scientologists and OTs need to be training, auditing, and disseminating to raw public… not [selling services to] each other or holding internal fundraisers." She said that those donations had built up central cash reserves that "have grown well in excess of a billion dollars" — a figure confirmed by Mike Rinder. After her email, Cook was expelled from the church, which then sued her; she and Scientology reached a settlement, which included a gag order, in April. Her attorney Ray Jeffrey told reporters that fighting the church had destroyed Cook and her husband's business. Two months later, they moved to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. But more voices have entered the fray: former executives and parishioners, organizing together against the church. "There has been a tipping point reached," says Bunker. "A large number of people now are not afraid to speak out. And that's never been the case before." Hubbard's model — local centers selling books, audits, and seminars — was to be "lean, mean, make a lot of money," says Nancy Many. Now, she says, Miscavige is fighting back with a new approach: "Get a bunch of millionaires, and suck them dry." But of course, they're not all millionaires. Early in 2012, Debbie Cook — a church icon and former executive — sent an angry email about the Ideal Orgs to hundreds of parishioners, who forwarded it to thousands of others. She was no bad-apple malcontent: Cook ran the church's spiritual headquarters, the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, for 17 years. L. Ron Hubbard "never directed the purchase of opulent buildings," Cook protested in her mass missive. "Scientologists and OTs need to be training, auditing, and disseminating to raw public… not [selling services to] each other or holding internal fundraisers." She said that those donations had built up central cash reserves that "have grown well in excess of a billion dollars" — a figure confirmed by Mike Rinder. After her email, Cook was expelled from the church, which then sued her; she and Scientology reached a settlement, which included a gag order, in April. Her attorney Ray Jeffrey told reporters that fighting the church had destroyed Cook and her husband's business. Two months later, they moved to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. But more voices have entered the fray: former executives and parishioners, organizing together against the church. "There has been a tipping point reached," says Bunker. "A large number of people now are not afraid to speak out. And that's never been the case before." Hubbard's model — local centers selling books, audits, and seminars — was to be "lean, mean, make a lot of money," says Nancy Many. Now, she says, Miscavige is fighting back with a new approach: "Get a bunch of millionaires, and suck them dry." But of course, they're not all millionaires.
Scientology Media / Creative Commons / Via Flickr: scientologymedia The grand opening of the Ideal Org in Seattle, July 24, 2010
"The money and the time we put in were supposed to help people improve their lives," said Mark Elliott, a genial Seattle subcontractor who joined in 1980, worked as the local church's treasurer until 2000 and contributed thousands to the Ideal Org project before leaving the church in 2009. Elliott isn't a John Travolta figure. Like much of the church rank and file, he's just a guy who Hubbard's words helped out in a time of need. "That was the whole idea: not only helping ourselves, but others," he says. He loved the church, and didn't want to doubt the purity of its intentions. "I should have seen things a little sooner." In 2001, the local Seattle church directors announced a plan to find a new building. The parishioners obliged, and found one they liked. But then, the central church caught wind, and plans changed. According to Elliott and Schippers, a team of CSI fundraising missionaries descended on Seattle, saying they weren't satisfied with the church's plans. They told the locals to find a bigger, glitzier structure, and raise far more money. In Seattle, a landlord sent from the church's central International Landlord Office began hosting several events. "He wanted to get more rooms here and there," says Elliott. "He kept asking for more money. They said the building had to have this many square feet, this number of offices. All the space planning was his. And now, the place is basically empty." Ideal Org fundraisers, many from the central church, get 10 cents commission on every dollar raised. Elliott sighs. Parishioners "were asked to take out second mortgages on their homes," he said. "The money would come in to my local treasurer's office, then go straight to the International Landlord Office." "The money and the time we put in were supposed to help people improve their lives," said Mark Elliott, a genial Seattle subcontractor who joined in 1980, worked as the local church's treasurer until 2000 and contributed thousands to the Ideal Org project before leaving the church in 2009. Elliott isn't a John Travolta figure. Like much of the church rank and file, he's just a guy who Hubbard's words helped out in a time of need. "That was the whole idea: not only helping ourselves, but others," he says. He loved the church, and didn't want to doubt the purity of its intentions. "I should have seen things a little sooner." In 2001, the local Seattle church directors announced a plan to find a new building. The parishioners obliged, and found one they liked. But then, the central church caught wind, and plans changed. According to Elliott and Schippers, a team of CSI fundraising missionaries descended on Seattle, saying they weren't satisfied with the church's plans. They told the locals to find a bigger, glitzier structure, and raise far more money. In Seattle, a landlord sent from the church's central International Landlord Office began hosting several events. "He wanted to get more rooms here and there," says Elliott. "He kept asking for more money. They said the building had to have this many square feet, this number of offices. All the space planning was his. And now, the place is basically empty." Ideal Org fundraisers, many from the central church, get 10 cents commission on every dollar raised. Elliott sighs. Parishioners "were asked to take out second mortgages on their homes," he said. "The money would come in to my local treasurer's office, then go straight to the International Landlord Office."
Tony and Mary-Joe DePhillips
When the fundraisers found a far bigger building, said Elliott, staffers were asked to give money. One local director took out a million-dollar loan. According to Tony DePhillips, another local Seattle donor and an Operating Thetan VII, the church's second highest level, "They would have you do anything — sell your house, give away your 401(k) — to raise the money." DePhillips and his wife ended up giving more than $100,000 over several years, money earned from hard work at the small jewelry business in Seattle they co-own. At the time, he was also paying $30,000 a year to stay at the Thetan VII level. DePhillips' close friend, Bert Schippers, and Schippers' wife, Lynne Hoverson, were some of the biggest donors — they co-owned a successful manufacturing business in Seattle and wanted to give back. Schippers' donation came on top of the estimated $1.2 million he had paid into Scientology's hierarchal system of seminars, services, and donations between 1986 and 2008, when he left the church. "They pump you up when you're giving money," DePhillips says. "You feel like a big shot. Ultimately, you find out that the church doesn't give a rat's ass about you the minute you're not on the same page." Elliott makes a lot less than Schippers. But he still gave: more than $40,000 since 1980, when he joined as a fresh-faced college recruit. In the 2000s, that included $24,000 to the Ideal Org project in Seattle. More than just a donor, he was a treasurer for the local church, a community icon, and a budding auditor, Scientology's version of a life counselor. In 2005, when his mother passed away, he gave the local church "about $7,000" of his inheritance. In February 2005, the Seattle donors finally raised enough to buy the central church's chosen structure for $3.7 million. But the CSI's plan for the Seattle congregation wasn't finished yet. For four more years, "the building sat idle, while more fundraising occurred to raise money for renovations," says Schippers. The structure stayed unoccupied and unrenovated until 2009. He grew impatient — why the wait for their new holy site? But the fundraising still wasn't over. Elliott says that the fundraisers from the central church asked for $2.1 million to beautify the building, and then surprised him by asking for $1.1 million more to buy another one: an affiliated "Scientology Life Improvement Center" in downtown Seattle. The second building was purchased in 2007, but also stayed empty until July 24, 2010. And the fundraising targets kept rising. "There were many hundreds more fundraising rounds," says Schippers. "In the last two or three years, it was fundraising more than once a week." "They would always seem to miss their [donation] quotas," says DePhillips. "They would tell you it would be a certain number one month, then as they got closer to it, they'd raise it." According to internal emails obtained by BuzzFeed, the money drive officially closed on Feb. 20, 2010: "Across the eight years," the email says, "we raised a total of $13.9 million with 33 Humanitarians [church jargon for those who make a] (Donation of $100,000 or more)." Both Schippers and DePhillips made the list. Of that $13.9 million given to the CSI's central fundraisers, a total of $4.8 million was spent on buying the two properties. Was the remaining $9.1 million spent on local improvements? Due to the religion's closed books, it's hard to say. The fundraising goal for renovating the Life Improvement Center was just $1.5 million, say Schippers, Elliott, and DePhillips. And the donors doubt that even that sum was spent. "I thought that was completely bogus," says Schippers. "I got a tour of the finished building, and it wasn't $1.5 million of renovations. I would estimate $100,000 … It is possible that renovations were as high as $500,000, but even that seems too high." Even if the church did spend $1.5 million on improving the Center, that leaves $7.6 million to renovate the main Ideal Org. Jason Rosauer, a senior vice president and partner at Kidder Matthews, one of Seattle's largest commercial real estate firms, took a look at the building and estimated that it would cost "between eight and nine million to put up brand new." If the church spent the remainder of its raised funds on renovating the Ideal Org, he says, "it would not be out of the realm of possibility…but that's a hell of an improvement." "When I look at the building," DePhillips says, "it's not an impressive one. The idea that it would cost millions to renovate that seems preposterous." As the drives intensified and the requests mounted, it's hard not to wonder why the guys on the ground agreed to give, give, and keep giving. "When you're a hardcore member, you believe that the church will help the planet, that it will stop wars, that it will help there be peace for all, that it will help you personally with your life," Schippers says. "It was a huge part of my life, and most of my friends were involved." DePhillips complained to a staff member that the aggressive, post-purchase, empty-building fundraising "went against Hubbard's financial policy." The staffer responded by suggesting he report himself to the church's Ethics department, which would help him "get [his] shit together." He ultimately resigned and was branded a "suppressive," a church enemy with whom no Scientologist is allowed to communicate. When the fundraisers found a far bigger building, said Elliott, staffers were asked to give money. One local director took out a million-dollar loan. According to Tony DePhillips, another local Seattle donor and an Operating Thetan VII, the church's second highest level, "They would have you do anything — sell your house, give away your 401(k) — to raise the money." DePhillips and his wife ended up giving more than $100,000 over several years, money earned from hard work at the small jewelry business in Seattle they co-own. At the time, he was also paying $30,000 a year to stay at the Thetan VII level. DePhillips' close friend, Bert Schippers, and Schippers' wife, Lynne Hoverson, were some of the biggest donors — they co-owned a successful manufacturing business in Seattle and wanted to give back. Schippers' donation came on top of the estimated $1.2 million he had paid into Scientology's hierarchal system of seminars, services, and donations between 1986 and 2008, when he left the church. "They pump you up when you're giving money," DePhillips says. "You feel like a big shot. Ultimately, you find out that the church doesn't give a rat's ass about you the minute you're not on the same page." Elliott makes a lot less than Schippers. But he still gave: more than $40,000 since 1980, when he joined as a fresh-faced college recruit. In the 2000s, that included $24,000 to the Ideal Org project in Seattle. More than just a donor, he was a treasurer for the local church, a community icon, and a budding auditor, Scientology's version of a life counselor. In 2005, when his mother passed away, he gave the local church "about $7,000" of his inheritance. In February 2005, the Seattle donors finally raised enough to buy the central church's chosen structure for $3.7 million. But the CSI's plan for the Seattle congregation wasn't finished yet. For four more years, "the building sat idle, while more fundraising occurred to raise money for renovations," says Schippers. The structure stayed unoccupied and unrenovated until 2009. He grew impatient — why the wait for their new holy site? But the fundraising still wasn't over. Elliott says that the fundraisers from the central church asked for $2.1 million to beautify the building, and then surprised him by asking for $1.1 million more to buy another one: an affiliated "Scientology Life Improvement Center" in downtown Seattle. The second building was purchased in 2007, but also stayed empty until July 24, 2010. And the fundraising targets kept rising. "There were many hundreds more fundraising rounds," says Schippers. "In the last two or three years, it was fundraising more than once a week." "They would always seem to miss their [donation] quotas," says DePhillips. "They would tell you it would be a certain number one month, then as they got closer to it, they'd raise it." According to internal emails obtained by BuzzFeed, the money drive officially closed on Feb. 20, 2010: "Across the eight years," the email says, "we raised a total of $13.9 million with 33 Humanitarians [church jargon for those who make a] (Donation of $100,000 or more)." Both Schippers and DePhillips made the list. Of that $13.9 million given to the CSI's central fundraisers, a total of $4.8 million was spent on buying the two properties. Was the remaining $9.1 million spent on local improvements? Due to the religion's closed books, it's hard to say. The fundraising goal for renovating the Life Improvement Center was just $1.5 million, say Schippers, Elliott, and DePhillips. And the donors doubt that even that sum was spent. "I thought that was completely bogus," says Schippers. "I got a tour of the finished building, and it wasn't $1.5 million of renovations. I would estimate $100,000 … It is possible that renovations were as high as $500,000, but even that seems too high." Even if the church did spend $1.5 million on improving the Center, that leaves $7.6 million to renovate the main Ideal Org. Jason Rosauer, a senior vice president and partner at Kidder Matthews, one of Seattle's largest commercial real estate firms, took a look at the building and estimated that it would cost "between eight and nine million to put up brand new." If the church spent the remainder of its raised funds on renovating the Ideal Org, he says, "it would not be out of the realm of possibility…but that's a hell of an improvement." "When I look at the building," DePhillips says, "it's not an impressive one. The idea that it would cost millions to renovate that seems preposterous." As the drives intensified and the requests mounted, it's hard not to wonder why the guys on the ground agreed to give, give, and keep giving. "When you're a hardcore member, you believe that the church will help the planet, that it will stop wars, that it will help there be peace for all, that it will help you personally with your life," Schippers says. "It was a huge part of my life, and most of my friends were involved." DePhillips complained to a staff member that the aggressive, post-purchase, empty-building fundraising "went against Hubbard's financial policy." The staffer responded by suggesting he report himself to the church's Ethics department, which would help him "get [his] shit together." He ultimately resigned and was branded a "suppressive," a church enemy with whom no Scientologist is allowed to communicate.
Next, the church's "counselors and security checkers" descended on Schippers, insisting he agree, in writing, to never talk to his friend again. He demurred, tried to reason with the church. "Tony's a good person," he urged. That fell on deaf ears. He was later ushered out of the church and branded suppressive as well. His stepson and daughter, still in the church, no longer speak to him. "I moved up the ranks because I wanted the spiritual salvation," says Schippers. "But I never got it. The spiritual salvation I was looking for turned into spiritual rape." DePhillips says that, after leaving, the church began to ostracize him and his wife, also declaring them suppressive. It was a jarring shift. "While donating to the Ideal Org, my wife and I were given a framed certificate [saying] that we were 'Humanitarians,'" he said. "Then, for speaking our minds and trying to improve the group form within, we were labeled anti-social personalities … It's an interesting philosophy, developed by L. Ron Hubbard. But it is an insane group that is running the 'official' church of Scientology currently." Other Scientologist friends of his, he said, either cut contact or were forced out of the church as well. Reached via phone, staffers at the Seattle Church deferred questions to Ann Pearce, listed in government records as Secretary of the Church of Scientology of Washington. (DePhillips says she was a "major player.") Multiple messages requesting comment were not returned. When it came to the Seattle Ideal Org grand opening in July 2010, Schippers' and his wife's names were not included on a permanent dedication plaque honoring "Excalibur-level" donors. Both were barred from entering the church. Just that February, an internal church missive had lauded them as one of only three couples to reach the "Excalibur" level. "When you've devoted 20 years of your life and given a boatload of money, it's really shocking," says DePhillips. "We gave $300,000 to that building and they didn't even let me inside," Schippers says. "When somebody behaves like that towards you, it feels like a betrayal. It's fucked up. I want my money back." Next, the church's "counselors and security checkers" descended on Schippers, insisting he agree, in writing, to never talk to his friend again. He demurred, tried to reason with the church. "Tony's a good person," he urged. That fell on deaf ears. He was later ushered out of the church and branded suppressive as well. His stepson and daughter, still in the church, no longer speak to him. "I moved up the ranks because I wanted the spiritual salvation," says Schippers. "But I never got it. The spiritual salvation I was looking for turned into spiritual rape." DePhillips says that, after leaving, the church began to ostracize him and his wife, also declaring them suppressive. It was a jarring shift. "While donating to the Ideal Org, my wife and I were given a framed certificate [saying] that we were 'Humanitarians,'" he said. "Then, for speaking our minds and trying to improve the group form within, we were labeled anti-social personalities … It's an interesting philosophy, developed by L. Ron Hubbard. But it is an insane group that is running the 'official' church of Scientology currently." Other Scientologist friends of his, he said, either cut contact or were forced out of the church as well. Reached via phone, staffers at the Seattle Church deferred questions to Ann Pearce, listed in government records as Secretary of the Church of Scientology of Washington. (DePhillips says she was a "major player.") Multiple messages requesting comment were not returned. When it came to the Seattle Ideal Org grand opening in July 2010, Schippers' and his wife's names were not included on a permanent dedication plaque honoring "Excalibur-level" donors. Both were barred from entering the church. Just that February, an internal church missive had lauded them as one of only three couples to reach the "Excalibur" level. "When you've devoted 20 years of your life and given a boatload of money, it's really shocking," says DePhillips. "We gave $300,000 to that building and they didn't even let me inside," Schippers says. "When somebody behaves like that towards you, it feels like a betrayal. It's fucked up. I want my money back."
Maurice Rivenbark/Tampa Bay Times/ ZUMAPRESS.com Luis Garcia and his wife Rocio
This scenario is not unique to Seattle. In Orange County, California, the central church's Ideal Org hopes hinged on one man: Luis Garcia, a two-decade veteran of the church, much-respected among the flock. Garcia had reached Operating Thetan VIII and given thousands to the church's "charitable works." He was a familiar face, the owner of a small but successful local printshop. He even helped run the fundraising drive; he can rattle off balance sheets in a pinch. When the fundraisers first arrived in 2003, he agreed to give $100,000 to remodel the existing building. The central church had found an opening. "They used that initial donation to set up an event," bringing in around 400 local Scientologists. "A lot of people … got up and started donating." The combined haul: about $300,000, according to Garcia. But soon, "something changed," Garcia says. "They now said they needed a new building, with more than 45,000 square feet." From 2003 to 2006, the drive continued. Garcia gave $50,000 more — but that wasn't enough. "They came after me three to four times a day," he says, asking for an additional $350,000. They came directly to his house, called him at work, deluged him with letters — and eventually, threatened his marriage. In 2006, Garcia said no. Like DePhillips, he was frustrated: When would the church actually break ground? When could he bring friends and converts to the building he had helped buy? Garcia asked too many questions, stalled for too long. The church filed a "Knowledge Report" with the Ethics Department: a letter alleging that Garcia's wife was stonewalling the purchase. "If they had labeled my wife suppressive," he says. "I would have had to make a choice: Stay with my wife or stay with the church." He ended up donating $510,000. The building, a former Masonic Temple located in Santa Ana, was eventually purchased in April 2006 for $6.2 million, according to Garcia. But, as in Seattle, the building did not immediately open, said Garcia. "When they bought the building, they said the fundraising was over," says Garcia. "That was a lie. They ended up raising over $5 million more." The building did not open until June 2, 2012. According to Garcia, $11.4 million was raised for the building's purchase and renovations. The church also got $3.3 million from the sale of the existing building in Tustin, according to property records. (An internal church letter, dated January 2011, put the fundraising target at a much smaller amount: $5.2 million total.) That makes an estimated total of $14.7 million. Steve Economos, director of office sales at Jones Lang LaSalle, one of Orange County's biggest commercial realtors, evaluated the property: a $6.2 million property buy with $8.5 million in renovations on top. "That's a big, big number," he tells me. "It's conceivable … if the building is gutted to four walls and a roof." And to be sure, the Orange County Ideal Org did undergo extensive renovations, adding "chandeliers," "interior leaded doors," and "dry saunas." As for the $3.3 million from selling the old building, "I don't know what happened to that money," says Garcia. Garcia showed up personally at the office of the Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector, asking for a copy of all the building's documents. Ever since that shiny new church took so much of his and his co-parishioners' money, he's been trying to hunt down where exactly it went. He's an obsessive numbers guy. But the books are closed. Scientology is a federally recognized religion, a 501c(3) exempt from corporate disclosure requirements. "Scientology hierarchy is byzantine," says Scott Pilutik, a Manhattan attorney who has studied the church's corporate structure. "It's meant to look like control is spread out, but it's not the case at all. All the entities are controlled by a single person … Most of the money goes to Miscavige." The top CSI's corporate entity, the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), has had at least one ex-IRS official on its board since the religion gained tax-exempt status in 1993. Of course, not all the information is hidden. According to the Orange County treasure-tax collector's office, the Santa Ana Ideal Org is severely delinquent on its own property taxes and has not gained an exemption. With penalties, the tax amount due now comes to $51,257. "They don't care about how they spend," says Garcia. "It's free money. All they have to do is pressure the people to pay." While he was still inside, helping to fundraise, Garcia knew that at least some of $14.7 million money was spent on "construction, lighting, and floors." But "at least 30%" of the money went to the central church's Gold Base in Riverside County, California, to pay for emotional testing devices, books, presentational material, and audiovisual supplies, sold by the CSI "at an incredible profit," says Garcia. This scenario is not unique to Seattle. In Orange County, California, the central church's Ideal Org hopes hinged on one man: Luis Garcia, a two-decade veteran of the church, much-respected among the flock. Garcia had reached Operating Thetan VIII and given thousands to the church's "charitable works." He was a familiar face, the owner of a small but successful local printshop. He even helped run the fundraising drive; he can rattle off balance sheets in a pinch. When the fundraisers first arrived in 2003, he agreed to give $100,000 to remodel the existing building. The central church had found an opening. "They used that initial donation to set up an event," bringing in around 400 local Scientologists. "A lot of people … got up and started donating." The combined haul: about $300,000, according to Garcia. But soon, "something changed," Garcia says. "They now said they needed a new building, with more than 45,000 square feet." From 2003 to 2006, the drive continued. Garcia gave $50,000 more — but that wasn't enough. "They came after me three to four times a day," he says, asking for an additional $350,000. They came directly to his house, called him at work, deluged him with letters — and eventually, threatened his marriage. In 2006, Garcia said no. Like DePhillips, he was frustrated: When would the church actually break ground? When could he bring friends and converts to the building he had helped buy? Garcia asked too many questions, stalled for too long. The church filed a "Knowledge Report" with the Ethics Department: a letter alleging that Garcia's wife was stonewalling the purchase. "If they had labeled my wife suppressive," he says. "I would have had to make a choice: Stay with my wife or stay with the church." He ended up donating $510,000. The building, a former Masonic Temple located in Santa Ana, was eventually purchased in April 2006 for $6.2 million, according to Garcia. But, as in Seattle, the building did not immediately open, said Garcia. "When they bought the building, they said the fundraising was over," says Garcia. "That was a lie. They ended up raising over $5 million more." The building did not open until June 2, 2012. According to Garcia, $11.4 million was raised for the building's purchase and renovations. The church also got $3.3 million from the sale of the existing building in Tustin, according to property records. (An internal church letter, dated January 2011, put the fundraising target at a much smaller amount: $5.2 million total.) That makes an estimated total of $14.7 million. Steve Economos, director of office sales at Jones Lang LaSalle, one of Orange County's biggest commercial realtors, evaluated the property: a $6.2 million property buy with $8.5 million in renovations on top. "That's a big, big number," he tells me. "It's conceivable … if the building is gutted to four walls and a roof." And to be sure, the Orange County Ideal Org did undergo extensive renovations, adding "chandeliers," "interior leaded doors," and "dry saunas." As for the $3.3 million from selling the old building, "I don't know what happened to that money," says Garcia. Garcia showed up personally at the office of the Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector, asking for a copy of all the building's documents. Ever since that shiny new church took so much of his and his co-parishioners' money, he's been trying to hunt down where exactly it went. He's an obsessive numbers guy. But the books are closed. Scientology is a federally recognized religion, a 501c(3) exempt from corporate disclosure requirements. "Scientology hierarchy is byzantine," says Scott Pilutik, a Manhattan attorney who has studied the church's corporate structure. "It's meant to look like control is spread out, but it's not the case at all. All the entities are controlled by a single person … Most of the money goes to Miscavige." The top CSI's corporate entity, the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), has had at least one ex-IRS official on its board since the religion gained tax-exempt status in 1993. Of course, not all the information is hidden. According to the Orange County treasure-tax collector's office, the Santa Ana Ideal Org is severely delinquent on its own property taxes and has not gained an exemption. With penalties, the tax amount due now comes to $51,257. "They don't care about how they spend," says Garcia. "It's free money. All they have to do is pressure the people to pay." While he was still inside, helping to fundraise, Garcia knew that at least some of $14.7 million money was spent on "construction, lighting, and floors." But "at least 30%" of the money went to the central church's Gold Base in Riverside County, California, to pay for emotional testing devices, books, presentational material, and audiovisual supplies, sold by the CSI "at an incredible profit," says Garcia.
These were brand-new books, auditing machines, CDs, DVDs, audiovisual equipment, manufactured at the central church's Gold Base and sold at a "substantial mark-up," according to Hawkins. No supplies from the old Orange County church could be brought to the new one, said Garcia. The church also installed a "look-in system": hidden-camera video and sound recorders installed in the audit rooms, where Scientologists discuss intimate details from their lives with counselors, while holding two measuring electrodes. The peeping devices "didn't exist in the old orgs," says Garcia. Garcia still believes in Scientology's worldview, if not its leadership. Less angry than Schippers, he just seems beaten down — disabused of all that made the religion seem so transformative: the self-improvement, going "clear," mastering your destiny; the loss of so much wisdom, he says, to money. "You see, I had always held the church management in the highest of regard," he says. "Could they ever make a mistake? Yes, but I always thought them to be beyond ethical reproach. My experience with the Ideal Org was a great factor in my awakening to the reality of the Church of Scientology nowadays: a corrupted, fraudulent, abusive organization, rotten to the core, from top to bottom, that had departed from the principles that once made it attractive to me." As elsewhere, after its grand opening, the Orange County building remains empty but for a few staffers, said Garcia. "There's nothing happening in those orgs," he says "They're dead: six people in 65,000 square feet." Former executive Nancy Many calls churches like Seattle's and Santa Ana's "Ideal Morgues." These were brand-new books, auditing machines, CDs, DVDs, audiovisual equipment, manufactured at the central church's Gold Base and sold at a "substantial mark-up," according to Hawkins. No supplies from the old Orange County church could be brought to the new one, said Garcia. The church also installed a "look-in system": hidden-camera video and sound recorders installed in the audit rooms, where Scientologists discuss intimate details from their lives with counselors, while holding two measuring electrodes. The peeping devices "didn't exist in the old orgs," says Garcia. Garcia still believes in Scientology's worldview, if not its leadership. Less angry than Schippers, he just seems beaten down — disabused of all that made the religion seem so transformative: the self-improvement, going "clear," mastering your destiny; the loss of so much wisdom, he says, to money. "You see, I had always held the church management in the highest of regard," he says. "Could they ever make a mistake? Yes, but I always thought them to be beyond ethical reproach. My experience with the Ideal Org was a great factor in my awakening to the reality of the Church of Scientology nowadays: a corrupted, fraudulent, abusive organization, rotten to the core, from top to bottom, that had departed from the principles that once made it attractive to me." As elsewhere, after its grand opening, the Orange County building remains empty but for a few staffers, said Garcia. "There's nothing happening in those orgs," he says "They're dead: six people in 65,000 square feet." Former executive Nancy Many calls churches like Seattle's and Santa Ana's "Ideal Morgues."
SalFalko / Creative Commons / Via Flickr: safari_vacation David Miscavige speaks during the opening ceremony of the Church of Scientology in Pasadena, California
The Seattle and Orange County donors lost a lot of money, and worse, faith. And they had little recourse. According to DePhillips, the local churches sign restrictive contractual agreements with the CSI that govern use of the building and lease payments. Schippers, who still had $27,583 in the CSI's central account to pay for services, tried to sue to get it back; a judge said he couldn't hear the case, shunting it to internal arbitration. Debbie Cook is leaving the country. DePhillips is weighing his options. Garcia just seems exhausted by it all. To them, the Ideal Org barrage constituted betrayal, hubris, incompetence, or all three. But to former church leaders, the Ideal Org strategy is part of the church's broader struggle to survive — and a symptom of its impending decline. More than just internal finances gone awry, more than a few loose lips on a sinking ship, executives allege that the religion has become an outright "pyramid structure," in the words of Nancy Many. "It's a lot of money being generated for nothing," says Hawkins, a soft-spoken defector who ran the church's marketing operations during its boom from the early 1980s to 2003; no single person, other than Hubbard himself, was more responsible for filling Scientology's pews and getting church books on the best-seller list. "Local churches have to send money to the central church, as'management' fees or 'royalty payments.'" he says. "There's a considerable amount of money that goes from those entities to the Central Finance Office. It's a real estate scheme whereby we can take in unlimited amounts of money that has no liability attached to it." "That's one of the most shocking aspects," says Bunker. "Not |
the EPBC Act from 18-Mar-2017.
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) (2008). Threat abatement plan for predation by the European red fox. DEWHA, Canberra. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/tap/predation-european-red-fox. In effect under the EPBC Act from 01-Oct-2008.
Scientific name Rheodytes leukops [1761] Family Chelidae:Testudines:Reptilia:Chordata:Animalia Species author Legler and Cann, 1980 Infraspecies author Reference Legler, J.M. & Cann, J. 1980. A new genus and species of chelid turtle from Queensland, Australia. Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Contributions in Science 324: 1-181 [2, figs 1-7]
Distribution map
The distribution shown is generalised from the Departments Species of National Environmental Significance dataset. This is an indicative distribution map of the present distribution of the species based on best available knowledge. Some species information is withheld in line with sensitive species polices. See map caveat for more information.
Scientific Name: Rheodytes leukops
Common Name: Fitzroy River Turtle
Other Names: Fitzroy Tortoise, Fitzroy Turtle
The Fitzroy River Turtle is a medium to dark brown turtle growing to 25 cm SL (shell length) with scattered darker spots and blotches on the upper shell surface. It has a pale yellow or cream belly and dull olive-grey exposed fleshy parts. The shell is broadly oval and the neck is covered with large, pointed conical tubercles (Cogger 2000). The back edge of the shell on hatchlings is serrated (Cogger 2000; Latta & Latta 2005; Wilson & Swan 2003). The Fitzroy River Turtle has distinctive eyes with black pupils surrounded by a narrow white inner ring (adults) or a metallic silvery-blue iris (hatchlings) (Cogger 2000; Limpus 2007). The Fitzroy River Turtle has relatively long forelimbs with five long claws and a large cloacal bursae which has a respiratory function (Cogger 2000; Wilson & Swan 2003).
The Fitzroy River Turtle is only found in the drainage system of the Fitzroy River, Queensland. It is estimated that this species occurs in a total area of less than 10 000 km² (Cogger et al. 1993; McDonald et al.1991). Known sites include Boolburra, Gainsford, Glenroy Crossing, Theodore, Baralba, the Mackenzie River, the Connors River, Duaringa, Marlborough Creek, and Gogango (J. Cann cited in Cogger et al. 1993; Covacevich et al. 1996a; Tucker et al. 2001; Venz 2002).
The Fitzroy River Turtle is found in rivers with large deep pools with rocky, gravelly or sandy substrates, connected by shallow riffles. Preferred areas have high water clarity, and are often associated with Ribbonweed (Vallisneria sp.) beds (Cogger et al. 1993). Common riparian vegetation associated with the Fitzroy River Turtle includes Blue Gums (Eucalyptus tereticornis), River Oaks (Casuarina cunninghamiana), Weeping Bottlebrushes (Callistemon viminalis) and Paperbarks (Melaleuca linariifolia) (Tucker et al. 2001). Turtles often associate with logs in deeper water, and may sit on the downstream side or under rocks in fast flowing riffles (Cann 1998; Tucker et al. 2001). In order to be able to breathe in these fast flowing habitats, the Fitzroy River Turtle has adapted to be able to breathe bimodally, using either its lungs or its cloaca. Cloacal ventilation is the process where water is drawn into and expelled from the cloaca at a rate of 1560 times per minute (Limpus 2007). Due to this mode of cloacal ventilation, the Fitzroy River Turtle is commonly referred to as the "bum-breathing" or "bottom-breathing" turtle (Latta & Latta 2005; Limpus 2007). It is thought that the Fitzroy River Turtle has an affinity for well-oxygenated riffle zones, moving into deeper pools as the riffle zones cease to flow (Tucker et al. 2001). However, recent studies have captured several turtles from deep pools (Gordos et al. 2003; 2003a; 2004).
Nesting occurs between September and October (Legler 1985). All located nests have been on river sandbanks 14 m above water level (Cann 1998; Cogger et al. 1993). Nests have been found up to 15 m from water on flat sandbanks (Cann 1998). Annual reproductive potential of females is 4659 eggs laid in three to five clutches. Eggs incubated at 30 °C hatch in 47 days (Cann 1998). Eggs incubated in natural nests have been recorded to take up to 90 days to hatch (Legler 1985). Eggs are deposited in nesting chambers 170 mm deep, containing between 1220 eggs (Latta & Latta 2005). The eggs are approximately 29 mm long and 21 mm wide (Limpus 2007). This species can take between 1520 years to reach sexual maturity (Limpus 2007).
The Fitzroy River Turtle forages on the river bottom (Cann 1998) and is known to consume a variety of foods, including Ribbonweed (Vallisneria sp.), freshwater sponge, aquatic insect larvae, algae, small snails, terrestrial insects and terrestrial plant material such as leaves and bark (Cann 1998; Tucker et al. 2001).
The average home range size (range span) for nine Fitzroy River Turtles near Glenroy Crossing was 417679 m. Home ranges for both sexes overlapped riffle zones, with a mean distance of 258359 m to a riffle zone. The maximum distance to the nearest riffle zone averaged 494613 m. Turtles were sedentary, often remaining in the same location for days. One female, believed to have exhibited exceptional behaviour, migrated 6.8 km beyond an initial core area to take up residence at a second area (Tucker et al. 2001). In Marlborough Creek activity is greatest during daylight hours, specifically the twilight hours, although in other locations it has been observed that the turtles are more active at night (Gordos et al. 2003a). Fitzroy River Turtles are highly reliant on cloacal respiration (Tucker et al. 2001). The longest single dive measured in winter was 21 days in comparison to the longest dive in summer, which was 2.39 days (Gordos et al. 2003).
The greatest current threat to the Fitzroy River Turtle is egg predation although habitat modification, such as the construction of weirs and dams, also pose a tangible threat (Limpus 2007). Egg Predation and Nest Destruction
Fitzroy River Turtles may be vulnerable to predation by pigs, foxes and dogs if forced to move over land due to artificial barriers (Venz 2002). Nests and eggs may also be threatened by fox, feral pig, dog, goanna and water rat predation (Limpus 2007). At some sights, nest predation has resulted in the loss of 100% of eggs, which has resulted in a loss of juvenile turtles and has caused the population to consist mainly of ageing turtles (Limpus 2007). Nesting sites may also be threatened by unseasonable flooding or trampling by stock (Limpus 2007; Venz 2002). Habitat Degradation
Rivers within the Fitzroy River Turtle's range have experienced increases in turbidity since the species' discovery (Venz 2002). Increasing turbidity and sedimentation may affect food resources and cloacal respiration, and have been observed to coincide with some population declines (Cann 1998). Pollution of water and soil by surrounding land uses, such as agriculture and mining operations, may also pose a threat to populations (Cann 1998; Cogger et al. 1993). Weeds can cause infestations at nest sites making it more difficult for Fitzroy River Turtles to access their preferred nesting sites (Limpus 2007). Flow regulation may threaten this species through potential impacts on dietary ecology or respiratory physiology (Tucker et al. 2001). Dams and weirs may also act as a physical barrier, restricting access to feeding or nesting areas (Venz 2002). Two individuals appear to have died as a result of washing over a weir at Theodore (J. Cann cited in Venz 2002).
Limpus (2007) suggests the following recommendations to manage the known threats to the Fitzroy River Turtle: Feral Animal and Weed Control
Eradicate or control feral animals, such as foxes, feral pigs and wild dogs, along rivers where the Fitzroy River Turtle occurs. Manually control aquatic weed infestations at nest sites before the nesting season (Limpus 2007). Habitat Improvement
Managing Grazing
Monitor the impact of grazing on water quality and riparian vegetation and adjust grazing management practices to reduce adverse impacts. Where possible, stock exclusion or rotation are recommended (Limpus 2007). Managing Waterways
Maintain natural drainage patterns, water table and water quality where this species occurs, including areas adjacent to, or uphill of these populations. If natural hydrological conditions have already been altered, appropriate drainage patterns and water quality levels should be determined (Limpus 2007). Habitat Protection
Develop and implement a stock management plan along riparian habitats and travelling stock routes (TSSC 2008ge). Where possible, reduce stock and vehicle access to stream banks to protect turtle feeding and breeding areas from disturbance. Undertake riparian rehabilitation projects (Limpus 2007). The following recovery actions are recommended (EPA 2007a): maintain nesting banks used by the turtles and protect turtle nests from predation and disturbance
improve recruitment of hatchlings into the population
maintain stream flow and connectivity of turtle populations between impoundments
improve water quality in the lower Fitzroy River catchment
boat owners should look out for turtles floating at the surface and 'go slow for those below' to give turtles time to get out of the way of oncoming boats.
The following projects have received Government funding grants for conservation and recovery work benefiting the Fitzroy River Turtle:
Greening Australia Queensland Inc received $19 618 through the Threatened Species Network Community Grants in 200708. This project will directly benefit the turtle population through nest protection, weed control and fencing. The project will also raise awareness of a locally threatened species. Greening Australia Queensland Inc received $19 618 through the Threatened Species Network Community Grants in 200708. This project will directly benefit the turtle population through nest protection, weed control and fencing. The project will also raise awareness of a locally threatened species.
There are several studies describing the habitat and biological characteristics of the Fitzroy River Turtle: Seasonal changes in the diving performance of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle Rheodytes leukops in a natural setting (Gordos et al. 2003).
in a natural setting (Gordos et al. 2003). Seasonal changes in the diel surfacing behaviour of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle Rheodytes leukops (Gordos et al. 2003a).
(Gordos et al. 2003a). Effect of water depth and water velocity upon the surfacing frequency of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle, Rheodytes leukops (Gordos et al. 2004).
(Gordos et al. 2004). Home ranges of Fitzroy River turtles (Rheodytes leukops) overlap riffle zones: potential concerns related to river regulations (Tucker et al. 2001).
Cann, J. (1998). Australian Freshwater Turtles. Singapore: Beaumont Publishing Pty Ltd. Cogger, H.G. (2000). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia - 6th edition. Sydney, NSW: Reed New Holland. Cogger, H.G., E.E. Cameron, R.A. Sadlier & P. Eggler (1993). The Action Plan for Australian Reptiles. Canberra, ACT: Australian Nature Conservation Agency. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/action/reptiles/index.html. Covacevich, J.A., P.J. Couper & K.R. McDonald (1996a). Reptiles of Queensland's Brigalow Biogeographic Region: Distributions, Status and Conservation. Page(s) 148. Canberra: Australian Nature Conservation Agency (ANCA). Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2008ju). Approved Conservation Advice for Rheodytes leukops (Fitzroy Tortoise). Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/pubs/1761-conservation-advice.pdf. In effect under the EPBC Act from 03-Jul-2008. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2007a). Fitzroy River Turtle. Queensland: Environmental Protection Agency. Available from: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/nature_conservation/wildlife/az_of_animals/fitzroy_river_turtle. [Accessed: 10-Oct-2008]. Gordos, M.A., C.E. Franklin & C.J. Limpus (2003). Seasonal changes in the diving performance of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle Rheodytes leukops in a natural setting. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 81:617-625. Gordos, M.A., C.E. Franklin & C.J. Limpus (2003a). Seasonal changes in the diel surfacing behaviour of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle Rheodytes leukops. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 81:1614-1622. Gordos, M.A., C.E. Franklin & C.J. Limpus (2004). Effect of water depth and water velocity upon the surfacing frequency of the bimodally respiring freshwater turtle, Rheodytes leukops. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 207:3099-3107. Latta, C. & G. Latta (2005). The Fitzroy River Turtle (Rheodytes leukops): Another Species Under Threat!. Reptiles Australia. Volume 2:Issue 2. Available from: http://www.pnc.com.au/~turtles/aftcra/fitzroyriverarticle.htm. [Accessed: 16-Oct-2008]. Legler, J.M. (1985). Australian chelid turtles: reproductive patterns in wide-ranging taxa. In: Grigg, G., R. Shine & H. Ehmann, eds. Biology of Australasian Frogs and Reptiles. Page(s) 117-123. Sydney: Royal Zoological Society of NSW. Limpus, C. (2007). Conservation Management Profile: Fitzroy River turtle - Rheodytes leukops. Queensland: Environmental Protection Agency. Available from: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications/p02331aa.pdf/Fitzroy_River_turtle_emRheodytes_leukops/em.pdf. [Accessed: 16-Oct-2008]. McDonald, K.R., J.A. Covacevich, G.J. Ingram & P.J. Couper (1991). The status of frogs and reptiles. In: Ingram, G.J. & R.J. Raven, eds. An Atlas of Queensland's Frogs, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals. Page(s) 338-345. Brisbane: Queensland Museum. Tucker, A.D., C.J. Limpus, T.E. Priest, J. Cay, C. Glen & E. Guarino (2001). Home ranges of Fitzroy River turtles (Rheodytes leukops) overlap riffle zones: potential concerns related to river regulation. Biological Conservation. 102(2):171-181. Venz, M. (2002). The Fitzroy River Turtle (Rheodytes leukops). Venz, M., M. Mathieson & M. Schulz, eds. Fauna of the Dawson River Floodplain. Brisbane: Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Wilson, S. & G. Swan (2003). A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia. Page(s) 480. Sydney: Reed New Holland.
Commonwealth of Australia (2000). Declaration under s178, s181, and s183 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 - List of threatened species, List of threatened ecological communities and List of threatening processes. F2005B02653. Canberra: Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. Available from: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2005B02653. In effect under the EPBC Act from 16-Jul-2000. Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) (2006ty). Rheodytes leukops in Species Profile and Threats (SPRAT) database. Unpublished species profile. Canberra, ACT: DEH. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1761. Ponce Reyes, R., J. Firn, S. Nicol, I. Chadès, D.S. Stratford, T.G. Martin, S. Whitten & J. Carwardine (2016). Priority Threat Management for Imperilled Species of the Queensland Brigalow Belt. CSIRO, Brisbane. https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?list=SEA&pid=csiro:EP154521. Anonymous (2009). Australian Faunal Directory. Australian Biological Resources Study. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/fauna/afd/search/names.
EPBC Act email updates can be received via the Communities for Communities newsletter and the EPBC Act newsletter.This article on proper lab technique for writers is part of the Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy blog series. Each week, we tackle one of the scientific or technological concepts pervasive in sci-fi (space travel, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, etc.) with input from an expert. Please join the mailing list to be notified every time new content is posted.
About the Expert
Today’s expert is nuclear chemist Rebecca Enzor. Rebecca has a BS in biology and chemistry and has spent the last eight years working as a nuclear chemist at an environmental testing laboratory. She writes most of her fantasy novels on sticky notes while dodging explosions in the lab. You can read more about her obsession with science (and My Little Ponies) at her website or in her Twitter feed.
Proper Lab Technique for SFF Writers
Thanks for inviting me to guest post, Dan. As you said, my day job is analytical nuclear chemistry, but I don’t blow things up. Often. When I do it’s a complete accident and a bit scary. Like the time a bit of the Manhattan Project exploded…all over my face. Or the time I dumped radioactive liquid down the front of my pants…a half hour before I had to leave for the airport. Turns out they don’t let you leave the country if you’re radioactive (thank goodness I ripped the pants off in time to keep it from my skin!).
But mostly my job is to test water, soil, and tissue samples for radioactivity, pesticides, herbicides and PCBs. There are a lot of steps in this process – a lot of places where it can go wrong – and we have to have defensible data in court so I have to be very careful when I’m working. Which is why it bugs me so much when scientists in books/movies have a laissez-faire attitude towards how they use their equipment.
What are some of the things you need to keep in mind when writing about laboratory work? Let’s start with PPE.
Proper Protective Equipment (PPE)
Most books/movies get at least the basics of PPE right. After all, what’s a scientist without the white lab coat and oversized safety glasses? And gloves, because no self-respecting scientist is going to touch anything in a lab without gloves on.
But did you know that you can’t wear tennis shoes in some labs? My lab requires leather shoes, preferably slip-on so that if you spill something on them you can quickly slip them off too. You wouldn’t want to have to untie your shoes when there’s hot acid all over the laces. Not to mention the hot acid will seep through the cloth quicker than you can slip the shoe off even if you don’t have laces.
Do you have long hair? You’ll have to put it in a ponytail. Long necklace? Leave it at home. Deep V-neck shirt? You should wear something else. Expose as little skin as possible. Speaking of exposing as little skin as possible: don’t wear a thong in the lab. It’s *really* embarrassing when you spill something dangerous on your pants and have to rip them off, only to leave your butt-cheeks flapping in the breeze for all to see.
Lab Equipment
Once you’re properly clothed you can finally get to work, but depending on what you’re doing, you might need some special equipment. Working with chemicals? You’re going to need a fumigation hood. (Unless you’re isolating Radium-228, which they’ll let you do on a counter with no hood, even though the acetic acid will give you a headache.)
The biggest thing to know if you’re working with a fume hood is don’t stick your head inside. Because the whole point of the hood is to capture the dangerous fumes and if you stick your head in there your nose will capture the fumes instead. There’s also usually a glass or plastic moveable “door” on the hood that you want to keep closed as often as possible, not only because fumes will escape otherwise, but because it’s a great barrier to all those dangerous chemicals you’re working with. When you add chemicals to other chemicals, they often splash – sometimes they explode. If you don’t want them to explode all over you, there needs to be a barrier.
Other things you might be working with?
Acid dispensers – definitely use these things in the hood with the barrier between you.
– definitely use these things in the hood with the barrier between you. Centrifuges – make sure they’ve stopped before you go sticking your fingers in there.
– make sure they’ve stopped before you go sticking your fingers in there. Syringes – well this is just a big DUH.
– well this is just a big DUH. Glassware – easy to break and cut yourself. Bonus points if there’s acid, radioactivity, or other nasty things in the glassware to contaminate your cut.
– easy to break and cut yourself. Bonus points if there’s acid, radioactivity, or other nasty things in the glassware to contaminate your cut. Vacuum flasks – when these explode they make an awful noise and an even more awful mess! Never mix acids and bases in a vacuum flask.
And then we get to pipettes, which is the whole reason I wrote this post on Proper Lab Technique.
How Not to Use An Eppendorf Pipette
I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard of, James Cameron’s AVATAR (as opposed to the Avatar where the characters can control the elements). That movie came out in 2009 – five full years ago – and there’s a scene in it that to this day bugs me. Sigourney Weaver is using a pipette, which is a tool we use in the lab to transfer a specifically measured amount of liquid from one container to another.
You hold the pipette upright, depress the plunger, stick it in the liquid you want to transfer and release the plunger. It sucks the exact same amount of liquid up each time (we calibrate the pipettes daily so we know that they are, in fact, sucking the exact same amount of liquid up each time). You then place the pipette tip over the container you want to put the liquid into and depress the plunger again so all the liquid exits. It’s a super easy and mostly fail-proof way to get the exact same amount of liquid into each sample. You could do the same with a syringe, but there’s a lot more human error involved in a syringe.
So Sigourney Weaver is using a pipette, gets the appropriate amount of liquid into it, and then tips it upside down. *insert facepalm here*. Friends, I have done this exact same thing on accident, and do you know what happens when you turn a pipette full of liquid upside down? The liquid goes into the pipette’s mechanism and then you can’t use it anymore because it’s contaminated. Part of the liquid can squirt out too – very dangerous if you’re using it to transfer radioactive sources. I’ve done this – on accident – more times than I’d like to admit. And pipettes are expensive. My boss probably hates me.
I can tell you I’m not the only one who’s noticed this, either. If you Google “Sigourney Weaver, pipette, avatar” the first hit is this YouTube video entitled “How Not To Use An Eppendorf Pipette” and then pages and pages of scientists like myself gasping in utter horror over her misuse of said pipette. It would be funny, if I wasn’t still horrified five years after watching a SFF film. Obviously this one stuck with me.
Respect for Science
The last thing you need to know about writing a scientist in a lab? We care about what we’re doing. We check constantly to make sure we’re safe and the people around us are safe. We make sure we’re doing every step correctly, because a misstep could lead to bad data…or an explosion.
So never, ever, ever write this sentence: “Scientists have their heads in the clouds and don’t bother with maintenance.”
Because I will throw your book across the room.
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Please share this article:Follow me and you'll never miss a post:For nearly six years, a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder (CCD) has been wreaking havoc with the honey bee population in the US and Europe. The cause of CCD remains elusive, with various fingers being pointed at mites, fungi, viruses, pesticides, and even cell phone emissions. Today, a pair of studies were published in Science that suggest that sublethal exposure to a family of common pesticides called neonicotinoids might play a contributing role in the great bee die-off.
Neonicotinoids are a relatively new family of insecticides. They work by switching receptors for a neurotransmitter (nAChRs) to the on state, causing paralysis and death in insects. They work in a similar manner to nerve gases like sarin (sarin prevents the transmitter from being broken down in the synaptic junction, causing a similar hyperactivation). Neonicotinoids are less toxic to mammals than insects, and as such rapidly gained favor for use in agriculture, where they're widely used to treat seeds. The insecticide diffuses throughout the plant as it grows, appearing in the pollen and nectar, which foraging honey bees collect and bring back to their hives.
The first study, from a team of French researchers, looked at the effect on honey bees of sublethal exposure to a neonicotinoid called thiamethoxam. They hypothesized that sublethal neonicotinoid exposure affects the bees' homing ability, which indirectly contributes to hive mortality. This hypothesis was based on previous studies, which showed that sublethal doses of neonicotinoids affect behavior in bees.
To test whether they were right, they tagged honey bees with RFID chips and gave them a treat—20 µl of a sucrose solution. Unfortunately for half the bees, their sucrose solution also contained 1.34 ng of thiamethoxam, a dose much smaller than the one need to cause significant lethality in bees. RFID readers on the hive entrances tracked the bees as they returned from the field, and mortality due to homing failure was calculated as the proportion of returning treated bees to returning control bees.
Since the researchers were interested in the effect of thiamethoxam on homing ability, they released some bees in a field that the bees had been in before, and released others in sites that the bees may or may not have previously visited. Mortality was much higher in the treated bees compared to their controls, and was higher in bees released in unfamiliar sites (31.6 percent) than familiar sites (10.2 percent).
The second study was conducted by a group from the UK. They looked at the effect of imidacloprid, the most widely used neonicotinoid, on bumble bees. Seventy five bumble bee colonies were split into three groups. The control group were fed pollen and sugar water for 14 days, and then placed in a field and left to forage for six weeks. A second group were treated with a relatively low dose of imidacloprid (6 µg/kg in pollen and 0.7 µg/kg in sugar water), with the third group receiving twice as much imidacloprid.
The colonies were weighed before being placed in the field, and then weekly once in the field. (The weight of the colony provides a general measure of its health, since it includes stored honey, immature bees, etc.) Both high and low treatment group colonies gained less weight than the control colonies during the six weeks in the field, although there was no significant difference between the two imidacloprid-treated groups.
Back in the US, commercial bee keepers and environmental groups have petitioned the EPA to ban another neonicotinoid, clothianidin; France, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia have already banned or limited the use of these insecticides. The EPA considered taking action back in 2010, but declined to do so at the time, leading to accusations that the agency approved clothianidin based in part on a fraudulent study conducted by Bayer, its manufacturer.
Science, 2012. DOI: 10.1126/science.1215039, 10.1126/science.1215025 (About DOIs).Eat Your Veggies! Even The Ones From Fukushima
Enlarge this image toggle caption Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images
Nearly four years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, people in Japan are still hesitant to eat foods grown around the site of the accident. They worry that anything grown in the region will contain dangerous levels of radioactive elements, increasing their risk of cancer.
Sometimes, food from Fukushima will bear a photo of the farmer who grew it or a number to dial to learn more about each bag of rice or vegetables, just to ease customers' concerns.
Now there might be one more way to make customers feel confident that they aren't munching on a radioactive dinner. It's a chemical called CsTolen A, for Cesium Tolerance Enhancer.
Radioactive cesium is one of the biggest concerns following nuclear disasters. It takes a long time to decay — as much as 20 years for half of the cesium in the soil to disappear. And it dissolves in water, so plants draw it out of the soil just as they would nutrients. CsTolen A aims to block this uptake.
"The CsTolen A binds to cesium in the soil," explains Ryoung Shin, a researcher at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Yokohama, Japan. In a study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, Shin and her colleagues report that this binding prevents the cesium from entering the plant.
So far, the chemical has only been tested in the lab on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana — not on any field crops. Shin and her collaborators identified the cesium-blocking chemical from a library of commercially available compounds. After screening for the best cesium-blocking contenders, they chose five and added them to the water they used on the plant, the soil around the plant, the seeds, and the plant itself.
Then they tested the plant tissue for cesium accumulation. They found that the only cesium they could detect in the plants was normal, from background trace levels present in the atmosphere. The cesium in the soil was not radioactive, but it behaves the same way as radioactive cesium on the molecular level.
The study was conducted in a plant that doesn't produce food, but the researchers are confident that the chemical will work on other kinds of plants, too. Because the chemical does its job before it enters the plant, Shin says it shouldn't matter what kind of plant is growing in the soil. Plus, CsTolen A is available commercially, meaning that it is relatively easy to get and distribute.
Of course, Shin notes, it's still too early to start applying this chemical to the fields around Fukushima. There are many layers of government regulation standing between Fukushima farmers and CsTolen A. And researchers aren't 100 percent sure that the chemical has no impact on human health, because they haven't tested it on people yet. But Shin says it looks promising: Since CsTolen A should stay in the soil and never enter the plant, it should never enter the human body, either.
Even now, there are still farmers who haven't returned to their land because many areas around Fukushima remain restricted. After prohibiting anyone from entering a radius of about 12 miles from the plant, the government started to let residents back in last spring. Shin hopes that in the future, CsTolen A will help get more people within the restricted zone back on their land and back to farming.
As for Fukushima foods grown outside that circle of concern, extensive testing shows they're just fine to eat, a group of researchers reported last week.
The researchers analyzed 900,000 food samples, including tea, beef, fruits, mushrooms, and vegetables grown and raised in the Fukushima region from 2011 to 2014. Their testing revealed that radiation in these foods had returned to pre-accident levels. Even so, consumers are still shying away from foods with the Fukushima label.
Shin says it's too bad, because the produce from the region is very high quality and tasty.
"Fukushima used to be a very famous place for agricultural products," she says. "There is plenty of produce, but people don't want [it]."Returpack has joined forces with Inferno Online to host a CS:GO tournament that will feature a prize purse in excess of €11,000.
Returpack, better known as Pantamera, is a private Swedish company responsible for the deposit system for metal cans and recyclable bottles for ready-to-drink beverages in this Nordic country.
In 2011, Returpack ran a recycling ad with several Swedish esports figures, from NiP chief Emil "HeatoN Christensen and star player Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund to Starcraft II gamer Jeffrey "Sjow" Brusi, that was aimed at raising awareness for recycling.
The company has now launched a campaign called Pantamera för eSporten (Recycle more for eSports) and, for that, it has guaranteed a minimum prize purse of 100,000 SEK (approximately €11,000) for a CS:GO tournament that will be held in February at Inferno Online Stockholm.
Moreover, Pantamera has pledged to use, for the next six months, every recycled jar and bottle from the recycling stations at the Inferno Online's centers in Odenplan, Skanstull and Norrköping to up the prize pool of the tournament to the fullest.
According to projections, this could push the prize pool up to 250,000 SEK (approximately €27,000), HLTV.org has learned.
"In Sweden, we are among the best in the world at recycling, but for us to become even better, it is important that young people are given the opportunity and the information in their familiar surroundings," said Pantamera product manager Rickard Andersson.
Right now, there is no more information about the number of teams that will take part in the tournament or how one can sign up for the event. Stay tuned to HLTV.org for all the details about this event.In my last post I suggested that public reactions of nationalism and political intolerance in Japan and China in the wake of the recent Senkaku Islands dispute actually follow a pattern similar to most other territorial disputes. Here, I describe the possible long-term effects of territorial issues like these—when territorial disputes remain unresolved and both states continue to be threats to the other.
While the dynamics of this latest dispute between Japan and China do not presage large-scale, long-term institutional changes in either country, that has not been the case for other disputes between these countries in the past (for example, the 1930s and the Japanese establishment of Manchukuo). Indeed, China’s centralized state and large army is largely a function of responses to its threatening neighbors, including Imperial Japan.
Institutional Changes
Consistent threats to homeland territories can both strengthen and centralize the institutions of the state. The Senkaku Islands differ from most other territorial disputes in two very important ways. First, the major prize is a group of islands, not bordering territories, so land armies will not be sitting within the state challenging the territories. Second, the islands do not compromise core territories for either state, so the level of threat to the homeland is not immediate or large. Both of these factors discourage the centralization that follows |
state Democratic Party. He’s set a self-imposed deadline of today to come up with the wording for the recall petition, and will submit it to the Secretary of State for approval.
Hatfield Bigwood, who has always taken an interest in politics, was a Republican until several years ago, when she heard Missouri’s former Republican Congressman Todd Akin comment about “legitimate rape.” The year before, Akin sponsored legislation to change the definition of rape to “forcible rape.” The bill was co-sponsored by then-Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma.
The GOP “no longer represented me as a woman,” Hatfield Bigwood said. Now a registered Democrat, this will be her first foray into political organizing.
Cohn said they need to collect at least 5,000 signatures to trigger a recall. That’s a little more than the required 25 percent of 18,858 votes cast in the 2014 election.
Colorado has had its share of recall elections in the past few years, all politically motivated and based on actions by elected officials. A recall based on what someone says versus official actions is unusual, said Seth Masket, a political science professor at the University of Denver.
But it wouldn’t be impossible. The law does not list what can be considered legal grounds for a recall, Masket said. What’s appropriate for a recall versus inappropriate is in the eye of the beholder, or the voter.
Windholz did not respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published at The Colorado IndependentWith high speed video and mathematical analysis of the movements and forces involved, the team made several discoveries.
The beetle’s legs repel water, which keeps it afloat, except for claws at their tips, which penetrate the surface of the water and tie it to the surface.
As the beetle flies, or surfs, the up and down force of its wings and the attachment of the claws make the surface of the water bounce up and down like a trampoline. The tips of the wings almost touch the surface of the water, and the beetle copes with aerodynamics, surface tension and another kind of drag that appears only when the insect is moving faster than about nine inches a second. The beetle actually travels close to a foot a second. It’s called capillary wave drag.
The whole system, Dr. Prakash said, is “right at the edge of chaos,” mathematically speaking. A chaotic system is one so complicated that given the initial conditions, one can’t predict what is going to happen. One way or another, the beetle manages to navigate this environment.
The self-powered surfing actually demands more energy than fully airborne flight, which the beetle can also do. It seems to prefer this sort of locomotion. Dr. Prakash said that may be because it’s a good way to find new food sources, or because predators haven’t figured it out.
He said that he and his colleagues were now turning to a fly that seemed to do something similar but in the sea. There are, of course, ways that one could imagine applying the findings to robotics, but the research really was done, he said, for pure scientific curiosity.
One thing the remarkable beetle did not evolve is a braking system. In the lab, it runs into the edge of a dish and just topples over. On a pond, Dr. Prakash said, they seem to stop the same way.
“They hit the leaf,” he said.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Jurgen Klopp saluted “outstanding” centre-backs Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren as he dismissed suggestions that Liverpool’s pursuit of glory could be hampered by defensive weakness.
The Reds sit third in the Premier League table but are level points with leaders Manchester City, who were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Southampton on Sunday.
Klopp’s men survived a late scare in Saturday’s 2-1 win over West Brom after Gareth McAuley pulled one back from a corner. Liverpool have only kept one clean sheet in the league so far this term but the manager insists any criticism of his backline is misplaced.
Klopp was delighted with how Matip and Lovren dealt with an aerial bombardment from the Baggies.
“I heard it a few times (that Liverpool are suspect defensively) but I lose respect when people say this,” Klopp said.
“That’s not important because I do not have to respect everybody and I don’t need most of the people.
“I’m the coach of this team, I’m really close to them. I see all the games from quite a good perspective.
“We defended well against United, brilliant, and then against West Brom it was so difficult but we have no defensive problem.
“We needed to be really aggressive to defend their long balls from the first moment without making fouls. That’s quite a challenge but they did brilliantly. When the ball is in the air, (Salomon) Rondon wants the ball or a foul, so Dejan and Joel were outstanding.
“And you cannot imagine in what good shape (Alberto) Moreno, Lucas Leiva, (Ragnar) Klavan and Trent Alexander-Arnold are so that’s all good.”
McAuley’s consolation was the 17th time Liverpool that have conceded from a set-piece since Klopp took over last October. It’s been a long-term issue for the Reds but Klopp says they are doing everything possible to address it.
“It’s good that people can talk about something,” Klopp said.
“Do you believe we work on it? Really, really work on it. Yes? But then there is another team and did you see who was in it. They are all my size and then they brought the set-piece specialist on (Chris Brunt) who was injured for a long time. They are brilliant at set-pieces.
“When people say we have some issues with set-pieces, how can I say they are wrong? I think 70% to 80% of the goals we concede are set-pieces but they’re all different and we’re still working on it.
“It’s not the same problem we had last year, when whoever was scoring against us. I understand but I can promise we work on it. But I like it more than they all creating chances like they want to because we defend crazy.
“I’m fine with this but only for the moment. But today I don’t care they got a goal like this. We won and it was well deserved.”
Klopp played down Tony Pulis’ remarks about Liverpool having a “free run” at the title this season because they don’t have the distraction of European football to contend with.
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“Are they involved in Europe? I played in Europe before and it never stopped us actually doing what we had to do,” Klopp said.
“Playing good football is a big advantage, having good players is a big advantage. Not playing in the week can be a big advantage when you take injury worries out of it. You need to use the extra time for training.
“Where it will lead us to I have no idea. From December, January time, a few other teams will not have Europe and we will start again.
“I’m not sure if it was nice (Pulis’ comment) or a compliment or something or just to make pressure on us but thank you. I will tell the players!”
Klopp believes the manner in which Liverpool created so many chances against the Baggies proved that they have got what it takes to break down teams who come to Anfield looking to simply frustrate.
Next up is Tuesday’s EFL Cup fourth round tie at home to Totenham.
“The performance of the whole of Anfield was really great,” he added.
“I enjoyed it, each second. The goal we conceded made the excitement a little bit longer. It was good, it was how you have to play.
“I know sometimes people say we have a problem with ‘park the bus’ teams but we already have a plan. It takes time to see it on the pitch and we work on it of course but then there will be another challenge.
“Now we play Tottenham, they park a lot of things but no buses! We have to be ready for this game.
"And then Crystal Palace, we didn’t see them too often this season until now but we will be prepared. There will always be something else to do but for today we did what we had to do.”
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Jordan Henderson will miss the clash with Spurs as he serves a one-match ban after collecting his fifth booking of the season.
Klopp said: “Actually I have no idea when he got it but I heard immediately in the dressing room.
“When you have four, it’s quite likely you will get a fifth. He has a new position if you want, he does make a lot of fouls, but obviously there is a lot of space around him and the ref has a good view on a situation. Five yellows is quite a lot after how many games? Nine, 11?”A New Jersey woman struggling to make ends meet died in a sports utility vehicle parked outside a New Jersey Wawa store.
Police said it appeared Maria Fernandes of Newark was trying to nap in her SUV parked at a Wawa convenience store parking lot on Spring Street in Elizabeth.
Lt. Daniel Saulnier tells The Star-Ledger of Newark that she sounded like someone who tried her best to earn a living. The paper reported that she had four jobs.
"This sounds like someone who tried desperately to work and make ends meet, and met with a tragic accident," Saulnier told the paper.
Elizabeth police say it appears a deadly mixture of carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gasoline container overcame Fernandes.
The 32-year-old was found dead inside her 2001 Kia Sportage around 4 p.m. Monday.
Police said Fernandes worked at several Dunkin Donuts stores in the area and it wasn't unusual for her to park in a public access parking lot in between jobs to get a few hours of sleep. She was scheduled to lend her SUV to a friend two hours after she parked her vehicle in the lot that afternoon, police said.
Workers at the Wawa store became concerned when they saw Fernandes in her car and called 911. Responding EMTs were able to get into the vehicle but were immediately overpowered by some sort of chemical smell, police said.
Once they determined the woman was dead, the workers backed away and alerted firefighters and hazmat crews.
Hazmat officials later determined the smell was gasoline from a gas can that had apparently spilled in the back of the vehicle. Investigators say Fernandes apparently traveled with the can because she had run out of gas in the past while commuting between jobs.
Fernandes has family in Portugal, and they have been notified of her death, police said.
An official cause of death is pending toxicology results, but an autopsy has determined that there's no reason to suspect foul play in Fernandes' death, police said.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 PhiladelphiaFor over 70 years, Superman has hidden behind a single secret identity: Clark Kent. But now that the comics have re-exposed Clark Kent to the DC universe, the Man of Steel needs a new alter-ego. And so, for the first time in his history, Superman has a new secret persona.
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Spoilers ahead for today’s Action Comics #45!
Now that Superman (and Clark) are taking the heat for Lois’ story leaking his alter-ego, Kal-El has had to go into hiding and lay low. Fired from the Daily Planet when his co-workers discover they’d been in grave danger simply by being in Clark’s vicinity all the time, and facing persecution from the Government, Superman has vanished... and replaced himself with a mild-mannered trucker.
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Yes, Clark Kent is now Archie Clayton! It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it? Although admittedly, the throwback to the idea that people simply don’t notice that Superman is Superman because Kal-El slouches is pretty good.
But if Clark Kent was only just revealed to the world as Superman, why does he—err, Archie, rather—feel the need for a new secret persona already? Well, it’s because Superman thinks that someone is out to get him:
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Having your life systematically ripped apart bit by bit (and even depowered) is enough to drive someone to figure out why it’s all happening, and Superman has to go undercover to do so.
We’re guessing that Archie Clayton won’t stick around as much as Clark Kent has—because of course it won’t—but it’ll be interesting to see where Superman goes once this is all sorted. Even more secret identities? A world where everyone knows who Superman really is? We’ll have to wait and see.
[Via Bleeding Cool]This was a friend's reaction when I told him about this article idea. Like most people he wasn't intimately familiar with Atari 2600 BASIC so this response followed my explanation of the limitations:
-Your entire program can not exceed 64 symbols - a symbol being a number, variable, or reserved word (i.e. Goto, If, Then)
-There's a maximum of 9 lines, not really an issue considering the first item
-You only get integers from 0-99
-Only five math functions are available (+,-,*,÷,mod)
-In terms of graphics, you have two dots you can move by setting their coordinates
-You can play a range of beeps but I'm not musically inclined so I can't map them to notes
-Instead of a keyboard you have two 12 button pads to work with
If this sounds horribly limited and lame it's because you haven't yet thought about the hardware it's running on...
Atari 2600 BASIC was programmed by
You should now be in awe of this program.
Not quite as challenging is writing a useful program in just 64 symbols but that's exactly what I'm going to attempt. Think of all those times you tried to cram your thoughts into a 140 character tweet. Now take away 76 characters and try writing a functional program instead of a description of the burrito you just ate.
Before I get to that though, here's a little more back-story which you're free to skip...
I own all the pieces required to run this on the original hardware - Atari 2600, BASIC Programming cartridge, and keypad controllers. Setting all this up and using the original controllers is an exercise in frustration. The 24 keys you get on the two keypads aren't enough so there's a toggle system to shuffle between key sets. If that description sounds confusing it's because, well, it's really confusing.
Even using an emulator like Stella is painful, arguably more painful than the old-school approach. What works amazingly well though is the version that was included on Atari's Greatest Hits Volume 2 for the Nintendo DS. Some madman actually took the time to emulate the dual keypads on the DS touchscreen:
It had to be a lot of work to accomplish this and it's sad to think that I'm probably the only person on earth who used it for more than 30 seconds. If you ever feel insane enough to try Atari 2600 BASIC Programming this is definitely the way to go.
The downside to doing this on the DS is that the screenshots look terrible. See how they compare to taking a snapshot in Stella:
So you're not going to get a lot of pictures. It's just text and dots anyway, you're not missing much.
Alright, on to the programs. I'm not going to include a tutorial or the sample programs from the manual, those are perfectly findable on the Google.
Let's start with something simple, moving one of the dots around with the keypad: "You need a more mentally challenging job"This was a friend's reaction when I told him about this article idea. Like most people he wasn't intimately familiar with Atari 2600 BASIC so this response followed my explanation of the limitations:-Your entire program can not exceed 64 symbols - a symbol being a number, variable, or reserved word (i.e. Goto, If, Then)-There's a maximum of 9 lines, not really an issue considering the first item-You only get integers from 0-99-Only five math functions are available (+,-,*,÷,mod)-In terms of graphics, you have two dots you can move by setting their coordinates-You can play a range of beeps but I'm not musically inclined so I can't map them to notes-Instead of a keyboard you have two 12 button pads to work withIf this sounds horribly limited and lame it's because you haven't yet thought about the hardware it's running on...Atari 2600 BASIC was programmed by Warren Robinett who is 100x smarter than me and anyone reading this. Well, unless you are him in which case "Hi! Adventure is the greatest Atari 2600 game ever made!". Anyway, since you're probably not him it'll hurt your brain to think about how difficult it was to write a BASIC interpreter for the Atari 2600 that consumed just 64 bytes of memory. Not gigabytes, not megabytes, not even kilobytes - 64 bytes. The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM and half of that was used for the 64 symbol program you entered so the IDE and interpreter had to be extremely lean.You should now be in awe of this program.Not quite as challenging is writing a useful program in just 64 symbols but that's exactly what I'm going to attempt. Think of all those times you tried to cram your thoughts into a 140 character tweet. Now take away 76 characters and try writing a functional program instead of a description of the burrito you just ate.Before I get to that though, here's a little more back-story which you're free to skip...I own all the pieces required to run this on the original hardware - Atari 2600, BASIC Programming cartridge, and keypad controllers. Setting all this up and using the original controllers is an exercise in frustration. The 24 keys you get on the two keypads aren't enough so there's a toggle system to shuffle between key sets. If that description sounds confusing it's because, well, it's really confusing.Even using an emulator like Stella is painful, arguably more painful than the old-school approach. What works amazingly well though is the version that was included on Atari's Greatest Hits Volume 2 for the Nintendo DS. Some madman actually took the time to emulate the dual keypads on the DS touchscreen:It had to be a lot of work to accomplish this and it's sad to think that I'm probably the only person on earth who used it for more than 30 seconds. If you ever feel insane enough to try Atari 2600 BASIC Programming this is definitely the way to go.The downside to doing this on the DS is that the screenshots look terrible. See how they compare to taking a snapshot in Stella:So you're not going to get a lot of pictures. It's just text and dots anyway, you're not missing much.Alright, on to the programs. I'm not going to include a tutorial or the sample programs from the manual, those are perfectly findable on the Google.Let's start with something simple, moving one of the dots around with the keypad:
1 If Key=2 Then Ver1←Ver1-5
2 If Key=4 Then Hor1←Hor1-5
3 If Key=6 Then Hor1←Hor1+5
4 If Key=8 Then Ver1←Ver1+5
5 Goto 1
Although that only uses five lines it exhausts nearly all available symbols which obviously limits the gaming possibilities.
If my previous comment about Twitter and burritos wasn't transparent enough I'll cut directly to the chase - I have a very difficult time imagining a practical use for Twitter. As far as I can tell the main purpose is to feed people's sense of self-importance. It's the modern equivalent of covering your car with bumper stickers.
However, this experiment has led me to an almost worthwhile application - sharing Atari 2600 BASIC programs. In any programming language it's an interesting challenge to fit an entire functional program into under 140 characters. The challenge is increased further by preserving space to support # and @ tags. Since Atari 2600 BASIC programs are limited to 64 symbols they will almost always fit into a tweet. The only tricky part is that many of the Atari 2600 BASIC symbols are comprised of multiple characters, i.e. "Goto" is one symbol but four characters. That's OK, we can abbreviate these without changing the functionality of the program.
For example, here's the dot moving program in tweet form:
#Atari2600BASIC [1]IfKey=2ThenVer1?Ver1-5 [2]If Key=4ThenHor1?Hor1-5 [3]IfKey=6ThenHor1?Hor1+5 [4]IfKey=8ThenVer1?Ver1+5 [5]Goto1
With controller options highly limited I could only come up with one complete game. I call it "The World's Worst Football Simulator". Specifically, it's simulating the experience of Devin Hester trying to get past the punter on a kick return:
1 S←0
2 Hor2←90, Ver2←0
3 Hor1←0, Ver1←50
4 Ver2←Ver2+1
5 If (Key>0) Then Hor1←Hor1+1
6 If Hit Then Goto 3
7 If Hor1<95 Then Goto 4
8 S←S+1, Note←90
9 Goto 3
Here it is in tweet form, a little crunching was required to make it fit but nothing was lost: Maybe "worst" was a stretch, this game is arguably better than Troy Aikman NFL Football on the Atari Jaguar Here it is in tweet form, a little crunching was required to make it fit but nothing was lost:
#Atari2600BASIC [1]S=0[2]H2=90,V2=0[3]H1=0,V1=50[4]V2=V2+1[5]If(Key>0)ThenH1=H1+1[6]IfHitThenGoto3[7]IfH1<95ThenGoto4[8]S=S+1,Note=9[9]Goto3
Let's move over to some common math programs that you'd probably have to tackle in your first week of CS 101.
First up is an implementation of Euclid's Algorithm for computing greatest common divisor complete with animations and sound:
1 Ver1←0, Ver2←9
2 Hor1←50, Hor2←30
3 If (Hor2=0) Then Goto 8
4 T←Hor2
5 Hor2←Hor1 Mod Hor2
6 Hor1←T
7 Goto 3
8 Print Hor1, Note←Hor1
This also fits into a tweet with a bit-o-crunching:
#Atari2600BASIC [1]Ver1=0,Ver2=9[2]Hor1=50,Hor2=30[3]If(Hor2=0)ThenGoto8[4]T=Hor2[5]Hor2=Hor1ModHor2[6]Hor1=T[7]Goto3[8]PrintHor1,Note=Hor1
Finding the midpoint and slope of a line is totally doable with room to spare:
1 Hor1←5, Hor2←10
2 Ver1<20, Ver2←60
3 X←(Hor1+Hor2)÷2
4 Y←(Ver1+Ver2)÷2
5 Print X, Print Y
6 S←(Ver2-Ver1)÷(Hor2-Hor1)
7 Print S
And the tweet version goes a little something like this:
#Atari2600BASIC [1]H1=5,H2=10[2]V1<20,V2=60[3]X=(H1+H2)/2[4]Y=(V1+V2)/2[5]PrintX,PrintY[6]S=(V2-V1)/(H2-H1)[7]PrintS
And for all you software architect types, here's the smallest working implementation of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern ever produced (that I'm aware of):
1 M←Key
2 If (M=0) Then Goto 1
3 Hor1←Hor1+M
4 Goto 1
It's even smaller as a tweet:
#Atari2600BASIC [1]M=Key [2]If(M=0)ThenGoto1 [3]Hor1=Hor1+M [4]Goto1
To wrap things up, here are a few ideas I thought of that aren't possible to implement, or maybe are by someone smarter than me:
-Decimal to hex conversion - I tried about four different approaches and none were close to fitting.
-Computing Pi to any digits - there are several methods and all require operations that aren't available, even the ol' 22/7 solution is no good because that will just return 3
-Determining whether a number is prime - similar issues to computing Pi, probably doable for numbers under 10 though.
-Any of the Beagle Bros "two-liners", Apple II fans will know what I'm talking about.Over the course of 2015, 21 Inc went from a mystery startup with no public business plan to one of the industry’s most exciting and often debated companies.
With $116m raised from investors, it’s safe to say that 21 Inc had high expectations for its first product, the 21 Bitcoin Computer, which it released in September 2015 to wildly varying reviews.
Some developers were dismayed that a Linux-based device based on a Raspberry Pi could be priced so high when it would never mine enough bitcoin to pay for itself. Others argued that the 21 Bitcoin Computer wasn’t a conventional bitcoin mining product, but rather a platform that would unlock new use cases for the technology.
In a world rapidly moving towards an Internet of Things, 21’s big idea is to one day embed more refined versions of its chips into everyday consumer devices.
Writing in a blog post, CEO Balaji Srinivasan spoke about how 21’s technology could one day be used for device authentication, to enable micropayments or even subsidise the distribution of consumer smartphones to the developing world.
He further revealed that 21’s vision was not to “build a chip”, but create a “full technology stack around the chip” that would include reference devices, data sheets, a cloud backend and software protocols.
The 21 Bitcoin Computer itself features a command line interface and Python 3 library, a 128 GB SD card and a suite of pre-configured software designed to work with the bitcoin blockchain. But, using these building blocks, the company is encouraging users to dream up cool and new things.
And people are doing just that.
While it’s very early days, there are a number of intriguing projects in development – more as proofs-of-concept than attempts at creating a working business model.
Here are some of the best.
1. Analysing and selling your genes
Joe Pickrell, junior group leader at the New York Genome Center and an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, is testing the 21 Bitcoin Computer (21BC) for different novel use cases involving human genomes.
One project aims to predict phenotypes (which can include your physical characteristics and health, among other things) and/or probabilities of contracting a certain disease from a specific type of text file (VCF) containing a gene sequence.
Pickrell explains on his GitHub page that the tool requires a genome sequence in a VCF file and allows users to predict phenotypes of the person to whom the genome belongs. Specifically, this command line tool pulls a phenotype prediction model from an external server in exchange for bitcoin and then returns the prediction.
Currently, he points out, the server only provides a model for predicting Alzheimer’s disease risk and there are “lots of caveats” to risk prediction, hence this project is rather a “toy model”.
Intriguingly, Pickrell has another 21BC project that would allow people to sell API calls to their genotypes and phenotypes.
2. Managing work with a ‘Mechanical Turk’
Mechanical Turk is a term used for machines that appear to automatically carry out a task when in reality it is being carried out by humans hidden in the background.
Bitcoin Core developer Jeff Garzik recently previewed untested code based on that concept using 21’s device to automate the delivery and inspection of work by multiple individuals, as well as award payment for a job well done.
This example uses image analysis but it could be applied to a wide number of operations.
On his GitHub page for the project, Garzik breaks down the process as follow:
Supervisor submits an image, and a list of questions about an image. A minimum number of workers, and a bitcoin reward, is specified. Workers download the image, answer the question(s), submit results. API collects work. When X workers have submitted answers, they are compared for matches. The most matches – most accurate – workers receive the reward.
Garzik has a number of 21BC projects on the go, including Causeway, a server storage service that stores and returns data for a certain amount of time, and accept updates if they are signed by a user’s payment address.
Or how about a fortune cookie API that lets people receive a “pithy saying” for 10 satoshis?
3. Monetising social media
What if you could earn money just by reposting from your social media account?
That’s the idea behind a project by self-described entrepreneur and tech fan Justin Guy, which harnesses the 21BC to sell retweets on Twitter.
Additionally, a developer going by the username ’21JD21′ has created a Reddit-like link-sharing site built with the 21BC that charges users to post links, comment and up-vote or down-vote.
BitLink, as the project is called, pays out to whoever posted the link or comment being voted on, thus giving greater rewards to the most active posts.
Other projects have previously sought to monetise social media, for example, with a Bitly alternative that rewards users in bitcoin. Called Cred, the application encourages readers to share content through specialised links that generate rewards – effectively, the application inserts its own advertisements into the user experience.
4. Selling your Wi-Fi
Noted bitcoin advocate, author and entrepreneur Andreas M Antonopoulos also has a GitHub page listing a 21BC project. His is an experimental Wi-Fi captive portal that accepts bitcoin payments for Wi-Fi minutes.
The bitcoin world has previously made attempts to share Wi-Fi with bitcoin payments and CoinDesk wrote about back it in August. While one firm we looked at set up as a bitcoin payment option alongside traditional payments at public hotspots, the other took a different approach and employed networks of Wi-Fi providers incentivised with bitcoin.
21 Inc’s device allows a different method again – potentially allowing anyone to sell their Wi-Fi by putting a 21BC in place.
5. Selling creations and assets
Steven McKie is working on making a 21BC endpoint to allow payments for a SoundCloud 3-D audio visualiser coded by developer Alex Smith.
Another project called Download21 allows people to get paid for offline caching of files from streaming music sites.
It can be run as both server and client, and so allows users to run their own server providing file downloads as a service, or to extract files from someone else’s server and pay in satoshis.
6. Internet of Things
While it’s too early for any projects to have been announced, electronics and engineering giant Bosch recently revealed it had bought a 21BC for its PhD students to play with – the goal being to develop the firm’s IoT concepts.
The Bosch Lab said it sees “the young but heavily funded startup 21 Inc … as a key player in approaching this vision”.
What are your favorite 21BC creations? Share your thoughts below:
Sandcastle image via ShutterstockThere’s something very telling about the way Paramount is promoting the Tina Fey war-reporter comedy/drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It tells the true story of Kim Baker (Fey), a dissatisfied CNN copywriter who is offered an opportunity to cover the conflict in Afghanistan; taking stock of her life, of her milquetoast boyfriend and drab routine and “women over 40 one daily” vitamins, she decides, for once, to do something unpredictable. But you wouldn’t know that’s the story from the TV spots they’ve been airing this week:
They way it’s presented here, Baker flees to Afghanistan to mend a broken heart. In the longer, 30-second version (which I have been unable to locate online) the assignment is one of three options for reacting to her boyfriend’s infidelity: the other two are “drink a lot of wine” and “hook up with this guy.” But the problem is, in the film itself, her weaselly boyfriend cheats on her after she’s been out of the country for six months, blaming her inattentiveness. Paramount’s marketing team apparently decided personal dissatisfaction and general malaise weren’t enough of a peg to hang their movie on; their heroine had to be a woman scorned.
It’s a pretty gross way to sell what is, for the most part, a well-made, thoughtful picture – and a solid showcase for Fey, who comes out of this one looking, for the first time, like an honest-to-goodness movie star. She put herself in the right hands for it; the screenplay (adapted from Kim Barker’s memoir The Taliban Shuffle) is by Robert Carlock, Fey’s longtime collaborator on SNL, 30 Rock, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And to both of their credit, it’s not just Liz Lemon Goes to Afghanistan; Baker is a complicated, difficult character, required to play not only the reactive comedy beats that Fey excels at, but heavy ones as well. She nails them all.
Directors Glenn Ficara and John Requa (Crazy Stupid Love, Focus) keep the energy high; it’s a witty film, filled with quotable lines (“They like to shoot off guns at weddings here. You get it, you’re from Florida”), well-executed set pieces (including a daring rescue mission set, incongruently enough, to Nilsson’s “Without You”), and genuine tension. They immerse the viewer snugly in this world, and effectively dramatize its appeal – the camaraderie between colleagues, the desperation of the drunken hookups, and draw of the danger.
They also surround Fey with a mostly terrific supporting cast, including Margot Robbie (basically playing Lara Logan), Billy Bob Thornton (basically playing Stanley McChrystal), and Cherry Jones. The word “mostly” is necessary, however, due to the puzzling decision to white-cast the important Middle Eastern characters. It’s one thing to hire chameleonic Alfred Molina, with a long history of playing characters of all races and cultures, as a slightly corrupt official; it’s another thing entirely to cast (and I swear to you, I’m not making this up) Christopher Abbott, aka Charlie from Girls, as an Afghan “fixer.”
But it’s ultimately Fey’s show, and she rises to the occasion — her arc has real juice. She’s initially afraid and hesitant, certain she’s in way over her head, and then discovers that not only does she get a charge from running around in this terrifying world; she gets one from exceeding expectations, her own and everyone else’s. She discovers something that she’s good at, and it’s hard to walk away from it, even when she’s chasing a thrill that’s placing herself and those around her in increasing danger. That’s why she can’t make herself go home to save her vanilla relationship, not the other way around.
Sure, it’s easy to dismiss Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as yet another white-lady-finds-herself tale (Vanity Fair’s Charles Bramesco dubbed it – wittily, I’ll admit – Shoot Pray Fuck). And it’s worth noting the film’s self-awareness on this point; when Baker tells a pair of colleagues what led her to the war zone, one of them (Sheila Vand) cracks, “That is officially the most American white lady story I’ve ever heard.” But if the story of a woman who looks at her life, is dissatisfied with it, and takes it upon herself to change it is so very trite and predictable, why does its studio think people will only accept a woman who changes her life because she’s wronged by a dude?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is out Friday.Matt Rourke / AP Sen. Barack Obama, right, and Sen. Hillary Clinton before the start of the Democratic Party debate in Philadelphia on April 16
In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama tells an amusing story about his first tour through downstate Illinois, when he had the audacity to order Dijon mustard on his cheeseburger at a TGI Friday's. His political aide hastily informed the waitress that Obama didn't want Dijon at all, and thrust a yellow bottle of ordinary-American heartland-values mustard at him instead. The perplexed waitress informed Obama that she had Dijon if he wanted. He smiled and said thanks. "As the waitress walked away, I leaned over and whispered that I didn't think there were any photographers around," Obama recalled.
Obama's memoir dripped with contempt for modern gotcha politics, for a campaign culture obsessed with substantively irrelevant but supposedly symbolic gaffes like John Kerry ordering Swiss cheese or Al Gore sighing or George H.W. Bush checking his watch or Michael Dukakis looking dorky in a tank. "What's troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politicsthe ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial," he wrote.
Last night at the National Constitution Center, at a Democratic debate that was hyped by ABC as a discussion of serious constitutional issues, America got to see exactly what Obama was complaining about. At a time of foreign wars, economic collapse and environmental peril, the cringe-worthy first half of the debate focused on such crucial matters as Senator Obama's comments about rural bitterness, his former pastor, an obscure sixties radical with whom he was allegedly "friendly," and the burning constitutional question of why he doesn't wear an American flag pin on his lapel with a single detour into Senator Hillary Clinton's yarn about sniper fire in Tuzla. Apparently, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos ran out of time before they could ask Obama why he's such a lousy bowler.
It must be said that Obama did not seem very comfortable on the defensive, and he had trouble answering questions like whether |
up to his address.
That is because it's unusual for a president to blast the bureau — the premier law enforcement agency in the country.
In fact, over the past 15 years, it has been the other way around. President Barack Obama famously visited bureau headquarters a few months after he took office in 2009, donning an FBI baseball cap and sharing "the thanks of a grateful nation." A year earlier, President George W. Bush praised "the character and courage of those who carry the badge."
The appearance at the FBI had already promised to be complicated for Trump, given his record of derogatory public statements and negative tweets about the FBI this year.
Recently, Trump tweeted that the FBI's reputation was in "Tatters - worst in History!" He called popular former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired in May, "a liar" and "a leaker." Trump also accused the FBI, without providing any evidence, of illegally wiretapping Trump Tower in 2016. And he continues to cast doubt on a conclusion by the bureau and other intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in last year's presidential election.
On Friday morning, Trump reaffirmed to reporters, "there is absolutely no collusion. I didn't make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. Everybody knows it. That was a Democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election."
Another source of awkwardness: the FBI's longtime former leader, Mueller, is the man running the ongoing special counsel probe into election interference — and into whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign took part. So far, Mueller's team has secured indictments against Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, and won guilty pleas from a campaign foreign policy official and Flynn.
That last development, on Dec. 1, prompted a new wave of attacks from Trump and his supporters on the integrity of the FBI and the Justice Department, fueled by the disclosure that the Justice Department Inspector General had uncovered text messages in which a senior agent working on the Russia probe had called Trump an "idiot" during the campaign.
While Mueller removed the agent from the investigation months ago, one of Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, has cited the matter to call for a second special counsel to investigate conflicts of interest at the bureau.
In response to a stream of harsh criticism this month, the FBI Agents Association mounted a rare public defense.
"Every day, FBI special agents put their lives on the line to protect the American public from national security and criminal threats," President Tom O'Connor tweeted. "Agents perform their duties with unwavering integrity and professionalism and a focus on complying with the law and the Constitution. This is why the FBI continues to be the premier law enforcement agency in the world."
Trump's pick to lead the FBI, former Justice Department official Christopher Wray, also raised his voice to defend the workforce in congressional testimony last week.
"Let me start by saying that it is for me the honor of a lifetime to be here representing the men and women of the FBI," Wray said. "There is no finer institution than the FBI and no finer people than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart."
Trump appeared on stage with Wray to welcome the new class of National Academy graduates at what is known as the agency's "police training center."
The program puts attendees through a series of academic and physical challenges, building partnerships between police and the FBI. Nearly 10 years ago, Mueller told an FBI graduating class at Quantico, "For the past 100 years, the FBI has stood for the best of America."
It remains to be seen whether the new president agrees.45User Rating: 4 out of 5
Review title of Destructo Dom great realistic team based shooter.
I've always been a COD fan, but over the last few years they've really gotten away from what I used to love about them. So after 3 months of their new games I've already lost all desire to play. So lately I've been seeing alot of friends on BF1 and decided to give it another shot. I did play it a few times with EA Access, but I was running around like A chicken with its head cut off, not playing the objectives, and really just had no clue what I was doing (years of playing COD does not translate to BF1 at all). So I downloaded it last night and played it for a bit tonight. Im still not very good, but I'm hooked. The graphics are beautiful. I really like how much more realistic this feels over COD. It's a breath of fresh air. The game is very balanced. The gameplay is rewarding because it requires more skill and strategy. You can't just run around like Rambo. You have to play smart and play as a team.. If you want something new and challenging this is the game to get.Getty Images
It’s amazing, in hindsight, that Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson coexisted for as long as they did.
Twenty years after their divorce, which came barely five years after their marriage began, the irreconcilable differences remain unreconciled. Especially when it comes to the move that helped lay the foundation for the team that won three Super Bowls in four years.
Jimmy says Jerry didn’t want to trade Herschel. Predictably, Jerry says it was all his idea.
“I was visiting about trading Herschel Walker weeks before we ever started directly talking about it,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan/Dallas-Fort Worth on Friday, via Charean Williams of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. “So anybody that has any thinking that it was their unique idea.... There were a lot of different ways, a lot of ways of thinking coming up with did Herschel, was Herschel? Was he the future? What direction were we going to go? Those kinds of things.
“The reason I’m saying this is you mentioned Jimmy. We didn’t have any of this B.S. at that time. Both of us felt so lucky to get up in the morning and be here. We were hemming and hawing and working together, not worrying about who was doing what. I’ll tell you this. We had our sleeves rolled up, and we were working, doing everything we could to help build this team.”
The latest discrepancy comes several weeks after Jones explained that Johnson wouldn’t be placed in the franchise’s ring of honor via a stammering, speechless explanation to ESPN.
Ultimately, Jones justified the decision to exclude Jimmy by pointing to the fact that Jimmy didn’t contribute on the field. Perhaps the better reason to leave him out would be the hideous shorts he was wearing in this well-worth-your-five-minutes-on-a-Friday-afternoon CBS feature from 1989.Former Manchester United and Norway defender Henning Berg has been sacked as Legia Warsaw manager with the side 10 points off the pace in the Polish league.
Berg guided Legia to the league title in 2014 and won the Polish FA Cup last season, but they were down in fourth place when the club decided to dismiss him before Sunday's 2-2 draw with Gornik Zabrze.
'The current formula of co-operation with the coach has expired as it didn't guarantee accomplishment of all our goals in terms of sporting results during this season and the team's development,' said Legia chairman Boguslaw Lesnodorski.
Former Manchester United defender Henning Berg has been sacked as Legia Warsaw manager
The former Norway defender was removed from his post with Legia fourth in the Polish League
Berg pictured in action for Manchester United, blocking a shot from Ivan Zamorano of Inter Milan in the 1999 Champions League quarter-final, second leg. The match ended 1-1 and United advanced 3-1 on aggregate
Berg takes on Anderson of Barcelona during United's 3-3 draw in the Champions League group stage in 1998
Earlier in the day, former Dynamo Moscow manager Stanislav Cherchesov was pictured at Legia's training facilities and is the favourite to replace the Norwegian.
Berg, now 46, won 100 caps for his country and won the Premier League title with both Blackburn Rovers and United.Just after dawn on March 13, 1942, the harbor pilot in the western Australian port town of Geraldton noticed a small ship coming up over the horizon, sails billowing from her two tall masts. As the vessel got closer he saw she was a schooner of a type common in the South Seas, and that her hull and upper works were painted an odd shade of faded, splotchy green. A large American flag flew from the top of the ship’s forward mast, and a smaller Philippine ensign snapped in the breeze from her equally tall aft pole.
Intrigued by the mystery vessel’s unannounced appearance, the pilot boarded his motorboat and set out to meet the newcomer. As he approached the ship he saw men working to drop her well-worn sails, and was surprised to see that what he had taken to be a tramp cargo vessel was armed with at least two machine guns and what looked to be a small cannon. As he came alongside the pilot shouted through cupped hands, “What ship are you”? and was dumfounded when a bearded and deeply tanned man standing near the schooner’s wheel responded, “USS Lanikai, from Manila.” The pilot was equally surprised that the weather-beaten and somewhat dilapidated ship was apparently part of the U.S. Navy, and that she had safely navigated more than 3,000 miles of Japanese-dominated ocean.
With his motorboat tethered to the schooner’s stern, the pilot guided the American vessel toward a berth at Geralton’s main pier. As he did, the bearded man—Lieutenant Kemp Tolley, USN—recounted what would ultimately become known as one of the great sea adventures of World War II.
***
Lanikai ’ s voyage into the history books was a colorful passage that began long before that early morning arrival in Western Australia.
Built in 1914 in Oakland, California, the 90-foot-long wooden-hulled schooner initially bore the name Hermes and spent the first months of her existence carrying dried coconut meat and other cargo from the German-ruled islands of Micronesia to Hawaii. Two months after the outbreak of World War I the vessel managed to evade patrolling Japanese ships—Tokyo was on the Allied side in that conflict—and dash into still-neutral Honolulu harbor. Hermes was interned, and sat tied to a pier until the United States entered the war in April 1917. At that point the vessel was officially seized from her German owners, and on April 1, 1918, she was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as the auxiliary schooner USS Hermes and undertook general patrol and supply duties in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands until being decommissioned in January 1919. When the Hawaiian territorial government declined to accept ownership of the vessel she remained in Navy custody, acting as a stores ship.
Hermes was sold to Oahu’s Lanikai Fish Company in October 1926 and renamed Lanikai, and spent the following five years carrying seafood among the islands. In 1933 she was purchased by a member of Honolulu’s aristocratic Castle family, who refurbished the schooner and used her as a charter yacht. In 1936 Lanikai was sold to Captain Harry W. Crosby of Seattle, who put the schooner to work hauling salmon from Alaska to ports along the U.S. west coast. It was a task for which Lanikai was apparently not well suited, however, for in early 1937 Crosby sold her to Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Later that year the photogenic ship went back to her island-hopping roots, portraying a South Seas tramp and nearly upstaging Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall in MGM’s pioneering disaster-pic-cum-island-romance The Hurricane. After location filming ended off California’s San Clemente Island the schooner stayed on as the movie studio’s yacht until April 1939, when she was bought by the American-owned Luzon Stevedoring Company and shifted to Manila.
Lanikai might well have spent the remainder of her days hauling guests and cargo among the Philippines’ many islands had it not been for the war clouds gathering on the Pacific’s western horizon. Though the increasingly tired schooner seemed an unlikely warship, in the fall of 1941 a man in faraway Washington, D.C., ensured that Lanikai would once again fly the Navy’s Union Jack.
His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
***
The first few days of December 1941 were extremely busy ones for Manila-based Admiral Thomas C. Hart. The 64-year-old commander in chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet was certain that war with Japan was imminent, and he was hurriedly attempting to deploy his relatively modest forces to protect an operational area encompassing hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean from the Philippines to China to Southeast Asia.
Hart was therefore understandably puzzled when on December 3 he received a top-secret message directly from President Roosevelt ordering him to acquire, arm and crew three small civilian-looking ships and dispatch them as soon as possible to patrol off the harbors of Japanese-occupied French Indo-China. While the small ships’ official task was reconnaissance—their crews were to report by radio any “suspicious” activities—many historians have long asserted that their real mission was to get themselves attacked by the Japanese, thereby giving the United States a plausible reason to enter the war on the Allied side. Whatever the purpose of the small ships’ deployment, Roosevelt’s directive ensured that preparations moved ahead at flank speed. Indeed, the first vessel, the 710-ton patrol yacht USS Isabel, put to sea on December 3 bound for Cam Ranh Bay.
Even as Isabel headed west the ship tapped to relieve her was being inducted into service. That vessel was Lanikai, whose owner had agreed to lease the schooner to the Navy for $1 per year, asking only that she eventually be returned in good condition.
The man selected to command the schooner on her secret mission was Kemp Tolley. The 33-year-old Naval Academy graduate had arrived in the Philippines on December 4 from China, where he’d been executive officer on the river gunboat USS Tutulia. His assignment to what he later referred to as “the President’s secret project” came as something of a surprise—he’d envisioned serving aboard a destroyer or cruiser—but he assumed his first command with his usual enthusiasm. By the time Lanikai was commissioned early on December 5 at Cavite Navy Yard Tolley had assembled a crew of two Navy chief petty officers and 11 Filipino seamen, and had invoked Roosevelt’s orders to acquire food, fresh water, two World War I.30-caliber Lewis machine guns and a Spanish-American War-vintage 3-inch quick-firing cannon. All that was lacking was sailing orders, and those arrived late in the afternoon—along with three additional U.S. sailors.
Lanikai finally got underway from Cavite on the afternoon of December 7 (still the 6th in Hawaii), though she didn’t go far. In accordance with his orders Tolley dropped anchor just inside the entrance to Manila Bay; departing vessels were only allowed to navigate the channel through the offshore minefields during daylight. Everyone but those on lookout duty settled in for the night, unaware that events already transpiring in Hawaii would make their assigned mission irrelevant and change their lives forever.
Just before 5 a.m. on December 8 Lanikai ’ s radioman awakened Tolly with a short but startling message that had just arrived from Hart’s headquarters. The first sentence, “Orange War Plan in Effect,” informed the schooner’s skipper that the United States was at war with Japan, and a second line ordered Lanikai to return to Cavite. Once back at the Navy Yard Tolley learned the details of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He and other officers were also told that a Japanese assault on the Philippines could be expected at any moment, and that they should make themselves and their ships ready to undertake whatever missions Hart deemed necessary.
Lanikai spent the first weeks of World War II in the Pacific running errands in and just outside Manila Bay—moving equipment and personnel, patrolling, and attempting to avoid the Japanese air attacks that were systematically reducing American installations to smoking rubble. The steady southward advance of enemy ground troops from their landing beaches on Lingayen Gulf made it clear that the entire Manila area would soon come under direct attack, but on December 24 General Douglas MacArthur—commander of U.S. Army Forces Far East—declared Manila an open city, meaning that it would not be defended so that the Japanese would not destroy it. His pronouncement, made without prior consultation with Hart, completely undermined Navy plans for a prolonged defense of the installations surrounding the bay. The Asiatic Fleet commander had no choice but to order the destruction of all remaining facilities and the scuttling or dispersal of surviving vessels. Hart himself would eventually make his way by submarine to the relative—and temporary—safety of Dutch-controlled Java, but for many of those in his ravaged command the future held only capture, imprisonment and death.
Fate had something else in store for Lanikai and those aboard her, however. Tolley and his crew—now numbering seven Americans and 12 Filipinos—made a final sweep of abandoned storehouses for food, water, diesel fuel, an additional machine gun, ammunition and other essential gear. After being quickly camouflaged with salvaged green paint and taking aboard six additional men—two Navy officers, three enlisted men and a Dutch naval officer who were also seeking to escape the oncoming Japanese—under cover of darkness on December 26 Lanikai turned her bowsprit toward the open sea.
***
Tolley ’ s plan was to sail for Java, where he assumed British, Dutch and American naval forces would be massing. The most obvious danger during the nearly 2,000-mile passage was discovery by Japanese ships or aircraft—a threat the schooner’s skipper hoped to evade by sailing only at night and tying up in secluded anchorages during daylight. But there were other challenges as well. While he and several others aboard Lanikai were proficient in celestial navigation, Tolley had only a few basic charts and a library atlas to rely on. It would also be necessary to replenish the ship’s fresh water and food supplies; while the former could be supplemented by captured rainwater and the latter by fish hauled from the sea, it was more than likely that those aboard Lanikai would have to run the risk of bartering with local people encountered during the voyage—people whose loyalties couldn’t be known for certain. And there was one other serious problem: The military radios installed aboard the schooner for her aborted trip to Indo-China had failed even before the ship left Manila, so her only contact with the outside world would be Tolley’s personal and very temperamental commercial radio.
Despite a minor shipboard fire, sightings of unidentified warships on the horizon and several high-altitude overflights by Japanese aircraft, Lanikai ’ s first two weeks at sea went relatively well. Tolley and his shipmates stuck to their operational plan, sailing at night and laying up by day. Helpful civilians living near the temporary anchorages provided food and, equally important, intelligence about Japanese movements. A huge storm allowed the schooner to stop hugging the east coast of Palawan and during a tense and seasickness-inducing two-day voyage cross the entire Sulu Sea. After passing the Japanese-occupied island of Jolo and making a brief stop for provisions at a small Muslim village southwest of Zamboanga, Lanikai set out southward across the Celebes Sea, bound for Makassar on the island of Sulawesi. There were several tense minutes during the passage when three unidentified flying boats approached the schooner at low altitude, but the aircraft proved to be Dutch and after dipping their wings in greeting they departed in search of suitable prey.
On January 9, 1942, Lanikai dropped anchor in Makassar, the first real city Tolley and his crew had set foot in since leaving Manila. It was a significant waypoint on the voyage to Java, because it was still controlled by Dutch forces (though not for much longer) that were able to provide as much fuel, food and fresh water as the schooner could carry. Two days after her arrival Lanikai set out on what all aboard thought would be the final leg of their cruise—the 500-mile passage across the Flores and Bali seas to Java’s vast harbor at Surabaya, the largest naval base in the Netherlands East Indies and at that point headquarters for the senior Allied naval commanders in the western Pacific, including Hart.
The port initially seemed to be the haven Tolley and the others had hoped it would be. Lanikai went into drydock for long-overdue engine repairs and hull-scraping while her crew—after saying farewell to their passengers—enjoyed the city’s various entertainments. Things did not stay so peaceful, however, for the Japanese had continued their southward advance and on February 3 enemy aircraft bombed the city for the first time. This was the opening move in a campaign that would ultimately lead to the Allied defeat in the East Indies, though lucky Lanikai would not be present for that inevitable capitulation.
***
The final leg of the schooner ’ s epic voyage began early on February 17, when Tolley took the ship to sea in order to escape the rapidly advancing Japanese. All but one of the passengers who’d accompanied the vessel from Manila had gone ashore to take up other duties and remained behind, as did one of Lanikai ’ s original Filipino crewmen, who was too sick to travel.
Though the ship’s ultimate destination largely depended on the Japanese, Tolley’s initial objective was Tjilatjap, the only decent port on the south coast of Java and the designated rendezvous point for Allied ships vacating Surabaya. Lanikai ’ s course took her back toward Bali, which was already under attack by the Japanese, but she made it through the narrow Bali Strait undetected. The remainder of the 700-mile trip to Tjilatjap was made in the familiar “sail at night, hide during the day” manner, and the schooner reached its goal on the morning of February 25.
Unfortunately, Tjilatjap proved to be no more of a haven than Surabaya had been. There was an air raid warning within hours of Lanikai ’ s arrival, and though no enemy bombers appeared Tolley noted that the makeshift port headquarters building was pervaded by an air of quiet desperation brought about by news that two large Japanese invasion fleets had been spotted just off Java’s north coast. Fairly sure that Lanikai and the other vessels in port would not be staying long, Tolley talked the Dutch harbormaster into filling his ship’s fuel tanks, then took the schooner alongside the U.S. Navy tanker Pecos to take aboard fresh water.
Tolley’s intuition soon proved accurate: At 3 p.m. on February 26 Lanikai hoisted anchor and once again headed to sea, this time carrying two new passengers, both Navy enlisted men with no other way out of Java, as well as one of the American officers who had made the voyage south from Manila. All aboard the schooner realized that their only logical destination was Australia, and as soon as Java disappeared below the horizon Tolley set a course southeast across the Indian Ocean.
In many ways the last lap of Lanikai ’ s journey was the most challenging. Not only did the danger of discovery by Japanese ships and aircraft remain, the schooner had to contend with some of the worst weather she had encountered since leaving the Philippines. Within 24 hours of departing Tjilatjap the ship was firmly in the jaws of a major typhoon and for much of the 1,000-mile voyage south Tolley and his crew had to contend with mountainous seas, howling winds and, on more than one occasion, the near capsizing of their vessel.
Yet as drenched and miserable as all those aboard the schooner were, they took some solace in the fact that heaving ocean and terrible visibility would also keep potential enemies at bay. And the enemy threat in the waters around Java was all too real. The day after Lanikai ’ s departure from Tjilatjap Japanese ships and aircraft dealt Allied forces a crushing defeat in the Battle of the Java Sea, sinking several ships and killing more than 2,300 Allied sailors. And on the night of February 28/March 1 two cruisers attempting to reach Tjilatjap—USS Houston and Australia’s HMAS Perth—were also sunk by the Japanese.
The weather eventually began to moderate, and after a short stop at dry and inhospitable Montobello Island, off the coast of northern Western Australia, the schooner coasted south. Lanikai briefly grounded on a sandbank but floated off with the rising tide, and on the night of March 12 dropped anchor off Geraldton. The following morning the surprised Australian pilot guided the schooner to her berth. After a few days enjoying Australian hospitality Lanikai moved on, reaching Freemantle—and the official end of her epic voyage—on March 18, 82 days and nearly 4,000 miles out from Manila.
***
Following her arrival in Freemantle Lanikai was refurbished and put to use patrolling just offshore. Tolley remained in command until the ship was passed to the Royal Australian Navy in August 1942. A fluent Russian speaker, the schooner’s former captain spent much of the war in Moscow as an assistant U.S. naval attaché before returning to combat duty in the Pacific as navigator aboard the battleship North Carolina. He ultimately retired from the Navy in 1959 with the rank of rear admiral, and died in 2000 at the age of 98.
Lanikai remained in Australian service until the Pacific war ended in 1945. She was then returned to the Luzon Stevedoring Company in Manila, but the firm refused to accept her on the grounds that she was no longer in the shape in which she had entered service in 1941. The schooner lay abandoned in an arm of Subic Bay until February 1946, when a storm sank her in 100 feet of water. Her remains were rediscovered by sport divers in 2003, and artifacts from the history-making vessel are now on display under the auspices of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
Stephen Harding, editor of Military History magazine, is the author of the New York Times best seller The Last Battle and the forthcoming The Castaway’s War.A majority of Americans thinks that transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military, according to a Reuters poll released Friday.
The poll found that 58 percent of adults think transgender people should be able to serve in the armed forces, while 27 people said they shouldn’t.
It was conducted after President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he decided transgender people should not be allowed to serve “in any capacity in the military," citing the “tremendous medical costs and disruptions” he believes having transgender people would cause for the armed forces.
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Seventeen percent said they thought banning transgender people from the military would “improve morale,” while 32 percent said it would hurt it. Thirty-three percent believe a possible ban would have “no impact” on the morale among the officers.
About a half of the Republicans surveyed said they think transgender people should not be able to serve in the military, with less than one-third saying they should.
And 42 percent said banning transgender people from the military would have “no impact” on military readiness, while 22 percent said it would hurt capability and 14 percent said it would help.
The survey sampled 1,249 adults between July 26–28 with the margin of error at 3 percentage points.You heard it here first: McCown, Flutie & Thorpe
Josh McCown led a resilient Jets team to a 38–31 come-from-behind victory over the Chiefs after Kansas City rediscovered its explosive offense (details in the next note). The Jets showed their moxie early, erasing a 14-point first-quarter deficit before the period ended, something they had done only twice before in team history. McCown threw one touchdown pass and, at age 38, became the oldest player with two rushing TDs in one game since Doug Flutie of the Chargers did it at age 41 in 2003. In fact, the only other player to do so after his 38th birthday was … wait for it … Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs in 1926.
Even in a loss, Smith’s connections to Kelce & Hill are historic
Alex Smith threw four touchdown passes in Kansas City’s loss—all for more than 20 yards, the first two to Travis Kelce and the last two to Tyreke Hill. Here’s the skinny:
Smith was the first player to throw four TD passes of 21 yards or longer in a loss since Dan Marino did it against the Jets in 1988. Smith also became the first player in the Super Bowl era with a 70-yard completion and 70-yard run in the same game.
Kelce was only the third player in the expansion era (that is, since 1960) to catch two TD passes longer than 20 yards in the first 5 minutes of a game. The others were Walter Stanley of the Packers in 1987 (from Don Majkowski) and Lee Evans of the Bills in 2005 (from J.P. Losman).
Hill scored on plays of 79 and 40 yards. His total of nine touchdowns of 60 yards or longer ties Gale Sayers for the second most in a player’s first two seasons in the NFL. The record is 12 by Devin Hester.
West is best
Seattle’s victory over Philadelphia capped a perfect day for the NFL’s West Coast teams. This is the 21st season in which five teams have been located on the West Coast—that is, in the Pacific time zone (1976–94 and 2016–17). Sunday was the first day since October 17, 1976 on which all five West Coast teams won. On that day, Seattle recorded the first win in its history, defeated Tampa Bay in the so-called “Expansion Bowl.” It was a messy game in which 310 yards in penalties were assessed, tied for the second-highest single-game total in NFL history.
Wilson excels in the 4th quarter
Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes in the Seahawks’ 24–10 win over the Eagles, including a 15-yarder to J.D. McKissic that was Wilson’s 15th TD pass in the fourth quarter this season. That tied Eli Manning’s single-season record for fourth-quarter touchdown passes, set in 2011.
Brady sets NFL mark with 27th win vs. Buffalo
The Patriots defeated the Bills, 23–3, as Tom Brady set an all-time NFL record despite a mediocre individual performance. It was Brady’s 27th victory against Buffalo, breaking a tie with Brett Favre for the most wins as a starting quarterback against one team. Favre won 26 starts against the Lions. Ironically, it was only the second time in Brady’s last 65 starts that he threw at least one interception but no touchdown passes.
Saints RBs star in victory over Panthers
Mark Ingram gained 155 yards from scrimmage and Alvin Kamara added 122 yards in the Saints’ 31–21 win over the Panthers. It was the fourth game this season in which Ingram and Kamara both gained at least 100 yards (rushing and receiving combined), the highest total by any pair of running backs in one season for the same team since Roger Craig and Wendell Tyler did it for the 49ers in 1985.
Jones scored OT TD on his first carry of the game
Rookie Aaron Jones ran 20 yards for a touchdown to give the Packers a 26–20 victory over the Buccaneers. Jones became only the second player in NFL history to score a rushing touchdown in OT on his first carry of the game. The other was Nolan Cromwell, a four-time Pro Bowler as a safety, who did it for the Rams against the Vikings in 1979. Cromwell was the holder on a faked field-goal attempt and he scored from 5 yards out.
Mr. August sets a yardage record in first start for 49ers
Jimmy Garoppolo passed for 293 yards in his first start for the 49ers, as San Francisco earned a 15–14 victory at Chicago. Of the 44 quarterbacks to start for the Niners, Garoppolo’s passing-yardage total was the highest in his first start for the team. Even more surprising are the identities of the players to pass for at least 250 yards in their first start for San Francisco—no Tittle, Brodie, Montana, Young, or Garcia. The players are Matt Cavanaugh (252 yards in 1984), Jeff Kemp (252 in 1986), and Ty Detmer (276 in 1998).
Garoppolo started only two regular-season games in his four seasons with the Patriots, but he led the NFL in preseason passing yards during that time. Garoppolo’s four-year preseason totals: 187-for-276 (68%), 2041 yards, 11 TDs, 4 INTs for a 96.6 passer rating. His total of 11 touchdown passes was one short of the NFL preseason high during that time
Versatile Cohen scores again, this time on punt return
Tarik Cohen returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown in the Bears’ loss. Cohen is the first rookie to score on a running play, a pass play, and a kick-return TD (punt or kickoff) and also to throw a touchdown pass as a rookie since Gale Sayers did it in 1965.
High-flying offenses are no match for Vikings’ D
The Vikings allowed only three field goals in a 14–9 victory, shutting down the Falcons one week after Atlanta scored 34 points against the Buccaneers. It was the third time this season that Minnesota allowed 10 or fewer points to a team that scored more than 30 points in its previous game; the Vikings also did that in a 23–10 win over the Packers and a 24–7 victory against the Rams. Over the last 30 years, the only other teams with three such games in one season were Carolina in 2008 and Philadelphia in 2011.
Rivers now on his best form
Philip Rivers passed for 344 yards in the Chargers’ 19–10 victory over the Browns. It may have been an unremarkable home victory over a winless team, but don’t overlook the fact that Rivers has put together a string of three excellent games, completing 72 percent of his passes for 1029 yards and six TDs without an interception. That produced his highest passer rating over a span of three games (120.5) since early in the 2014 season.
Rams win a losable game with FGs and a pick-6
Blaine Gabbert had more passing yards than Jared Goff, Kerwynn Williams had more rushing yards than Todd Gurley, and Larry Fitzgerald had the game’s highest receiving-yards total. But the Rams got four field goals from Greg Zuerlein and a pick-six from Alec Ogletree in a 32–16 win at Arizona. Even during the Rams’ recent struggles, a return TD has been golden. They have won the last 10 games in which they scored a touchdown on something other than a running or passing play, compared to a 12–27 mark in all other games during that time.
Manning’s streak comes to end
The Raiders defeated the Giants, 24–14, with Geno Smith starting in place of Eli Manning for the G-men. Over Manning’s 12 full seasons as the team’s starting quarterback (2005–16), he threw 98.6 percent of the team’s passes, with only 92 passes thrown by other Giants players. That is the highest such percentage over a span of 12 seasons in NFL history. Eli’s brother Peyton recorded the second-highest mark, throwing 96.9 percent of the Colts’ passes from 1999 to 2010.
Flacco: two TD passes and no INTs
Joe Flacco threw for 269 yards, including scoring strikes to Benjamin Watson and Patrick Ricard, and he was not intercepted in the Ravens’ 44–20 win over the Lions. That ended Flacco’s streak of 37 consecutive starts without a multi-TD/no-INT game, which was the longest current streak of that kind for any active quarterback. In fact, no active QB has a current streak of even 15 straight starts without throwing for multiple TDs and no picks.
Titans even the score against Texans, so to speak
The Titans avenged a 57–14 loss at Houston on October 1 with a 24–13 victory over the Texans. It was the first time since 2000 that any team defeated an opponent after suffering a loss by at least 40 points to that team earlier in the season. Seventeen years ago, the Bears topped the Bucs after losing, 41–0, at Tampa earlier in the season.
It’s important to note that in the interim, the Jets won a second-round playoff game at New England after losing a home game to the Patriots, 45–3, during that 2010 regular season.
Miami’s defense makes headlines in victory over Broncos
Xavien Howard made two of Miami’s three interceptions, returning one 30 yards for a touchdown in the Dolphins’ 35–9 victory over the Broncos. Miami also scored on a pair of safeties, becoming only the third team in NFL history with two safeties and a pick-six in the same game. The Giants did that in a pair of shutout wins, against the Pottsville Maroons in 1927 and against the Redskins in 1961.
Campbell sets record for Jax sacks
Calais Campbell was credited with a sack in the Jaguars’ 30–10 win over the Colts, giving him a total of 12.5 this season. That breaks the team record of 12 set by Tony Brackens in 1999. Campbell’s total also matches the highest by any player since 2012 in his first season with a team. Lorenzo Alexander had 12.5 sacks in 2016, his first season with Buffalo.
Another 3rd-quarter blowout by the Warriors
The Warriors played another dominant third quarter on Sunday night, outscoring the Heat, 37–17, during those 12 minutes and turning a 62–60 halftime lead into a 99–77 advantage entering the fourth quarter. Golden State won, 123–95. It was the fourth game this season in which Steve Kerr’s squad outscored its opponent by at least 20 points in the third quarter; no other NBA team has done it more than once. And in just 24 games this season, the Warriors’ total of four such games equals the highest total by any team in any season in NBA history—except for last season’s Warriors, who set an |
stance on Manning's role in leaking documents, it's hard to argue with the fact that the timing of her transition — right before entering a men's prison to serve a 35-year sentence — puts Manning in the lines of some pretty harrowing and unconscionable scenarios.
Of course — OF COURSE — Manning's announcement was met with general idiotic fuckery from exactly the sort of people who have made it a part of their personal brand. And like most general idiotic fuckery, it was predictable and easy to categorize. It's too early for me to feel so pessimistic about other human beings' capacity for compassion and empathy, but here we go.
1. He
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In her statement, Manning indicated that she wished to be referred to using female pronouns from now on. Using the wrong pronoun for a trans person is considered exceptionally shitty, and a violation of that person's identity.
That didn't stop CNN, The Dallas News, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, USA Today, Politico, etc etc etc etc etc from using sentences like "He would like to be referred to by female pronouns" or CNN's charming "Bradley Manning says he wants to live as a woman, called Chelsea." Cool, guys.
2. To be trans is to be mentally ill
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EXTREE EXTREE: Erick Erickson being a potato faced dick!
3. I DONT WANNA PAY FOR MANNING'S SURGERY I AM THE ONLY TAXPAYER.
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To be fair, I didn't really want to pay for the war in Iraq. Or the war in Afghanistan. Or Dick Cheney's 11 fresh hearts. And all of those things probably cost more than the gender reassignment surgery that the US Military doesn't even provide its soldiers. So slow your roll, sudden fiscal conservatives.
4. Bradley Womanning
The fact that this joke has been made approximately 129348192371237 times today has not deterred people from continuing to make it. Nor has it made it any funnier.
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5. Transsexuality is ridiculous
6. Manning wants to go to a fancy women's prison
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He must have gotten the idea from Orange is the New Black, says every hack topical Twitter comedian.
7. THANKS OBAMA
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This one is just kind of inscrutable.
If you need guidance on how to write about trans issues with compassion and tact, here's a good guide. In the meantime, don't read any comments on anything today. Trust me on this.
[Guardian]
Images via AP.From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
The subject of this article has no official name.
The name currently in use is a fan designator; see below for more information.
An in-game trade is a trade made with NPCs in the core series and spin-off Pokémon games. The process uses the same trading sequence as player trades and is usually done for Pokémon that are difficult or impossible to obtain through other means, or for Pokémon unavailable at that point of the game. In later games, the traded Pokémon often has special moves, like Egg Moves.
Prior to Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, the NPC Trainer will always specify a Pokémon they want to trade for. The Pokémon the player receives in the trade will have a fixed Original Trainer and nickname; in later games the Trainer ID number, held item, Nature, IVs, and/or level can be fixed as well.
Like Pokémon traded externally, the traded Pokémon will be treated as an outsider, and gain a boosted amount of experience points in battle. Prior to Generation V, every Pokémon has the same level as the Pokémon it was traded for, except in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
List of in-game trades
Generation I
This article is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this article to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: Check that the Gen II held items of trade evolutions and Japanese Blue's Krabby are correct.
All Trainer ID numbers and IVs are random in the Generation I games. The Original Trainer always uses the hardcoded text string 0x5D, which is displayed as TRAINER (Japanese: トレーナー Trainer) in the game's language. In Western language versions of the handheld games and Pokémon Stadium, this string is displayed in ALLCAPS ("TRAINER" in English), whereas in Pokémon Stadium 2 it is displayed in title case ("Trainer" in English).
The held item column refers to the item the Pokémon will be holding if it is traded to a Generation II game. With the exception of Pokémon that evolve during that trade and Krabby in Japanese Blue, they have the same item a wild Pokémon of the same species would have if it were traded to a Generation II game; Pokémon that evolve during the trade have the item their evolved form would have, while Krabby has TM13 (Snore) instead of TM33 (Reflect).
Red and Blue/Green
In Pokémon Red and Blue, Nidoran♂ is traded for Nidoran♀; in Pokémon Red and Green, Nidoran♀ is traded for Nidoran♂.
Blue (Japan)
1.0 1.1 This Pokémon will evolve due to being traded but Pokédex data for the unevolved Pokémon will be registered first.
Yellow
↑ This Pokémon will evolve due to being traded but Pokédex data for the unevolved Pokémon will be registered first.
Unused trades
There are a few in-game trades in the game data of Generation I games which are not assigned to any NPC.
Generation II
Gold and Silver
Crystal
Generation III
Several Pokémon have raised Contest conditions, including those from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen but excluding those from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (which also do not have set IVs). These Pokémon all have one Contest condition raised by 30 and all other Contest conditions raised by 5, with a feel (sheen in Generation IV) of 10.
Ruby and Sapphire
FireRed and LeafGreen
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 If this Pokémon is evolved in a Generation IV or V game, its Ability will become its second Ability.
Emerald
1.0 1.1 If this Pokémon is evolved in a Generation IV or V game, its Ability will become its second Ability.
XD: Gale of Darkness
Generation IV
Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum
In the English language version of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Kazza, Charap, and Gaspar are functionally Japanese in origin. While this has no effect in the Generation IV games (since their species do not have foreign Pokédex entries in the Generation IV games), it becomes noticeable when sent to later generations. These Pokémon have the correct language of origin if obtained in any other game language or Pokémon Platinum.
↑ Chatot's Contest conditions are set to 20. ↑ Due to holding an Everstone, this Haunter will not evolve when obtained in this trade.
HeartGold and SoulSilver
Generation V
Black and White
Black 2 and White 2
Yancy/Curtis
In Nimbasa City, after returning the Dropped Item to the owner and calling them 15 times, Yancy or Curtis (depending on the player's gender), will trade the player a different Pokémon each day, in this order. Each Pokémon has its Hidden Ability and can be either male or female.
If the player is male
Yancy's Pokémon have the Original Trainer Yancy (Japanese: ルリ Ruri) and Trainer ID number 10303.
If the player is female
Curtis's Pokémon have the Original Trainer Curtis (Japanese: テツ Tetsu) and Trainer ID number 54118.
Generation VI
X and Y
Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Generation VII
Sun and Moon
↑ This Pokémon will evolve due to being traded, but Pokédex data for the unevolved Pokémon will be registered before it evolves.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!
In Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, all in-game trades can be repeated an unlimited amount of times. These trades are the only way to obtain Alola Forms outside of GO Park or trading with other players. All traded Pokémon have no nicknames, have randomized Natures, and can be either gender and Shiny.
Underleveled Pokémon
Since the Pokémon received in an in-game trade is the same level as the one traded prior to Generation V, it is sometimes possible to receive a Pokémon at a lower level than normally possible.
TriviaCroatian Telecom has bought Montenegrin Telecom for 123.5 million euros. It is the biggest acquisition of Croatian Telecom (HT) so far, and the first major step in the implementation of its expansion strategy in order to position itself as the leading telecom provider in the region, reports Večernji List on January 10, 2017.
Today, Croatian Telecom signed a contract with Magyar Telekom on the purchase of 76.53 percent stake in the Montenegrin Telekom, and the transaction is expected to be concluded by the end of January. According to HT, this acquisition will allow access to the Montenegrin market for HT, its suppliers and other companies from the HT Group, thereby creating the conditions for promoting export of Croatian goods and services to Montenegro.
Given that HT directly and indirectly generates more than three percent of Croatia’s GDP, the expansion will ultimately have a positive effect on economic activity, employment and budget revenues in Croatia. In addition, HT shares represent the foundation for the development of Croatian stock market, and this regional acquisition will create new value for HT. The company expects that the transaction will have a good effect on its business results.
Montenegrin Telekom is the largest telecommunications company in Montenegro which provides a complete range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services. In the first nine months of 2016, it had revenues in the amount of 69.4 million euros. When it comes to mobile network, at the end of the third quarter the company had 368,600 mobile users and was the second-largest player in the market with 32 percent of users, with largest competitors being Telenor and M:Tel. However, at a recent auction, Montenegrin Telekom bought a substantial portion of the radio frequency spectrum, which will now enable it to achieve superior coverage with 4G signal and with maximum data speeds.
With more than 140,000 users in the fixed telephony segment, Montenegrin Telekom is the absolute market leader with a market share 93.6 percent. It has over 73,000 broadband internet users and more than 60,000 IPTV users. The optical network of Montenegrin Telekom is available in more than 53,000 households, representing 27 percent of the total number of households in Montenegro. In late 2015, the company had 588 employees.
Since this is a transaction within the Deutsche Telekom group, it does not need special permit from competition agencies, although the two companies will remain independent, with the same majority owner and separate minority stakeholders, and will be listed on the stock exchange.CLOSE State police and FBI agents searched properties owned by former Briarcliff police officer Nicholas Tartaglione in Otisville and Crawford, N.Y. Dec. 21, 2106. Frank Becerra Jr./Lohud
Nick Tartaglione, a former Briarcliff Manor police officer, was arrested on Dec. 19, 2016, and charged in a quadruple homicide in Orange County. (Photo: Courtesy of Nick Tartaglione)
Federal prosecutors have explained why they don't think ex-Briarcliff Manor cop Nicholas Tartaglione was present when three men were fatally shot in an Orange County bar.
He was busy transporting the body of another victim to his ranch, the prosecutors contend.
That was among several new details on the deaths of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez included last week in a letter to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas.
Martin Luna, one of four men allegedly killed by former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione. (Photo: Police handout photo)
NOT THERE: Tartaglione not present when 3 victims shot
FOUND: 4 bodies discovered on land Tartaglione rented
BIGGS: Second suspect charged in quadruple homicide
Prosecutors urged the judge to deny a defense request for detailed evidence as to how authorities knew Tartaglione wasn't there when Santiago, Gutierrez and Miguel Luna were shot.
Authorities had previously revealed that the killings were a result of a drug deal gone bad between Martin Luna and a group that included Tartaglione.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, Tartaglione suspected that Luna had stolen money that was intended for cocaine purchases. He and others involved then tried "an escalating series of tactics" to force Luna to repay the money.
Miguel Luna, one of four men allegedly killed by former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione. (Photo: Police handout photo)
Luna began hiding from them, Comey wrote, and they figured out a way to lure him on April 11, 2016, to Likquid Lounge, a bar owned by Tartaglione's brother in Chester.
Luna brought with him two nephews, Santiago and Miguel Luna, and a family friend, Gutierrez. Tartaglione and his co-conspirators did not allow them to leave.
Martin Luna was killed there later that afternoon while Tartaglione was still at the bar, Comey wrote.
According to Comey, Tartaglione then took Luna's body to property he rented at the time in Otisville. While he was gone, each of the other three men were shot in the head. The co-conspirators then took those three bodies to the ranch where they were buried with Luna's in a mass grave.
Urbano Santiago, one of four men allegedly killed by former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione. (Photo: Police handout photo)
The bodies were not discovered until late December, a day after Tartaglione was arrested in the case. An autopsy did not determine an exact cause of death for Luna, only that he was the victim of "homicidal violence."
In June, Joseph Biggs, a school security officer from Nanuet, was also indicted in the killings.
Authorities have not said what Biggs' role was in the case. They have also been mum on whether one of the conspirators was Gerard Benderoth, a professional weightlifter and former Haverstraw police officer who was a friend of Tartaglione and Biggs.
In March, Benderoth killed himself in his car when he was pulled over by FBI agents investigating the quadruple homicide.
Hector Gutierrez, one of four men allegedly killed by former Briarcliff Manor police officer Nicholas Tartaglione. (Photo: Police handout photo)
Comey did not specify how authorities knew of Tartaglione's whereabouts. She said that among the evidence turned over to the defense has been surveillance video from outside the bar, telephone records, cell tower records, license-plate reader records and text messages between the co-conspirators.
Prosecutors over the summer expanded on their earlier position that Tartaglione had not been the shooter by acknowledging to the defense that he was not even present when the shootings took place.
That prompted Bruce Barket, Tartaglione's lawyer, to request further evidence, particularly witness statements that typically are not turned over by prosecutors until the trial.
Barket argued that his client's role in the case has never been spelled out by prosecutors.
Joseph Biggs, of Nanuet, is charged along with ex-Briarcliff Manor cop Nicholas Tartaglione in the April 2016 deaths of four men in Orange County (Photo: Submitted)
"Without knowing the underlying basis for and/or source of the government's conclusion that Mr. Tartaglione did not shoot the victims, and was not present for their shootings, the defense is unable to effectively address this powerful mitigation in its attempt to argue that the death penalty should not be pursued in this case, nor to adequately investigate this critical fact in preparing a defense," Barket wrote in his motion.
Prosecutors insisted that, other than Tartaglione leaving the bar, they had no evidence or witness statements clearing Tartaglione in the four deaths.
"The government maintains that, although Tartaglione was not present during the latter three murders, he is nevertheless responsible for them (as an aider and abettor)," Comey wrote.
Barket questioned whether prosecutors had any proof to back up their latest contentions.
"Little by little the case has been different (since Tartaglione was first arrested)," he said.
Twitter: @jonbandler
Read or Share this story: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2017/10/23/tartaglione-moved-body/791801001/There are some things that I’ve learned from others through commonly repeated advice. Other things I’ve had to learn on my own. The following is a short list of things to keep in mind about some common situations that new breastfeeding mothers frequently face, and that I wish I had known in the very very early beginning of things. This advice is much less about the “how to” of breastfeeding and more the “how to” of dealing with how everyone around you contributes or detracts from your breastfeeding experience.
1- Everyone will have advice. Most of it will be terrible. Only accept help from those who have met or exceeded your minimum goals. You wouldn’t learn to drive from the uncle that failed his driving test three times and still doesn’t have his license. Don’t accept advice from the people that gave up after 3 weeks, 3 months or whose babies “weaned” before a year. Unless their advice comes in the form of “I learned after the fact that I was sabotaged by xyz. AVOID DOING THAT AT ALL COSTS!” Tip learned: Only take advice from those that managed to do what you wish to manage to do.
2- Nurses are NOT lactation consultants. And often hospitals that say they have a lactation consultant on duty 24/7 are lying. Test the theory. On a hospital tour? They say they have a LC on duty 24/7? Ask to meet her. She busy? Ask to lay eyes upon her in all of her LC-glory. And ask about what certification she has. Lactation Consultants are not all created equally and people are pretty lax on what they call a Lactation Consultant sometimes. I learned this the hard way when on night two with my second son who was refusing to latch after a non-LC nurse “helped” him latch on with the most terrible and aggressive methods.. I walked down to the nurse’s station and asked to see the LC and was told that if I was worried I could just give formula. Right. 24/7 LC. Perhaps there was and I just got Nurse Cranky. I shall never know. My son never got formula. I hand expressed and finger-fed him until my mother got into town the next day, and latched him on as best as I could. My mom helped me relax and once we were out of the hospital the booger latched on and went on to nurse for 3 years. Tip learned: Nurses are not LC’s. You will likely have to hire your own LC. Bring phone numbers. Or be otherwise-well-educated. And stubborn.
3- Any family member that claims that they cannot bond without a bottle will not bond WITH the bottle. Some people are insecure and have been tricked/conditioned into believing that they have to provide nourishment for a baby to like them. Bogus. This mostly guarantees that mom’s going to end up dealing with all sorts of issues with supply, nipple confusion, shredded nipples, bottle/flow preference, etc. And that family member that needed the bottle to bond? Chances are pretty good that their bond is going to involve them handing an angry screechy baby back to you after the bottle milk runs out. No. Bonding is EVERYTHING BUT the feeding. It’s the comforting, the rocking, the dancing, the soothing, the singing, the reading-to, the baby-wearing, the offering of the pinky as a pacifier, the holding, the loving, the talking-to, the walking-with, the snuggling, and baby understanding that if they cry that family member will come to pick them up, will recognize their feeding cues (rooting, mouth o’s) and will bring baby to the source of baby’s food. Mom. The most bonded people I have ever seen are those who didn’t feed the baby from a bottle. The only person that I ever pumped for “for bonding purposes” was the least bonded person that I ever witnessed in my life. Tip learned: Bottles do not equal bonding.
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Like this: Like Loading...History Edit
Currency in circulation Edit
As of 2012, the total currency in circulation was S$29.1 billion.[6] All issued Singapore currency in circulation (notes and coins) are fully backed by external assets in its Currency Fund to maintain public confidence.[7][8] Such external assets consists of all or any of the following:[9] (a) gold and silver in any form; (b) foreign exchange in the form of demand or time deposits; bank balances and money at call; Treasury Bills; notes or coins; (c) securities of or guaranteed by foreign governments or international financial institutions; (d) equities; (e) corporate bonds; (f) currency and financial futures; (g) any other asset which the Authority, with the approval of the President of Singapore, considers suitable for inclusion. In 2017, the government, in the second reading of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Amendment) Bill 2017, announced that the Currency Fund will be merged with other funds of the MAS, because the currency in circulation is effectively backed by the full financial strength and assets of MAS, which is much larger than the Currency Fund. As at 31 March 2017, MAS's assets (S$395 billion) were more than seven times larger than the assets of the Currency Fund (S$55 billion). The proposed amendment will merge the Currency Fund with the other funds of MAS and streamline MAS's operations. The Government has said that its support for the currency in circulation, as set out in the Currency Act, remains unchanged.[10] Singapore's foreign reserves officially stood at over US$260.7 billion, as of April 2017 according to the MAS.[11]
Coins Edit
Banknotes Edit
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See also EditToday, the Arkansas Bar Association (ABA) revealed that the Bar Exam tests from the Little Rock area are missing following Wednesday’s exam. The Bar Association will require exiting law students to retake the MBE portion of the exam which has been rescheduled for August 7th.
The completed exam papers were lost while being packaged for shipment to the National Conference of Bar Examiners who grades the final test.
“The box was sitting next to a number of practice booklets when I walked out of the room,” the bar association’s exam coordinator Julia Shumway tells us. “We are required to destroy the practice booklets each session following the exam. I came back and the practice booklets were still there and the real exams were gone.”
The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is administered in every state except Louisiana and Washington. The MBE is a six-hour, two-hundred question multiple choice examination completed on the second day of examination. The MBE accounts for 50% of the total bar exam score.
MBE rules stipulate that all retest must be taken using completely new exams. The ABA is encouraging all test takers to repeat as many study methods as possible. In a statement following the announcement the ABA says that “while the loss is unfortunate, we believe many future lawyers will ultimately be excited to show off their legal skills again.”After the collision, the Chinese authorities detained the American crew for over a week and initially issued an angry statement saying that “the U.S. side has total responsibility for this event.”
Adm. Dennis C. Blair, then commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command, issued his own angry statement, charging that the Chinese plane had been tailing the American jet, a practice Beijing’s military had increasingly adopted. “It’s not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air,” Admiral Blair said at the time.
China has continued to show off its military prowess to the United States in the 13 years since the Hainan collision. In 2011, when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited China, the military there greeted him with an unexpected and, in the view of American military officials, provocative test of a stealth fighter jet. The bold show of force surprised the Americans and also, it appeared, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao.
This year, when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited China, the military greeted him with a tour of the country’s lone aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, that the United States government had long sought. American officials interpreted that visit as another indication of China’s resolve to project its naval power.
In part, military analysts say, China wants to assert power over nearby seas and its airspace because of tensions with its neighbors over disputed islands in the East and South China Seas.
Admiral Kirby said there was no “Machiavellian intent” in the three-day delay in reporting the confrontation this week. “I think we needed to process the information and kind of figure out what really happened,” he said. “And I also believe — and I think this was the right course, too — we wanted to make sure that we had taken the opportunity to register our deep concern.”
“It made no sense to go public with that until we had a chance to deliver that démarche, which we did,” he added.NEW YORK—This week The Huffington Post officially launched some sort of new thing, which company representatives said will provide an exciting, revolutionary new way for users to do something or other.
“We are proud to provide users with this brand-new type of thing,” the website’s co-founder Roy Sekoff said during the live debut of the thing that apparently exists now. “All of us at The Huffington Post have been hard at work making this, so here it is: a new thing.”
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Added Sekoff, “We are very proud of what we did and hope that our users can take full advantage of whatever it is this thing has to offer.”
The new thing, which sources supposed is either going live or has already gone live, was designed to be used in one way or another and features hosts talking about some news stuff with guests (?) but also features a social component that allows people to talk to one another or something.
Since the launch of the thing, a number of users are reported to be using its video features, which apparently enable people to do things with Skype and this other thing made by Google a little while ago.
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“The new thing is online, and I’m pretty sure I used it, or watched it, or whatever,” said frequent Huffington Post visitor Michael Dailey, who confirmed that the thing is in fact there. “I looked at a screen for 45 seconds or so and saw some people on web cams or something talking. I’m not sure who they were. And I guess it was supposed to be streaming or interactive in some way?”
“I don’t know,” Dailey added. “Something like that.”
So far, it is too early to tell how users will respond to the new thing, but web experts have said that whatever ends up being influenced by the Huffington Post’s thing, it will probably be other sorts of things.
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“If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that this is definitely a thing of some kind,” Slate’s tech reporter Rory Aderhold said. “People can go online and use the thing, and they can also not use thing, for that matter.”
“Anyway, this is a thing,” Aderhold continued. “We can safely say it is an extension of the Huffington Post’s main web site that also does things.”
As of press time, it is still unclear what the Huffington Post’s thing actually is, but apparently it’s like the future of journalism or something.Rollei 35 Review by David Aureden
David Aureden has put together a nice little review of a camera that sometime goes overlooked. The great Rollei 35. Check it out.
The Rollei 35S fits in my coat pocket. My shirt pocket also, but that looks odd. It’s smaller than the Leica Minilux I adored, until the Minilux started to underexpose everything, and Leica twice declined to fix it. The Minilux is still upstairs in a closet, waiting for time or divine intervention to fix it, as it authored most of my favorite shots.
The Minilux is what led to the Rollei 35 – I wanted something small, great lens, bigger viewfinder, and manual.
There are only 1.7ish things in the finder of the Rollei 35s – the view and, most of the time, the frame lines. The frame lines seem to fade when pointed toward sources of even moderately average light. Having 1.7ish things in the viewfinder is wonderful. It’s even better than the viewfinders of the M2 and M3 (it took 10 years between, “wow, I’d like a Leica M” until I could afford them) because those viewfinders include rangefinders.
Using the Rollei 35s is an ongoing lesson in composition and process optimization. Probably nothing like the lessons of a view camera, but I don’t have the time for that. A former boss was fond of reminding us that “strategy is the art of making choices.” In the case of the Rollei, the strategy starts with focus. And focus is guessing the distance of the subject from the eye.
The first question posed by scale focus: “is this really a good subject matter for a photograph, because there is little point in wasting time (and money) on a picture you don’t want and that might be out of focus. So do you really want this on a print?” That’s a good question, increasingly so in the realm of digital photography, where my daughter can take 30 different perspectives on her subject, correcting with each take until she has a version she likes (and then she starts “developing” it with Photo FX). I’ll hold off on wonderings about Digital Pollution.
If “yes” then I estimate the distance to the subject and adjust the lens accordingly. Turning the lens to the estimated focus requires... focus ( J). It’s tactile, physical, precise, fiddly (I’ve got big fingers, the lens barrel is small), quiet. No hum and whir of electronic focusing mechanisms judging the distance. If I want to continue, the next task is the exposure. Sometimes I’ve got my trusty Sekonic, a partner for the past 16 years. Most times, though, it’s a lightmeter app on the I-phone, which is convenient, as the I-phone is usually along for the ride and doesn’t take up much space. But the I-phone lightmeter app drives me batty – it features way more shutter speeds and apertures than the Rollei. The specificity of its guidance needs to be averaged out. Another distraction to consider.
Step 4: Compose (ahh, that viewfinder). Making choices up front usually results in fewer/better (the benefit of strategy). Once distance and exposure are chosen, they are no longer relevant to the task. Gone. Out of my mind. Floating away like so many useless daydreams at the office. Or hours spent looking at nothing really relevant on the internet.
Back to step 4. That viewfinder. Just the view, and how to frame it. I take off my glasses, as it’s ok if the view through the finder is blurry – it’s already focused. Push all thoughts non-photographic away (“got to get to the office in 5 minutes for the conference call; why is my colleague completely ignoring requests for revisions; I ate too much lunch; coffee,coffee, coffee”) and absorb/comprehend/assess/engage/attend=FOCUS completely on what’s framed by the Rollei’s little window. Steadily push the shutter release (an unexpectedly tight mechanism). Click. And advance.
It comes along with me more often than any other film camera. The human factors of the design are so spot on, that it begs to be used. Plus, only the film knows if the shot was in focus – I won’t know until Dwayne’s develops, prints the film, and sends it back. In fact, I’m waiting on the post today for 6 rolls. Despite the increase in time it takes for a shot, and the number of shots declined, I’m shooting more than with the Leica’s.
I’m not worried about the Rollei 35s and weather, or the bumps and bruises of “out and about.” At $200, it’s both a tool and a treasure. The 35s was not built for obsolescence. It was built to survive, and come along for the ride, taken out frequently enough to consume 37 shots every two to three weeks). Conversely, I’m increasingly concerned with the Leica’s and their lenses, having spent $600+ on CLA’s over the past few years, and accidently taking my M3 for a swim when falling out of a canoe last fall.
The Lens:
How can an images be smooth and textured at the same time? Faces and objects seem to have been sanded lovingly by this sculptor of a lens. Maybe the size of the camera is less intimidating or intrusive to the people whose picture I’m taking, but, of the good photos, everyone seems more relaxed and closer to their normal look. In a portrait taken by my 8 year old, the sonnar somehow both etches and smoothes my wrinkles and beard. It picks apart the details enough to tell the story (sharpness?), but ignores enough of the secondary detail to direct the viewer’s attention to the main themes of the picture. Which is certainly not the case with the digital oeuvre of today. HD TV. Yuck.
In B&W, the prints feel like something from in the NY Times, before they printed color photos; or the Daily Pennsylvanian, circa the late ‘80’s. Instantly bestowing the weight of time to the image. “Feel” because the subject seems real, touchable, just on the other side, maybe my hand can reach through time and re-unite with them and that moment. With Fomapan 200, the grain of skin reminds of rice, of photos from Moscow, circa 1958.
At a family reunion two weekends ago, an early evening game of croquet including two brothers (both in their ‘70’s, and their cousin (65) were the perfect subject for the Sonnar. Grey hair, evening light, soft summer air at a top of a mountain. An old croquet set, the varnish on the old, wooden sticks flaking off. Of course, not the easiest camera for fast moving subjects, intent on knocking each-other off the course in changing light, but I’m hopeful.
David Aureden
Thanks to David for sharing his thought on this camera with us. Do use use a Rollei? What are your thoughts on the camera?
Please make sure you come and comment.
Thanks
JCHShepard tones on a linear frequency scale. A spectrum view of ascendingon a linear frequency scale.
A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the bass pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch, yet which ultimately seems to get no higher or lower.[1]
Construction [ edit ]
Figure 1: Shepard tones forming a Shepard scale, illustrated in a sequencer
Each square in the figure indicates a tone, with any set of squares in vertical alignment together making one Shepard tone. The color of each square indicates the loudness of the note, with purple being the quietest and green the loudest. Overlapping notes that play at the same time are exactly one octave apart, and each scale fades in and fades out so that hearing the beginning or end of any given scale is impossible. As a conceptual example of an ascending Shepard scale, the first tone could be an almost inaudible C 4 (middle C) and a loud C 5 (an octave higher). The next would be a slightly louder C♯ 4 and a slightly quieter C♯ 5 ; the next would be a still louder D 4 and a still quieter D 5. The two frequencies would be equally loud at the middle of the octave (F♯ 4 and F♯ 5 ), and the eleventh tone would be a loud B 4 and an almost inaudible B 5 with the addition of an almost inaudible B 3. The twelfth tone would then be the same as the first, and the cycle could continue indefinitely. (In other words, each tone consists of two sine waves with frequencies separated by octaves; the intensity of each is e.g. a raised cosine function of its separation in semitones from a peak frequency, which in the above example would be B 4. According to Shepard, "(...) almost any smooth distribution that tapers off to subthreshold levels at low and high frequencies would have done as well as the cosine curve actually employed."[1])
The acoustical illusion can be constructed by creating a series of overlapping ascending or descending scales. Similar to a barber's pole, the basic concept is shown in Figure 1.
The scale as described, with discrete steps between each tone, is known as the discrete Shepard scale. The illusion is more convincing if there is a short time between successive notes (staccato or marcato instead of legato or portamento).
Jean-Claude Risset subsequently created a version of the scale where the tones glide continuously, and it is appropriately called the continuous Risset scale or Shepard–Risset glissando. When done correctly, the tone appears to rise (or fall) continuously in pitch, yet return to its starting note. Risset has also created a similar effect with rhythm in which tempo seems to increase or decrease endlessly.[2]
Tritone paradox [ edit ]
A sequentially played pair of Shepard tones separated by an interval of a tritone (half an octave) produces the tritone paradox. Shepard had predicted that the two tones would constitute a bistable figure, the auditory equivalent of the Necker cube, that could be heard ascending or descending, but never both at the same time.[1]
In 1986, Diana Deutsch discovered the paradoxical auditory illusion where scales may be heard as either descending or ascending.[3] Deutsch later found that perception of which tone was higher depended |
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MC Shan - The Bridge (192kbps) 426. MC Shan - Kill That Noise (192kbps) 427. Method Man - Bring The Pain (192kbps) 428. Method Man - All I Need (192kbps) 429. Method Man - Meth vs. Chef (192kbps) 430. MF Doom & Madlib - Figaro (192kbps) 431. Mic Geronimo - Shit's Real (192kbps) 432. Mic Geronimo - Men Vs. Many Featuring O.C And Royal Flush (192kbps) 433. Mic Geronimo - Train Of Thought (192kbps) 434. Mic Geronimo - Nothin' Move But The Money [feat. Kelly Price] (128kbps) 435. Mic Geronimo - Usual Suspects [feat. DMX, Ja Rule, Tragedy & The LOX] (128kbps) 436. Mobb Deep - Survival Of The Fittest (160kbps) 437. Mobb Deep - Eye For A Eye (Your Beef Is Mines) (With NaS & Raekwon) (160kbps) 438. Mobb Deep - Right Back At You (With Ghostface Killah, Raekwon & Big Noyd) (160kbps) 439. Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Pt. II (160kbps) 440. Mobb Deep - Quiet Storm (192kbps) 441. Morcheeba - Let me see (remix) (Feat.Talib Kweli) (192kbps) 442. Mos Def - Umi Says (256kbps) 443. Mos Def - Mathematics (160kbps) 444. Mos Def - Beef (191kbps) 445. Mos Def - Make it All Better (Feat.Talib Kweli & Q-Tip) (165kbps) 446. Mos Def - Summertime (170kbps) 447. Mos Def - Universal Magnetic (179kbps) 552. Mos Def - Fortified Live (Feat.Reflection Eternal & Mr.Man) (191kbps) 448. Murs - Walk Like A Man (128kbps) 449. N.W.A. - Express Yourself (Explicit) (Digital Remaster 00) [Explicit] (174kbps) 450. N.W.A. - A Bitch is a Bitch (Explicit) [Explicit] (156kbps) 451. N.W.A. - 100 Miles And Runnin' (Explicit) [Explicit] (154kbps) 452. N.W.A. - Eazy-Duz-It (210kbps) 453. N.W.A. - Automobile (192kbps) 454. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (192kbps) 455. N.W.A. - Fuck Tha Police (192kbps) 456. Nas - Nas - Nas Is Like (128kbps) 457. Nas - N.Y. State Of Mind (128kbps) 458. Nas - Life's a Bitch (Feat. AZ) (128kbps) 459. Nas - The World Is Yours (128kbps) 460. Nas - Nas - Halftime (128kbps) 461. Nas - Nas - Represent (128kbps) 462. Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell (128kbps) 463. Nas - Affirmative Action (128kbps) 464. Nas - I Gave You Power (128kbps) 465. Nas - Nas - If I Ruled The World (128kbps) 466. Nas - Nas - The Message (128kbps) 467. Nas - Analyize This Ft Jay Z (192kbps) 468. Nas - Understanding (Feat. AZ, Biz Markie) (160kbps) 469. Nas - Ether (192kbps) 470. Nas - Rewind (192kbps) 471. Nas - One Mic (192kbps) 472. Nate Dogg - Oh No (Feat. Mos Def And Pharoahe Monch) (161kbps) 473. Nate Dogg - Lay Low (Feat. Snoop Dogg, Master P,The Eastsidaz) (183kbps) 474. Natural Elements - Magnetic (160kbps) 475. Naughty By Nature - O.P.P. (256kbps) 476. Naughty By Nature - Uptown Anthem (256kbps) 477. Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray (256kbps) 478. Necro - Bury You With Satan (192kbps) 479. Necro - The Most Sadistic Ft. ILL BILL (231kbps) 480. Necro - I Need Drugs (216kbps) 481. Necro - Get On Your Knees (213kbps) 482. Nice & Smooth - Funky For You (256kbps) 483. Nice & Smooth - Hip Hop Junkies (128kbps) 484. Non Phixion - Cult Leader (320kbps) 485. Non Phixion - Rock Stars (320kbps) 486. Non Phixion - I Shot Reagan (192kbps) 487. Noreaga - Mathematics (Esta Loca) (192kbps) 488. Notorious B.I.G - Kick In The Door (128kbps) 489. Notorious B.I.G - Ten Crack Commandments (128kbps) 490. Notorious B.I.G - Victory (Feat.Puff Daddy) (192kbps) 491. Notorious B.I.G - Gimme the Loot (128kbps) 492. Notorious B.I.G - The What (128kbps) 493. Notorious B.I.G - Juicy (128kbps) 494. Notorious B.I.G - Unbelievable (128kbps) 495. Notorious B.I.G. - Dead Wrong (Feat. Eminem) (256kbps) 496. Notorious B.I.G. - Rap Phenomenon (Feat. Method Man & Redman) (256kbps) 497. Notorious B.I.G. - Who Shot Ya? (256kbps) 498. O.C. - Dangerous (Featuring Big L) (221kbps) 499. O.C. - M.U.G. (Featuring Freddie Foxxx) (197kbps) 500. O.C. - Time's Up (192kbps) 501. O.G.C. - da storm (192kbps) 502. O.G.C. - hurricane starang (192kbps) 503. O.G.C. - no fear (192kbps) 504. Ol Dirty Bastard - brooklyn zoo (192kbps) 505. Ol Dirty Bastard - shimmy shimmy ya (192kbps) 506. ONYX - Throw Ya Gunz (192kbps) 507. ONYX - Slam (192kbps) 508. Organized Konfusion - The Rough Side Of Town (189kbps) 509. Organized Konfusion - Bring It On (185kbps) 510. Organized Konfusion - Stray Bullet (186kbps) 511. Outkast - ATLiens (192kbps) 512. Outkast - Elevators (Me & You) (192kbps) 513. Outkast - b.o.b. (192kbps) 514. Outkast - two dope boyz (192kbps) 515. Outkast - rosa parks (192kbps) 516. Outkast - southernplayalistic (192kbps) 517. OutKast - The Whole World (151kbps) 518. OutKast - Aquemini [Explicit] (169kbps) 519. OutKast - Player's Ball (152kbps) 520. OutKast - Git Up, Git Out (150kbps) 521. Outkast - Hey Ya (192kbps) 522. OutKast - So Fresh, So Clean [Explicit] (163kbps) 523. Papoose - Alphabetical Slaughter (189kbps) 524. Papoose - Born In NYC (146kbps) 525. Pete Rock - Verbal Murder 2 (Feat. Common, Big Pun, Noreaga) (240kbps) 526. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Straighten It Out (126kbps) 527. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (128kbps) 528. Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Get On The Mic (128kbps) 529. Pharcyde - Passing Me By (192kbps) 530. Pharcyde - Drop (192kbps) 531. Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says (192kbps) 532. Pharoahe Monch - The Truth (ft.Common, Talib Kweli) (192kbps) 533. Poor Righteous Teachers - Rock Dis Funky Joint (192kbps) 534. Positive K - I Got A Man (224kbps) 535. Prodigy - Keep It Thoro (128kbps) 536. Public Enemy - Bring The Noise (208kbps) 537. Public Enemy - Rebel Without A Pause (192kbps) 538. Public Enemy - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos (192kbps) 539. Public Enemy - Fight The Power (192kbps) 540. Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome (192kbps) 541. Public Enemy - 911 Is A Joke (192kbps) 542. Public Enemy - Shut Em Down (192kbps) 543. Queen Latifah - UNITY (160kbps) 544. Raekwon - Criminology (192kbps) 545. Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces (192kbps) 546. Raekwon - Verbal Intercourse (ft.Nas) (192kbps) 547. Raekwon - Ice Cream (192kbps) 548. Ras Kass - Ghetto Fabulous (224kbps) 549. Ras Kass - Interview With A Vampire (224kbps) 550. Ras Kass - Nature Of The Threat (192kbps) 551. Ras Kass - Goldyn Chyld (192kbps) 553. Redman - Rock Da Spot (118kbps) 554. Redman - Pick It Up (123kbps) 555. Redman - Do What U Feel (109kbps) 556. Redman - How to Roll a Blunt (192kbps) 557. Redman - Time 4 Sum Aksion (192kbps) 558. Roxanne Shante - Bite This (128kbps) 559. Roxanne Shante - Roxanne's Revenge (128kbps) 560. Royal Flush - Movin' On Your Weak Productions (Produced by Da Beatminerz) (128kbps) 561. Royal Flush - Worldwide (Produced by L.E.S.) (128kbps) 562. Run DMC - Runs House (128kbps) 563. Run DMC - Beats to the Rhyme (128kbps) 564. Run DMC - Peter Piper (128kbps) 565. Run DMC - Sucker Mcs (128kbps) 566. Run DMC - Walk This Way (feat. Aerosmith) (128kbps) 567. Sadat X - Escape From New York (128kbps) 568. Saigon - War Remix Ft. Nas (143kbps) 569. Saigon - Slap Niggas Ft. Talib Kweli (127kbps) 570. Salt-N-Pepa - Push It (160kbps) 571. Scarface - Seen A Man Die (192kbps) 572. Sean Price - Mess You Made [Explicit] (158kbps) 573. Sean Price - Onion Head [Explicit] (149kbps) 574. Sean Price - Boom Bye Yeah [Explicit] (146kbps) 575. Showbiz & A.G. - Next Level (Nyte Time Mix) (192kbps) 576. Showbiz & AG - Party Groove (Bass Mix) (128kbps) 577. Showbiz & AG - Soul Clap (Short Version) (128kbps) 578. Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back (162kbps) 579. Skillz - The Rap Up 2002 (128kbps) 580. Skillz - The Rap Up 2003 (128kbps) 581. Skillz - The Rap Up 2004 (192kbps) 582. Skillz - The Rap Up 2005 (192kbps) 583. Skillz - The Rap Up 2006 (169kbps) 584. Skillz - The Rap Up 2007 (128kbps) 585. Skillz - The Nod Factor (320kbps) 586. Slick Rick - Children's Story (192kbps) 587. Slick Rick - Mona Lisa (192kbps) 588. Slick Rick - The Show (Feat. Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew) (96kbps) 589. Slick Rick - La Di Da Di (96kbps) 590. Slum Village - Reunion (feat. J Dilla) (210kbps) 591. Smif-N-Wessun - Sound Bwoy Bureill (187kbps) 592. Smif-N-Wessun - Bucktown (193kbps) 593. Smif-N-Wessun - Let's Git It On (181kbps) 594. Smooth Da Hustla - Broken Language (218kbps) 595. Snoop Dogg - Gin And Juice (128kbps) 596. Snoop Dogg - Murder Was The Case (128kbps) 597. Snoop Dogg - Serial Killa (Feat. Ice Cube) (128kbps) 598. Snoop Dogg - Snoop Dogg - Lodi Dodi (128kbps) 599. Snoop Dogg - Snoop Dogg - Ain't No Fun (128kbps) 600. Snoop Dogg - Snoop Dogg - Tha Shiznit (128kbps) 601. Snoop Dogg - Who Am I (What's My Name-) (128kbps) 602. Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot Feat. Ph (203kbps) 603. Souls Of Mischief - '93 'Til Infinity (154kbps) 604. Special Ed - I Got It Made (192kbps) 605. Special Ed - I'm The Magnificent (128kbps) 606. Spice 1 - Welcome To The Ghetto (150kbps) 607. Stetsasonic - Talkin' All That Jazz (Album Version) (134kbps) 608. Stetsasonic - Faye (160kbps) 609. Styles P - Switch My Style (184kbps) 610. Styles P - Good Times (128kbps) 611. Styles P - The Life (Feat. Pharoahe Monch) (128kbps) 612. T La Rock - back To Burn (160kbps) 613. T La Rock - Its Time To Chill (160kbps) 614. Talib Kweli - Wack Niggas (Feat. Common, Kanye West and Consequence) (192kbps) 615. Talib Kweli - Get By (128kbps) 616. Talib Kweli - Guerrilla Monsoon Rap (featuring Black Thought & Pharoahe Monch) (128kbps) 617. Talib Kweli - Some Kind Of Wonderful (160kbps) 618. Talib Kweli - The Blast (160kbps) 619. Termanology - 50 Bodies (156kbps) 620. Tha Alkaholiks - Wlix (128kbps) 621. Tha Alkaholiks - Likwidation (160kbps) 622. Tha Alkaholiks - Hip Hop Drunkies (160kbps) 623. Tha Alkaholiks - Likwit (192kbps) 624. Tha Alkaholiks - Only When I'm Drunk (192kbps) 625. The Beatnuts - Watch Out Now (320kbps) 626. The Beatnuts - Straight Jacket (192kbps) 627. The Beatnuts - Let Off A Couple (192kbps) 628. The Fat Boys - Human Beat Box [Disco 3] (192kbps) 629. The Fat Boys - Jail House Rap (192kbps) 630. The Game - Dreams (Produced By Kanye West) (200kbps) 631. The Game - Start From Scratch (Feat. Marsha Of Floetry) (Produced By Dr. Dre & Scott Storch) (179kbps) 632. The L.O.X. - Money, Power, Respect (128kbps) 633. The L.O.X. - Blood Pressure (128kbps) 634. The Lost Boyz - Renee (128kbps) 635. The Lost Boyz - Me And My Crazy World (320kbps) 636. The Lost Boyz - Beasts From The East (320kbps) 637. The Roots - The Next Movement (197kbps) 638. The Roots - You Got Me (140kbps) 639. The Roots - Act Too (Love Of My Life) (159kbps) 640. The Roots - Clones (189kbps) 641. The Roots - Pass the Popcorn (192kbps) 642. The Roots - Double Trouble (Feat. Mos Def) (192kbps) 643. The Roots - Dont Say Nuthin (192kbps) 644. The Roots - The Web (192kbps) 645. The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight (160kbps) 646. Tim Dog - I Get Wrecked (Feat. KRS-One) (228kbps) 647. Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina (169kbps) 648. Too $hort - Partytime (195kbps) 649. Too $hort - Gettin' It (147kbps) 650. Too Short - Wild Wild West [Explicit] (149kbps) 651. Too Short - Invasion Of The Flat Booty B*tches [Explicit] (171kbps) 652. Too Short - Burn Rubber (155kbps) 653. Treacherous Three - We Wit It (Feat. Big Daddy Kane, Chuck D, Grandmaster Caz, Heavy D, Melle Mel, Tito) (192kbps) 654. Treacherous Three - Feel the New Heartbeat (Feat. Doug E Fresh) (192kbps) 655. U.T.F.O. - The Real Roxanne (160kbps) 656. U.T.F.O. - Roxanne, Roxanne (128kbps) 657. UGK - Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) Featuring Outkast (190kbps) 658. UGK - Ridin' Dirty (192kbps) 659. Ultramagnetic MC's - Ego Trippin (192kbps) 660. Warren G Feat. Nate Dogg - Regulate (194kbps) 661. Wrecks In Effects - Rump Shaker (128kbps) 662. Wu-Tang Clan - Bring Da Ruckus (128kbps) |
myriad other problems. First, there were turf battles between the different ministries of the Afghan government. Then Afghan officials rejected pressure from Washington to adopt a detention system modeled on the Bush administration’s "enemy combatant" legal framework, with military commissions such as those at Guantánamo.
The ACLU’s Shamsi says that, "While conditions at Bagram have improved, at least since the universal revulsion at the revelations of Abu Ghraib and Congress’ passage of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the tragic mistakes of the past may be in danger of repetition."
She also raises the possibility that there may be prisoners in Afghanistan who are not "Department of Defense detainees," as one Pentagon official has referred to them, but are instead held by the CIA or another civilian agency.
"We know that the CIA was holding ‘ghost prisoners’ prisoners held in secret, hidden from the Red Cross at a secret facility called the ‘Salt Pit’ in Afghanistan," Shamsi says. She notes that the administration has never renounced the CIA’s illegal secret detention and interrogation program that President Bush revealed in September 2006. She adds concern that Special Operations forces may not be following Department of Defense directives on the registration of prisoners.
According to Shamsi, "It is clear that another lesson from the torture scandal seems to have been ignored: different rules for different agencies and different prisoners are an invitation to abuse."
The situation at Bagram has been largely overshadowed by the continuing controversy surrounding Guantanamo. Just last week, a U.S. appeals court ruled that four former Guantanamo prisoners, all British citizens, have no right to sue top Pentagon officials and military officers for torture, abuse, and violations of their religious rights. The four who brought the lawsuit were released from Guantanamo in 2004 after being held for more than two years. The suit sought $10 million in damages and named then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 10 military commanders.
The men claimed they were subjected to various forms of torture, harassed as they practiced their religion, and forced to shave their religious beards. In one instance, a guard threw a Koran in a toilet bucket, according to the lawsuit.
The appeals court cited a lack of jurisdiction over the lawsuit, ruled the defendants enjoyed qualified immunity for acts taken within the scope of their government jobs, and held the religious right law did not apply to the detainees.
Eric Lewis, the attorney who argued the case for the detainees, vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"It is an awful day for the rule of law and common decency when a court finds that torture is all in a days’ work for the secretary of defense and senior generals," Lewis said.
Another attorney for the plaintiffs, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, expressed disappointment that the appeals court failed to hold "Rumsfeld and the chain of command accountable for torture at Guantanamo."
Guantanamo and Bagram have been virtually ignored by candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination. One exception is former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who acknowledged that Guantanamo has become a damaging symbol for the United States and is "not in our best interests."
President Bush has said he would like to close Guantanamo, but he has taken no action to do so. In June 2007, Bush’s former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow, this afternoon," explaining that "we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open."
And Defense Secretary Robert Gates has reportedly pushed to close the facility because he felt it had "become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guantanamo would be viewed as illegitimate."
Read more by William FisherThe Super Bowl is upon us, and we all know that means drinking (responsibly, of course) with a group of friends. Per custom, the booze will likely come in the form of beer and not mixed drinks. Why? Well, (1) 'Merica; and (2) nobody I know wants to be stuck behind the bar or in the kitchen making cocktails while the game is on in the next room. Yet with a little planning, the beer can be replaced with a large, pre-made batch of drinks that actually taste great. (I'm not sure if they're less filling.)
An ice-cold bowl of punch is always a solid option for large groups and cocktail parties; but let's face facts—the Super Bowl doesn't exactly call for an authentic 19th century Chatham Artillery Punch made with Cognac, Jamaican rum, rye whiskey, Champagne and finished with nutmeg. Super Bowl parties are about comfort food and drinks. Chili. Nachos. Seven-Layer Dip.
Preparing a large quantity of what is normally a single-serving drink—or "batching" as us barkeeps call it—is relatively simple when done correctly. Start with the shopping list and multiply the quantity of each ingredient by the number of drinks that you will be serving (1-2 apiece for a light-drinking crowd, 4-5 for a heavy-drinking crowd). Also, when deciding how much to buy, some good rules of thumb are limes generally yield an ounce of juice each, lemons an ounce and a half, oranges three ounces, and grapefruit four to six ounces of juice.
Admittedly, here's where things get slightly more difficult—i.e., the more a recipe is scaled up, the more challenging it is to maintain the precise balance you've spent years perfecting. Nor do small amounts (a pinch, a dusting, etc.) always translate well to larger formats. As such, it's important to adjust a final batch to taste.
My go-to big batch beverage are margaritas, which I've brought to camping trips, Fourth of July picnics and Super Bowl parties for more than a decade. My batch makes roughly one gallon's worth, which should provide you with around 20 drinks for your thirsty friends. That should last through the first quarter.
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Big Batch Margarita
6 cups Siembra Azul Reposado or El Tesoro Silver
2½ cups Cointreau
2½ cups fresh lime juice
2½ cups fresh lemon juice
2 cups simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, continuously stirred in a small saucepan over low heat until clear)
4 ounces cold water
Mix ingredients together in a large container. When ready to serve, pour mixture into a chilled glass filled with ice. Salted rim optional.
Jeffrey Morgenthaler is the bar manager at Clyde Common, the acclaimed gastropub at the Ace Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
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Photo by Jeffrey MorgenthalerFind An Event Create Your Event Help GREAT FRONTIER: A POORLY RESEARCHED MUSICAL ABOUT LEWIS AND CLARK - by Kevin Froleiks and Patrick J. Reilly - NYSUMMERFEST FESTIVAL COMPETITION 2017 Hudson Guild Theatre
New York, NY Share this event: Get Tickets There are no active dates for this event. Not Available
Event GREAT FRONTIER: A POORLY RESEARCHED MUSICAL ABOUT LEWIS AND CLARK - by Kevin Froleiks and Patrick J. Reilly - NYSUMMERFEST FESTIVAL COMPETITION 2017 Great Frontier is a musical farce about Lewis and Clark, two pathetic townies who have never done anything remarkable with their lives. But everything changes when President Jefferson sends them out west! Will Lewis and Clark become American heroes, or will their powerful foes squash their American Dream? We actually have no idea. This show was very poorly researched.
July 24 @ 6:15pm
July 28 @ 9pm
July 30 @ 3:30pm - Sunday
Show running time 90 minutes Location Hudson Guild Theatre (View)
441 W. 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
United States 441 W. 26th StreetNew York, NY 10001United States
Categories None
Kid Friendly: Yes! Dog Friendly: No Non-Smoking: Yes! Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! Contact Owner: Summerfest2107 On BPT Since: Apr 18, 2017 NYSUMMERFEST FESTIVAL COMPETITION 2017 [email protected]
Ask a question... Ask!Written with Christina Swarns, NAACP LDF Director of the Criminal Justice Practice
Few cases involving the intersection of race, criminal law, and procedure have had the reach and impact of McCleskey v. Kemp, a United States Supreme Court decision decided 25 years ago, on April 22, 1987. This decision set the stage for more than 20 years of dramatically increasing racial disparities within the criminal justice system.
In McCleskey, the Supreme Court declared that a criminal justice system that treats blacks worse than whites is "inevitable" and that the Constitution is only violated by instances of intentional racial discrimination by individual actors in specific cases.
Specifically, the Court refused to set aside the death sentence of Warren McCleskey, an African American man who was sentenced to death in Georgia for the killing of a white person, despite the fact that statistical evidence demonstrated that in Georgia capital cases, blacks were more likely to receive a death sentence than any other defendants, and that black defendants who killed white victims were the most likely to be sentenced to death.
The implications of the McCleskey decision are profound. Because of McCleskey, there is no remedy for -- and, indeed, no constitutional problem with -- the fact that blacks are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested, held on bail, charged with serious crimes (including death-eligible offenses), denied plea bargains, convicted, and sentenced to prison or execution.
There is no constitutional basis for challenging the fact that one in three black males will enter state or federal prison at some point in his lifetime; and that although African Americans make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they amount to 44 percent of sentenced inmates -- the largest group behind bars.
Furthermore, because of McCleskey, there is no way to stop the criminal justice system from producing significant racial disparities in access to meaningful employment, to public housing, to higher education, and to voting. Because McCleskey's devastating reach extends far beyond the four corners of the courthouse or the jail cell, it has relegated people of color to second-class citizen status simply because of their race or ethnicity.
It is nothing short of "the Dred Scott decision of our time."
To observe this tragic anniversary, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the Equal Justice Society (EJS) have joined with organizations across the country, including the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, the Capital Litigation Communications Project, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation Inc., the Death Penalty Information Center, Equal Justice USA, the Innocence Project, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Proteus Fund, to raise awareness of how this landmark decision fundamentally threatens equality and opportunity in this country.
Together, we launched mccleskyvkemp.com, a website that provides information about the ongoing crisis of race in criminal justice and offers information about specific activities that individuals and organizations can take to repeal the death penalty and ameliorate the racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
The site includes publications and reports, media articles, links to take action, as well as information about the LDF/Columbia Law School Symposium, "Pursuing Racial Fairness in Criminal Justice: Twenty Years After McCleskey v. Kemp," which was held in March of 2007 to mark the 20th anniversary of the McCleskey decision. The site is also cross-posting the ACLU's daily blog special series on McCleskey and also engaging the #McCleskey conversation on Twitter.
Warren McCleskey was a black man who was sentenced to death in 1978 for killing a white police officer during the robbery of a Georgia furniture store. Mr. McCleskey appealed his conviction and sentence, relying on the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the 14th Amendment's guarantee of Equal Protection to argue that the death penalty in Georgia was administered in a racially discriminatory -- and therefore unconstitutional -- manner.
Jack Boger, then director of NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc.'s Capital Punishment Project, litigated the case from the federal district court through the United States Supreme Court. Relying on the most comprehensive statistical analysis of the role of race in the administration of capital punishment that had ever been conducted, LDF presented the courts with strong evidence demonstrating that race played a pivotal role in the Georgia capital punishment system.
Although the evidence presented by LDF gave the Court the opportunity to acknowledge and renounce the arbitrary influence of race on the administration of the death penalty, the Court found no constitutional error in a system where blacks faced worse criminal justice outcomes -- indeed, execution -- because of their race.
In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., the Court ruled against Mr. McCleskey and found that unless he could submit evidence showing that a specific person in his case acted with a racially discriminatory purpose, Mr. McCleskey's death sentence -- and the stark racial disparities in Georgia's capital punishment system -- would stand.
Justice Powell later admitted to his biographer that he was wrong in the McCleskey case and that he would change his vote if given the chance."We're not here to doubt, but it's really strange. Cigano's career does not depend on Overeem, but it's the second time that the fight has been canceled. What cannot happen is for Cigano to be penalized for it.... Injured or not, Overeem won't cause any setbacks for Cigano, who already had to start a camp and doesn’t want to go any longer without fighting. It seems that Overeem doesn't want this fight.... I do not know [about his low testosterone levels], but there's something weird there. It is reported that there was an injury, which we have to believe. Overeem is a great athlete, but he has his problems. What will happen is that everyone who has a scheduled fight against Overeem will be [unsure if it will take place]. This is the second time that Cigano has prepared for this fight, and this requires dedication and money. This postponement will not obstruct Cigano's plans to seek the title shot soon after this fight. What else can happen in July, August? Will there be another story, another problem with the lab, or an injury?... Overeem teases Cigano, and every time we get close to the fight, we do not know what happens. It's a difficult situation."Parks Group Condemns Annex Plan View Full Caption
EDGEBROOK — The plan to reduce the size of Wildwood Park in order to expand the severely overcrowded Wildwood Elementary School would set a bad precedent, a parks advocacy group said Monday.
Cassandra Francis, the president of Friends of the Parks, a nonprofit Chicago parks advocacy organization, said the plan to build a $15 million three-story annex on what is now Wildwood Park's basketball courts and water play area is the latest example of a "troubling trend" of park space being usurped for other needs.
"This could be one of the first couple of dominoes to fall," Francis said, pointing to plans to build a selective enrollment high school named after President Barack Obama in what is now Stanton Park and calls to build a museum honoring Star Wars creator George Lucas along the lakefront.
The snake-shaped water play area will be removed to make way for an addition to Wildwood Elementary School. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Heather Cherone
Heather Cherone chats with DNAinfo radio about the Wildwood school's proposed expansion:
"As a city, we have to challenge ourselves to look at non-park alternatives or solutions," Francis said.
Francis said her group was not involved in the Public Building Commission's site selection or design process for the Wildwood addition and only found out the park would be reduced in size at a public meeting held May 6 to unveil plans for the annex at 6950 N. Hiawatha Ave.
"That is not an unusual occurrence anymore," Francis said, adding that her group often finds out about a project such as the Obama high school or the Wildwood annex once it is a done deal.
Francis blamed the lack of communication and limited public involvement on city officials "scrambling to fulfill a directive from the mayor's office."
"Putting it in a park is the easiest thing to do," Francis said. "They don't have time to find a non-park alternative."
A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Although the main building was meant to hold 240 students, 424 students are enrolled at Wildwood. That gives the school a utilization rate of 177 percent, one of the highest in the city, according to CPS data.
Even with a four-classroom addition that opened next to the building, the school has an adjusted utilization rate of 128 percent, which is still considered overcrowded, according to data provided by CPS.
Still, Francis acknowledged the need for Wildwood to be expanded, and said it might be "the best option" to build the annex on what is now park land, especially since that land is owned by the Chicago Public School district and leased to the park district.
"We are in favor of high-quality education in Chicago," Francis said.
Wildwood is ranked among the best schools in Chicago by district officials.
However, the investment and tax dollars that went into the park to build the basketball courts and water-play area will be lost, and that land will no longer be accessible to the general public, Francis said.
"We hope that [the park land] will be replaced elsewhere in the area" to ensure the city's standard of at least two acres of open space for every 1,000 residents is met, Francis said.
A spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District did not respond to questions about whether the basketball court and the water-spray feature would be replaced elsewhere in Wildwood Park or in the area.
Wildwood Park is heavily used by the residents of the surrounding community, and as the school's enrollment climbs, there will be even more demand for park and open space, Francis said.
"It has the potential to divide the community," Francis said.
Molly Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Public Building Commission, said parents at the school and residents of the surrounding area were consulted extensively about plans for the annex.
Seven different plans were developed for the annex in order to accommodate the homes directly across the street along Mendota Avenue and to maintain as much of the park and its open space as possible, Public Building Commission Executive Director Erin Lavin Cabonargi said at the May 6 meeting.
Plans to build the annex along Mendota Avenue were rejected because of the desire of nearby residents to keep the recently-resurfaced tennis courts and other objections from those homeowners, Lavin Cabonargi said.
In addition, Wildwood's annex will be three stories because of the school's small footprint and the community's desire to maintain the park's much-used baseball fields, Lavin Cabonargi said.
Plans for the annex will be considered May 15 by the Chicago Plan Commission and May 22 by the Chicago City Council Zoning Committee, Lavin Cabonargi said.A lot has been said about the youth movement and shift in leadership that has taken place with the Montreal Canadiens this season.
While the captaincy was the initial focus, Jiri Sekac stole headlines early this year establishing himself as not only a legitimate NHLer, but what appears to be core player moving forward for the Canadiens. Since then Sekac has had ups and downs, which is to be expected of any rookie. Much to the dismay of fans, he’s spent some time in the press box as well. At this point most would agree Marc Bergevin has acquired a player of first round value without giving up any assets.
I can’t recall a time in the past decade where the window of opportunity seemed so large for Montreal.
This core is young and is made up of superstars just beginning their prime: Subban (25 years old), Pacioretty (26 years old), Price (27 years old) this combined with emerging stars Galchenyuk (21 years old), Gallagher (22 years old), and Beaulieu (22 years old) trending in a strong direction.
Marc Bergevin made it clear his focus was to build through the draft. He carries a very simple philosophy when it comes to bringing young players along. He preaches patience with development and has always cited the AHL as a great league to develop players.
When asked if young players will be given a shot in training camp, right out of the draft, etc. He often drops a simple line:
“That’s up to them”
Implying that if a player is good enough and forces his hand he’ll find a way to make room in the lineup. This is by no means just a cliché, MB has shown he’s not afraid to bring a player on the roster if he shows the ability.
2012 – 2013 Season:
An 18 year old Alex Galchenyuk, first year pro Brendan Gallagher, a fifth round pick, each made the Canadiens out of training camp during the 2012-2013 season.
2013 – 2014 Season:
Brian Gionta was injured during training camp and every opportunity to start the season in his spot was given to RW Christian Thomas who seemed like a natural fit. Despite this, Michael Bournival found a way to send shockwaves through camp, and Marc Bergevin, true to his words awarded Bournival a roster spot.
Finally this year: 2014 – 2015 Season:
Bergevin mentioned three players as being in close competition for a roster spot coming into camp. Those three players were newly signed Jiri Sekac, mature teenager Jacob De La Rose and Sven Andrighetto who was the most productive forward on the Bulldogs during his rookie year in 2013-2014.
Sekac the front runner earned his spot, deservedly so, and the rest is history.
That brings us to the inspiration for this article. I can’t think of a time where I’ve watched more players (forwards specifically) called up and given long looks with the club than this season. What makes it even more surprising is that the Canadiens have been relatively healthy all season.
Semi-established players like Bournival and Sekac have been scratched on several occasions for up and comers such as: Eric Tangradi, Sven Andrighetto, Gabriel Dumont, Christian Thomas, Drayson Bowman, and Jacob De La Rose.
Marc Bergevin appears to be seriously evaluating who on the farm can contribute at the NHL level.
Here’s the strange thing though, as mentioned above six forwards have been called up this year.
Six players not named Charles Hudon
This is surprising because Hudon is absolutely tearing up the AHL. He’s currently the highest scoring rookie in the AHL with 44 points and is tied for 5th in points amongst all players in the league.
Another thing about Hudon’s game is that he’s a committed and effective 2-way player. You often hear of offensively skilled guys making the transition to pro and organizations emphasizing they need to round out their games…this has never been the case with Hudon. I preached him as a sleeper in this year’s training camp to make the team in a similar fashion in which we saw Michael Bournival and Gallagher surprise in the past.
Why I felt so strongly?
In 2012-2013 Hudon and former MTL prospect Sebastian Collberg were signed to PTOs (performance try-outs). I made sure to make it out to a few games to watch the two of them.
Hudon at 18 years old on a PTO was far and away the best player on the ice in each game I watched him. He oozes hockey IQ, and I don’t mean the lazy narrative given to any playmaking or pass-first player. Something as simple as a fore-check, he finds a way to take the most effective angles to cut off a pass or disrupt a defender, it was clear then that he had NHL upside.
Surely a player like Jacob De la Rose, or Eric Tangradi can bring attributes of grit that Hudon doesn’t. Maybe Andrighetto was more of a fit if they were looking for a RW specifically, although he did play LW for a small stint with MTL. Maybe Christian Thomas is being showcased to increase his trade value; I don’t see how else he’s managed to get in 14 games to Hudon’s zero.
An organization could have so many different reasons for calling-up a player, if we’re basing it on merit and play, I think it’s clear Hudon has been the most deserving based on this season alone. Dumont and Andrighetto have had very strong years although not quite to the same level. De la Rose stylistically differs, and his call-up was quickly validated as he looks like he could be a regular in MTL’s bottom-six moving forward.
One thing is certain, if Hudon can maintain his scoring pace we should see him in a Habs uniform sooner than later.
One thought to end this write-up: Is Hudon not the ideal guy to slot in at LW next to Eller–Sekac?
A playmaking highly skilled LW, with a large shoot-first C, and another big body with skill in Sekac. Seems like an perfect fit.
Looking forward to Hudon getting the call, whenever that is.By Gloria La Riva
Dennis J. Banks, Nowa Cumig, great Native warrior and lifelong fighter for freedom and justice, died on October 29 surrounded by his family at the Mayo Clinic. He had developed pneumonia after heart surgery.
Banks was a humanitarian who embraced every struggle, opposing South African apartheid, defending Cuba’s revolution, demanding Leonard Peltier’s freedom, working to end the drug crisis, diabetes and domestic violence. He spent many days and nights with the water protectors at Standing Rock.
Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968, a liberation movement that arose as part of the great civil rights struggles of Black, Latino and Native people in the United States against racism and national oppression.
Banks and other AIM leaders gained national attention in 1973 by their historic 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, amidst a U.S. military siege. That courageous resistance by Native men and women, youth and elders, helped drive forward the Native struggle for sovereignty.
They led the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties march to Washington DC and takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building, and took part in the Alcatraz occupation in 1969, among other major campaigns.
Early years
Banks was born on April 12, 1937 of the Ojibwa/Anishnabe nation in Leech Lake, MN. His autobiography Ojibwa Warrior (with Richard Erdoes), describes his early years and the poverty and oppression that his family experienced, especially at the hands of government agencies. It was an experience of a genocidal policy that was endured by Native people across the U.S.
On one occasion, his mother took him to town to the welfare office seeking clothes for her children. They were denied.
He recalled, “Then we had to stay in town overnight with no place to go. We slept huddled on a bench, and the next day we walked the thirteen miles back to our house because we didn’t encounter a single car or buggy willing to pick us up.”
At the age of five, Banks was kidnapped from his family and forced to live for 11 years in a series of notorious “Indian schools,” the racist U.S. government institution where Native children were systematically denied their language, culture and were brutally treated. He ran away several times to try to return home. Later, as AIM leader he and others successfully fought to dramatically reform that racist school system, with many closed.
Seeking a way out of hopelessness, Banks joined the army at 17 and was sent to Japan, where he soon awoke to the repressive U.S. military occupation of Japan and felt solidarity with the people’s resistance. Later, he fell in love with a young Japanese woman, Machiko, but the army forbade him to marry her. He had done so anyway and went AWOL with his wife and baby. He was court-martialed and sent to the U.S. in chains.
After a time, Banks was living in Minneapolis, where he struggled to raise his second family with no money. He ended up in prison from 1966 to 1968 in what he called his “16 bags of groceries case.” It was in jail that he became politicized and resolved to fight for Native people’s rights.
“I would read the papers and see that demonstrations about civil rights and the Vietnam war were going on all over the country. I realized that I desperately wanted to be part of a movement for Indian people, but we had no organization to address social reform, human rights, or treaty rights.” (Ojibwa Warrior)
Founding of AIM
On July 28, 1968, Banks and his friend from boarding-school days, George Mitchell, put out a call for a meeting to address police brutality, prison, broken treaties and more. More than 200 people came.
That night the American Indian Movement was born, with Banks as field director and Clyde Bellecourt the first chairman. Within two years, there were 5,000 members and by 1973, 79 chapters.
The actions they undertook were legendary for standing up to racist oppression in a way that had not been done before. It had always seemed before that conditions would never change.
But they did and consciousness grew. Banks and other AIM leaders like Russell and Bill Means, Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt, women like Madonna Thunderhawk, Nilok Butler and Phyllis Young, and countless others stood up to the power, and inspired many more.
In 1972, an Oglala Sioux man named Raymond Yellow Thunder was beaten to death in Gordon, Nebraska by two white men. They were released to wait trial, certain to face little or no punishment.
It took AIM’s militant mobilization of hundreds to win prison sentences for Yellow Thunder’s killers.
This inevitably brought state repression in the years following, with Dennis Banks a principal target.
In 1973, a Native man, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, was stabbed to death by a white man, Darald Schmitz, in South Dakota. When AIM organized a car caravan to the courthouse in Custer to demand murder charges instead of manslaughter, the prosecutor refused. What ensued was a riot attack by dozens of state troopers and police as they severely beat young protestors and Bad Heart Bull’s mother, Sarah.
The courthouse was set afire in response by the protesters.
By this time the FBI was heavily targeting civil rights and national liberation forces, including the Black Panther Party and AIM, by surveillance, infiltration and later, federal persecution.
Dennis Banks was in the crosshairs of the FBI’s Cointelpro operation, together with other AIM leaders. He was charged later with assault and rioting for the Custer struggle with Sarah Bad Heart Bull, who served five months in jail for the protest. Schmitz never served a day in jail.
With such deep poverty, repression and resistance from Nebraska to South Dakota, everything was heading toward a confrontation at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge Reservation.
Wounded Knee
The Pine Ridge community was being severely repressed by the rightwing tribal government of notorious Dick Wilson, who was backed by the FBI. He had staged a coup against an impeachment attempt on corruption charges.
Only AIM was willing to defend the Oglala Sioux elders and the people’s traditional ways.
On the evening of February 27, 1973, a community meeting was held and Banks and Russell Means were summoned to help. It was the women who put the question to AIM: What are you going to do to defend us?
Banks responded and said the community could expect AIM’s total support. That night, with hundreds of people in dozens of cars, he and Means led the caravan to Wounded Knee to openly declare it free territory.
Within hours, the FBI began to surround the camp in an action that soon brought U.S. armored tanks and.50-caliber machine guns in a full military siege. The Pentagon coordinated the operation.
For 71 days, the warriors held, despite tens of thousands of rounds fired by the government and threats of larger military assault. Solidarity sprung up with food and supplies ferried in from many Native nations and other activists answering the call.
After Wounded Knee the repression intensified against the people on Pine Ridge, with more than 60 people assassinated by Wilson’s police. In 1975, the FBI raided the reservation and a firefight broke out in self-defense. Two FBI agents were killed in the action. Native activists Dino Butler and Bob Robideaux were acquitted on charges of the FBI deaths, but Leonard Peltier, who was present in the incident but not responsible for their deaths, was persecuted by the FBI with false evidence and convicted.
Peltier has remained in prison for more than 41 years, the price the FBI has exacted for an incident they are solely responsible for.
Banks’ journey took many roads after Wounded Knee
He and Russell Means were acquitted of all federal charges over Wounded Knee in a trial that lasted nine months. Judge Frederick Nichol ruled that massive government and FBI misconduct had “polluted the waters of justice.”
But Banks faced prison time after being convicted of assault and riot charges in the Custer incident. Rather than surrender to racist South Dakota authorities, he and his family found refuge in California. With major support from political activists and personalities like Marlon Brando, Governor Jerry Brown refused to extradite Banks to South Dakota, believing that he faced danger in that state.
Later, he decided to return to South Dakota to serve 14 months for the conviction, gaining parole in 1985. He was free to continue his pursuit of justice.
For more than 30 years, Banks led Sacred Runs, joining with indigenous people of the U.S. and other lands. He organized five Longest Walks, most recently this year on the issue of the drug crisis, the diabetes epidemic and domestic violence. He opposed the U.S. wars in the Middle East, supported the Venezuelan revolution and traveled to Cuba several times. He visited Cindy Sheehan at her Camp Casey in front of George W. Bush’s vacation home in 2005. The camp was named after her son who was killed in Iraq. Banks was proud to be the 2016 Vice-presidential candidate for Peace and Freedom Party in California, and for Party for Socialism and Liberation in New Mexico, Colorado and Iowa, along with presidential candidate Gloria La Riva.
Banks traveled constantly to Standing Rock in 2016, often with his son Tatanka, devoting his energy against the Dakota Access Pipeline, even as he began to suffer serious health issues.
In one memorable February rally at Standing Rock, surrounded by youth, he told them, “You, in the face of rubber bullets, concussion grenades, water cannons, you stand ready, not caring what it might do to you, because you are living up to your responsibility. You are a protector not only of water, but also the air and the soil.”
Banks was a mentor to many Native youth, teaching them traditional ways, their history and encouraging activism. On his reservation land in Minnesota when not traveling, Banks spent time with his family. For years there he harvested wild rice and produced his famed maple syrup.
Banks leaves many children and grandchildren to whom he was greatly devoted.
His family issued a Facebook message to the world: “Our father Dennis J. Banks started his journey to the spirit world at 10:10 p.m. on October 29, 2017. As he took his last breaths, [son] Minoh sang him four songs for his journey. All the family who were present prayed over him and said our individual goodbyes. Then we proudly sang him the AIM (American Indian Movement) song as his final send off.”
Dennis Banks, Native leader, people’s hero. His legacy will live on.Speech
Implementing Monetary Policy Post-Crisis: What Have We Learned? What Do We Need to Know?
Organized by Columbia University SIPA and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York As prepared for delivery
I would like to welcome you to this workshop, organized jointly by the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We have assembled an excellent set of presenters and discussants focused on the topic of implementing monetary policy post-crisis, who are here to ask important questions such as what have we learned from our experience and what do we need to know going forward? I am expecting an active and stimulating dialogue on a range of topics. As always, these remarks are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.
As most of you know, the Federal Reserve System is engaged in an extended effort to evaluate potential long-run monetary policy implementation frameworks. 2 There are many reasons to take a close look at the issues now. For example, the Federal Reserve has new tools, like the authority to pay interest on reserves and reverse repurchase agreements with an expanded set of counterparties, which were not available pre-crisis. 3 The money markets in which the Trading Desk of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the Desk) operates have different dynamics than before, in part because of our large-scale asset purchases. We want to take stock of these changes and ask ourselves what the best way of implementing monetary policy is today and in future environments in a manner that is consistent with the Federal Reserve’s normalization principles. 4
To make good choices about the monetary policy implementation framework going forward, it is, of course, useful to learn from the past. Our task is to assess the strength and weaknesses of existing and previous frameworks, particularly through the lens of what happened during the recent global financial crisis, when central banks were called on to innovate in a number of ways. In addition, the varied experience of other central banks prior to the crisis can also provide valuable insights. What have they learned about what worked well, or did not work so well, with their frameworks?
The current framework in the United States looks very different than the pre-crisis framework. One way in which it is different is that excess reserves are much higher than they used to be. This shift is due, in large part, to the large-scale asset purchases that the System undertook, starting in December 2008. But, if you look closely, you’d see that excess reserves actually started expanding earlier and control of the federal funds rate deteriorated. 5 So what happened?
In reviewing the events of the second half of 2007 and most of 2008, it is clear that the Federal Reserve faced a tension between the need to provide liquidity to ease money market strains and the need to keep control of the interest rate target within its earlier framework. Demand for dollar liquidity increased in many money markets and some of that demand came from banks |
50 years. This past October, McDonald took center ice at STAPLES Center as part of the Kings' Opening Night Weekend celebration in which original Kings players from the 1967-68 campaign returned to Los Angeles.
As announced prior to the start of the season, McDonald is one of four play-by-play announcers slated to work Kings telecasts this season on FOX Sports West as Miller, the club's Hall of Fame broadcaster, took a reduced on-air role with the club for the first time. McDonald joins Gary Thorne, Chris Cuthbert and Ralph Strangis on that list.
The Kings conclude their four-game road trip tomorrow with game time set for 4:30 p.m. (PT). Pregame shows on FOX Sports West and KABC Radio begin at 4 p.m. (PT). The Kings next play at STAPLES Center on February 16 versus Arizona.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Most of the rhino horn poached in Africa makes its way to Asia
A North Korean diplomat has been expelled from South Africa for illegal rhino horn trading, according to a spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations.
The diplomat was arrested in neighbouring Mozambique in May. Local media named him as Park Chol-jun.
North Korean embassy officials said he was sent home on 11 December.
Rhino horn is highly prized on the Asian black market, where it is believed to have medicinal properties.
South Africa's News24 reported that the man was driving a car with South African diplomatic registration, containing 4.5 kg (nearly 10lb) of rhino horn and $99,300 in cash, at the time of his arrest.
News24 said police in Mozambique released him on $30,000 bail before letting him return to South Africa. He was given a month to leave South Africa in November, they said.
It is not the first time North Korean diplomats have been caught attempting to buy, sell or smuggle goods illegally. A North Korean envoy was expelled from Bangladesh for gold smuggling in March.
Several Vietnamese diplomats have also been caught buying, smuggling or receiving rhino horn in South Africa in recent years.Titicut Follies was not banned completely by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The final decree of the Suffolk Superior Court EQ. No. 87538 said it could continue to be screened, but only for audiences comprised of the medical or legal community, specifically naming Legislators, Judges, Lawyers, Sociologists, Social Workers, Doctors, Psychiatrists, Students in these or related fields, Organization(s) dealing with the social problems of custodial care and mental infirmity. Wiseman would rent the film to people who signed a statement of intent that they would limit the audience to those allowed. See more
Quotes
Patient
: How did the first Great War start? Because of a demand by the Austrian Hungary Dynasty for the execution of an accomplice who already was sentenced to life imprisonment in, um, in Serbia. Yet they demanded a prosecution for execution for Austria-Hungary laws! What does that mean? They wanted execution! The war was fought over execution! The same execution that is going on in Vietnam; over making an execution over these natives of Vietnam. They're not Vietcong, they're not communists. Whatever...Article about the state and ways that struggles by workers sometimes reinforce capitalism.
In 1935 the United States Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This Act is often credited by progressives with creating incredible new opportunities for the U.S. working class. The NLRA created a new regime of industrial relations in the U.S., but that change was less a matter of creating something new and was more a matter of further spreading practices that already existed. What the NLRA did is throw greater weight of the U.S. government behind a range of forms of workers' organizing and left room open for unions to define some of the specifics. In an article in the Industrial Worker newspaper, part of a debate about what some of us sometimes call "direct unionism", I dealt with aspects of this history.
The heart of the NLRA was about bringing to bear state power on employers, in a very limited way, with one main goal: greater stability for capitalism. One argument that supporters of the NLRA made was that state backing of workers organizing would result in redistribution of wealth into the pockets of more workers. This redistribution in turn would make for more consumers able to buy goods, thus encouraging economic activity. Another argument that supporters of the NLRA made was that the act would prevent more disruptive conflicts. In other words, the NLRA would channel and shape workers struggles in a direction that posed less of a problem than other forms of struggle.
Capitalists tend to have a good sense of their interests as employers. These terms aren't ideal but employer-consciousness arises organically from the social relationship of employment under capitalism. Many readers will be familiar with this but in case anyone isn't, generally speaking capitalists employ people to create goods or services which the capitalist own. The capitalists sell these goods or services for prices that are higher than the capitalists' costs. That is, they sell the good/service for more than the cost of the materials and the wages of the people who worked on those materials in order to produce the good/service sold. When workers work on something, we increase its value. We're not paid the full value of the increase we bring about, the capitalist keeps some or most of it. That difference - between the increase in value we bring about and the share we get in wages - is what Marx called surplus value. This is the heart of the profits capitalists make from workers. This is where capitalists get their wealth; this is what employers live on.
Capitalist employers have a sense that their employees produce surplus value and they act accordingly. If they don't, they face threats from the rest of the economy - a capitalist who pays higher wages than other capitalists who sell similar goods/services will, all things being equal, fall behind. If they don't become more competitive, they will go out of business. That's part of what I meant when I said that employer consciousness arises organically. If capitalist employers don't get enough surplus value from employees, they face penalties. These penalties help make employers relatively aware of their position as employers.
Awareness of the dynamics of being an employer is not the same thing as being a class conscious capitalist, however. Every capitalist is a capitalist in relation to his or her employees, but not every capitalist acts in ways that are favorable to the capitalist class as a whole or the long term life of the capitalist system. As an analogy, anyone who works for a living is in some way aware of the power relationships involved in being an employee but not all employees are class conscious workers. Workers sometimes act in ways that are bad for other workers or the working class as a whole. Similar things can happen with capitalists. Being a worker doesn't automatically provide working class consciousness. Likewise, being a capitalist doesn't automatically make someone a class conscious capitalist.
One of the roles of the state is to help identify needs for the current capitalist system and needs of the long term health of the capitalist system. I began with the National Labor Relations Board; the NLRA was part of an important set of institutional changes in U.S. capitalism. It involved challenges to many currently existing capitalists, and yet the changes were made in order to preserve the long term health of capitalism in the United States. The policymakers and economic planners who pushed for the NLRA opposed many capitalists but they did so in service to capitalism. The NLRA was an attempt to answer some problems within actually existing capitalism and to do so on capitalism's own terms.
This is part of the role of the state, not only to attempt to identify systemic needs but also to try to get capitalists to act in line with those perceived systemic needs. This can serve to create capitalist class consciousness or at least to discipline capitalists to act in ways that planners believe are good for capitalism. In some cases this can result in long term benefits to actually existing capitalists but in other cases it involves some businesses being put out of business and, eventually, some of them or their descendants being ejected out of the capitalist class. This is part of why capitalists hesitate in the face of state introduction of changes - no capitalist wants to lose. If they do so enough times, they or their children might have to actually work for a living… In the words of the historian of slavery Eugene Genovese, in his book Roll, Jordan, Roll:
"the great object of social reform is to prevent a fundamental change in class relations."
This means that reformers
"must fight against those reactionaries who cannot understand the need for secondary, although not necessarily trivial, change in order to prevent deeper change (…) reactionaries will insist that any change, no matter how slight, will set in motion forces of dissolution."
Sometimes capitalists oppose reform because they're reactionary ideologically; sometimes they do so because they believe that they will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the new version of capitalism that will exist after the reform.
The state is in part a mechanism for helping identify problems that are systemic – tied to the interests of the capitalist class as a whole – and a way to work out politically how to respond to the capitalists’ class interests. That is, visionary capitalists and their functionaries in foundations and think tanks can use the state to put forward proposals and communicate them to others to try to win them to this view. If that fails, with enough political support from other capitalists (and some workers, in many cases), particular parts of the capitalist class can get the state to do certain things, to discipline individual capitalists who aren’t acting in line with what is believed to be the capitalist class’s over all interests.
Individual capitalists or fractions of the capitalist class don't necessarily pursue the interests of the capitalist class as a whole. Often there is disagreement among the fractions of the capitalist class about what is the best course of action to pursue. That a given fraction is dominant does not mean it necessarily does what is best for the capitalist class, but usually the dominant fractions, and those who the state acts in service of, will believe they are doing what's best for capitalism over all. The dominant fraction can be wrong, though. For example of this is health insurance in the US. The only measure according to which 'our' healthcare/health insurance (non)system makes sense is that of the profits of insurers. The current non-system poses public health risks (which can become political and economic problems) - for many people it results in less preventive care, which is cheaper to provide than other forms of healthcare. So it causes worse health outcomes, which cause loss of economic productivity and more expensive health care. This arrangement also raises the costs of the same procedure in the US. By maintaining a very minimal floor - you can always get treatment in a hospital emergency room if you have an immediate healthcare problem - the system results in very large amount of public dollars going to healthcare, in addition the excessively high private healthcare and health insurance costs. These expenditures are inefficient from an over-all social perspective, however, even according capitalist logic, because the high expenditures purchase lower quality healthcare. This is not good for anyone except the insurers making money off of it. Some of the costs are passed onto employers (via unions, via market pressures - need to have a competitive benefits package for certain jobs, and via taxes), as well as causing conflicts with employees that could be avoided. This is a form of highly mediated inter-capitalist conflict with regard to who gets what share of the total surplus wealth extracted from workers (some companies have to pay what would otherwise be profits). Over all it's not good for US capitalism beyond insurers and a few others. That this arrangement continues demonstrates that changes in these arrangements stuff are not natural or built in to capitalism or predetermined, they're political. Those politics include the class struggle above all, but also political conflict among the capitalists.
Sometimes an individual capitalist or group of capitalists pursues things that are believed by the dominant capitalists to be detrimental to the capitalist class as a whole and and so they need to be brought in line. To quote Eugene Genovese again,
"The most advanced fraction of the slaveholders - those who most clearly perceived interest and needs of the class as a whole - steadily worked to make their class more conscious of its nature, spirit, and destiny. (…) For any such political center, the class as a whole must be brought to a higher understanding of itself - transformed from a class-in-itself, reacting to pressures on its objective position, into a class-for-itself, consciously striving to shape the world in its own image. Only possession of public power can discipline a class as a whole, and through it, the other classes of society. The juridical system may become, then, not merely an expression of class interest, nor even merely an expression of the willingness of the rulers to mediate with the ruled; it may become an instrument by which the advanced section of the ruling class imposes its viewpoint upon the class as a whole and the wider society. The law must discipline the ruling class."
Genovese is overly statist when he writes that "possession of public power" is a requirement, but he is right that state power plays this role in capitalism, in helping the capitalist class guide and discipline itself. Here's Genovese again:
"The slaveholders fell back on a kind of dual power: that which they collectively exercised as a class, even against their own individual impulses, through their effective control of state power; and that which they reserved to themselves as individuals who commanded other human beings in bondage. In general, this duality appears in all systems of class rule, for the collective judgment of the ruling class, coherently organized in the common interest, cannot be expected to coincide with the sum total of the individual interests and judgments of its members; first because the law tends to reflect the will of the most politically coherent and determined fraction, and second, because the sum total of the individual interests and judgments of the members of the ruling class generally, rather than occasionally, pulls against the collective needs of a class that must appeal to other classes for support at critical junctures." Quote:
The NLRA brought the power of the U.S. state to bear on U.S. employers as part of bringing capitalists into line with what policymakers and economic planners at the time thought were the interests of the capitalist system. In my article in the Industrial Worker I used these points as part of argument against the IWW pursuing collective bargaining. I suggested that state endorsement of collective bargaining ought to make us pause. At the same time, while collective bargaining was what economic planners preferred, there is another component to the National Labor Relations Act.
In addition to helping spread collective bargaining, the NLRA included language stating:
"Employees shall have the right of self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection."
In the contemporary IWW in the U.S. some of us have advocated form of workplace organizing that go by a variety of names - solidarity unionism, minority unionism, direct unionism… These names track onto differences in practice but what all of these approaches have in common is that they fall into the legal category of "concerted activities." In the United States there is legal support for attempts to engage in collective bargaining (understood to include a union contract and a single exclusive bargaining agent in the form of a union), but there is also support for workers "self-organization (…) for the purpose of (…) mutual aid." What this means in practice is that in a non-unionized workplace one worker who complains about work conditions can be fired with impunity (part of a doctrine called at-will employment) but two workers who complain have gained a new sort of legal protection. Two or more workers who approach management to make changes at work have engaged in protected concerted activity. If an employee retaliates against them, the employees can file a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, a charge called an Unfair Labor Practice. Now, American labor law at this point is weak and enforcement is poor, but the legal power brought to bear in cases of retaliation against two workers self-organizing to demand change at work is the same as that brought to bear in collective bargaining with recognized unions. Direct unionism can be just as legally protected as contractualism.
I can't speak to the actual historical origins of the legal language protecting some forms of workers' self-organization, but here are some reasons why I think this protection makes sense. One is about shaping the forms that workers' struggle take - concerted activity is not protected when it breaks the law: violence isn't protected, for example, nor is the seizure of employers' property. Protecting some activity over others is partly a way to encourage or channel workers' struggles into some forms instead of other forms. In addition, again to quote Genovese,
"The law (…) may compel conformity by granting each individual his right of private judgment, but it must deny him the right to take action based on that judgment when in conflict with the general will. (…) It appears mere egotism and antisocial behavior to attempt to go outside the law unless one is prepared to attack the entire legal system and therefore the consensual framework of the body politic."
That is to say, by allowing some measure of redress, labor law helps make workers' grievances a matter which can potentially be addressed within the capitalist system and under capitalist governments.
More fundamentally, though, I think the protection of concerted activity is about one of the same things that makes the state support collective bargaining: sometimes workers' struggles can help advanced class conscious capitalists and the state preserve capitalism. The state, by backing workers' struggles in some cases, bets on the potential power of those struggles to help capitalism. Workers' struggles can do so by helping discipline capitalists into acting in ways that support capitalism, or by helping identify practices that are particularly prone to creating social friction, and perhaps by helping identify potential solutions to those practices.
None of this is to say that struggle always reinforces capitalism. Nor is this to say that we should reject the call for 'direct unionism' because it sometimes fits into activity that the U.S. state recognizes as acceptable ('protected concerted activity'). Rather, the point is that those of us who are engaged in conversations about the form of workers' struggles, including so-called direct unionism and other efforts to avoid the traps of collective bargaining and other institutionalized forms of workers' struggles, we should have further discussion about a few things. One thing I think we should discuss further is the role of explicit, openly revolutionary political perspectives as part of our activity in struggle. (I discussed this to the best of my abilities in a discussion paper called Mottos and Watchwords. I think some of the reflections by Joseph Kay and other comrades in SolFed about what they call political-economic organizations are thought provoking on these themes as well.) Another is the connection between struggle over immediate conditions and the struggle to end capitalism. These are clearly connected, and yet it's not the case that all victory in any particular struggle over the terms of life and work under capitalism is also a victory that brings us closer to the end of capitalism. The third point is that I think we should talk more about the ways in which workers' struggles can sometimes be temporarily made to serve as a tool which some capitalists use to get an advantage over others and can sometimes be a source of innovations within capitalist institutions, innovations that strengthen the system and boost profits. Struggles and efforts can play this role even when strongly opposed by actually existing capitalists because capitalists, like workers, don't always believe in or act in accord with the interests of their class as a whole. That capitalists fight or fought hard in opposing a reform can sometimes make it seem like a given struggle or victory is more radical than it is. Fourth and finally, I think we should discuss what it means if and when we make use of state resources and enforcement provisions. In the United States in IWW campaigns we sometimes make tactical use of filing Unfair Labor Practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board. There is much to be said about problems that can result from this. Among the potential problems one might be that we inadvertently encourage the view that the current system can accommodate workers' grievances. Use of the NLRB to file ULP charges doesn't necessarily reinforce capitalism or bad ideas among workers, but it might if we do it wrong. We should discuss better and worse ways to make use of this aspect of state power against employers.SOMERSET, N.J. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump renewed his spat with the sports world on Sunday, again calling for National Football League owners to fire players who protest during the U.S. national anthem.
In an early morning tweet, Trump suggested fans could boycott NFL games in order to pressure teams to discipline players who protest the anthem.
“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast,” Trump wrote on Sunday. “Fire or suspend!”
In a second tweet, Trump said that the “league should back” fans who are upset about the protests.
Trump is spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and held no public events on Saturday.
On Saturday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Trump’s first statements on the matter, which came during a political rally in Alabama on Friday, revealed an “unfortunate lack of respect” for the NFL and its players.
At the rally, Trump suggested any protesting football player was a “son of a bitch” and should lose his job.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now... He is fired’,” Trump said on Friday at a rally for Alabama Senate Republican candidate Luther Strange.
Trump said in Twitter messages later on Saturday that, if NFL players wanted “the privilege” of high salaries, they “should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred a polarizing national debate in 2016 after refusing to stand during pre-game renditions of the “Star Spangled Banner”.
Instead, Kaepernick put one knee to the ground to protest against police violence against African-Americans. Several players have since made similar gestures of protest before games.
As commissioner, Goodell reports to NFL owners, some of whom have supported Trump in the past. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a major Trump presidential campaign donor, was confirmed by the Senate last month as Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Britain.
The union representing professional football players also rejected Trump’s comments, saying it would defend their right to freedom of expression.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally for Senator Luther Strange in Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
‘INVITATION WITHDRAWN!’
National Basketball Association players also struck back against comments by the president on Saturday after Trump clashed with one of the biggest stars in the NBA.
In an early morning Twitter message on Saturday, the president rescinded a White House invitation to Stephen Curry, who had said he would “vote” against the planned visit by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Trump tweeted.
Curry told a news conference in Oakland, California: “It’s beneath the leader of a country to go that route.”
“It’s not what leaders do,” he said.
The Oakland-based Golden State Warriors said in a statement the team had intended to meet to discuss the potential visit at the first opportunity on Saturday morning.
“We accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited,” the team said.
LeBron James came to Curry’s defense, disputing Trump’s assertion that visiting the White House was an honor.
“Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!” James, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential elections, said on Twitter.
Singer Stevie Wonder appeared to evoke protests by Kaepernick and other athletes when he put one knee to the stage during a concert at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Saturday.
“Tonight, I’m taking a knee for America,” Wonder told the audience as his son, Kwame Morris, helped him down.
Slideshow (3 Images)
Wonder then put his other leg down so that he was kneeling and facing the cheering crowd, with his son doing the same.
“I’m taking both knees,” Wonder said. “Both knees in prayer for our planet, our future, our leaders of the world and our globe.”Vice President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address at the 19th annual HRC National Dinner on the evening of October 3, in Washington, DC. HRC also announced that seven-time Emmy Award winner Allison Janney will present HRC’s National Vanguard Award to Academy Award nominated actress Ellen Page for her courage and leadership. Retired NBA athlete Jason Collins and Blossom Brown are also slated to address the sold-out gathering. As previously announced, multi-platinum selling Grammy nominated singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen, and multi-platinum selling Grammy award-winning A Great Big World – joined by Hip-Hop artist Futuristic – will perform.
“Vice President Biden has stood up for the rights of all Americans to live their lives free from discrimination and fear throughout his remarkable career, and he’s a true champion of LGBT equality,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “From his historic announcement in support of marriage equality to his ongoing commitment to achieving full federal equality for LGBT Americans, the Vice President has proven time and again that he’s a stalwart ally to our community, and we’re honored he’ll be joining us to deliver the keynote address at the HRC National Dinner.”
As both Senator and Vice President of the United States, Vice President Biden’s work to advance LGBT equality is just one chapter in a remarkable lifetime of service to our country. He has played an integral role in the Obama Administration’s unprecedented legacy of progress for the LGBT community. At HRC’s Spring Equality Convention in March, the Vice President called for the passage of new federal LGBT non-discrimination protections. "We have to pass the federal non-discrimination legislation, and we need to pass it now,” said Biden. A few months later, the landmark Equality Act – comprehensive legislation that would guarantee explicit, permanent protections for LGBT people in many of the most important aspects of their lives – was introduced in Congress. At an HRC event in Los Angeles last year, Bidenhighlighted the importance of defending LGBT rights abroad in the United States’ foreign policy agenda.
In addition, Academy Award nominated actress Ellen Page will be presented with an award by seven-time Emmy Award winner Allison Janney at the event highlighting the organization’s work fighting for full LGBT equality. Page has charmed audiences and critics with captivating performances in a wide range of films. In addition, Page – who made the bold decision to come out publicly at HRC’s first annual Time to THRIVE conference – continues to set a powerful example for LGBT and allied youth around the world. Her coming out speech was viewed more than a half-million times within the first 12 hours after the video was uploaded to HRC's YouTube page. Page will be introduced and presented the HRC National Vanguard Award by seven-time Emmy Award winner, Allison Janney, who has co-starred with Page in three films: Juno,Touchy Feely, and the to-be-released Talullah.
“Ellen Page has been an inspiration for LGBT youth around the world,” said Griffin. “Her willingness to speak her truth for all to hear, and to confront injustice against LGBT people, has made her a role model and there is no one more deserving of HRC’s National Vanguard Award. And it’s only fitting that the award will be presented by such a strong ally to our cause as Allison Janney."
Retired NBA athlete Jason Collins and Blossom Brown are also slated to speak. Jason Collins was the first openly gay player to be signed by an NBA team. Collins and Blossom Brown, a transgender student and HRC volunteer who was featured in a television ad from HRC’s “All God’s Children” campaign and has appeared on I Am Cait and the Ellen Degeneres Show, will share more about their personal journeys, the challenges they’ve faced, and the victories they’ve claimed living open and authentic lives.
"Jason Collins changed the world of sports for the better when he came out, and Blossom Brown has helped to lift the voices of the transgender community by showing true courage in sharing her story,” added Griffin.
The 19th annual HRC National Dinner, which is expected to draw over 3,000 guests, will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. More information is available at www.hrcnationaldinner.org.
As previously announced, Hillary Clinton will speak to the organization at a separate event on the morning of the National Dinner. Approximately 800 grassroots leaders from across the country – including the HRC Board of Directors, HRC Board of Governors, HRC staff, and volunteer leaders and supporters from the organization’s over 1.5 million members and supporters in all 50 states – will hear from Secretary Clinton.Words by Quentin Yarolem. Photo by Brooklyn Wheeler.
Younger brothers are cursed with constant comparisons to their older brothers, but none have it worse than Taylor Bennett, the younger brother to hip-hop’s golden child Chance the Rapper. It would be understandable and almost expected of Taylor to glide through his career, riding Chance’s coattails to fame, but that’s far from reality. Taylor has put together a string of solid mixtapes, leading up to his debut album, Broad Shoulders, which came out in December of last year. The album had features from artists ranging from King Louie to Donnie Trumpet, and was a definite contributor to the great year hip-hop had in 2015.
“To be constantly compared to him [Chance], no matter if I’m his brother or not, is just crazy over all.”
Broad Shoulders thrust Taylor into the spotlight, and made the public aware of his skills. After the success he experienced with the album, XXL honored Taylor by putting him up on the list for the potential 10th spot on their Freshman list. Taylor is joined on this list by fellow Chicago artists like Mick Jenkins, Saba and Montana of 300.
“I think this year it would be crazy if I got nominated, but I’m just starting out. I’m just coming up. This isn’t even a fraction of who Taylor Bennett is and what I’m bringing to the world.”
Growth is a big concept of Taylor’s art, as he talks about how his music has changed from his older songs like “Speed Racer”, to his newer music like “Dancing in the Rain.” “For me, it wasn’t a super heartfelt song, but after a while I realized I could try to merge that with feeling and emotion and substance, and something that actually matters when you say it.” Taylor’s artistic ability doesn’t just stop with music though as he plans to produce a film about the concept of Broad Shoulders.
“I’m working on a short film that’s based off of the Broad Shoulders project. I basically wrote a story line and then I had a director come in, my guy Heston (Charres), and we had all sorts of casting for it. We had all kinds of auditions in Columbia and Depaul, two Chicago colleges have been extremely helpful. We’ve had all types of different people working on set and it’s been a really big project.”
“The short film encompasses a lot of the raw emotion that Taylor had experienced while he wrote the project and is a visual representation that takes the audience through the album track by track and is similar to Donald Glover’s “Clapping For The Wrong Reasons” or Kanye West’s “Runaway.”” says the film’s producer and assistant director Danny Farber.
The film will be about the story of Taylor being a young man growing up in the inner city of Chicago, facing adversity and learning about himself and the city.
Taylor Bennett is one of Chicago’s most artistic up-and- comers right now. His stand-out debut album launched him into the spotlight, and now he has a chance to be honored as a XXL Freshman in the 2016 class. Whether it’s through music or film, Taylor has big things planned for this year, so stay peeped.Kelly Thomas Boyers is the founder of Adam's Place for Grief. The organization is one of several that will share in public safety grant funds given to Clark County by the Department of Justice. (Jan Hogan/View)
Clark County has received more than $975,000 in public safety grant funds that the Justice Department withheld in 2016, county spokesman Erik Pappa said Tuesday.
The money’s release comes more than a month after the Justice Department reported it found no evidence that the county is failing to comply with federal immigration authorities.
The money is earmarked for 19 governments and nonprofits, including the district attorney’s office gang prosecution unit, the HOPE for Prisoners reintegration program and the Adam’s Place grief center.
In an email, Pappa wrote that the Clark County Commission must approve resolutions to disburse the money to the subrecipients. Commissioners will likely consider the resolutions at their Oct. 17 meeting, Pappa wrote.
The county also expects to receive a similar amount of funding from the Justice Department for its 2017 allocation of public safety grants. The grants application deadline was Sept. 5.
Grant money recipients
Public safety grant money will be disbursed to these local governments and nonprofits:
Clark County District Attorney: $240,000
Las Vegas Municipal Court: $116,652
Eighth Judicial District Court: $80,000
County’s Department of Juvenile Justice: $70,000
The Embracing Project: $65,000
Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada: $50,000
Nevada Child Seekers: $50,000
Project REAL: $43,082
County’s Department of Family Services: $40,000
Las Vegas Justice Court: $40,000
Police Athletic League: $25,870
Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada: $25,000
HOPE for Prisoners: $25,000
West Las Vegas Arts Center: $25,000
Adam’s Place: $25,000
Vision Theatrical Foundation: $25,000
Clark County Law Foundation: $20,000
County Administration: $5,000
Las Vegas City Administration: $5,000
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at [email protected] or 702-477- 3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on TwitterA third-person survival horror action game which puts you in the role of FBI Agent Francis York Morgan. In the process of investigating a murder, you will examine a series of interlocking mysteries in a remote rural town and will encounter an array of complex characters pivotal to the
A third-person survival horror action game which puts you in the role of FBI Agent Francis York Morgan. In the process of investigating a murder, you will examine a series of interlocking mysteries in a remote rural town and will encounter an array of complex characters pivotal to the unraveling of the storyline’s mystery. Suspenseful action sequences will force you to make strategic moves, gliding by enemies in the shadows or engaging them with long-range weapons or hand-to-hand melee combat. Amidst a backdrop of soaring mountains and a town filled with eccentric natives, Agent Morgan must solve the mystery of the ‘Red Seed Murders’ and stay alive in a place where supernatural creatures and a folklore killer seek to end his investigation permanently.
…In which we confront the terrible “racism” of H. P. Lovecraft.
Table of Contents
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1890–1937 (image)
The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when they sleep in dust. Headstone
Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past. Eric Arthur Blair
The barren, bloody fields of postmodern “thought” (-policing) are pockmarked with the desecrated graves of Western history’s greatest minds — enemies of The People, dug up and strung up for thoughtcrimes against humanity, the post-Christian sins: reckless intolerance, receiving stolen privilege, grand theft human dignity… the list goes on.
Carlyle is convicted of “conscious and unconscious participations in the cultural evils of nineteenth-century Britain” (Duke Journals). Did he not deny the sacred “assumption that under the skin, people are all the same” (Econlib)? Worse still, “Carlyle supported hierarchy, a world view where the competent made decisions for the incompetent.” Screw you, Carlyle! This is America: where incompetents make all the decisions!
Haul in “troublesome” Chuck Darwin (The Independent): “no doubt about it,” the man believed in “racial inequality” — no, not as proof positive of the vast white conspiracy, but as “a natural condition that will frustrate any cultural efforts to mitigate it.” Obstruction of social justice! Stereotype threats! No wonder racial inequality has frustrated all cultural efforts to mitigate it. Will the defendant own up to his “legacy”?
Those who argue that some peoples are cleverer than others insist that theirs are scientific claims, to be judged by their content rather than their context, according to facts rather than values.
Round here, Mr. Darwin, we call that aiding and abetting an anthropologist.
Crazy old Aristotle, for some crazy reason, “believed that nature ordained not only physical differences between male and female but mental differences as well” (Women’s Studies Encyclopedia). What? Huh? Men and women are different?
The tenacity with which this key sexist concept has been held by historically acclaimed thinkers and writers testifies to the appalling ease with which ignorance can pose as knowledge and with which the self-aggrandizing prejudices of those who wield intellectual and social power can pass as rational judgment.
Only “the scrutiny of feminist scholars” could expose this so-called philosopher’s “great error of judgment” — a result, I’m sure you’ll all agree, “nothing short of momentous.” This “feminist critique,” we are assured (by feminist scholars), “is both informative and liberating.” For example: quoting a bit from Aristotle’s History of Animals (c. 350 BC) —
The female is softer in disposition than the male, is more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive, and more attentive to the nurture of the young. […] Woman is more compassionate than man, more easily moved to tears, at the same time is more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike.
(which obviously bears no resemblance to reality) — then adding a sarcastic quip: “Fine examples of his observational powers.” Take that, dad! I mean, patriarchy!
No less an authority than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (branching out into “feminist history”) informs us that Aristotle’s “litany” is not only “false” (no evidence is necessary, and none is provided), but also hurtful to the delicate feelings of “women studying or teaching Aristotle,” being so “dispiriting” and “annoying.” Aww, baby.
“As briefs for racial supremacy go,” Lothrop Stoddard’s Rising Tide of Color Against White |
end up in second place again. And yet, one very long lunch break later, an invigorated DK came back and performed the comeback of the 2013-2014 season so far. It’s every team’s dream to go from 0 - 3 to 4 - 3, and DK lived it, and in the finals of the biggest Chinese tournament so far this season. And what I loved most about it, I’ll confess, was the BurNing-MMY Tiny-Wisp. The times, they are a-changin!
Wat Wat
I was ecstatic. DK had come of age.
Then, just a couple of days later, they dropped the Red Bull ECL finals to iG, and did so without taking a single game off their opponents. Thus, it was with even more trepidation that I began to watch the G-League Grand Finals. But I shouldn’t have worried at all. iG played very well, but DK always just seemed to be a step ahead.
They picked well (thanks LaNm!), laned well, and indeed, their mid and lategame decision-making and teamfights were spot on. And despite now adopting BurNing’s safe, calculated style of play more or less as their default, the team also pulled off plays like these:
DK’s strength, then, lies not in the fact that they can farm or that they can lane or even that they can make the big plays when it counts. It lies in the fact that they are a highly versatile team that can play any style of Dota. They can 4-1, they can tri- or even pentacore, and they can push, split push, defend, and face rush. They can analyse their opponents and then take the game to them, and this is what truly makes them great.
Sure, they’ve had some problems with execution in the past, but over the last few weeks they’ve been pulling their socks up, starting most notably with their drafting. I never doubted that they had the potential to dominate China and even the world. I no longer doubt that they will.
While it may be premature to call them the best the Chinese scene has to offer, I will posit this: DK are coming together at exactly the right time. It is 2014 now, and TI4 is on the horizon. Between now and Seattle, DK’s goal is undoubtedly to win as many titles as they can, and if they maintain the form they’ve been showing since of late, they should be in contention for most of them.
I do give that it’s too early to call them the iG of 2012, or even the Alliance that took TI3. But they have the beginnings of that kind of dominance in their play right now, and my hope is that they will foster that over the course of this year, even as the franchise readies itself for its most realistic TI bid in years.
If 2013 saw the rise of Western Dota, with teams like Alliance and Na`Vi beating the Chinese convincingly on their own home ground and then at TI, 2014, I posit, will once again be the Year of the Dragon. The mainland suffered defeat after defeat in the last season, but now, a new Chinese team has a risen, a team that can play both a Luna and a Wisp-Tiny, a 4-1 and a tricore, a team that can play anyone, anywhere, any time, simply because they have the raw talent to make that happen and have now put in the time needed to make sure that they can truly play together.
For our heroes, the best is yet to come. (via For our heroes, the best is yet to come. (via 2p.com
2013 was the year of Alliance, and I’m making a bold prediction for 2014: it will be the year of DK, the year of the dragon.
CREDITS
Writers: riptide
Gfx: Shiroiusagi
Editors: TheEmulator
Frontpage image Via Writers: riptideGfx: ShiroiusagiEditors: TheEmulatorFrontpage image Via DK Weibo
The G-League finals between Invictus Gaming and Team DK were one of the most anticipated matches during the Winter season so far. They are currently two of the strongest teams in Asian Dota 2, and with their recent bouts against each other being fairly even, it was up in the air as to who is truly the strongest right now. Last week during the finals all this speculation was laid to rest, as Team DK dominated iG 3-0, and emerged the champions of this season's G-League.Now we won't say that Team DK is truly the best yet, because they have a long way to go. Invictus Gaming did not seem on their A-Game either, so we expect many more greats series between these two titans to come in the future. For now, join us on a retrospective of Team DK and their 2013 season, and where we feel they are heading in 2014!!!If every fan of Starcraft is a fan of SlayerS_`BoxeR` by extension, then perhaps every Dota fan is a BurNing fan by extension. I was a fan of the B-God long before I became a DK fan. In fact, right up to TI3, I cheered more for BurNing in spite of the fact that he was on DK, than anything else.But the team’s post-TI reshuffle changed things. Two things in particular: Mushi and iceiceice. As a denizen of SEA, I had supported them and their teams from the time pro-Dota 2 came into being, and I was, I’ll admit, heartbroken at how Orange’s TI3 run ended. To me (and as it would later turn out, to many of you as well), Mushi was the best mid in the world, and I was sure that, given the chance, iceiceice could easily be the best offlaner.That chance came when DK reshuffled late last year, and when the dust settled, I was simply stunned at the lineup. Not only did the team feature Mushi, iceiceice and BurNing, but they had managed to bag two of the best supports on the scene, MMY and LaNm. I knew that the team would do well, and I looked forward to a Fall of a great results.And then, of course, DK didn’t perform as expected. While netting second place at MLG Columbus was an achievement, and though their run through the tournament was nothing less than spectacular, they yet again missed a title, and of course, I was disappointed. On paper, DK were a championship team, and here they were, missing their chances.Thus, it was with some trepidation that I watched the WPC ACE League Grand Finals. After the first three games, I thought that that was it; DK would end up in second place again. And yet, one very long lunch break later, an invigorated DK came back and performed the comeback of the 2013-2014 season so far. It’s every team’s dream to go from 0 - 3 to 4 - 3, and DK lived it, and in the finals of the biggest Chinese tournament so far this season. And what I loved most about it, I’ll confess, was the BurNing-MMY Tiny-Wisp. The times, they are a-changin!I was ecstatic. DK had come of age.Then, just a couple of days later, they dropped the Red Bull ECL finals to iG, and did so without taking a single game off their opponents. Thus, it was with even more trepidation that I began to watch the G-League Grand Finals. But I shouldn’t have worried at all. iG played very well, but DK always just seemed to be a step ahead.They picked well (thanks LaNm!), laned well, and indeed, their mid and lategame decision-making and teamfights were spot on. And despite now adopting BurNing’s safe, calculated style of play more or less as their default, the team also pulled off plays like these:DK’s strength, then, lies not in the fact that they can farm or that they can lane or even that they can make the big plays when it counts. It lies in the fact that they are a highly versatile team that can play any style of Dota. They can 4-1, they can tri- or even pentacore, and they can push, split push, defend, and face rush. They can analyse their opponents and then take the game to them, and this is what truly makes them great.Sure, they’ve had some problems with execution in the past, but over the last few weeks they’ve been pulling their socks up, starting most notably with their drafting. I never doubted that they had the potential to dominate China and even the world. I no longer doubt that they will.While it may be premature to call them the best the Chinese scene has to offer, I will posit this: DK are coming together at exactly the right time. It is 2014 now, and TI4 is on the horizon. Between now and Seattle, DK’s goal is undoubtedly to win as many titles as they can, and if they maintain the form they’ve been showing since of late, they should be in contention for most of them.I do give that it’s too early to call them the iG of 2012, or even the Alliance that took TI3. But they have the beginnings of that kind of dominance in their play right now, and my hope is that they will foster that over the course of this year, even as the franchise readies itself for its most realistic TI bid in years.If 2013 saw the rise of Western Dota, with teams like Alliance and Na`Vi beating the Chinese convincingly on their own home ground and then at TI, 2014, I posit, will once again be the Year of the Dragon. The mainland suffered defeat after defeat in the last season, but now, a new Chinese team has a risen, a team that can play both a Luna and a Wisp-Tiny, a 4-1 and a tricore, a team that can play anyone, anywhere, any time, simply because they have the raw talent to make that happen and have now put in the time needed to make sure that they can truly play together.2013 was the year of Alliance, and I’m making a bold prediction for 2014: it will be the year of DK, the year of the dragon. Administrator ~_~Facebook paid $22 billion (Rs.1,472.79 crore) – or, almost 2.5 times Facebook’s 2013 gross revenues – to buy WhatsApp, a company with net loss of over $138 million at the time. Why? One obvious reason, of course, was to stave off potential competition and start its way towards becoming a social media conglomerate.
Less talked about, however, is how the acquisition would allow Facebook access to WhatsApp’s user base and user data – WhatsApp accounts for over 1 billion users who make over 500 million phone calls, share 700 million photos, 100 million videos and 1 billion messages a day.
India, with over 160 million active users, is WhatsApp’s biggest market and conceivably contributed significantly to the above valuation.
WhatsApp will become the owner of the photos, texts and information that Indians exchange on the app, and if it decides, WhatsApp may share the personal information of its Indian users with Facebook, third parties or scamsters, unless Chief Justice J.S. Khehar intervenes this May.
Other countries have taken initiatives to prevent the sharing of data. In the European Union, data regulators have already warned WhatsApp about sharing the data of European citizens with Facebook, with the social network firm agreeing last November to temporarily halt data sharing.
India in contrast has made no move to prevent Facebook and WhatsApp from merging their user information databases. Indeed, Chief Justice Khehar and Justice Chandrachud nearly declined to admit a public interest litigation on this matter in January. The court pointed out users can opt-out and expressed doubts on whether users can claim a right to privacy or free speech in a “free” communication program, but agreed the summer bench will take up the matter in May.
Traditional privacy arguments don’t work
Customarily, a puisne justice – such as, Justices Kaul or Shantanagoudar, Nazeer, Navin Sinha or Deepak Gupta will, along with Chief Justice Khehar fill the vacation bench. Junior justices typically defer to the chief and hence, convincing the chief justice will be the key. Given the doubts he has expressed in January, the traditional arguments on privacy and free speech will scarcely sway the chief justice.
“What worries us is that private communication must remain private of the service is available at a cost. We understand a telecom service provider getting penalised for unauthorised snooping on telephone calls or messages sent by the users. But when you take a stand that ‘allow me to use the free service yet protect my privacy’, it becomes a completely different issue.”
He has pointed out, if the issue is with regard to privacy, the constitutional bench in the Aadhaar case is already considering whether there is a the right to privacy in the Indian constitution. On the whole, the court has not found the right to privacy objection persuasive in the Aadhaar context, as I have argued elsewhere.
If the WhatsApp issue is tarred by the Aadhaar brush, Chief Justice Khehar is unlikely to pass an order in favor of the petitioners, who have asked for a ruling preventing WhatsApp from merging the data with Facebook. In multiple orders from 2010-2015, the Supreme Court repeatedly held it was not striking down Aadhaar as unconstitutional based on the government assurance that participation in the program was voluntary (and not mandatory). But Chief Justice Khehar has markedly departed from this position. On February 7, Chief Justice Khehar (along with Justice N. V. Ramana) tacitly approved the idea of linking all mobile phones (via the sim cards) to the owners’ Aadhaar cards in the interest of national security (because it was feared unverified mobile numbers could be used for terrorist and criminal activity).
This even though Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had pointed out how vital mobile payments were to citizens in the aftermath of demonetisation. The Supreme Court’s change in position from asking that participation in Aadhaar be voluntary to implicitly allowing the government to implement mandatory participation clearly demonstrates that the present chief justice places more importance on national security arguments rather than privacy objections.
Chief Justice Khehar and Justice Chandrachud have already alluded to their doubt that users can scarcely demand free speech rights in a “free” service that they do not pay for. Hence, relying upon the fundamental right of privacy under Article 21 and free speech under Article 19, as Harish Salve did in January, may help get the matter admitted but is unlikely to secure a final order that imposes restrictions on WhatsApp. Reframing the debate will therefore be crucial, and hence, the following two factors become vital, and provide a way out of the current impasse.
A global perspective
First, at this juncture, it may be important to point to the court that if it fails to intervene, WhatsApp will own and have the right to share only Indians’ data whereas the data of other countries will belong to its citizens and WhatsApp and Facebook will, for instance, not be able to merge and/or sell the information of European citizens. The data and information of India’s citizens – texts, photos, usage data, names and mobile numbers of all contacts in their address book (irrespective of whether those people use and consented to WhatsApp’s policies) would however be fair game.
EU regulators have expressed deep concerns on WhatsApp merging data with Facebook and as a direct result, the two companies halted the implementation of the new privacy policy (allowing the firms to mingle their data). Moreover, in December, the European Commission threatened to impose a $179 million fine on Facebook for attempting to merge the data after assuring the commission to the contrary in 2014. The EU is also contemplating an ePrivacy Directive to protect its citizens and imposing regulations on internet communications companies similar to traditional telecom companies. As a result, companies that fail to comply with this Directive (or any other EU privacy guidelines) will face fines of up to 4% of their global turnover. Thus, when other countries are so assiduously protecting its citizens’ data, if the Supreme Court looks the other way and allows Indians’ data alone to be appropriated by private companies, the court will be doing a disservice to the people.
“Free” service?
Second, a strategy to overcome or at least side-step the “free” service objection is critical. The court’s biggest objection to ruling that WhatsApp violated people’s privacy was that people did not “pay” for the service as they would for a traditional telecom service. Internet commerce has however upended traditional business models. In the internet age, consumers help WhatsApp (and many other technology companies) earn from revenue streams, even if consumers do not cut a physical cheque directly to WhatsApp. The proof is in the pudding – in this case, Facebook paid WhatsApp more than 20x its annual revenue even though WhatsApp is actually making a net loss. So, the question that consumers did not pay WhatsApp directly is immaterial to determine whether or not WhatsApp is profiting from the users, which it clearly is.
Reframing the issue this way easily exposes the hollowness in the argument that the consumer is not paying to use WhatsApp’s services. By the same logic, WhatsApp is already receiving more than adequate compensation from Facebook (and conceivably, the market). And so, there is no justification or legal basis requiring the Supreme Court to prioritise WhatsApp’s claims over the person who created the texts and content and transfer rights to the information to WhatsApp.
For instance, in the brick and mortar world, I build a road over “poromboke” or public land, and many people use the road and so, it becomes a highway. On that basis, can I claim I now own the poromboke land? Will the court say, because people did not pay to pave the road, the road is now mine?
India is one of the fastest growing economies today but a sizable portion of its population continues to struggle to earn enough to pay for basic needs, medical costs and education. Judges too are singularly focused upon cases deciding people’s access to basic necessities and in this context, worries about privacy and personal information often seem superficial and out of touch. Insisting the court intervene in the WhatsApp case based upon fears of potential privacy violation is therefore an uphill battle and an unnecessary one. In the WhatsApp case, for instance, it is easier to simply show the following. One, by failing to intervene, the Supreme Court will be enabling corporations to monetize and claim property rights in Indian citizens’ data in a way they cannot do with any other countries’ citizens’ data. Thus, creating the subtext why would the Supreme Court allow Indians to be deprived and shortchanged. Two, reframing the discussion helps allay the Chief Justice’s doubt (without insisting privacy is more important than other principles that he values).
Putting to rest Chief Justice Khehar’s doubt will be the key to winning this case. Justices usually defer to the chief. The junior justice during the substantive hearings in May can be reasonably expected to follow Khehar’s lead. Hence, Harish Salve and the petitioners’ ability to successfully reframe the debate will be crucial to determine the outcome of this case and Indian law in the digital age.
Aarthi S. Anand is an attorney practicing at a New York law firm. Previously, she worked with the Solicitor General of India and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
New location: Sinai
This ancient land has seen more than its fair share of wars. Charging iron beasts replaced battle chariots, and there, where the stones of slingshots cracked and arrows shot out in a wicked swarm, tank shells now fly to their targets with a sinister whistle.
The new Sinai map awaits desert hunters in War Thunder update 1.63!
We are pleased to present a new location for mixed battles, Sinai, which will become available to all players in War Thunder 1.63 Desert Hunters! Our artists took inspiration from the Sinai Peninsula for this desert map – a land where military conflicts have been raging for many centuries. Military operations on the Sinai map will unfold around a small oil complex in the centre of the map. This strategically important position provides control over a significant part of the area and the main battles will revolve around capturing this position. The position is far from an unassailable fortress, so defending this position will require true team play – you won't survive here solo. To the left and right of the derricks, there are two more important areas: an oil depot and a half-destroyed village. It is these positions that the teams will want to capture at the very beginning of the battle and ensure that the opponent doesn't take them by assault.
We have tried to make Sinai balanced for all types of military vehicles. In spite of the alluring openness of the location, it does feature cover and folds in the terrain that can be used to move a whole column of heavy tanks with no fear of taking enemy fire. Boulders, cliffs and dried out bushes can hide sniper SPGs on the sandy plain. Medium and light tanks will find work at the capture points: the buildings and structures form a true labyrinth in which dramatic battles will take place at close ranges.
Examples of real landscapes in Sinai that inspired our artists to create this location (Sources: 1, 2)
Get acquainted with the new Sinai map in War Thunder 1.63 and come up with strategies to bring your whole team to victory!
The War Thunder Team!
Previous Devblogs:State Department staffers suspect Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn’t stand up for them when the White House proposed cutting their budget by a third. | Getty Tillerson faces his toughest audience yet: The State Department Morale is plunging among the U.S. diplomats and civil servants who work for the secretary of state ahead of planned restructuring and cuts.
Rex Tillerson has some serious explaining to do.
Morale is plunging among the U.S. diplomats and civil servants who work for the secretary of state. Many are aghast at President Donald Trump’s desire to dramatically slash the State Department’s budget and Tillerson’s apparent agreement. Some State staffers are eyeing the exits as malaise grips the department—and before expected organizational restructuring. And just about everyone is seeking clarity from the new administration about its foreign policy objectives.
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Few, however, are counting on Tillerson to offer much solace in a speech he’s scheduled to give to the department Wednesday morning — only his second address to the agency as a whole since Feb. 2, his first full day on the job. Stakeholders inside and outside State are particularly flummoxed that Tillerson is giving the speech, and planning to survey staffers, after he’s already decided to trim at least 2,300 positions. It’s a backward approach, they say.
“He’s dug such a big hole, it’s going to be hard to get out of,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former State Department official now with the Center for a New American Security. “If he really wanted to do things right, he would actually say, ‘Don’t believe the numbers and don’t believe the stories about the budget cuts. But I do believe we have to cut some fat, and before I decide on how much to cut or if anything to cut, I want to hear from you.’”
State Department officials would not say whether Tillerson will answer audience questions after he speaks Wednesday. On Monday night, he announced in an email that the department will conduct an online survey of employees, the “first phase” of a discussion about the “goals, priorities and the strategic direction of our organization.”
The survey, which goes live on Wednesday, will be up for nearly two weeks, the secretary wrote. Some 300 people from State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is also part of Tillerson’s purview, also will be separately interviewed.
“I have no pre-conceived notions about how the Department or USAID should be organized for the future,” Tillerson wrote in his email. “My regard for the men and women of the Department of State and USAID has only grown, as I experience every day the dedication and professionalism of our workforce.”
State Department staffers — all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to safeguard their jobs — were initially optimistic when Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, took over as America’s chief diplomat. They were pleased that he had international experience and knew how to run a large institution. Tillerson also impressed diplomats, when, in his Feb. 2 speech, he praised their work even while forecasting changes to improve efficiency.
But Tillerson’s image has taken a heavy beating in the three months since. State Department staffers suspect he didn’t stand up for them when the White House proposed cutting their budget by a third. They’re frustrated that he has yet to fill scores of leadership positions, and worried about his still-murky plans to restructure the department. They’re puzzled by his aversion to public appearances, although he has become more visible in recent days. And they’re annoyed by how isolated he seems to be from the 75,000 employees who work for him in Foggy Bottom and beyond.
One U.S. diplomat said people were “enraged” by a report that indicated Tillerson is unhappy with how much the U.S. spends on housing and schooling for the families of employees overseas, even though those diplomats often serve in tough conditions. The diplomat added that staffers were told they could not, for now, fill empty jobs with the qualified spouses of diplomats — a long-running State initiative — because Tillerson aides “think it’s a ‘jobs program.’”
“They’ve got it exactly backwards,” the diplomat said. “These are not jobs we’re creating to give spouses and partners work. They are jobs we desperately need filled, and we’re saving the U.S. government money and improving morale by hiring spouses.”
Some staffers were offended when R.C. Hammond, a Tillerson spokesman, compared the State Department to the remnants of the Titanic, the famed sunken ocean liner, in a separate report. Asked about his comments, Hammond told POLITICO: “I would urge people to think more about the discovery of a lost marvel.”
Morning Defense newsletter Sign up for Morning Defense, a daily briefing on Washington's national security apparatus. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
The plans to cut 2,300 positions have also prompted many conversations among diplomats about whether it’s worth quitting now, especially if the department restructuring in the future lowers the chances for promotions.
The cuts are supposed to include 1,700 jobs eliminated through attrition and 600 through buyouts, according to a source familiar with the plan. And more cuts could come as Tillerson further evaluates his options.
Even if Congress fends off the administration's proposed budget cuts, as it is likely to do, Tillerson still has some leeway on hiring and restructuring. In any case, the signal sent to the diplomatic corps has been an ugly one, people interviewed said.
“What we have seen since the election campaign has been a disdain for foreign policy expertise and the department in general,” said a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, adding: “What we need is to have a clear picture as to what America’s foreign policy is right now. If I can’t explain it clearly to a taxi driver in Mexico City, Amman, or Beijing, how can we expect our counterparts in governments around the world to understand it?”
Other State Department employees agreed that there’s been too much focus on the shape of the agency and not enough on policy-making.
“Tell us what the mission is. The mission can’t be: Reorganize the department,” one U.S. diplomat serving overseas said. “That’s like looking at a pile of bricks that should be turned into a house and identifying the mission as: Use a screwdriver.”Image caption Many farmers are so poor that one donkey is shared between two villages
The journalists' rule of thumb in China is that you cannot report the so-called three Ts - Tiananmen, Taiwan or Tibet. But it turns out there is also another T that upsets Chinese censors.
Jeff Sun is the scion of one of China's new rich and the founder of the "China Super Car Club". He has got so many he cannot even remember them all.
With a bit of head scratching he can list the two Lamborghinis, the two Ferraris, the Audi R8 and the Maserati. But then there is a long pause before his face suddenly lights up.
"Ah yes," he says, "and the Bentley".
We met Jeff while reporting on the yawning chasms of inequality that have opened up in Chinese society.
We filmed in some of the poorest communities I have ever visited - Chinese villages where no-one has ever owned a car and where they still till their fields using a single donkey, shared between dozens of farmers.
China still claims to be a communist society and has a fearsome reputation for censorship, so why was it happy for us to do this?
Find out More From Our Own Correspondent is broadcast on Saturdays at 11:30 BST on BBC Radio 4, and weekdays on BBC World Service
China on Four Wheels is broadcast Sunday 9 September at 20:00 BST on BBC Two
The answer says a lot about both China's ambitions and the challenges the country faces.
A couple of years ago I made another series, this one about China's great expansion into the world over the last decade.
I had not expected the Beijing government to like the films. We met some very sympathetic Chinese people but we showed the corruption and brutality of others.
Yet, shortly after the programmes were broadcast, I received an email from a senior official at the Chinese embassy inviting me to tea at a London hotel. It said the Embassy had liked my programmes.
In the genteel grandeur of the hotel the embassy official told me why.
"We thought you were fair," she said. "You showed the Chinese people as they are."
She took a sip of tea from the bone china cup and told me the rest of the world seemed to think that the Chinese did not have the same hopes, fears and ambitions as everyone else.
"They believe China is a threat to other nations. We want people to understand they do not need to be afraid of us," she said.
My guess is we were allowed to explore the eye-watering inequities in Chinese society because the government reckoned that on balance we would again, present a sympathetic picture of Chinese people.
China may be undergoing the most incredible economic transformation, but the Chinese Communist Party's instincts have not changed
Furthermore - by showing just how rich many had become the government knew we would project a powerful message about China's success.
At the same time the poverty of hundreds of millions of others, would illustrate the huge challenges the country still faces.
Nevertheless we did not entirely escape the censors.
The journalists' rule of thumb is that you cannot report the so-called three Ts - Tiananmen, Taiwan or Tibet.
We inadvertently discovered a fourth T.
In an article in the country's English language newspaper, China Daily, I came across an editorial featuring stinging criticism of China from the WTO. Not the World Trade Organisation, this was the less well-known World Toilet Organisation.
This WTO had ranked China as having the worst public toilets in all Asia. The paper explained how, in response, Beijing had introduced rigorous new hygiene standards - now no more than two flies are allowed in any public toilet.
The paper was in no doubt about the importance of the issue. "Clean public toilets are the symbol of a civilised society," it thundered. The controversy made me chuckle and I mentioned to our government minder that I wanted to cover this storm in a toilet bowl.
It was Mr Chen's job to ensure we did not break any reporting rules. He had been a cheerful, relaxed companion throughout our three-week journey, but now his face darkened.
"I do not think that would be a good idea," he said gravely.
Image caption Rowlatt travelled 2600 miles across China with the BBC's Anita Rani to make the documentary
I laughed, assuming he was just being a bit conservative.
"No", he emphasised. "I really do not think that is a good idea."
I said it would only take a couple of minutes. Just a bit of fun.
Mr Chen vanished for a few moments. When he returned his manner was forbidding.
"I am sorry Justin but I have to tell you cannot report this story at all."
This was getting serious. Our Chinese fixer was visibly anxious and quietly warned me that if this went any further Mr Chen was likely to close down our production completely.
I was learning an important lesson. China may be undergoing the most incredible economic transformation, but the Chinese Communist Party's instincts have not changed.
It may let you speak to the idle rich and the abject poor but threaten to embarrass it - even with something as trivial as some criticism from the World Toilet Organisation - and the sinews of power become all too apparent.
We were close to the end of our long journey and could not afford to jeopardise our project now.
I decided I had to close the door on the Chinese toilets.
China On Four Wheels is broadcast Sunday 9 September at 20:00 BST on BBC Two. You can read more about Justin Rowlatt's journey on the BBC TV Blog.
How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:
BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 11:30 BST.
Listen online or download the podcast
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Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online.
Read more or explore the archive at the programme website.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Len McCluskey has been a vocal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn could step down if Labour's fortunes do not improve before the next general election in 2020, one of his closest allies has suggested.
Len McCluskey, head of the Unite union, described the party's standing in the opinion polls as "awful".
He said Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were not "desperate to cling onto power for power's sake".
A Unite leadership rival accused him of issuing a "public ultimatum" and trying to be "Labour's puppet master".
Gerard Coyne, one of two challengers to Mr McCluskey for the job of Unite general secretary, said Mr McCluskey was focusing on party politics over the union's membership.
The spat between the Unite rivals came after Mr McCluskey told the Daily Mirror the union's leadership contest was being used by Mr Corbyn's critics as a "proxy war" against the party leader.
As Unite leader, he said, he offered "critical support" to Mr Corbyn.
He added: "Let's suppose we are not having a snap election.
"It buys into this question of what happens if we get to 2019 and opinion polls are still awful.
"The truth is everybody would examine that situation, including Jeremy Corbyn."
On Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell, he added: "These two are not egomaniacs, they are not desperate to cling onto power for power's sake."
McCluskey fighting his own election
By Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent
Len McCluskey is a huge figure in the Labour movement and was an early, vocal and influential advocate of Jeremy Corbyn becoming - and then remaining - the party's leader.
So why is he saying this now?
These remarks have to be seen through the prism of yet another election: Mr McCluskey attempting to remain Unite's leader, and facing an opponent who says he spends too much time talking about Westminster politics.
As well as the comments about Jeremy Corbyn's possible sell-by date, there is another telling line from Len McCluskey today.
"It's my job to promote Unite's policies, not Labour's," he says.
Mr McCluskey has votes to win for himself right now, not votes to win for Jeremy Corbyn.
Later, on Twitter, Mr McCluskey said Mr Corbyn "continues to have my full support", describing him as a "genuine, decent man fighting for a fairer Britain".
"Media headlines distort facts", he added.
Mr Coyne, Unite's West Midlands secretary, said: "I am astonished and deeply concerned that, at a time like this, Len McCluskey should deliver what amounts to a public ultimatum to the leader of the Labour Party.
"My criticism of his handling of the role of general secretary of Unite is not whether he has backed the right leader or the wrong leader of the Labour Party, but that he appears to think it is his job to be Labour's puppet master."
This drew an angry response from Mr McCluskey, who said the "puppet master" comment "panders to the worst anti-Labour stereotypes of the media".
In a reference to MPs who have opposed Mr Corbyn, Mr McCluskey claimed Mr Coyne's campaign was being "scripted by the failed plotters in the Parliamentary Labour Party, for whom Unite would be collateral damage in their political project to bring back Blairism".
Immigration debate
In his Mirror interview, Mr McCluskey also said Labour had to show "ordinary people" it was "listening to their concerns" on immigration, saying it had to "get its narrative right on free movement".
Mr Corbyn has defended the principle of free movement and declined to offer "false promises" on migration numbers.
But others in his party have said the system must change in light of the Brexit vote.
Mr Coyne focused on Brexit in a speech in Birmingham, warning that new immigration controls had to be "non-negotiable" when talks between the UK and the EU get under way.
Unite members who voted for Brexit expected a promise of an end to uncontrolled immigration from the EU to be kept, "and will feel betrayed if it is not", he said.
Ian Allinson, the third candidate in the leadership contest, accused Mr Coyne of making an "irresponsible" pitch for votes, and said Mr McCluskey had "fudged" the question of free movement.
"Scapegoating immigrants weakens our union and hinders our efforts for jobs, pay and conditions," he said.
The new Unite leader will be announced on 28 April.Wolf Pack Win First Shootout of Season
Mackenzie Skapski made 36 saves, including one on a penalty shot in overtime, and went 3-for-3 in the shootout, as the Wolf Pack pulled out a 4-3 shootout win over the Albany Devils Wednesday night at the Times-Union Center in Albany.
The Wolf Pack led 3-1 in the third period, but a pair of Joe Whitney goals, the second with only 1:58 left, tied the game for Albany.
Danny Kristo scored in regulation for the Wolf Pack, and also had the only goal of the shootout. The Wolf Pack also got goals from Justin Vaive and Joey Crabb. Chris Bourque had two assists. Darcy Zaj |
a lot to look forward to with the end of the world. It’s sort of one of those glass empty/glass full kind of situations.
I’m dizzy now, I’m going to bed.The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s Nita R. Giles Public Policy Program and the Oklahoma Policy Institute present Education in Oklahoma, a panel discussion examining feasible solutions to problems facing the Oklahoma education system.
When: Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
Where: University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Student Center Ballroom, Chickasha, OK
Panelists:
Phyllis Hudecki, former Oklahoma Secretary of Education, executive director, Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition
David Perryman, Oklahoma State Representative
Mickey Hepner, dean, College of Business, University of Central Oklahoma
Joe Siano, superintendent, Norman Public Schools
Megan Benn, consultant
Moderator: Gene Perry, policy director, Oklahoma Policy Institute
The Nita R. Giles Public Policy Program is the only undergraduate program of its kind in Oklahoma and one of only a few nationally. The program is specifically focused on Oklahoma, producing graduates who have the skills and passion to help our state solve problems and ensure a sustainable future. The program arms students with the range of skills, knowledge and experiences, in and out of the classroom, which will enable them to contribute to policymaking at all levels of society.For countries to switch their electricity generation from fossil fuel to renewable sources, they'll also have to dramatically reconfigure their electrical grids to be able to store electricity when there is oversupply. However, a study looking into the effectiveness of different batteries has found that the environmental savings from switching over may be negligible until better storage technology is developed.
When a wind turbine or solar panel generates power, it's not necessarily when that electricity is needed -- it could be the middle of the night, or during a holiday when lots of people are outside. That power needs to be stored somewhere so that it can be used, otherwise renewable energy can't ever replace coal, oil, nuclear or similar plants that can output a reliable level of power whenever needed.
For that reliability, there are three main options: pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS), where water is pumped upwards into a reservoir where it can be released later; compressed air energy storage (CAES) where the air can be expanded again through turbines when needed; and batteries, of which there are many different types, each with their own maximum number of effective charge cycles.
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Currently, roughly 12.1 percent of the US's energy comes from wind, solar and other renewable sources, while the national grid has a storage capacity of only one percent. Climate and energy researchers Charles Barnhart and Sally Benson from Stanford University were curious as to which of these technologies would be best for a national grid if 80 percent of energy comes from renewables sources, taking into account the energy it would take to actually build each kind of storage. They compared PHS, CAES and five types of batter: lead-acid, lithium-ion, sodium-sulphur, vanadium-redox and zinc-bromine.
The researchers then worked out the cost of both building the technology and maintaining it over a 30-year timescale, chosen as the kind of length of time any realistic technology should be looking to deliver over to minimise replacement costs. They derived the "energy stored on investment" for each of the seven technologies to work out how much more energy it could store over its lifetime than it took to build and maintain.
Read next Some of the UK's trains could be running on solar power by 2020 Some of the UK's trains could be running on solar power by 2020
By far the best technology was PHS, which could store 210 times as much energy as is took to construct. The best lithium-ion batteries, by comparison, only managed a score of ten, while the worst batteries, lead-acid, had a measly value of two. Effectively, switching to these batteries is almost self-defeating.
This is in large part because battery technology currently can't handle enough charge cycles. Lithium-ion batteries can handle at most around 6,000 cycle, lead-acid batteries only 700, compared to more than 25,000 cycles for a PHS facility. Even though the material costs for large-scale batteries are more prohibitive than for PHS (rare-earth minerals versus what is often no more than concrete and steel), it's the lifecycle of batteries that we'll need to work on if we want to be able to rely on them as affordable parts of the grid.
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Benson said: "The most effective way a storage technology can become less energy-intensive over time is to increase its cycle life. Most battery research today focuses on improving the storage or power capacity. These qualities are very important for electric vehicles and portable electronics, but not for storing energy on the grid. Based on our ESOI calculations, grid-scale battery research should focus on extending cycle life by a factor of 3 to 10."
As much as PHS might sound like a great idea, the reality is that you need a relatively hilly or, even better, mountainous landscape in which to build it. Those locations tend to be limited -- often they are within national parks or have other environmental qualifications, and those that aren't take up a huge amount of room. The largest such facility in the UK, Dinorwig in Wales, consists of 16km of tunnels but only generates 1.7GW of electricity at peak capacity -- that's only roughly two percent of the UK's total energy demand. Plus, people tend not to live in the mountains, so there are transmission issues in getting that power to far-away towns and cities.
There's better news for CAES, which had the highest ESOI value of 240. However, it will require huge tanks or caverns to fill with air, which again limits its viability to a limited number of areas.
That leaves us with the necessary task of improving battery life.
Barnhart said: "I would like our study to be a call to arms for increasing the cycle life of electrical energy storage.
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It's really a basic conservative principal: The longer something lasts, the less energy you're going to use. You can buy a really well-made pair of boots that will last five years, or a shoddy pair that will last only one."
The study has been published in Energy & Environmental Science.
Image: ShutterstockPD James is not just the author of a slew of detective novels. She has also slipped with ease into other genres (SF classic Children of Men comes to mind) and she's a baroness who sits in the House of Lords. She is also an author of fanfiction. Because how could her latest offering, Death Comes to Pemberley, about a bad murder that disturbs the peaceful happy ever after of Darcy and Elizabeth, be described as anything else?
This high-profile outing for one of literature's most maligned genres finally shows that fanfiction is a worthwhile literary pursuit. Though this respectable end of fanfiction has always been around in books like the brilliant Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, or Susan Hill's Rebecca prequel Mrs de Winter, the current literary trend seems to explore retreads of another author's story. Along with PD, Anthony Horowitz is re-imagining Sherlock Homes (Stephen Moffat and Guy Ritchie are weighing in with their takes too) and Jeffery Deaver has recently given us his spin on James Bond.
Are these books so different from what you might find trawling the annals of fanfiction.net – an archive so extensive it features over 70 stories reworking the characters and situations of, um, Tetris? Well, they're certainly viewed very differently. While respected authors publish real, paper books riffing on characters created by authors long dead (and therefore, crucially, out of copyright), fanfiction is still seen as geekier than geeky, the pursuit only of the friendless, usually female internet nerd, creating panting fantasies, riven with author insertions.
And unlike those big glossy-covered hardbacks, fanfiction is never going to make its authors any money. There has never been a test case, and while some claim it counts as "fair use", the legality of fanfiction is pretty much a grey area. Wikipedia, unsurprisingly, covers this in mindbending detail. While those legal issues come into play if the work is still in copyright, if the author is still alive things can get even more morally complex. Some authors, such as Anne Rice and George RR Martin have specifically condemned fanfiction, asking their fans not to play in their personal sandboxes. Martin even went so far as to dismiss the process as "bad training for any aspiring writer".
Fanfiction, playing with characters and worlds already created elsewhere, can be a thrilling creative outlet for all kinds of people. The most enjoyable works of fiction present us with convincing worlds; we believe our favourite characters existed before "once upon a time" and go on existing after the final full stop. It's not surprising then, that the best stories can be irresistible playground to some writers. Yes, quality varies. A lot of fanfiction is, indeed, terrible: it's amateur fiction published, unedited online. What were you expecting? But, like any kind of literature, fanfiction can be sublime or ridiculous. There are some real gems out there, that are every bit as original as works with no previous owners.
Isn't it time we gave the art of remixing stories it a little more respect? After all, it was good enough for Shakespeare.By the 7 th and 8 th centuries B.C., the role of the chariot in battle was gradually being replaced by cavalry units in the Near East. Some were armed lightly and were used to harass the enemy from afar with missiles or to pursue routing troops. Other types of cavalry units were heavily armed, and were used as shock troops to break enemy formations. The most heavily armed cavalry unit in the ancient world was the greatly feared cataphract.
Origins of the cataphract
The word ‘cataphract’ has its origins in the Greek language, and is said to mean ‘fully armored’ or ‘closed from all sides’. The cataphract, however, was not a Greek ‘product’, and was only adopted by the armies of the Seleucid Empire sometime during the 4th century B.C., after they went on military campaigns against their eastern neighbours. It has been pointed out that one of the earliest known depictions of the cataphract can be found in Khwarezm, a region in Central Asia near the Aral Sea. This image portrays a warrior clad in armor, armed with a lance and bow, and mounted on an armored horse. It has been estimated that these cavalrymen were used in the region as early as the 6 th century B.C. Apart from the Seleucids, various other Central Asian nations also had cataphracts in their armies.
Relief Taq-e Bostan (Kermanshah Province in Iran) from the era of Sassanid Empire: One of the oldest depictions of a cataphract. The figure on top in the middle is believed to be Khosrau II. The figure to the right is Ahura Mazda, and to the left is the Persian Goddess Anahita. The cataphract is not known, although various theories exist on his identity, but he is certainly of royal nobility. ( Wikimedia Commons )
The ‘mailed horsemen’ of Persia
The expansion of Rome into the Near East brought them into conflict with one of these nations, the Parthians, who were also the successors of the Seleucids. Thanks to the Roman historians who wrote about the conflict between Rome and Parthia, we have a certain amount of knowledge about the cataphract. Ironically, perhaps, is that one of the best descriptions of the cataphract is to be found in a novel, and not a historical work. In Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, the cataphracts, or “mailed horsemen”, are described as “the most valiant of all the Persian fighters”, and that each of them looked like “a man made of iron or a statue fashioned with hammers”. Heliodorus also provides a detailed description of the cataphract’s armor: a closed helmet covered the warrior’s head down to the shoulders, leaving only two holes for the eyes (Ammianus Marcellinus, a 4 th century Roman historian, adds that the helmets were fitted with “forms of human faces”); a coat of mail made of brass or iron scales protecting the entire body of the warrior; the horse is similarly armed. As for weapons, the warrior wields “a great staff, bigger than a spear”, and a sword.
A stone-etched relief depicting a Parthian cataphract fighting against a lion. Housed in the British Museum. ( Wikimedia Commons )
The charge of the cataphracts
Generally, the cataphract is used to charge en masse into enemy lines. Due to the sheer weight of their armor, a cataphract charge can deal a great blow to the enemy. The impact of a cataphract charge is also highlighted by the historian Tacitus, who wrote that “when they (the Sarmatians) attack the foe on horseback, hardly any line can resist them.” The irresistible force of a cataphract charge may also have a psychological effect on their enemies, as another historian, Cassius Dio, suggests. In his account of Crassus’ defeat at the Battle of Carrhae, Dio claimed that “many died from fright at the very charge of the pikemen”. The reputation of the cataphract is further enhanced by the statement (in Heliodorus and Plutarch) that their charge had enough force to impale two men in one go.
The charge of the cataphract put much fear in the enemy. Equestrian Relief at Firuzabad Iran showing Cataphracts dueling with lances ( Wikimedia Commons )
The dangerous life of a cataphract
Nevertheless, the cataphract was not invincible. Its greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. For a start, the weight of the armor was so great that the warrior needed others to help him up onto his horse. As long as he remained on his horse, the warrior was in a safe position. If he was dismounted during battle, however, he would have been an easy target for the enemy. Although the armor afforded extra protection, it also reduced the horse’s stamina. Furthermore, overheating was also a major problem. These weaknesses were exploited by the Roman emperor Aurelian during his battle against the Palmyrenes led by Zenobia. Using his lighter cavalry, Aurelian provoked the Palmyrene cataphracts to attack. The emperor’s cavalry, however, were ordered not to engage the cataphracts, and pretended to retreat. Once the cataphracts succumbed to the heat and the weight of the armor, Aurelian’s cavalry charged and annihilated the Palmyrene cataphracts. Whilst the armor of the cataphract was able to withstand attacks from swords and arrows, they seemed to be useless against blunt weapons. During Aurelian’s battle against the Palmyrenes, he had troops from Palestine armed with clubs and staves that were used specifically “against coats of mail made of iron and brass”.
A depiction of Sarmatian cataphracts fleeing from Roman cavalry during the Dacian wars circa 101 AD, at Trajan's Column in Rome ( Wikimedia Commons ). One man has fallen from his horse, the greatest danger for a cataphract.
Despite the weaknesses of the cataphract, they were still a very formidable cavalry unit. This is perhaps best seen in the fact that they were first adopted by the Seleucids, and then by the Romans. Additionally, the Sassanians and the Byzantines, the successors of Rome and Parthia respectively, also employed the cataphract in their armies. With increasingly sophisticated armor being produced by the blacksmiths of Medieval Europe, the cataphracts were no longer the feared force they once were, and over time they eventually became obsolete.
While you may not be into gaming, there are several recently released games that provide an accurate look at cataphracts and their operations, including Rome II: Empire Divided and Mount & Blade 2. In both games, the cataphracts are represented as heavily armored riders and horses, and are used to making charging attacks against enemy lines.
Featured image: ‘The Parthian cataphract’. (Total War game picture and retouched with Photoshop / Manu56bzh).
By Ḏḥwty
References
Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman Antiquities [Online]
[Rolfe, J.C. (trans.), 1939-50. Ammianus Marcellinus’ Roman Antiquities.]
Available at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ammian/home.html
Cassius Dio, Roman History [Online]
[Cary, E. (trans.), 1914-27. Cassius Dio’s Roman History.]
Available at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html
Heliodorus, Aethiopica [Online]
[Underdowne, T. (trans.), 1587. Heliodorus’ Aethiopica.]
Available at: http://www.elfinspell.com/HeliodorusTitle.html
Invictus, 2006. Cataphracts and Clibanarii of the Ancient World. [Online]
Available at: http://allempires.com/article/index.php?q=cataphracts
Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Crassus [Online]
[Perrin, B. (trans.), 1916. Plutarch’s Parallel Lives: Crassus.]
Available at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html
Shahbazi, A. S., 2015. Parthian Army. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/parthians/parthian_army.php
Tacitus, The Histories [Online]
[Moore, C. H. (trans.), 1925-37. Tacitus’ The Histories.]
Available at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/home.html
www.hellenicaworld.com, 2015. Cataphract. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Byzantium/Military/en/Cataphract.html
Zosimus, New History: Book 1 [Online]
[Anon. (trans.), 1814. Zosimus’ New History: Book 1.]
Available at: http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/zosimus01_book1.htmPreparations for D-Day Edit
Invasion Edit
Campaign close Edit
Eisenhower took direct command of all Allied ground forces on 1 September. Concerned about German counter-attacks and the limited materiel arriving in France, he decided to continue operations on a broad front rather than attempting narrow thrusts. The linkup of the Normandy forces with the Allied forces in southern France occurred on 12 September as part of the drive to the Siegfried Line. On 17 September, Montgomery launched Operation Market Garden, an unsuccessful attempt by Anglo-American airborne troops to capture bridges in the Netherlands to allow ground forces to cross the Rhine into Germany. The Allied advance slowed due to German resistance and the lack of supplies (especially fuel). On 16 December the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive, also known as the Battle of the Bulge, their last major offensive of the war on the Western Front. A series of successful Soviet actions began with the Vistula–Oder Offensive on 12 January. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April as Soviet troops neared his Führerbunker in Berlin, and Germany surrendered on 7 May 1945. Canadian soldiers with a captured Nazi flag The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers. They hastened the end of the war in Europe, drawing large forces away from the Eastern Front that might otherwise have slowed the Soviet advance. The opening of another front in western Europe was a tremendous psychological blow for Germany's military, who feared a repetition of the two-front war of World War I. The Normandy landings also heralded the start of the "race for Europe" between the Soviet forces and the Western powers, which some historians consider to be the start of the Cold War. Victory in Normandy stemmed from several factors. German preparations along the Atlantic Wall were only partially finished; shortly before D-Day Rommel reported that construction was only 18 per cent complete in some areas as resources were diverted elsewhere. The deceptions undertaken in Operation Fortitude were successful, leaving the Germans obliged to defend a huge stretch of coastline. The Allies achieved and maintained air superiority, which meant that the Germans were unable to make observations of the preparations underway in Britain and were unable to interfere via bomber attacks. Transport infrastructure in France was severely disrupted by Allied bombers and the French Resistance, making it difficult for the Germans to bring up reinforcements and supplies. Much of the opening artillery barrage was off-target or not concentrated enough to have any impact, but the specialised armour worked well except on Omaha, providing close artillery support for the troops as they disembarked onto the beaches. The indecisiveness and overly complicated command structure of the German high command was also a factor in the Allied success.
Casualties Edit
Allies Edit American assault troops injured while storming Omaha From D-Day to 21 August, the Allies landed 2,052,299 men in northern France. The cost of the Normandy campaign was high for both sides. Between 6 June and the end of August, the American armies suffered 124,394 casualties, of whom 20,668 were killed.[f] Casualties within the First Canadian and Second British Armies are placed at 83,045: 15,995 killed, 57,996 wounded, and 9,054 missing.[g] Of these, Canadian losses amounted to 18,444, with 5,021 killed in action. The Allied air forces, having flown 480,317 sorties in support of the invasion, lost 4,101 aircraft and 16,714 airmen (8,536 members of the USAAF, and 8,178 flying under the command of the RAF). The Free French SAS paratroopers suffered 77 killed, with 197 wounded and missing. Allied tank losses have been estimated at around 4,000, with losses split evenly between the American and British/Canadian armies. Historians slightly differ on overall casualties during the campaign, with the lowest losses totaling 225,606 and the highest at 226,386. Germany Edit German forces surrender in Saint-Lambert-sur-Dive, 21 August 1944 German forces in France reported losses of 158,930 men between D-Day and 14 August, just before the start of Operation Dragoon in Southern France. In action at the Falaise pocket, 50,000 men were lost, of whom 10,000 were killed and 40,000 captured. Sources vary on the total German casualties. Niklas Zetterling, on examining German records, places the total German casualties suffered in Normandy and facing the Dragoon landings to be 290,000. Other sources arrive at higher estimates: 400,000 (200,000 killed or wounded and a further 200,000 captured), 500,000 (290,000 killed or wounded, 210,000 captured), to 530,000 in total. There are no exact figures regarding German tank losses in Normandy. Approximately 2,300 tanks and assault guns were committed to the battle,[h] of which only 100 to 120 crossed the Seine at the end of the campaign. While German forces reported only 481 tanks destroyed between D-day and 31 July, research conducted by No. 2 Operational Research Section of 21st Army Group indicates that the Allies destroyed around 550 tanks in June and July and another 500 in August, for a total of 1,050 tanks destroyed, including 100 destroyed by aircraft. Luftwaffe losses amounted to 2,127 aircraft. By the end of the Normandy campaign, 55 German divisions (42 infantry and 13 panzer) had been rendered combat ineffective; seven of these were disbanded. By September, OB West had only 13 infantry divisions, 3 panzer divisions, and 2 panzer brigades rated as combat effective. Civilians and French heritage buildings Edit During the liberation of Normandy, between 13,632 and 19,890 French civilians were killed, and more were seriously wounded. In addition to those who died during the campaign, 11,000 to 19,000 Normans are estimated to have been killed during pre-invasion bombing. A total of 70,000 French civilians were killed throughout the course of the war. Land mines and unexploded ordnance continued to inflict casualties upon the Norman population following the end of the campaign. A British soldier escorts an elderly lady in Caen, July 1944 Prior to the invasion, SHAEF issued instructions (later the basis for the 1954 Hague Convention Protocol I) emphasising the need to limit the destruction to French heritage sites. These sites, named in the Official Civil Affairs Lists of Monuments, were not to be used by troops unless permission was received from the upper echelons of the chain of command. Nevertheless, church spires and other stone buildings throughout the area were damaged or destroyed to prevent them being used by the Germans. Efforts were made to prevent reconstruction workers from using rubble from important ruins to repair roads, and to search for artefacts. The Bayeux tapestry and other important cultural treasures had been stored at the Château de Sourches near Le Mans from the start of the war, and survived intact. The occupying German forces also kept a list of protected buildings, but their intent was to keep the facilities in good condition for use as accommodation by German troops. Many cities and towns in Normandy were totally devastated by the fighting and bombings. By the end of the Battle of Caen there remained only 8,000 liveable quarters for a population of over 60,000. Of the 18 listed churches in Caen, four were seriously damaged and five were destroyed, along with 66 other listed monuments. In the Calvados department (location of the Normandy beachhead), 76,000 citizens were rendered homeless. Of Caen's 210 pre-war Jewish population, only one survived the war. Looting was a concern, with all sides taking part—the retreating Germans, the invading Allies (for example British forces looting the Musée des Antiquaires in Caen and Château d'Audrieu near Bayeux), and the local French population. Looting was never condoned by Allied forces, and perpetrators were punished.
War memorials and tourism Edit
The Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery The beaches of Normandy are still known by their invasion code names. Significant places have plaques, memorials, or small museums, and guide books and maps are available. Some of the German strong points remain preserved; Pointe du Hoc in particular is little changed from 1944. The remains of Mulberry harbour B still sits in the sea at Arromanches. Several large cemeteries in the area serve as the final resting place for many of the Allied and German soldiers killed in the Normandy campaign.
See also Edit
Notes Edit
References EditThe Missouri legislature is poised to pass bills to weaken unions and clear the way for corporate dominance in the state. So-called “right-to-work” laws force unions to represent employees who pay nothing toward the costs of collective bargaining. It’s bad enough that these laws allow them to get the benefits of higher wages and better fringe benefits without paying their fair share. What’s worse is that these laws force unions to defend non-dues payers when they need to be defended against unjust discipline or being fired. Arbitration can cost thousands of dollars, including the cost of hiring lawyers.
These bills won’t lead to more manufacturing plants or better jobs or anything good. They lead only to weaker unions, less bargaining power for Missouri workers, and lower wages.
Wages are 3.1 percent lower in so-called “right to work” (RTW) states, for union and nonunion workers alike—after correctly accounting for differences in cost of living, demographics, and labor market characteristics. The negative impact of RTW laws translates to $1,558 less a year in earnings for a typical full-time worker.
Washington University in St. Louis professor Jake Rosenfeld finds that the dramatic decline in union density since 1979 has resulted in far lower wages for nonunion workers, an impact larger than the 5 percent effect of globalization on their wages. Specifically, nonunion men lacking a college degree would have earned 8 percent or $3,016 annually, more in 2013 if unions had remained as strong as they were in 1979.
Between 1979 and 2013, the share of private sector workers in a union has fallen from about 34 percent to 11 percent among men, and from 16 percent to 6 percent among women. The authors note that unions keep wages high for nonunion workers for several reasons: union agreements set wage standards and a strong union presence prompts managers to keep wages high in order to prevent workers from organizing or their employees from leaving. Moreover, unions set industry-wide norms, influencing the moral economy.
Rosenfeld’s report shows that working class men have felt the decline in unionization the hardest; their paychecks are noticeably smaller than if unions had remained as strong as they were almost 40 years ago. Rebuilding collective bargaining is one of the tools we have to reinvigorate wage growth, for low and middle-wage workers.
That’s why the so called “right-to-work” efforts make no sense. We need workers to have more bargaining power, to negotiate for higher wages. The RTW laws are designed by the business lobby to benefit corporate titans.
One wonders why state legislators go along with them when they hurt the vast majority of their constituents.NEW YORK CITY — Rumored 2020 presidential hopeful and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo catered to his party’s left-wing base Wednesday when he called for the removal of Confederate names and busts from the Big Apple.
Instead of calling for calm as left-wing radicals across the U.S. look to strip the country of various historical artifacts in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gov. Cuomo is instead stoking the flames of iconoclasm.
Cuomo announced Wednesday that he had asked the acting secretary of the U.S. Army to remove confederate names from the streets near Fort Hamilton Military Base in Brooklyn.
I just asked the acting secretary of the @USArmy to remove confederate names from the streets of Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 16, 2017
He later announced that sculptures of two confederate generals — Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee — would be removed from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) hall of great Americans purportedly “because New York stands against racism.”
There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall. These two confederates are not among them. — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 17, 2017
Cuomo’s move was particularly curious as New York is not known for being a hot bed of Confederacy. Even the New York Times noted that New York, “a Northern stronghold of Unionists and abolitionists, has few Confederate memorials.”
The move came as two plaques honoring Lee were removed from a Brooklyn park. The New York Daily News reported that the plaque from 1912 was removed from a tree planted by Lee in the 1840s, years before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Lee served at Fort Hamilton during those years, and the tree is now outside an Episcopal Church. A second plaque installed in 1935 was also removed.
“For us, it wasn’t a decision that needed more than a minute of thought,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, told the Daily News.
Not all local residents were happy:
“What’s next?” local resident Tony Eye told the Daily News. “If someone doesn’t like the color of that guy’s door, you’re going to take it down? If it was red, and someone related that to communism, they have to take it down because it’s a red door?”
The purge looks like it is far from over, however, with Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing Wednesday that, in the wake of Charlottesville, “New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property.”
After the violent events in Charlottesville, New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property. — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 16, 2017
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNYIt’s that season again — when UPS delivery people work overtime to rush fruitcakes and ill-fitting sweaters to our far-flung friends and relatives, and Americans everywhere get into the holiday spirit by bludgeoning each other to get the bargain smartphones at their favorite big-box store.
This year, Grist Senior Editor Greg Hanscom has decided to fight back. On Black Friday, he penned an open letter to friends and family asking them to get his two young daughters nothing for Christmas, and explaining that he and his wife, Tara, are trying to put the focus on special holiday experiences rather than just amassing more stuff. The letter attracted the attention of the TV news program 20/20, which included Greg and his family in its Friday evening holiday extravaganza. The name of 20/20’s segment: “Christmas Extremists.”
Greg served as the foil for Shay Gibbons, whose Tulsa, Okla., home, according to 20/20, is decked out with 169 Christmas trees, 100 nativity scenes, dozens of inflatable yard characters, 50,000 ornaments, and 100,000 lights. After a tour of the Gibbons home, the camera flashes to Greg, explaining that he doesn’t get his kids Christmas presents — a quote that gets replayed with a hilarious echo effect just for added impact on the shopping public. Here’s the segment:
That’s right! Jesus would approve of this holiday madness! He was a big shopper after all …
OK, truth be told, Greg’s kids loved the part about all the Christmas trees. They’re campaigning for a road trip to Tulsa just to get a look at the Gibbons house.
But lest you think Greg’s message was lost on the credit-card waving hordes, there’s this: A viewer poll that ran alongside the video on 20/20’s website asked, “Who’s got more Holiday spirit: the Tulsa woman with 169 Christmas trees or the Seattle dad who gives his kids experiences instead of gifts?”
At last count, Gibbons had 173 votes. Grist’s “Eco-dad” had 1,101. Eat your heart out, Santa Claus! (1,375 voters called it a tie. Want to add your vote? The survey is here.)
What do you make of all this? Are you struggling to dematerialize your holiday? Got a favorite stuff-free seasonal ritual? We’d love to know. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat on the subject tomorrow. UPDATE: Twitter chat begins on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 12:30 Pacific time (that’s 3:30 p.m. Eastern). We’ll be using the hash tag #shiftthegift. Follow @grist for details.
Not into the Twitter? Write a comment below, or comment on our Facebook page. Whatever you do, be careful out there: You do not want to get between America and its Christmas deals.RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat To Get Doctor Of Science For 'Contributions In Indigenous Cow Conservation'
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will be conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU), Nagpur for his 'contributions in indigenous cow conservation'. He will be awarded this 'honoris causa' (honorary degree) on March 9 during MAFSU Convocation."Sri Mohan Bhagwat is an alumnus of Government Veterinary College, Nagpur. We are giving this award to Mohan Bhagwatji for his contributions in indigenous cow conservation", said a university official when contacted by NDTV."He will be awarded this 'honoris causa' (honorary degree) of Doctor of Science on 9 th March in the 8 th convocation programme at the university," added the official.The MAFSU official has also said that Mr. Bhagwat's efforts have helped the rural cow economy to grow and this award is in respect for his contributions.The official also said that there was nothing political in D.Sc is being conferred to him. "The proposal was checked by all the committees including the academic council", he said.RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat graduated in Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry from Government Veterinary College, Nagpur. He dropped out of his postgraduate course in Veterinary Sciences and became a pracharak of RSS towards the end of 1975.After the establishment of Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Government Veterinary College, Nagpur became a the constituent college of the University.8th Convocation of Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University is scheduled on Thursday, the 9th March 2017 at Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande Smruti Sabhagruha, opposite MLA Hostel, Civil Lines, Nagpur. Click here for more Education NewsOver the past decade, there's been a privacy arms race between unscrupulous website operators and browser makers. The former wield an ever-changing lineup of so-called zombie cookies that can't be easily deleted and attacks that sniff thousands of previously visited sites, while browser makers aim to prevent such privacy invasions by closing the design weaknesses that make them possible. Almost as soon as one hole is closed, hackers find a new one.
Over the weekend, a researcher demonstrated two unpatched weaknesses that Web masters can exploit to track millions of people who visit their sites. Taken together, the attacks allow websites to compile a list of previously visited domains, even when users have flushed their browsing history, and to tag visitors with a tracking cookie that will persist even after users have deleted all normal cookies. Ironically, the techniques abuse relatively new security features that are already built into Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and that may make their way into other mainstream browsers |
only be taken with the consent of the majority of MPs representing constituencies in England, or in England and Wales," it said.
"We will end the manifest unfairness whereby Scotland is able to decide its own laws in devolved areas, only for Scottish MPs also to be able to have the potentially decisive say on similar matters that affect only England or Wales."
The proposals were welcomed by a succession of Conservative MPs, including John Redwood, Cheryl Gillan and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
'Fundamental breach'
But the SNP has warned that any move to restrict the voting rights of MPs would create "two classes" of MP.
Urging the Commons Speaker to conduct an investigation into the wider implications of such a move, former SNP leader Alex Salmond said it would "breach the fundamental principle that all members of the House are equal".
In his first contribution since returning to the Commons as an MP, Mr Salmond said that if no action was taken, "any majority government could change standing orders to restrict the rights of any member without so much as a bye or leave".
Commons Speaker John Bercow said it was an important matter and one on which he would take advice.
Labour wants the issue to be considered as part of a wider Constitutional Convention while UKIP has called for the scrapping of the Barnett Formula, the mechanism by which spending is allocated to the nations of the UK. The government says it will keep the Formula.A loaf of salt-rising bread. (Photo: Wonderland Kitchen/flickr)
Its flavor is often described as ‘cheese-like’, its crumb dense, and its odor memorable. Salt-rising bread is special to those who remember it as a home-cooked comfort by a grandmother or parent. It’s also one of the only breads that uses a mix of bacteria, rather than yeast, to rise–a mix that includes a form of Clostridium perfringens, the culprit commonly known to cause the discomforts of food poisoning and the purulent wounds of gangrene.
No one exactly knows where salt-rising bread originated, but the prevailing idea is that pioneer women developed the bread as they traveled along the Appalachian mountain range, where the bread is most often found today. Before the 1860s, commercial yeast didn’t exist–most breads were leavened through sourdough starters, or by skimming the yeast and bacterial byproducts from the beer making process, neither of which were available in pioneer life. Salt-rising bread doesn’t need yeast to rise, and contrary to its name, the bread doesn’t really need salt; the use of heated rock salt to regulate the temperature of the starter dough for pioneers very possibly contributed to its name.
Salt-rising bread’s pungent, sharp smell is either loved or hated, and sometimes compared to dirty socks, with a unique cheesy taste that aficionados love. After its invention the bread became incredibly popular, with recipes for it appearing in many cookbooks into the 1920s; it even played a central role in the Kansas governor’s race in 1910. Even in 2012, Country magazine called salt-rising bread its “all-time most requested recipe.”
Glenda Riley writes in The Annals of Iowa journal that the meals of one pioneer “regularly featured … salt-rising bread, which she worked at in between her other chores,” starting the bread as they made afternoon camp, letting it rise until midnight by the fire, and having the dough rise again until it was ready to bake at breakfast time, ever with a watchful eye that the dough was rising properly.
A family outside their cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, where salt-rising bread is said to have originated. (Photo: Library of Congress)
If you think this sounds time-consuming and difficult, you would be correct. In Beard on Bread James Beard agrees that salt-rising bread is “unpredictable,” adding that, ”You may try the same recipe three or four times and find that it works the fifth time…you may be disappointed.” If you Google salt-rising bread, one of the first results is an allrecipes.com entry that warns in the shouting tone of capslock: “THIS IS NOT AN EASY BREAD TO MAKE!”
In the early 20th century, this lengthy, yeast-less process also became an interest of microbiologists. In 1914, Richard N. Hart noted in his book Leavening Agents that salt-rising bread “seems to fail in a well-sterilized room,” and alludes to the experiments of Henry A. Kohman, who discovered that salt-rising dough lacked yeast completely “but literally swarmed with bacteria.”
In 1910 Kohman was funded by the aforementioned bread-obsessed Kansas Governor, Walter R. Stubbs, to learn how bakers may reliably make it, and concluded that a variety of anaerobic bacteria allowed the bread to rise. In 1923, microbiologist Stuart A. Koser began to suspect the mix might include bacteria found in human intestines and wounds.
More Clostridium perfringens bacteria, an essential element to salt-rising bread. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)
To explore his hypothesis, Koser started with a few experiments that exposed guinea pigs to the bacteria, and confirmed that innocuous Bacillus welchii (now called C. perfringens) spores were present in the bread, but his experiments quickly dove into the macabre. He decided to take it a step further and bake a loaf of his own using the toxic bacteria from a soldier’s gangrenous wound.
Koser made a salt-rising bread starter in his lab, and successfully created the grossest, and possibly the most dangerous bread in history–the wound-bacteria made bread that did not go over so well with the guinea pigs this time around.
It seems that practically anything can capture the right bacteria to make salt-rising bread. A man named Reinald Neilsen conducted dozens of baking experiments using different salt-rising bread starters. In 2002, he published an article in Petits Propos Culinaires on how he successfully made salt-rising bread starters out of oats, cheese, and even tree bark–which apparently works well, but needs to be picked out of the bread as it’s eaten.
The diverse range of salt-rising bread starters is possible because of the bacteria they attract. Salt-rising bread bakers create a fruitful environment for bacteria using a process called alkaline fermentation. Boiling water or milk is poured over a base like cornmeal or potatoes. It is left to sit for hours between 90 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit before flour is added and it sits again. This captures a medley of wild bacteria including Bacillus, C. perfringens and Lactobacillus, which feed from each other in a symbiotic relationship visible in the bubbling, foaming mixture that forms, called the ‘sponge’. After nine to 12 hours of bacterial growth, it’s ready to bake.
Typically, this sounds like the opposite of what one wants to do with food. The dangerous strains of the C. perfringens bacteria are what keep us from eating old meat, the nightmare that keeps restaurants in a constant state of concern about food temperatures, and the microbe responsible for gas gangrene necrotic enteritis. So how have generations of Appalachian cooks been eating this bread, which hasn’t produced a single case of food poisoning?
The truth is, the strain of bacteria in salt-rising bread is completely safe–though the reasons why are slightly mysterious. Jenny Bardwell and Susan Brown, professional bakers who have researched how salt-rising bread works for over 20 years, collaborated with microbiologists test it. The resulting paper, “The Microbiology of Salt Rising Bread,” published in West Virginia Medical Journal, notes that the bread does contain this bacteria, but testing indicates the strain is “unable to cause C. perfringens type A food poisoning.”
Clostridium perfringens colonies. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)
The reason this strain exists may lie in bacteria’s ability to change. In certain environments, bacteria may find a mini-evolutionary advantage to gaining or losing genetic traits–including traits that involve giving off toxins. The environment of a wound, in contrast to that of bread dough, might attract and cultivate very different strains of the same bacteria. Even if toxic strains of C. perfringens make it into the bread, study co-author Gregory Juckett notes that baking temperatures are far above tolerance levels for the bacteria.
Since salt-rising bread has so far been known as a niche food item, there has been little funding to study it, but there have been studies with other breads using bacterial fermentation. In Greece a similar bread uses chickpeas, and in Sudan another calls for lentils. Preparations of both items indicate that the result is like that of salt-rising bread. Kenkey, a dumpling-like bread from Ghana made of a corn-based fermented dough, may also use a related process.
Not everyone has the drive to experiment, however, and the time needed to make salt-rising bread is what eventually caused it to recede into obscurity. By 1920, the book Manual of Homemaking had labeled salt-rising bread, “An old-fashioned bread, the making of which is almost a lost art to-day.”
Susan Brown with her grandmother, who routinely baked salt-rising bread. (Photo: Susan Brown/saltrisingbread.net)
Bardwell and Brown explain in The Handbook of Indigenous Alkalyne Fermentation that by the mid-1900s salt-rising bread was available in bakeries, with fewer people baking it at home. When production of commercial salt-rising bread starters ceased in the 1960s, most people stopped making it. Today salt-rising bread is usually sought because of nostalgia, the memory of lost family members and home-cooked meals; Bardwell and Brown’s own personal ties to the bread go back generations, and are part of what inspired their research in the first place.
“There are memories that tastes provoke and smells provoke–and salt-rising bread has a very strong smell,” says Brown. “People will come into the bakery, take a loaf, put it up to their face and take a really long, deep breath.” At Rising Creek Bakery in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, Bardwell and Brown bake salt-rising bread and hope to revive the tradition, teach anyone who will listen how to make it, and encourage scientists to study it. Bardwell and Brown believe that salt-rising bread may even further teach microbiologists how probiotics keep us healthy.
“Susan and I have many responses from people saying that salt-rising bread calms their stomachs and is soothing to them when they can’t eat anything else,” says Bardwell. “Salt-rising bread may even be some kind of cure that helps people.” This might make sense– C. perfringens and Lactobacillus are, after all, both present in the human digestive system. Amid studies about intestinal flora and a constant stream of probiotics on grocery shelves, studying and eating this unlikely food may hold more benefits than its pioneer inventors knew.
In honor of Thanksgiving, here is Susan Brown’s recipe for salt-rising bread stuffing:
Salt Rising Bread Stuffing
Ingredients:
16 cups of 1 inch salt rising bread cubes (1 1/2 # loaf)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups medium diced onion (2 onions)
1 cup medium diced celery (2 stalks)
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
12 cups turkey broth or chicken stock
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place the bread cubes in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake for 7 minutes.
3. Remove the bread cubes to a very large bowl.
4. Melt the butter and add the onions, celery, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until the vegetables are softened. Add to the bread cubes.
5. Add the turkey (or chicken) broth or stock to the mixture. Mix well and pour into a greased 9-by-12-inch baking dish.
6. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, until browned on top and hot in the middle. Serve warm.
Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink.
Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week.The wait is almost over, as Withered will be unleashing their sinister new album, “Grief Relic“, on May 27th via Season Of Mist. Throughout the band’s career, they’ve delivered some of the most intense metal in the scene, and they continue that trend with the new record. “Grief Relic” is, in my opinion, their best record to date, and for a longtime fan of this band as I am, those are huge words. This album is simply everything you’ve ever wanted from Withered, and much more. They say good things come to those who wait, and after a six year absence, these guys are about to release one of the best albums of 2016.
I recently got to chat with Mike Thompson about the new record, their recent lineup changes, and much more! Read what he had to say below, and do your life a favor by pre-ordering “Grief Relic” today!
Metal Mark: Mike, always a pleasure to hear from you. I guess the best way to open it up is to say welcome back!
Mike Thompson: Thanks man. It’s been a pain the ass to get here, but we’re here! (Laughs)
MM: That’s a great thing! As you’ve seen from the response to the new material, people are stoked to have you guys in the scene again, but I feel like you may be more excited than anyone?
MT: Totally man. Honestly, it’s two years later than we thought it would be, but things happen for a reason, and now we can finally release this music to everyone. We wrote most of it back in late 2012 to early 2013, so now that’s it coming out it’s kind of surreal, but very welcomed. I know a lot of people have brought up the “six years in the making” quote about the record, which I guess is kind of true in a way, but not really to us. We laugh about it, but it does add to the hype I guess. It’s been a minute for sure.
MM: It’s been way too long, but now you guys have a new lineup, and it sounds as strong as ever. How did Ethan and Colin come into the fold, and what did they bring to the table for you?
MT: Ethan actually reached out to me once he heard that Dylan left the band. He really wanted to be a part of it for a while. We did a lot with him and his old band, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, because we were both on Prosthetic Records way back in the day, plus he rules. When he wanted to join, there was no way I was going to say no. When it comes to the his vocals and musicianship, he’s one of a kind, so I’m beyond happy to have him with us.
When Mike Longoria left the band, he left huge shoes to fill. As you know, he was an insane bass player, and a monster on stage, so we knew that whoever took over, had to be damn good. I actually tried to write bass lines for the new material, and quickly realized that this was not the right idea at all (laughs). So a light bulb went off in my head, and I asked Colin, since I’ve known him for a while, and was hoping for a miracle really. He’s not a “bassist for hire” ya know. He only does stuff that he’s into, so I sent him the demos, and he was way into it, so that was the perfect fit right there.
As for what they brought to the record, hell, I don’t know if I can put that into words. We had these songs for so long, and then once they added their talents, it became a whole new monster. I’ve heard these songs a thousand times by now, and it’s still fun to listen to, and they are definitely one of the main reasons for it. They came in and ruled like I wished, so I couldn’t ask for anything more.
MM: The record is definitely a cohesive monster. I’ve been following you guys for years now, and it’s one hell of a listen. It has the typical Withered stuff, but as you’ve done before, there are some twists and turns to keep the listener wanting more ya know. Was this the original direction the material was going, or was that due to the new members coming in?
MT: That’s definitely the direction that the album was heading in the first place. If you look at our discography, we make a pretty strong effort to incorporate a least one “newer” element somewhere on a record. We like to nerd out and try new things, depending on what we are listening to. Whether it’s grindcore, or death metal, or Nordic black metal, we like to try and incorporate everything we love into the record, because it gives you more options live, and it gives fans from whatever genre something to listen to. Plus, it’s just fucking fun for us. It allows you to connect with songs differently, and creates that distinctive mood that we’ve been after in our career as well.
MM: That’s what I’ve always loved about you guys. Even though there is so much happening on the record, they seem to flow perfectly, which is extremely hard to do. It seems like that’s been one of the most important things in Withered since day one.
MT: It definitely is. We are really into making albums. That’s what we grew up on, and that’s what we want to create. We put a great deal of importance on song arrangements, because we want the listener to enjoy it from the first note to the last. That’s how it should be.
When I was in high school I worshipped Kirk Hammett and Andreas Kisser. I was obsessed with the shredding, but once I started writing music for my own band, that kind of went away. I kind of got disenchanted with it, and put more importance on the song as a whole. I’m all for someone shredding my face off, but for our music, there’s more to it, so the importance of the song in it’s entirety became the number one thing for me. Once the song is good, then you go to the next, and the album comes together like that. We’ve done concept-ish records in the past, and with this one, we wanted to bring the listener on a journey again. We want that replay value that’s not as prevalent in the scene anymore. Nowadays it’s all about the singles, but we want fans to enjoy it from start to finish, and then hit play again, and I think we accomplished that. I would definitely say this is our most consistent record to date.
MM: You guys released “Husk” as the first single a few weeks ago, and have since released more, and I think you guys picked the right songs to give fans a preview of what to expect. A lot of bands just throw songs out there, for whatever reason, but the ones you chose really highlight what’s coming until they hear the whole thing.
MT: Good man, that’s what we wanted. It’s hard to choose one song to fully represent what we do. We aren’t really a band known for singles, and we never have been. We picked “Husk” first, because it represents the bulk of what happens on the record. It showcases the common elements you can expect for sure. After that came out I was like, alright “Distort, Engulf” has to be next, because it’s kind of a left turn from that one. It showcased the diversity on the record, and then “Feeble Gasp” is more of an epic song, so that showcased another shift in the direction of the music too. Honestly, it’s impossible to pick songs to capture what we’re doing (laughs). I’m glad you thought we chose the right ones, because I thought we did too. It’s not easy, but soon people will hear the full thing, and it will all make sense. The songs are great by themselves, but if people really give the record a good listen, it will hit them the right away, I believe. It’s a journey, like I said before, and I’m excited for people to hear it.
MM: So far so good, because the response to the singles have been amazing. For your personally, that’s got to be gratifying as hell?
MT: It is man. We started mixing this back in late 2014, and Colin couldn’t master it until last year, so it’s been a long time coming. Like I said before, I’ve probably listened to this album a thousand times, so to finally hear positive feedback is pretty awesome.
First off, we have to be happy with it, which is why I’ve listened to it so many times. We strive for quality, or our interpretation of quality, so once we have it, then we are happy. We have to play these songs live, and enjoy them every night, so we want them to sound right. You never know what the crowd is going to be like, so we have to at least make sure we’re having fun playing the music (laughs).
MM: On the upcoming tour with Inter Arma, are you focusing more on the new material or will it be a mix?
MT: It will be a mix for sure. We are doing one song from each of our previous records, and two from the new one. We would have done three, but “Realm of Suffering” is one of our favorites off the new record, but it’s also the longest song, so it only leaves so much time for everything else. We are playing one song off the last record that we’ve never played before, and fans will be happy about that.
MM: Which one?
MT: “Residue in the Void.”
MM: Oh shit.
MT: Yea (laughs). We had a previous member that was against playing it live, so we never did. It’s always been a favorite of ours and a lot of fans, so we relearned it, and will finally be playing it at upcoming shows. We are doing a lot of epic stuff on this run, so it’ll fit nicely. I’m just really excited about the whole set. It’s going to be massive.
MM: Nice man! Since some of the members are out of town for you guys, how will you approach the touring cycle for the record?
MT: We are going to tour as much possible (laughs). We have some guys here in town that will come in and play if Ethan or Colin aren’t available. We are really lucky in that respect. On the upcoming run, Rafay Nabeel will handling bass since Colin isn’t available. As you know, that dude just kills it on bass, so it’ll be awesome to have him on this run. Since Ethan isn’t available either, Raheem Amlani, who plays with Arcadea, will be handling his part. He actually engineered the whole record, so it worked out well. He loves the new material as much as we do, and he’s down for the tour, so it was a win win. Colin and Ethan are super busy with their projects, and we didn’t want to wait to tour, so we are lucky these guys are helping us out for this run. We are itching to play this stuff live man, so it’s going to be fun.
MM: I can’t wait to see you guys man. It’s been too long. For the last question, throughout all of the lineup changes, and everything else, you’ve continued to push on with Withered no matter what, which is awesome for fans like myself. What continues to drive you to this day?
MT: I’ll be honest man. It hasn’t been easy. When Mike and Dylan left the band, and we parted ways with Prosthetic, along with our rehearsal space going away, it felt like our whole infrastructure was falling apart over the course of two years. I really contemplated ending the band in 2013. It was burnt out, and with everything happening all at once, it was a lot to take on. Luckily, Beau wasn’t having it (laughs). Once we sat back down, and started jamming again, I realized that we had way too much material to just throw it away. As the first songs came to fruition, I could tell that we were onto something, and it was an absolute blast writing this record. I forgot how much fun writing music was for a minute I guess, but I quickly fell back in love while we were putting this album together. I quickly realized that I have a ton of riffs left in me, and as long as that’s the case, I’m going to keep doing it.
MM: That’s a good thing! Well congrats on this record man, because it’s the best I’ve heard from you guys, and I can’t wait to hear it live!
MT: Thanks Mark. We can’t wait to bring it live, and we’ll see you in Brooklyn. Enjoy the new record until then!A 28-year-old man was shot in the leg Saturday (Nov. 18) in the parking lot of the Take 5 Oil Change on Airline Drive in Metairie after he got into a fight with a fellow customer, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Authorities said the wounded man's injuries were not life-threatening.
The 28-year-old was waiting in line about noon to have his vehicle serviced at the Take 5, 3905 Airline Drive, when he grew frustrated and walked into the shop, said Glen T. Boyd, spokesman for the department. The man yelled at the workers before getting into a fight with a fellow customer.
The two men had moved the fight outside to an area behind the shop, when the 28-year-old punched the other customer, Boyd said. The 28-year-old then ran away on foot, leaving behind his vehicle.
When the 28-year-old returned to the oil change location shortly afterward to retrieve his car, the man who he was fighting with was waiting for him and fired a shot, hitting him once in the leg, Boyd said.
Boyd said the 28-year-old man drove himself to the hospital and has declined to press charges. JPSO is still searching for the shooter.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call JPSO at 504-364-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.UN halts Gaza house repairs saying donors failed to pay up
GAZA CITY - Agence France-Presse
Palestinian boys attend Friday prayers as they sit at the remains of a house that witnesses said was destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, in the Shejaia neighbourhood east of Gaza City January 23, 2015. REUTERS Photo
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Jan. 27 that it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year's war with Israel because donors have failed to pay."The agency has exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a statement."$5.4 billion was pledged at the Cairo (aid) conference last October and virtually none of it has reached Gaza. This is distressing and unacceptable."UNRWA said that the homes of more than 96,000 Palestine refugees were destroyed or damaged during the conflict.They made up the vast majority of the more than 100,000 homes that were hit during the 50-day conflict between Israel and Gaza's Islamist de facto rulers Hamas.The agency said that cutting subsidies to displaced residents currently renting alternative accommodation could force large numbers back to UN schools and centres which are already sheltering 12,000 people."UNRWA in Gaza has so far provided over $77 million to 66,000 Palestine refugee families to repair their home or find a temporary alternative," it said."This is a tremendous achievement; it is also wholly insufficient... We are talking about thousands of families who continue to suffer through this cold winter with inadequate shelter. People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble. Children have died of hypothermia."Two babies died in Gaza last month as dozens of homes were flooded in brutal storms that brought freezing rain and gale-force winds.Vote for the NFL's top air and ground performers!
In honor of Super Bowl 50, the NFL and FedEx are celebrating epic air and ground performances from yesterday, today and tomorrow. Will this year's rookies become air and ground stars? Which veterans will join the ranks of air and ground legends? Check out this week's nominees and vote for today's epic air and ground performances. When the winners are announced, FedEx will make a $2,000 donation in each of the winning players' names to the American Red Cross.
FEDEX AIR -- QUARTERBACK NOMINEES
Tom Brady, New England Patriots Brady threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns for a 143.8 passer rating in the Patriots' 28-21 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers Rivers completed 35 of 42 passes (83.3 percent) for 404 yards and two touchdowns for a 102.8 passer rating in the Chargers' 33-28 win against the Detroit Lions.
Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals Palmer threw for 307 yards and three touchdowns for a 122.8 passer rating in the Cardinals' 31-19 win over the New Orleans Saints.Tehran announced Monday that Russia had begun delivering its advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran in accordance with an agreement struck between the two countries earlier this year.
A defense ministry press release quoted by Iran’s semi-official Fars News dismissed “recent media reports” skeptical of the military deal, and confirmed the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system was underway.
“The recent remarks on the S-300 missile defense system delivery lack correctness and credibility and the executive stages for the delivery of the system are now being taken based on the previously signed contract,” the report said.
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There was no other confirmation that delivery had begun.
In August, the two countries announced that Russia would begin delivery of the system later this year, as the two countries talked of expanding military ties in the wake of a historic nuclear deal reached between Iran and six world powers in July.
Israel has long sought to block the sale to Iran of the S-300 system, which analysts say could impede a potential Israeli strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Other officials have expressed concern that the systems could reach Syria and Hezbollah, diluting Israel’s regional air supremacy.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a mechanism to avoid military confrontations between the two countries in Syria.
During the meeting, Netanyahu told Putin that Iran and Syria have been arming Hezbollah with advanced weapons and missiles, thousands of which are directed at Israeli cities, and that Israel would continue to target arms transfers to the terrorist group positioned on Israel’s northern border.
Netanyahu said that he told Putin in “no uncertain terms” that Israel would not tolerate Tehran’s efforts to arm Israel’s enemies in the region, and that Jerusalem had taken and would continue to take action against any such attempts.
In response, Putin said that the Syrian army was too bogged down in its own civil war to deal with fighting against Israel, but told Netanayhu he understood Israeli concerns.
The S-300 is capable of tracking multiple planes at once and some versions have an interception range of 200 kilometers. It is considered to be one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons in the world.
Russia initially agreed to sell the advanced system to Iran in 2007 but then balked, saying at the time it was complying with a United Nations arms embargo.
Shortly after the Lausanne outline for the nuclear deal between P5+1 powers and Iran was signed in April, Russia announced it was lifting the ban on selling the advanced missile defense system to Iran, despite US and Israeli objections.
Moscow said at the time that the framework agreement permitted the delivery of the missiles without waiting for the removal of sanctions that were intended to deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program.
Jonathan Beck and Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.Queens of the Stone Age have posted a mysterious image on their Twitter, Facebook, and website. It features a stylized “Q,” and includes the message “COMING TWENTYFIVE.” No other details are provided. The image update follows the announcement of multiple festival dates. Find those below. The band’s last album, Like Clockwork, came out in June 2013. Since then, frontman Josh Homme has put out a new record with Eagles of Death Metal (2015’s Zipper Down), and, last year, collaborated with Iggy Pop on Post Pop Depression. Also in 2016, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen joined the supergroup Gone Is Gone, who have released a self-titled EP and a 2017 debut LP, Echolocation. Pitchfork has reached out to Queens of the Stone Age’s representatives for more information and comment.
Queens of the Stone Age:
06-22-25 Montebello, Quebec - Amnesia Rockfest
07-13 Auckland, New Zealand - Logan Campbell
07-22 Tenindea, Australia - Splendour in the Grass
07-28-30 Kinasa, Japan - Fuji Rock Festival
08-11-13 San Francisco, CA - Outside LandsState of Decay 2 looks like it’s built on all the problems of the first game, from both a technical standpoint and a gameplay one. In the hands-off demo we saw at E3, we saw only minor bugs surfacing (and this was an alpha build, too) and there are so many more mechanics in this game that are going to make it a stronger, more fulfilling zombie survival fantasy than its predecessor could ever have offered.
The demo we saw would be familiar to anyone used to the series: we had a little community of survivors, each of which had their own traits. The two main focuses of our play through were Tiffany the gardener (who boasted that she never got sick, but was a guilt-motivated worker) and Matt, an ex-action choreographer and rampant snorer. Both of these two had skills that boosted their community (gardening skills and combat prowess), but both also had traits which negatively impacted the morale of the community, too.
There will be more than ‘a couple of hundred traits’ in the game, according to Undead Labs, and each will randomly be assigned to the survivors you encounter or recruit. The studio told us it was doubling down on RPG elements and character traits, and wanted to make sure that no two games would end up playing or being the same. There is no ‘hero’ character in the game - instead, each survivor is as important as the other, and you’re going to have to build a cooperative, functioning society in order to make progress in the game.
The devs playing the game sent Matt and a colleague out on a mission - Tiffany wanted to build a farm so that everyone in the community could be comfortably fed. To do this, however, Matt needed to retrieve some seeds for Tiffany, so he head out to the local farm. At one point, Matt fired a flare - this summoned another dev that was playing on another console who came in to help Matt.
This is the biggest draw of the new game for sure: not a lot has changed from the original title, but the opportunity to play all of it in co-op (up to four players!) is certainly going to be a major selling point. Despite there being no split screen available in the title, the option to go out scavenging resources and interacting with other communities is a fantastic one and like most Xbox titles nowadays, we’re sure the choice to not include local co-op won’t overshadow how satisfying the multiplayer is. Other players coming to your world to help out will also get rewards in their own game, too, so there’s always an incentive to lend a hand.
We could see this as Matt bombed it down a highway, his ally opening the car door to knock out zombies as they headed for a store where there might be seeds for Tiffany. Of course, all this is good and wholesome, but if you identify as a bit more of a bastard, you can always just go out, find other survivor colonies, see if there’s anyone you actually like there, recruit them… then pillage the place dry.
Our dev rep told us that ‘there’s always opportunity to be a bad guy’ if you didn’t quite fancy playing by the rules of a non-violent post-apocalyptic society. Shortly after, he showed us a new grapple mechanic, where you could pick up zombies, run off with them, use them as human shields and all sorts of other things. Instantly, our machinations were to infiltrate another community, find their most ‘high-value’ member, and use them as a shield as we take out the others, one-by-one, in order to take what we wanted. Mwahaha.
But the most pressing problem - as you’d expect - is the undead. As the devs found the seeds and started building their farm, it made a lot of noise. That noise drew the undead, and they began a siege. This saw hordes of the rotting shamblers come pouring in, and all the community had to pitch in to defend it (this, of course, caused some emotional distress and morale decay). This also let us see some new, tighter combat, and the Freaker class of zombies that will turn up: this time we saw the Screamer that kept attracting more undead.
It all ended up being pretty intense - Matt survived but got pretty messed up and injured. The farm was built, so at least the survivors could last a bit longer. But the long-term life of the community still had question marks above it, and it made us really want to pick up the pad ourselves and see how else we could expand our community, how else we could evolve our survivors emotionally, how else we could carve out a survival in this dying world.
That’s exactly what you want to feel when you come away from a hands-off demo at E3 - sometimes there are false promises in them, sometimes they’re outright boring. This one, though… this was special and it showed us a game that looks promising, and if it can perform on Day One like we saw it perform in Alpha, State of Decay fans are going to be very happy indeed.
Check out the new State of Decay 2 gameplay trailer below. It'll be coming to Xbox One and Xbox One X in spring 2018.As soon as I qualified as a doctor, I went to Rhodesia, which was to transform itself into Zimbabwe five years or so later. In the next decade, I worked and traveled a great deal in Africa and couldn’t help but reflect upon such matters as the clash of cultures, the |
area exceeds the capacity of the sewer system.
National Weather Service meteorologist said the storm took an unusual path, drifting from the north and was isolated over Latham and Albany where it sat and dropped about 2½ inches of rain over the course of an hour. He said quarter-sized hail was also reported.
The city of Albany opened a shelter at the Myers Middle School. The mayor, police and Red Cross opened at 9:30 100 Elbel Court off Whitehall Road and some people had their electricity shut off when basements flood
The American Red Cross of Northeastern New York Region opened a shelter at the Meyers Middle School at 9:30 p.m. for those were flooded out of their residence or who lost power.
Police Chief Steve Krokoff said an electrical engineer needs to check when power can be restored when basements flood and water gets into electrical panels.
Albany County Comptroller Mike Conners was among those caught in the storm as he drove down Sheridan Avenue. He said he failed to bypass the high water on a side street before passersby pushed his vehicle to higher ground.
David Bushey of Colonie, a parking valet at nearby 677 Prime, said a section of Orange Street between the restaurant and the state Department of Environmental Conservation headquarters on Broadway was flooded.
"A car tried to drive through it and the water came up over the windows," he said. The driver got out and pushed his vehicle to a CDTA bus parking lot, but "when he opened his car doors, all this water came flooding out."
Bushey also said "a huge whirlpool" above an overwhelmed storm drain had debris swirling in circles.
By 7 p.m. much of the high water had drained in the area though not at the Hampton Inn and the parking lot of First Church of Albany. A few hours later, the emergency was over and the streets were navigable but muddy.
In the city's Pine Hills neighborhood, streets flooded and trees were toppled, including one that landed on a house on the corner of Western and Milner avenues.
The performance of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" at the Capital Rep theater was canceled as was the Park Playhouse performance of "Oliver" in Washington Park. The Price Chopper on Delaware Avenue closed after its roof collapsed.
In Colonie, traffic on the Northway was snarled. A downed tree blocked at least one lane near Exit 6. Traffic was detoured when Kunker Road at Route 9 flooded. At the Times Union, one of two stately blue spruces was uprooted at the employees' entrance. A few years ago, another spruce at that site was downed in a storm.
Meanwhile, 10 miles west in Schenectady, there was virtually no trace of the storm and many residents were initially unaware of what happened in Albany County.Many more people in England and Wales worry about being a victim of crime than will actually experience it.
The gap between the perception of crime and the risk of becoming a victim is particularly noticeable around robbery figures.
ONS figures showed that 0.3% of adults were victims of robbery in the year ending March 2016, but 9% of those surveyed were very worried they would experience it in the forthcoming year – 30 times higher than the rate of victimisation.
Trends in prevalence and worry about robbery, Crime Survey for England and Wales, years ending March 2009 to March 2016
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The figures also showed that across all types of crime, women worried more about being a victim of crime than men.
Do you know your own risk of crime?
We’ve devised a crime calculator1 using three years’ worth of CSEW data, to give you an indication of how your own personal characteristics are related to the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime.
Using this tool, you can use your characteristics and those of your local area to see average victimisation rates for different types of crime, and see how these compare with national rates and your own perceptions of crime risk.
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Identity theft worries almost a quarter of people
When thinking about some crimes, people’s perceptions and risk of being a victim are more closely aligned. The crime that people were most worried about was identity theft (23.8%), followed by online crime (10%).
The CSEW showed that around one in 10 adults were victims of fraud and computer misuse offences in the year ending March 2016 and the majority of these incidents (67%), included an online element.
Proportion of adults very worried about online crime and identity theft by age, year ending March 2016 CSEW
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Age changes what crime you worry about
People in younger age groups tended to worry the least about some types of victimisation, with 16 to 34-year-olds the least worried about burglary, robbery and online crime.
Older age groups tended to worry more about possible victimisation, with 35 to 44-year-olds most concerned about burglary. The older age groups, spanning 55-64 year-olds and 65-74-year-olds were also most concerned about online crime and identity theft.
The figures on actual victimisation show a different pattern. The age group to suffer the highest rate of crime were 16 to 24 year olds; 19.6% within this group had been a victim of a crime and with 8.1% being a victim of personal crime1.
This compares with the oldest age group, 75 and over, who suffered the lowest proportions of crime overall and personal crime; 4.9% and 1.1% respectively.
A majority still believe national crime rates are increasing
Despite crime dropping by 6% in the year ending March 2016 compared to the previous year (from 6.8 million incidents to 6.3 million), a majority of people still believed it had increased; 60% of adults believed crime had increased across the country.
This compares with 57% of adults in the previous year, and 84.1% in the year ending March 2009. In contrast, adults were more accurate in assessing trends in crime for their local area.
Adults who think crime has increased, 2009 to 2016, CSEW
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Risk of victimisation by crime type
The risk of victimisation for different groups also varies by crime type. The CSEW showed that victims of domestic violence and sexual assault were more likely to be women, while men and women had a similar likelihood of becoming a victim of theft from the person.
More generally, the rate of victimisation of crime varied across different groups in society, lifestyle factors like employment status and housing status can also be relevant.
Age: Younger adults were most likely to be victims of crime, whereas older people were least likely.
Sex: Men were more likely to have been a victim of violence, robbery and vehicle-related theft, than women. Women were twice as likely as men to be a victim of domestic violence and over five times as likely as men to have been sexually assaulted.
Employment status: Unemployed people were more likely to be victims of crime, compared with those in employment. Retired adults have a lower risk of burglary and vehicle-related theft than those in work. Students were almost twice as likely as to be victims of theft from the person than the average adult in England and Wales.
Housing tenure: Renters were more likely to be a victim of a violent crime, burglary or vehicle related theft than home owners.
Geographical area: Areas with higher rates of unemployment2 also had higher levels of burglary, criminal damage, other household theft and vehicle-related theft.
Other characteristics
Many other characteristics also show relationships with victimisation3; these relationships tend to vary by crime type.
For example, while age and sex have a strong association with experiencing violent crime, figures show that these same characteristics display less association with fraud victimisation.
Notes:
The calculations for this calculator are based on data from the CSEW victimisation survey, for the years ending March 2015 to March 2017, from the resident household population are asked about their experiences of crime over the preceding 12-month period. The crime calculator generates a figure based on the proportion of adults aged 16 and over (with characteristics similar to those you select) who said they had been a victim of crime. Fraud has not been included in the crime calculator because the most recent estimates, (published since June 2016), are experimental and subject to further development. Initial findings indicate that there was typically less variation in the types of victim, than in other types of crime: Overview of fraud statistics. The first full year-on-year comparisons of fraud crime statistics will be available in January 2018, following which trends in the data will begin to emerge. The Crime Domain of the English Indices of Deprivation (2010) and the Community Safety Domain of the Welsh Indices of Deprivation (2014) have been combined to provide a proxy of crime levels in various LSOAs. Local area definitions for the English and Welsh Indices of deprivation are based on Super Output Areas (SOAs). These are a set of geographical areas developed following the census to produce a set of areas of consistent size. LSOAs typically have a population of around 1,500.
Footnotes:Ann Coulter, whose support of Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE at one point appeared to falter with his shifting immigration stance, is standing by the Republican nominee no matter what.
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“I worship him like the North Koreans worship the ‘Dear Leaders’ — yes, I would die for him,” the conservative commentator joked to Politico’s “Off Message” podcast.
“I didn’t get the gene that makes me care about what other people think,” she added about her bluntness when it comes to talking about immigration. “I’m much like Trump that way. I don’t really care. They’re just words.”
Coulter revealed to Politico that she emailed Trump’s campaign last fall to remind it to keep the focus on immigration.
Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Corey Lewandowski, assured her the campaign wasn’t backing down from the no-amnesty position.
“And Corey was getting a little exasperated with me and kept saying, ‘He’s not backing down,” Coulter said. “Then he came out for the Muslim ban on my birthday, Dec. 8, my best birthday gift ever. I finally emailed Corey and said, ‘OK, I think he’s not backing down.’”
But in late August, she wasn’t so sure.
The author was just kicking off her book tour for “In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!” when Trump appeared to be softening on his immigration policies -- a pivot for the candidate that didn't last long.
“This could be the shortest book tour ever if he’s really softening his position on immigration,” she said. “But I don’t think he is.”Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) 1/6th scale Collectible Figure “The one, the only, the infamous Harley Quinn!” – The Joker
Being one of the most beloved female villains in DC Comics, fans worldwide are enthralled by Harley Quinn’s madness and her psychotic personality. Established herself as the Queen of Gotham City with the Joker, Harley Quinn made another remarkable entrance at the night club magnificently decked out in her beautiful dancer dress pole dancing for the crowd. Today, Hot Toys is excited to present the latest 1/6th scale Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) from the DC Extended Universe blockbuster Suicide Squad!
Sophisticatedly crafted based on Margot Robbie’s appearance in Suicide Squad, the 1/6th scale Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) features a newly developed head sculpt with impressive likeness, a finely tailored fabric dancer dress, bountiful jewelries, a metal chain, a dancing pole and a specially designed Suicide Squad themed figure stand with character backdrop.
It’s time to dress up your shelve with the phenomenal 1/6th scale Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) collectible figure along with other Suicide Squad characters! It’s a chance you shouldn’t miss!
Suicide Squad
Specifications Product Code MMS439
MMS439 Product Name Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version)
Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) Height Approximately 29 cm tall with high heels
Approximately 29 cm tall with high heels Points of Articulations 30
30 Special Features Newly sculpted head sculpt, Real fabric hair implantation, Detailed make-up, skin texture and tattoos, Finely tailored outfit & Suicide Squad themed figure stand
Newly sculpted head sculpt, Real fabric hair implantation, Detailed make-up, skin texture and tattoos, Finely tailored outfit & Suicide Squad themed figure stand Artists Head Sculpted by Soyoung Lee
Head Painted by E-Lee
Head Art Directed by JC. Hong
The 1/6th scale Harley Quinn (Dancer Dress Version) Collectible Figure’s special features:
- Newly sculpted head sculpt with authentic and detailed likeness of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad
- Shoulder-length curly blonde, pink and light blue real fabric hair implantation
- Movie-accurate facial expression with detailed make-up, skin texture and tattoos
- Body with over 30 points of articulations
- Approximately 29 cm tall with high heels
- Six (6) pieces of interchangeable hands including:
• One (1) pair of relaxed hands
• Four (4) pieces of accessories holding hands
- Each piece of head sculpt is specially hand-painted
Costume :
- One (1) gold and black argyle patterned fabric dress
- One (1) pair of gold and black high heels shoes
Accessories:
- Three (3) gold colored necklaces
- Three (3) gold colored watches (wearable on the left arm)
- One (1) gold colored bangle (wearable on the right arm)
- Two (2) gold colored bracelets (wearable on the left and right wrists)
- One (1) gold colored anklets
- One (1) gold colored dancing pole
- One (1) gold colored metal chain
- Specially designed Suicide Squad themed figure stand with character nameplate, movie logo, and character backdrop
Artists:
- Head Sculpted by Soyoung Lee
- Head Painted by E-Lee
- Head Art Directed by JC. Hong
Release date: Approximately Q2 – Q3, 2018
**Prototype shown, final product may be slightly different
**Product details are subject to change without further notice
SUICIDE SQUAD and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC Comics. DC LOGO: TM & © DC. WB SHIELD: TM & © WBEI. (s17)
© 2017 Hot Toys Limited. All Rights Reserved.Picture courtesy of Pearl Music Europe
It seems like the drama circling around Rhapsody Of Fire's fate refuses to end as shortly after vocalist Fabio Lione's decision to leave the band, now comes an announcement from Alex Holzwarth, who served as the drummer of the band since 2000, that states his departure is to "focus his energies on other projects."Alex Holzwarth explains: "Some of you may know, I wanted to do something different since a long time and I feel the time is right to focus my energies on other projects. This means I won't be able to play with Rhapsody Of Fire anymore. My bandmates have known about this and they are supportive. I know it comes very soon after Fabio's leaving but I feel that's the best moment to do it as the band is already working on the new line-up. I wish the band everything positive and best luck for their new chapter with a new singer and new drummer. There will be a fresh line-up for an exciting future. I really trust Rhapsody Of Fire for finding the most suitable musicians. All the best to my Rhapsody Of Fire family, friends and fans. See you on the road somewhere!"By adding an average of 281 people per day during the last year, North Carolina’s population crossed the 10 million mark, making the state the ninth in that category, according to U.S. Census Bureau state population estimates released today.
North Carolina’s population gain over the July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015, period ranked it behind only Texas, Florida, California, Georgia and Washington.
Notably, Florida added more people than California for the first time in nearly a decade. Florida’s gain of 365,703 people also pushed it past 20 million, becoming the third state to reach that milestone. California continued to be the most populous state on July 1, 2015, with 39.1 million, followed by Texas with 27.5 million.
North Dakota was the nation’s fastest-growing state or equivalent over the last year, for the fourth year in a row. Its population increased 2.3 percent, followed by 1.9 percent growth in Colorado, the District of Columbia and Nevada. Each of the 10 fastest-growing states was in the South or West with the exception of North Dakota.
Seven states lost population between July 1, 2014, and July 1, 2015: Illinois (22,194 or -0.17 percent), West Virginia (4,623 or -0.25 percent), Connecticut (3,876 or -0.11 percent), Mississippi (1,110 or -0.04 percent), Maine (928 or -0.07 percent), Vermont (725 or -0.12 percent) and New Mexico (458 or -0.02 percent).
The United States as a whole saw its population increase by 0.79 percent over the period to 321.4 million, slightly faster than the rate of growth over the previous one-year period (0.78 percent).
In addition to the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the new statistics also include estimates for Puerto Rico. On July 1, 2015, Puerto Rico had an estimated population of 3.5 million, a decline of 60,706, or 1.7 percent, from one year earlier.
The Census Bureau produces population estimates each year, allowing the public to gauge the growth and demographic composition of the nation, states and communities. These statistics use administrative data to estimate population change between census years, using the decennial census count as a starting point. Local governments use estimates to locate services, and the private sector uses them to locate businesses.
The Census Bureau also released today estimates of the number of people 18 and older in the U.S., states and Puerto Rico. The downloadable file also includes total population and the percentage of people 18 and older. In 2015, there were 247.8 million voting-age residents in the U.S., comprising 77.1 percent of the nation’s population. Internet address: www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/data-sets.html.
During 2016, the Census Bureau will release estimates of the 2015 population of counties, cities and towns, and metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin. Population estimates for Puerto Rico and its municipios by age and sex will be released as well.Jump to content
This train of prefixes surely needs uncoupling. Something that is ultimate is the last in a series (from Latin ultimare, come to an end); the penultimate is next to last (pen-, a prefix from Latin paene, almost); the antepenultimate is the one before that (ante-, previous, from Latin “ante”). Preantepenultimate (Latin prae-, before) is one step further back still, making it the fourth from the end of the series, the last but three.
It was invented in all seriousness by a famous lexicographer, John Walker, in his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, dated 1791 (“These words have the antepenultimate and preantepenultimate accent, which has generally a shortening power, as in privilege, primitive, prevalency, &c.”) Linguists have continued to be almost its sole users (though not often) but other specialists, for some reason mainly zoologists, have borrowed it from time to time. Outside these areas, it is almost invisible, but not quite:
While it was gratifying to see the return of the John H. Rice column to the pages of the Eagle, it was disappointing to have a typographical error mangle the sense of his pre-antepenultimate paragraph.
Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 24 Feb. 1977.
Does the sequence stop with preantepenultimate? There must be so little need for a word meaning fifth from last that we can hardly imagine anybody has taken the trouble to invent it. So it’s surprising to learn that at least two people have had a go. A humorous column in The Beechwood Reporter of Chicago, dated January 2013, mentioned suprapreantepenultimate (Latin supra, above, beyond). A much earlier writer invented another version:
In its minute divisions, accent is ultimate, penultimate, antepenultimate, preantepenultimate, propreantepenultimate.
A General Critical Grammar of the Inglish Language on a System Novel and Extensive, by Samuel Oliver, 1825. His extra prefix is from Greek pro, before; Inglish was his personal way to spell English.
Both of these are unwieldy, even monstrous — it’s far easier just to say “fifth from last”.No Man's Sky amassed quite the ardent fanbase even ahead of its launch on PlayStation 4 earlier this week. Community forums dedicated to the game are rife with people staunchly defending and decrying it and developer Hello Games for any number of reasons — and that could make it hard for those who are just looking for a good time to get involved.
Many players have begun using a more relaxed subreddit instead of the main No Man's Sky chatroom: No Man’s High, a "drama-free space to discuss the game, share content and chill." Yes, its denizens drop everything when 4:20 rolls around, but they’re purveyors of good No Man’s Sky vibes first and foremost. Posts include high praise for the game — current top threads include "I LOVE THIS GAME!" and "I am fucking loving this game" — as well as jokes that every stoner or fan of stoner comedy will appreciate.
Some subreddit dwellers are logging their stoned experiences, while others are simply happy to share the prettiest planets they’ve stumbled across. There’s no arguing about whether or not the game is truly multiplayer here, and there is little discussion of the game’s various bugs and crashes.
No Man’s High is quieter than other forums, but that’s a large part of its appeal. It’s a solid place to kick back, take a load off and scroll through for some 100 percent chill No Man’s Sky talk.GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to resume six-party talks on its nuclear program but must maintain its readiness in the face of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, a senior envoy in Geneva said on Thursday.
North Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations So Se Pyong smiles during an interview with Reuters at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
So Se Pyong, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told Reuters that his country was not planning a nuclear or missile test.
In a wide-ranging interview, he said that reports about the ill health of its leader Kim Jong Un were “fabricated rumors” and that it was not clear whether the United States was willing to negotiate the release of three detained Americans.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with North Korea’s foreign minister in Moscow on Wednesday that he saw a possibility that stalled talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program could resume, but it would take time.
“For the six-party talks we are ready, and as far as I think, China and Russia and the DPRK are ready,” So said in the rare interview in the DPRK’s mission overlooking Lake Geneva.
“But America, they don’t like that kind of talks right now. Because America does not like that, so that’s why the countries like South Korea, Japan also are not ready for those talks.”
North Korea promised to abandon its nuclear program in 2005 but appeared to renege on the agreement when it tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.
Already heavily sanctioned by the world body for its missile and nuclear tests, it has completed a major overhaul of its rocket launch site, a U.S. thinktank said on Thursday, enabling it to fire larger, longer-range rockets.
So, without being specific, linked North Korea’s military preparations to “very serious” U.S.-South Korean exercises earlier this year that he said had deployed nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, submarines and B-52 bombers.
“We have to be alert also, we have to be prepared to make counter measures against that military exercise which are against us.”
Asked specifically whether North Korea was preparing a nuclear test or to fire a missile, he replied: “No, no.
“In case, in case, if they do that kind of joint military exercise, the joint nuclear military exercise against my country continuously, we have to, also.”
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program protected it from the United States, So said.
“In case if we give (the weapons) up like other countries, then of course I think they would have attacked us already,” he said.
North Korea is not believed to have mastered the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead small enough for any of its existing rockets, although analysts say subsequent nuclear tests increase the chance of refining its existing nuclear technology.
It has previously threatened to turn Seoul and Washington into a “sea of flames”.
“PARTY POLICY”
Asked whether North Korea’s leader Kim was committed to decentralization, So said: “It is the party’s policy.”
Kim failed to appear at the Supreme People’s Assembly last month and state media said he was suffering from “discomfort”. He had been seen walking with a limp since an event in July.
Asked about the nature of his ailment, So said: “That is rumors, fabricated rumors.”
He said that media reports Kim may have had surgery on his ankles were wrong.
Three Americans are currently being held in North Korea on charges of crimes against the state. A pro-North Korean daily published in Japan on Thursday quoted one of them appealing to the U.S. government to help to secure their freedom.
“It is true that three Americans are detained in my country now...They came into my country illegally and also they committed some crimes against my country, that is why they are on trial and then they were sentenced,” So said.
He added: “I was told that they asked for the government of America to have negotiations on those problems, but I don’t know whether America is ready or not to release them or have some understandings or the recognition of those crimes they made.”
U.S. special representative for North Korean policy Glyn Davies said on Monday that North Korea has rejected U.S. efforts to discuss the detentions, adding that the secretive state was missing a chance to build relations with Washington.
So disclosed that North Korea has sought closer cooperation on human rights, first with the United Nations for technical assistance, and also through dialogue with the European Union.
“Actually we just gave a hint to have that kind of dialogue to one of the EU member countries, but still they don’t give us any feedback, any answer,” So said, noting that the EU has taken the lead in criticizing North Korea at U.N. rights forums.
A report by U.N. investigators this year denounced its system of labor camps holding political prisoners. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in New York last week, called on North Korea to close its camps.
“Of course every country has prisons. That is true. We have also prisons. But not labor camps they are talking about,” So said. “That is a totally fabricated discrimination.”
On the politically-charged issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea over the years, So said that he did not know how many abductees there had been, but noted there had been recent contacts on the issue.
“Whether it is a hundred, or 200 or 500, I don’t know exactly. We don’t know the exact numbers, those are very difficult problems there,” So said.
In 2002 North Korea admitted kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies. Five abductees and their families later returned to Japan.
Slideshow (5 Images)
Officials from North Korea and Japan have met in China on the issue, and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has made resolution of the dispute a top priority, said this week that North Korea had invited Japanese representatives to Pyongyang.
So said he did not know if a trip would take place.
“I was told also there were some more contact last week,” So said. “So anyway, we are ready to solve that problem because we are very frank.”An obsession with getting someplace in meditation can be very unhelpful. But you’re new to meditation you often need some gentle reassurance that you’re on the right path. Often it’s hard to tell whether you are making progress or not. I note elsewhere that one of the things that will help you to stick with your meditation practice is the ability to notice and appreciate small changes. So here are some of the small changes that you might want to watch out for.
Other people noticing that you are changing. Sometimes it’s hard to have a sense of perspective on ourselves. We can easily concentrate on supposed failures to the extent that we completely miss positive changes. Often, my meditation students report that other people notice that they are changing; becoming more relaxed, less reactive, and more friendly.
Starting to develop more concentration. You can use the counting to give you a sense of whether you are developing more concentration. Being able to count to ten even once may be a step forward. If you make it to there, then you might want to aim to count to ten three times in a row. You might notice that you have the ability to count continuously and also have a lot of thoughts arising. That’s great! Pay more attention to the fact that you have developed more continuity of awareness than you do to the fact that there are still a lot of stray thoughts.
Having interesting experiences in meditation. You may begin to notice unusual things – like a delightful sense of rhythm in your breathing, or the way in which your body subtly moves in response to your heartbeat. These are signs that you are developing more concentration and awareness in meditation, and you would be wise to pay attention to such experiences. Some of the things you might experience might seem a little odd. A common example is seeing patterns of moving lights. This is a good sign, in that you are moving into a deeper state of concentration. But it’s best not to pay much attention to those lights or they will turn into a distraction and slow your progress.
Spontaneous resolution of posture problems. Sometimes you’ll notice parts of your body relaxing spontaneously. Sometimes a particular problem you had with your posture might suddenly disappear.
Paying more attention to the outside world. It’s a very good sign when you start to slow down and notice the beauty in the world.
Noticing your posture more. You may become more aware of your body during the course of the day, and you may notice how awareness of your body grounds you. You may even come to a deeper understanding of how your posture influences your emotions and mind.
Noticing you have choices. You may start to notice the gap between stimulus and response, and realize that you have a choice about how to respond. You can choose not to respond habitually, but instead to choose a more appropriate and creative response.
Becoming more aware of your actions. Often, before we get to the stage of being aware of our actions before we do them, we start to notice them after we’ve done them. It’s tempting to feel frustration to realize that you’ve lost your temper once again, but actually it’s a good sign that you’re noticing this at all. With practice you’ll be able to catch those responses earlier and earlier, until you’re able to choose to respond more creatively.
Feelings of calmness. You may have spells of greater than usual calmness in your meditation or after meditation. You may even experience some reluctance to end a period of meditation.
Interesting and vivid dreams. When your meditation begins to “bite”, it often leads to more vivid and meaningful dreams. Pay attention to these and see what you can learn from them.
Becoming more dissatisfied. Paradoxically, one side-effect of becoming more self-aware is that you realize that there are things about yourself that you’d like to change. This realization is uncomfortable but also useful. If you don’t become aware of things in your behavior that you want to change you’ll never do anything about them.
Time passing quickly. When you’re really enjoying something, time passes more quickly. It’s common to notice that time passes faster in certain meditations.
One of the main signs of progress in meditation, though, is being more relaxed about making progress. Our meditation practice never changes in a constant, linear way. There are always ups and downs. One day you’re sitting there and you unexpectedly find that you’re blissfully happy and almost totally without distraction. The next day your mind is all over the place. This is normal, and it’s good to relax, and not be obsessed about “getting somewhere.” Yes, it’s good to have the aspiration to move in the direction of greater calm and happiness, but the expectation that this is going to happen will bring us nothing but pain. Bearing in mind the aspiration to move in the direction of greater calm and happiness, we simply work with whatever arises, not worrying about whether it’s a “good” meditation or a “bad” meditation.
Also, not all changes are noticeable in the short term. It’s now known that when you meditate, you rewire your brain in helpful ways. Can you tell whether or not new neurons have been generated, or whether new connections between neurons have been built? Of course not. But it’s happening anyway. It might take months for those changes to manifest in anything perceptible. So in the meantime, just relax and get on with the practice.
Lastly, if you’re here because you’re having odd experiences in meditation, like swirling lights or your body feeling odd, I’d suggest the post I wrote on “Odd experiences in meditation.”Hand Forged vs. Machine Made
There is no comparison. In a day and age where most tools are drop forged, stamped or cut out and then poorly tempered, a majority of people have never had the pleasure of using a well-made tool. Hand forging with hammers compresses the steel, introducing more carbon into a smaller area. Carbon is what cuts, therefore you get a superior edge. After annealing, the tools are quenched then tempered to the proper hardness. The tool is then fitted with a hardwood handle that seats properly in the socket. The shock ring on top helps prevent splitting.
My tools all come shaving sharp and may be shipped back to me for re-sharpening and repair work at any time for a nominal fee. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with these tools, simply return within one year for a full refund or exchange.
Please remember our tools are hand forged, sizes are approximate and may vary slightly. Call to confirm availability and estimated ship date. Shipping as requested by UPS, or USPS Mail. Prices subject to change without notice.
We carry a wide assortment of Hand Forged Woodworking Tools and accessories. These include: Custom Woodworking Tools, Adz & Scorps, Cabinet Makers Chisel Sets, Chair Building Tools, Corner & Swan Chisels, Draw Knives, Framing & Bench Chisels, Gardening Tools, Gouges, Leather Guards & Sharpening Stones, Mallets, Slicks & Large Gouges, Timber Tools, Mike Dunbar Style & Barr Quarton Tools.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Since the Paris attacks one week ago, France has escalated bombings of Syria, and the U.S. has vowed an intensification of its war on the Islamic State. With only a small number of U.S. special forces on the ground, Iraq and Syria have become new fronts in a global drone war that has launched thousands of strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.
But now an unprecedented group is calling for the drone war to stop. In an open letter to President Obama, four U.S. Air Force servicemembers who took part in the drone campaign say targeted killings and remote control bombings fuel the very terrorism the government says it’s trying to destroy. The four whistleblowers write, quote, “We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
They continue, saying, quote, “We witnessed gross waste, mismanagement, abuses of power, and our country’s leaders lying publicly about the effectiveness of the drone program. We cannot sit silently by and witness tragedies like the attacks in Paris, knowing the devastating effects the drone program has overseas and at home.”
AMY GOODMAN: On top of the toll on civilian victims, the letter also addresses the personal impact of waging remote war. All four say they have suffered PTSD and feel abandoned by the military they served, with some now homeless or barely getting by. The letter brings together the largest group of whistleblowers in the drone war’s history. Three of the signatories operated the visual sensors that guide U.S. Predator drone missiles to their targets. Two are speaking out for the first time; three in a TV broadcast, they’ve never done it before. The other two have previously raised their concerns about the drone program, including in the documentary, Drone. The film, premiering in New York City and Toronto today, reveals how a regular U.S. Air Force unit based in the Nevada desert is responsible for flying the CIA’s drone strike program in Pakistan.
BRANDON BRYANT: We are the ultimate voyeurs, the ultimate peeping Toms. I’m watching this person, and this person has no clue what’s going on. No one’s going to catch us. And we’re getting orders to take these people’s lives.
MICHAEL HAAS: You never know who you’re killing, because you never actually see a face. You just have a silhouette. They don’t have to take a shot. They don’t have to bear that burden. I’m the one that has to bear that burden.
P.W. SINGER: There’s always been a connection between the world |
the dam height before torrential rain in January created the more urgent problem of releasing water to protect the integrity of the dam itself.
No guarantee
On Wednesday at the inquiry, flood engineer Rob Ayre was asked by commissioner Justice Catherine Holmes whether there would be any practical benefit in temporarily lowering the full supply level of Wivenhoe when an extraordinary wet season was predicted.
Justice Holmes pointed out a reduction from 100 per cent to 75 per cent capacity would provide about 300,000 extra megalitres of flood buffer.
But Mr Ayre said dropping dam levels to 75 per cent would not necessarily help safeguard against a flood event as large as January's.
"I have a little bit of difficulty accepting the fact you would necessarily do it on a seasonal basis... I don't necessarily think it would assist," he said.
While admitting reducing levels could help mitigate the effects of smaller floods, he warned doing so could impact Queensland's water security.
"It certainly would have an improvement on managing the smaller events," he said.
"I guess the other side of the coin then is what impact would it have on the water security aspects."
With the attention being given to the issue of water security versus flood mitigation at the inquiry, this is likely to be one of the key areas to be addressed when it makes interim recommendations before the next wet season.
Mr Pisasale says the inquiry should be allowed to take its course, but he did call for an end to the "blame game".
"We've got to... really start working on solutions so this doesn't happen again. We can't change the past, but let's influence the future," he said.
But Mr Pisasale refused to be drawn on whether he thought dam levels should be lowered.
"I think what we've got to do is have a close look at Wivenhoe Dam in regards to flood mitigation and see whether we have to increase the height of it," he said.
"Things we have to do - let's start looking at exactly during the 2011 floods, and let's see what we can do now to minimise the effect on both Ipswich and Brisbane."
Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, water-management, government-and-politics, local-government, states-and-territories, ipswich-4305, australia, qld, brisbane-4000, wivenhoe-hill-4311
First postedMcLaren confirmed on Tuesday night that Redding would be leaving the Woking-based team, and will be replaced by erstwhile chief mechanic Paul James.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Williams made it clear that Redding’s move has come about because Nielsen is eager to take a more factory-based role for next season.
Claire Williams, deputy team principal, said: “From the start, our sporting manager, Steve Nielsen has always been clear about his desire to do less travelling following the end of the 2017 season and we fully understood and respected his request given he has been in travelling roles for over 30 years.
“Steve has done a fantastic job since joining the team in 2014, from restructuring the race team to the brilliant work in driving the turnaround of our pitstop performance.
“We can confirm that Dave Redding will join Williams as team manager later this year to work alongside Steve to ensure a seamless handover ahead of taking full responsibility for the race team in 2018.”
Nielsen’s efforts at Williams helped the team become the pace-setters in F1 pitstops last year, as it consistently delivered the quickest tyre changes for Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.Charlie Sheen could face a legal probe after he admitted in an interview with Matt Lauer on Tuesday that he did not disclose his HIV-positive status to two of his sexual partners.
The troubled and unpredictable star who has had long running battles with alcoholism and sex addiction said, after making the unguarded admission, that he was seeking to protect himself from being extorted by the partners.
Lauer succesfully probed Sheen about whether he’d told the truth in previous statements in which he claimed he had told his partners about his HIV status.
Sheen replied: “There [were] two examples, but protection was always in place, and it was for the right reasons, because everyone I had told up to that moment had shaken me down. [The lawsuits] are baseless.”
The admission could open Sheen up to big trouble.
California law is clear on the issue, stating: “Any person afflicted with any contagious, infectious, or communicable disease who willfully exposes him/herself to another person (and any person who willfully exposes another person afflicted with the disease to someone else) is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
A 56-year-old HIV-positive man was found guilty under the willful-exposure law in 2012 and received the full sentence.
At least one law enforcement official is now "chomping at the bit,” to go after him for the revelation, reports Radar Online.
Sheen was also aked about whther he had any regrets in connection with his behavior.
“I regret not using a condom the one or two times when this whole thing happened. I regret ruining Two and a Half Men. I regret not being more involved in my children's lives growing up, which I am now,” Sheen said, “That's about it.”
Sheen’s admission isn’t enough to move any potential investigation forward. Radar says that authorities still need the women involved to come forward.
The actor is on an experimental treatment as part of a U.S. clinical trial of an HIV drug that’s injected once a week and replaces a cocktail of pills.McArdle has joined the ranks of conservatives suddenly concerned about private coercion. In a prior post, I discussed Dougherty’s entry into that discussion and so here I want to also address McArdle’s.
Overall McArdle’s piece mostly mirrors the ones that came before it: mass outrage at someone’s opinions or statements can destroy their ability to get employment, something they need to survive. This is not entirely unlike the way a state might kill you or throw you in prison for your opinions or statements. McArdle makes sure to say private sanctions are not as bad as state sanctions, but it seems like they certainly could be as bad. After all, a private sanction that fully eliminates your ability to get income is a death sentence. You literally starve without income.
Like the other writers working in this genre, McArdle struggles to understand that there exist institutions perfectly capable of stopping this kind of thing, albeit institutions that conservatives loathe.
Mass private coercion, which even if not quite as bad, still needs to have safeguards put in place to protect individual liberty. But we have no legal or social framework for those.
The legal framework that provides safeguards to protect individuals from private coercion is called labor and employment law. Through that framework we create rules that forbid employers from terminating people for certain reasons. These reasons include discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, and some other categories. They include retaliation against certain worker conduct: self-organization, whistleblowing, and filing complaints with government agencies. The list goes on.
In the case of conservatives being worried that major corporations no longer share their social worldview and are thus prepared to oust them for expressing it, one very obvious solution to that problem would be to amend the Civil Rights Act to include political opinions and statements as one of the things employers cannot discriminate against.
Such a rule already exists in Denmark’s equivalent of the Civil Rights Act:
The Anti-discrimination Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on the labour market on grounds of: Race, colour or ethnic origin
Religion or belief
Sexual orientation
National or social origin
Political opinions
Age
Disability
Or, if you want to be more comprehensive about it, you could pass a law that forbids terminations carried out for reasons other than incompetence or economic redundancy. By whitelisting the kinds of things you can fire people for, you get out ahead of having to constantly add to the blacklist of things that you cannot be fired for.
As I pointed out in my Dougherty post, these kinds of protections do more than directly block the application of coercion. Once they are well-established, they should stop efforts to apply the coercion in the first place. People try to get businesses to fire people, get web hosts to drop content, and get payment networks to cancel payment services because these entities actually have the power to do these things. Once the power is removed, it will become futile to try this stuff and so people will stop trying it. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself why nobody thinks to call the local sheriff to have the people whose opinions they don’t like arrested?
Ultimately, conservatives will never come around on the utility of basic labor market regulation, even as they somewhat comically grasp in the dark towards that obvious conclusion. This is because a major constituency of the conservative coalition is very affluent people whose interests are best served by ensuring managers have as much discretion to hire and fire as possible.This post is about what makes the Azerbaijan Grand Prix so special.
Where: Baku, Azerbaijan
When: 23rd to 25th June, 2017 (it’s Summer there)
2017 season: Mercedes powered cars will do better; The battle at the front will be close as Ferrari’s top speed can catch the Mercedes cars.
This is another city street circuit as it bends around famous land marks.
This circuit runs anti-clockwise (1 of only 5) – this means it’s a bit harder on driver necks and the car set-up is slightly different. Other circuits that are anti-clockwise: USA, Singapore, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
There are some really narrow passages on the circuit and no margin for error just like Monaco.
2017 will be the 2nd time this race occurs.
It’s a very long lap (2nd longest on the calendar) at 6km (average is 5.1km).
The straight is really long so it will suit strong Power Units.
There was a lot of hype in 2016 but it turned out to be a quiet race so everyone is waiting for 2017 to see if it was a once off.
Full circuit map
AdvertisementsMumbai: The Aditya Birla Group will collaborate with 25 start-ups to bolster its new areas of business in retail, financial services and telecom.
The company’s Bizlabs incubation programme, started in October, has named the firms as “collaboration partners" on its website, but is yet to make a formal announcement. The company’s spokesperson was not immediately available to reply to an emailed questionnaire.
Most of these new firms provide digital solutions to engage with consumers and enlarge their base. Some of the companies named are Red Monster Games, Torch, Dressy, ePaisa, Mswipe, Touchfone, Instakash, Bankbazzar, Wealth Pack, Cloud Cherry, Faircent and Coverfox Insurance.
“They have said they have confirmed and shortlisted us and now we are in deep discussions for providing solutions for their businesses ranging from fertilizers to fashion and everything in between," said Rakesh Raghuvanshi, founder and president of Nifty Window, one of the shortlisted start-ups.
Raghuvanshi said Nifty Window, which helps bring online customers to a physical store, has been working with Madura Fashion and Lifestyle in the last few months. Its future plans are to scale up some of the brands under Madura as well as Indo Gulf Fertilizers.
Cement also has the scope to attract customers with the help of Nifty Window, which is basically a platform that can provide online information on prices, availability and locations of the Aditya Birla brands on mobile phones to help people locate physical stores and visit them to make their purchase.
Bizlabs has not revealed the funding it shall provide to incubate startups, but has received thousands of applications in the past few months, a company official said on the condition of anonymity.
The company is looking to have a shortlist and work with them in partnership for growing their existing brands in unconventional ways, the official added.Ron James makes his first appearance in "Wizards Only, Fools." He owns a shop in Wizard City called Ron James's Spell Palace. In his store he sells magic items, as well as bottles of many shapes, colors, sizes, and designs, which contain instantly-working spells. While he introduces his shop, he says he has spells for wizards of all levels, with no need for "memorization, incantation, or hard-to-find boolaroo." One simply needs to open the bottle for the spell to work. His shop also has a bottle-returns program.
Later, Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum walk inside to order a cold spell. When Ron James brings one out, Princess Bubblegum is hesitant to buy it. He decides they are not wizards and calls their bluff, pushing a button behind his counter. This calls the police, who break a window and bust in, setting Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum on the run. Princess Bubblegum grabs the cold spell before they leave.
Ron James appears to be a good salesperson, as he goes out of his way to appraise his products, demonstrate how the spells work, and convincingly says, "This baby right here... this is what you want, brothers" when showing them the cold spell they needed. He is reluctant to tell Princess Bubblegum what is in the bottle, calling the contents his "secret brew" and refusing to say what it is made out of.
In the episode "Betty," Ron James's lab is "creamed" by Bella Noche's attack on Wizard City, and he is contracted by the Grand Master Wizard to create a "double-negative magic" potion to defeat the creature. Ron James creates a potion using a dirty bidet and a vaporizer, but the result only makes Bella Noche more powerful. The Grand Master Wizard is shocked that Ron James' potion did not work, as Ron James claims to "always deliver," but Ron James claims this was because he had to craft the potion under non-optimal circumstances. Later, Ice King mentions that Ron James told him about Betty Grof defeating Bella Noche.
In "Thanks for the Crabapples, Giuseppe," Ron James accompanies Ice King, Abracadaniel and other wizards on a road trip to Big Butt Rock to try to come up with a new school of magic. He manages to entice some Water Nymphs into accompanying them by using a twinkle-eye potion, and later tries to use an ancient teleportation spell to escape when the bus goes into a swamp, but only winds up exchanging his head with that of Tree Trunks, leaving his head stuck on her couch with Mr. Pig. Presumably, the effects of this wore off later, as the Ancient Sleeping Magi of Life Giving was seen with his head on his own body at the end of the episode after previously trading heads with Ice King.
He is briefly seen in "You Forgot Your Floaties" when Betty Grof is recapping her research into wizards and magic. She watches Ron James being depressed on his couch, but he cheers up after pouring a potion over his head.
Contents show]
Appearance
Ron James seems to have a rectangular head, but it could instead be a short cylinder or a flattened cube that looks rectangular from the angles seen in the episode. His head is attached to his body with a long neck. His skin is a light shade of minty green. His almond-shaped eyes are set far apart, and his mouth, when open, is oval-shaped. He has a small, pointy but human-like nose. He is shown wearing a long-sleeved light pink shirt.
Episode appearances
Major appearances
Minor appearances
Trivia
Ron James may be a homage to the real world Canadian comedian of the same name.
Ron James and Peace Master may be of the same species, as both have retangular heads and green skin.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt on Thursday fulfilled environmentalists' fears with a gift to the oil and gas industry, in the form of canceling an Obama-era request for information regarding methane emissions from fossil fuel facilities.
"This is exactly the kind of climate recklessness we can expect more of from Trump's EPA [...] making it clear that oil and gas executives have this agency in the palms of their hands."
—May Boeve, 350.orgThe cancellation followed a letter (pdf) sent to Pruitt on Wednesday from 11 attorneys general of pro-oil states, who spoke solely to industry concerns when they demanded that the EPA administrator revoke the request they described as "burdensome" and "onerous."
"We hope that the burdensome Obama climate rules never see the light of day, which is why we ask that this Information Collection Request be suspended and withdrawn," the attorneys general of Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, Alabama, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Mississippi wrote.
Pruitt, who has deep ties to the fossil fuel industry and as Oklahoma attorney general sued the EPA no less than 14 times, swiftly acquiesced.
"This appalling decision shows how quickly Pruitt is turning the EPA into an oil industry vending machine," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Vera Pardee said in a statement, according to Scientific American. "Just one day after oil-friendly state governments complain about efforts to collect methane pollution data, out pops this cancellation. [...] The Trump administration doesn't want this data because it doesn't want to rein in oil companies' massive emissions of this dangerous greenhouse gas."
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The November 2016 request for information was widely interpreted as the EPA's first step toward regulating emissions of methane—which is "more than 85 times more powerful than CO2" as a greenhouse gas in the first twenty years after it is emitted—from existing oil and gas facilities, a crucial regulation that environmentalists have been seeking for years.
Indeed, the Obama administration's request came six months after the announcement of EPA restrictions on methane emissions from new oil and gas facilities, which was decried as inadequate for its failure to regulate existing facilities. "This rule[...] does nothing to stop dangerous methane leaks from existing fracking wells," said 350.org's May Boeve at the time.
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The regulation of existing facilities is one long feared by the oil and gas industry. The pro-oil attorneys general described it in their letter as reflective of "a common theme from the Obama Administration—the issuance of onerous regulations and requirements in support of an overall climate agenda."
Scientific American writes: "Mark Brownstein, vice president of climate and energy for the Environmental Defense Fund, said industry's complaints about the ICR [Information Collection Request] are 'ironic,' considering operators' contention last year that EPA needed more information before it could craft new emissions restrictions."
"The larger point here is that Administrator Pruitt is saying it's okay for industry to withhold basic information on pollution from oil and gas operations from the American people," Brownstein told the magazine.
"This is exactly the kind of climate recklessness we can expect more of from Trump's EPA," said Boeve on Friday. "After the Porter Ranch disaster shined a light on the dangerous impacts of methane pollution and fracking, communities nationwide demanded justice. Now the EPA's first steps to address the problem—a request that the industry simply share information on pollution—have been scrapped, making it clear that oil and gas executives have this agency in the palms of their hands."
And Republicans in Congress are pushing for similar deregulation of methane emissions.
This week, the Senate is to vote on a bill that relies on an obscure law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to kill a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule requiring companies mining fossil fuels on federal land to minimize and capture methane emissions.
The CRA expressly forbids the creation of any new regulation that is "substantially similar" to one killed by Congress, and so the BLM wouldn't be able to introduce the rule in the future.
Voiding the rule "would result in continued waste, forgone royalties for taxpayers, and widespread pollution," writes the Western Environmental Law Center's Thomas Singer in the Albuquerque Journal.Liberal groups are waging a counter-attack on reports that President Obama is floating a tougher inflation adjustment measure for Social Security to rein in benefit growth. It’s part of an effort to double the amount of deficit reduction being negotiated today from $2 trillion to the $4 trillion over 10 years recommended by his Bowles Simpson deficit commission.
In return, Republicans would have to yield on special-interest tax breaks, known as tax expenditures, also recommended by Bowles Simpson. Paradoxically it may be easier for both sides to get more ambitious on the deficit reduction goal. Both parties will take hits for doing anything, large or small, on taxes or entitlements. So they may as well go big and have the argument that they’ve made real progress in getting the nation’s finances under control.
This is the boldest move we’ve seen by Obama yet on deficits, and signals a shift to the middle for the presidential campaign. He emphasized that “Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.”
Moveon.org just put out a warning that members would be less likely to vote for Obama or donate to his campaign if he “cuts” Social Security. All the big retirement groups including AARP and some Hispanic groups are also crying foul.
But pushing both sides closer to agreement is the increasingly glaring reality that if the Treasury runs out of money on Aug. 2 and has to decide whether to pay Medicare doctors or pay China, all hell is going to break loose.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
Updated model of the He 111H-6 bomber
Excellent news for fans of German aviation:
one of War Thunder’s old timers, the He 111H-6 bomber is receiving an updated model!
In addition, we’ve fixed a range of bugs that were present in the old model.
The German Heinkel He 111H-6 bomber is a true old timer in War Thunder – this aircraft was among the first to arrive in our game. As you already know from our Developer Diaries, work on upgrading old vehicle models takes an important place in the list of our artists’ and modelers’ responsibilities. In update 1.61 Road to Glory, the German bomber will receive an updated model and texture, which includes the removal of various drawbacks in the old model.
The current in-game model of the He 111H-6 is noticeably outdated and no longer meets the quality standards that we set for vehicle models in the game. The new model of this regular of aerial battles in ranks II-III now has far more polygons and the new texture has a 4K resolution and has become far more detailed than the previous model.
Alongside this model update, we have fixed a range of flaws present in the old version of the bomber. Firstly, the machine gun in the lower frontal mount point (the ‘bathtub’ under the fuselage) has finally appeared. Another machine gun has been added in the tail – it’s barely noticeable on the model, with only a few centimeters of barrel visible. In reality, it was absolutely immobile and served as a kind of scarecrow – the aircraft pilot has the ability to fire a volley from this machine gun from time to time which was intended to frighten off any fighters tailing the Heinkel. In War Thunder, this function will be implemented, but the machine gun will have a minimal field of fire on the vertical and horizontal planes, so that the player can have at least a small chance of shooting down chasing aircraft when firing this machine gun.
We’ve also fixed a bug in the geometry of the fuselage around the bomb hatch – in the new model, this area is implemented in accordance with technical documentation on the bomber. Another useful improvement: the bubble window on the upper turret will move to combat position, meaning the field of fire of this turret will be significantly improved.
Download Wallpaper: 1280x1024 | 1920x1080 | 2560x1440
Meet this rejuvenated veteran in the aerial battles of War Thunder in update 1.61: Road to Glory, and keep an eye on our news. See you in battle!
The War Thunder Team
See also :Kickstarter fraudsters hawking Kobe beef jerky were just minutes away from completing the biggest-ever outright scam on the crowdfunding site last week.
A campaign titled "KOBE RED - 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY" first appeared on Kickstarter on May 14, and it raised $120,000 from 3,300 backers over the past month.
That is, until Kickstarter pulled the plug just before the campaign was scheduled to end and the money was set to go into the fraudsters' bank accounts. Kickstarter relies on its community to self-police, and the Kobe Red shutdown came after sharp Kickstarter users and a documentary team raised concerns.
The supposed company in charge, Los Angeles-based Magnus Fun, promised the jerky was the first kind made from the tender and expensive Japanese Kobe beef.
Magnus Fun posted a decent amount of information on the Kobe Red page, including rave reviews from people who had supposedly tried the jerky -- "omg im licking my fingers in public," one alleged text message screenshot reads. The fraudsters also included information about imported meat inspection, and they posted a story about one of its founders eating Kobe beef on his uncle's ranch.
But Magnus Fun also raised a few eyebrows. They didn't post much personal information, nor did they include photos and videos identifying themselves (which Kickstarter recommends as best practices). And when a Kickstarter user raised concerns in the campaign's comments section, Magnus Fun didn't really try to defend itself.
Related story: Kickstarter's top projects: When they shipped
The scam concerns took off when the team from "Kickstarted," a documentary about Kickstarter, looked more deeply into the campaign.
The "Kickstarted" team highlighted problems with the Kobe Red page, including discrepancies between the high cost of production and the low pledges requested from backers. The documentarians also pointed out the comments from people swearing that they'd tried and loved the jerky all came from relatively new accounts that had backed only failed projects.
In a long post on their own site about their role in exposing the Kobe Red scam, the "Kickstarted" team says they reached out to Magnus Fun with an interview request for the film, and Magnus Fun went back and forth for a bit before promising instead to send footage from a recent taste test in California.
"Kickstarted" said it uncovered "dozens of other smaller inconsistencies and fishy elements" that were enough for Kickstarter to shut the campaign down.
Magnus Fun has since deleted its Kickstarter account, and Kickstarter itself declined to comment on this story.
"It's a credit to Kickstarter and the collective power of the crowd to identify fraud," the "Kickstarted" team, which also posted on Reddit about its concerns, wrote in its blog post.
But it's also a sobering reminder that even feel-good programs like Kickstarter come with serious risks, even beyond straight-up frauds like this one. Last year, a CNNMoney investigation found that 84% of Kickstarter projects don't ship on time. In other cases, products have failed to materialize after creators promised more than they could deliver.
Kickstarter projects have raised $571 million to date, and as with any major platform for raising money, scammers will try to bilk well-meaning backers out of serious cash. In the case of Kobe Red, they very nearly got away with it.io9 interviewed Steven Moffat and managed to get a few interesting bits and pieces from him.
Asked about the mention of the Valeyard in The Name of the Doctor and whether it was a hint of things to come: “Well, I couldn’t resist saying ‘The Valeyard,’ because we haven’t mentioned him in the new series. [Laughs] So I thought, ‘I’ll just put that one in.’
He added: “I never quite understood, in ‘Trial of a Time Lord,’ what he was meant to be. I never understood if he was a real Doctor, or [something else]. But in a story where we are hinting that the Doctor has a hidden chapter to his life, it was irresistible to mention the Valeyard. But you know, he’ll only ever get so dark, let’s be honest. He’s the Doctor. I think a man who worries about going bad is never really going to go bad. Maybe not…”
Moving on to River Song, Moffat says he’s “not quite sure” yet if she’ll be back: “I mean we can see her again because everything’s out of sequence and clearly the implication is that she’s met more than two Doctors. But the question is whether or not we should revisit her. It’ll now be story-driven. If we’ve got an idea that she fits into perfectly then there’s no reason why we can’t do it, but I quite liked where we got to at the end of ‘The Name of the Doctor,’ with him saying goodbye to her. So we’ll see.”
Moffat was also asked whether he thought he owed the fans some onscreen closure to some loose ends, such as the TARDIS explosion in Series 5 and the Silence: “Well, we are going to do it all. It’s going to end at Christmas. Yeah, [there will be closure]. But ‘owe them’? I don’t know about ‘owing.’ But yeah, there’s a plan, and we will end the Eleventh Doctor’s run with the answers to some of those questions.”Photo via Flickr user thepositiveaboutnegatives
In America, an unprecedented outbreak of avian flu may have caused egg prices to rise amid mass shortages, but the people of Thailand are reckoning with an entirely different, egg-related problem: Somebody is allegedly trying to sell them fake eggs made of plastic. And those eggs are thought to be coming from China.
Thai officials are being called to investigate the possibility of counterfeit eggs made of plastic entering the market after fifty-nine-year-old Mrs. Lek Jaikla, reported buying a fake egg in her local market.
Mrs. Lek told reporters that she was shocked to find that one of the eggs she bought from a flea market in Tambon Noong E-roon started burning and emitting a plastic-like smell when cooked. The fraudulent egg was one of ten contained in a plastic bag that Mrs. Lek obtained for 35 baht, or a little under one American dollar.
Locals who learned about the discovery of the fake egg urged authorities to try to find out where it came from. Pongsak Khunsawasdi, a local grocer, disclaimed responsibility. She said she bought her eggs straight from a poultry farm and didn't sell eggs "put in plastic bags like those sold at the flea market."
But stories of faux oeufs have been circulating in Thailand: Mrs. Lek said that she heard about fake eggs on the television, but had never seen one before she inadvertently made the purchase.
The origin of the eggs, at least according to urban legend, is China. For years, stories of fake Chinese eggs—ones that look surprisingly like real ones—have been rampant. According to some reports, they are made of gypsum powder, calcium carbonate and wax. Rumors of fake Chinese eggs date back to the 1990s. In case you were wondering how to tell a fake egg from a real one, experts say that fake eggs have thinner yolks and whites.
Food forgery is a problem of near-epidemic proportions, particularly in China, and it's certainly not restricted to eggs. Even the life-giving staple that is rice isn't safe from counterfeit claims. Almost every Asian nation has had its own fake rice scare, despite little if any evidence to back up the claims.
As far as eggs go, a Fuji TV investigation that has over almost 1.5 million views on YouTube claims that the allegations of an underground criminal marketplace in fake eggs in China is 100 percent true. Others say, "claims about a well-organized and widespread fake egg market in China seem dubious." But given China's acknowledgement that its food safety and food fraud situation needs a serious overhaul, the fake egg stories may very well be true.
Mrs. Lek is pretty certain she bought some fake Chinese eggs—and that the problem has now spread to Thailand.Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 10:25 AM
I've been thinking a lot about Michelle Obama and this blog in recent weeks. There is a wonderful retrospective on Mrs. Obama's fashion influence written by Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times. It captures the cultural relevance and central themes of Mrs. Obama's style discussed and debated here over the years – sartorial diplomacy, championing the artisan designer, the high and low democratic mix, clothes that married strength and femininity, clothes that broke norms and created new ones.
From the very beginning, I was intrigued by the tension of these qualities – that in the seemingly superficial, there could be hidden meaning and depth. When we weren't swooning over the first lady's ensembles, decoding them all was a thrill.
In this divided world of ours, admiration for Mrs. Obama's style became a great unifier, evidenced – in part – by the vast, diverse audience of this blog at its peak. There was something about Mrs. Obama, the clothes she wore and the context of the times that fascinated us all, that captured our attention and held it. That intrigue and its wide-reaching pull can't be fully explained by the factors above.
This November, President Obama told Vogue, "People see themselves in her. A dedicated mom, a good friend, and someone who's not afraid to poke a little fun at herself from time to time." I think women see who they want to be in Mrs. Obama. Her clothes are those of a confident, smart, vibrant, active woman who manages the fine balance of taking care of herself and others – and that has enduring, universal appeal.
In her final speech as first lady, Mrs. Obama told the audience and the American public, "I hope I've made you proud." More than she’ll ever know.
To the readers, thank you again for your participation and dialogue over the years. What fun we had!
To the first lady, a million thank-yous for being exactly who you are.
With peace and love, Mrs. T.
For reference:
What Michelle Obama Wore and Why It Mattered [New York Times]
Michelle Obama didn't like to discuss her clothes, but they spoke volumes [Washington Post]
A Michelle Obama Blogger Looks Back at 8 Years of FLOTUS Style [Racked]
Archived posts by designer [Mrs O Blog]By Bernard Hickey
So which Treasury forecasts should we rely on Prime Minister?
Next week Treasury is expected to unveil a bountiful set of Budget surplus forecasts for the next four years that allows us to have it all – tax cuts, extra social spending, two major quake rebuilds and debt repayment. Very strong overall GDP growth is likely to power tax revenues much higher than even the Treasury thought just seven months ago, giving the Government big surpluses for equally big election promises next year.
We know this because this week Prime Minister John Key gave us the nod and the wink about what will be in the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) on Thursday. He was responding to an opinion poll that showed 79% of voters would prefer the Government spend the growing surpluses on extra social spending or debt repayment, rather than on tax cuts.
Speaking after Cabinet was briefed on the HYEFU, Mr Key said the framing of the question was all wrong because it assumed the surpluses weren’t big enough for voters to have it all.
"When you see the HYEFU numbers, what you'll see is the budget surpluses start hockey-sticking up and they start getting quite big," he said.
Pressed again on whether the Government could 'do it all,' he said: "I think when you see the numbers next week, that's what you'll think as well."
He didn’t quite use the word “bigly”, but there were a few Trump-like assurances along the lines of 'believe me, when you see the size of my surpluses you won’t be asking these questions.'
Referring to Treasury’s forecasts and its 26 years of adherence to the Public Finance Act to give an honest account of the fiscal outlook is a perfectly rational thing for a Prime Minister to do. Treasury’s record as a forecaster is among the best in the world and the Act was a pioneer in being designed to stop politicians cooking or hiding the true state of the Government’s books before elections – as happened several times in the 1980s.
But Mr Key’s reliance on those forecasts for some big talking certainly jarred just two days after he rubbished the Treasury’s forecasts in its Long Term Fiscal Outlook delivered last week. Under the same Public Finance Act, the Treasury has to forecast at least once every four years what the Government’s books will look like by 2060 if it continues on with its current settings.
Treasury pointed out for the third time in the current National Government that an ageing population allied to the current settings for New Zealand Superannuation would blow out the Crown’s net debt to over 200% of GDP by 2060 from 25% now. Treasury again suggested the Government extend the age of eligibility for New Zealand Superannuation to 67 and move to a less generous form of indexation than the current one linked to the average wage. The trouble is Mr Key has promised to resign if either one of those two changes are made.
So his response this time was to say those particular long term Treasury forecasts were not reliable, and his proof was that the short term ones were not reliable either.
"The cool thing is Treasury can’t get their predictions right in 44 days, let alone 44 years. They constantly get it wrong," Mr Key said.
He was referring to Treasury’s forecasts before the Budgets in May 2015 and May 2016, which were for small deficits when the Government had targeted surpluses. Eventually, the final numbers registered small surpluses, but not before causing some embarrassment for the Government.
Mr Key had not forgotten when he was asked if he was betting his legacy on Treasury getting its long term forecasts wrong.
"I’m telling you it’s a load of nonsense, because they can’t get predictions in 44 days right, let alone in 44 years."
It is extraordinary for the Prime Minister to call the Treasury’s short and long term forecasts a “load of nonsense” and yet rely on the medium term ones to promise all manner of riches to voters on the eve of an election.
Treasury’s forecasts are worthy of respect. Mr Key may well be right that the Government can afford it all for the next few years, but if that was the case it should also address those longer term challenges evident in the Treasury’s long term forecasts.
One way to credible address the issue is to use the good times now to prepare for the longer term challenges. Michael Cullen resisted Mr Key’s calls from 2005 to 2008 for big tax cuts and instead set up the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and KiwiSaver. That was a sensible way to address those long term challenges, although Dr Cullen also fell short by not dealing with the elephant in the room of those unsustainable New Zealand Superannuation settings.
If there is enough |
images based on Windows Server Core or Nano Server.
Following these steps will get you a functioning Windows app in a Docker image - then you can look to optimizing your Dockerfile.UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.
The research was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Hair follicle stem cells are long-lived cells in the hair follicle; they are present in the skin and produce hair throughout a person’s lifetime. They are “quiescent,” meaning they are normally inactive, but they quickly activate during a new hair cycle, which is when new hair growth occurs. The quiescence of hair follicle stem cells is regulated by many factors. In certain cases they fail to activate, which is what causes hair loss.
In this study, Christofk and Lowry, of Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, found that hair follicle stem cell metabolism is different from other cells of the skin. Cellular metabolism involves the breakdown of the nutrients needed for cells to divide, make energy and respond to their environment. The process of metabolism uses enzymes that alter these nutrients to produce “metabolites.” As hair follicle stem cells consume the nutrient glucose — a form of sugar — from the bloodstream, they process the glucose to eventually produce a metabolite called pyruvate. The cells then can either send pyruvate to their mitochondria — the part of the cell that creates energy — or can convert pyruvate into another metabolite called lactate.
“Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly,” said Christofk, an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology.
The research team first blocked the production of lactate genetically in mice and showed that this prevented hair follicle stem cell activation. Conversely, in collaboration with the Rutter lab at University of Utah, they increased lactate production genetically in the mice and this accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation, increasing the hair cycle.
“Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells,” said Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. “Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.”
The team identified two drugs that, when applied to the skin of mice, influenced hair follicle stem cells in distinct ways to promote lactate production. The first drug, called RCGD423, activates a cellular signaling pathway called JAK-Stat, which transmits information from outside the cell to the nucleus of the cell. The research showed that JAK-Stat activation leads to the increased production of lactate and this in turn drives hair follicle stem cell activation and quicker hair growth. The other drug, called UK5099, blocks pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, which forces the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and accelerates hair growth in mice.
“Through this study, we gained a lot of interesting insight into new ways to activate stem cells,” said Aimee Flores, a predoctoral trainee in Lowry’s lab and first author of the study. “The idea of using drugs to stimulate hair growth through hair follicle stem cells is very promising given how many millions of people, both men and women, deal with hair loss. I think we’ve only just begun to understand the critical role metabolism plays in hair growth and stem cells in general; I’m looking forward to the potential application of these new findings for hair loss and beyond.”
The use of RCGD423 to promote hair growth is covered by a provisional patent application filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents. The use of UK5099 to promote hair growth is covered by a separate provisional patent filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents, with Lowry and Christofk as inventors.
The experimental drugs described above were used in preclinical tests only and have not been tested in humans or approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for use in humans.
The research was supported by a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine training grant, a New Idea Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National Cancer Institute (R25T CA098010), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01-GM081686 and R01-GM0866465), the National Institutes of Health (RO1GM094232), an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant (RSG-16-111-01-MPC), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (5R01AR57409), a Rose Hills Foundation Research Award and the Gaba Fund. The Rose Hills award and the Gaba Fund are administered through the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center.
Further research on the use of UK5099 is being funded by the UCLA Technology Development Group through funds from California State Assembly Bill 2664.Written by Michael Carr on April 28, 2016
Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has given Australian fans the news they have long been waiting for. reveling the band will be touring down under in January 2017.
“Yes … you will see us in January,” he said n a recent interview with the Herald Sun.
Currently touring the US off the back of their latest release The White Album (the fourth in their series of colour albums), the band have been popping up all over the place, recently collaborating with the likes of Vic Mensa and The Monkees.
With the tour set to embark on a traipse around the world following their North American dates, that they would come to Australia was never a certainty. The comments in the interview then were music to ears of fans.
Three years since their last visit to our shores, the band are sure to draw crowds when they come. However while you might expect them to play their own headline shows, the January timing suggests they might be joining the bill of one of the end of year festivals like Falls Festival or Southbound.
Still only time will tell, stay tuned for any more news or an official announcement.
In the meantime why don’t we relive their glory days via the video for Undone here below.
Weezer – UndoneQuestion #169: My dad hit me.
I really, really need commenters who have experience with domestic violence/abuse counseling to weigh in here, thanks. This Letter Writer needs help from someone who doesn’t have to Google “domestic violence resources” to answer the question.
Captain Awkward,
Hi! I’m a 19 year old college student and I live with my parents. It’s not an ideal situation, but I figure my relationship with them is alright; I’m closer to my mom and I fight a lot with my dad, but they’re not horrible. I know they love me and I love them, yadda yadda. I’m one of the lucky ones, all things considered.
But today my dad hit me. Repeatedly. Not with a closed fist or anything, but he sort of held me by the neck while he smacked my face with his other hand. My mom and sister had to pull him off me. Background: me and my dad will get into huge, screaming fights, but he has never been physically violent. I do not enjoy these screaming matches, to say the least. Lately these arguments have actually been happening less frequently because I’m getting better at knowing when to walk away, but everything just happened so fast this time.
The argument that led up to this was trivial. He had been giving my younger sister shit for failing to do something and I defended her. (There’s nothing my dad likes more than angrily lecturing someone about what he thinks they’ve done wrong.) In this case my sister hadn’t really done anything wrong, though, it was just a small inconsequential thing. He didn’t have to be such a goddamn asshole. So I said something about how there was no use in harping on what my sister hadn’t done, next time she would take his advice. He got defensive and told me it wasn’t my business.
I responded that she was my sister and therefore sort of my business (in hindsight: not the best response). It escalated from there and he told me I should get the fuck out of his house. I said, “i would if i fucking could,” while walking away. That’s when he grabbed me and everything went down.
Honestly, in the moment it happened I was almost relieved. Well, you know, under the shock. Like, FINALLY. I just remember feeling like this is my chance to punch him in the face and them him holding me with one of his motherfucking hands while he hit me with the other one. I didn’t manage to punch him back, but I tried.
Anyway. I haven’t talked to him since (I left the house immediately after), but my mom tells me he’s sorry. Right after the fact he texted me several times asking me to pick up the phone so he could apologize, but I was too upset to even consider it.
I don’t know what to do. Moving out before I graduate isn’t really an option; I’ve looked into it before, but I just can’t afford it. My mom is talking about me renting a room just for a little while, just to get some space, and that might be possible. In any case I am still dependent on him for tuition and living expenses.
I feel both horribly guilty and so, so angry. I don’t want to be anywhere near him but I feel like this is something I should try to mend. He’s my dad. He’s done a lot for me, and I don’t want to be ungrateful. But he hit me. He hit me. I want to apologize and kick him in the crotch at the same time. Both of my sisters have acknowledged that my dad is hard to get along with, but neither of them have had this level of conflict with them. I feel like I’m the disruptive force in my family, tearing it apart. My mom doesn’t deserve this.
How should I approach this situation? Generally after an argument I avoid him and pretend nothing ever happened. (I know, I know.) He does the same, though sometimes he will faux-apologize if it was really bad (he’s sorry but it was my fault) and I apologize back (and agree that it was my fault). This time feels a little different, for obvious reasons. As angry and upset as I am about it, I kind of understand his reaction. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m very much my father’s kid and we are similar in a lot of ways (though I like to think of myself as someone who is aware of their faults and works to be a better person. Oh, and I’ve never hit someone because I couldn’t control my temper. That too). I’m hardly the blameless victim here. But I really don’t think I can deal with another vaguely accusatory fake apology. Maybe if I apologize first it will offset that.
What do you think?
Sincerely,
Resentful and Conflicted
Dear Resentful and Conflicted:
Here’s what happened: Your dad just escalated from verbal, emotional abuse to physical abuse.
I’m going to repeat your words back to you:
“There’s nothing my dad likes more than angrily lecturing someone about what he thinks they’ve done wrong.”
“Lately these arguments have actually been happening less frequently because I’m getting better at knowing when to walk away, but everything just happened so fast this time.”
“In hindsight: It was not the best response.”
“Honestly, in the moment it happened I was almost relieved. Well, you know, under the shock. Like, FINALLY.”
“Generally after an argument I avoid him and pretend nothing ever happened. (I know, I know.) He does the same, though sometimes he will faux-apologize if it was really bad (he’s sorry but it was my fault) and I apologize back (and agree that it was my fault).”
“I’m hardly the blameless victim here.” “I feel like the disruptive force in my family.”
This is all pretty much from the Abusive Situation Textbook. Your entire family walks on eggshells around your dad, hoping that he won’t be in one of his “moods” or that no one will say anything to set him off. Whether he’s yelling at one of your sisters or at you, the effect is the same: You all die a little bit inside, because that’s what happens when someone constantly lectures and yells at the other people in the house. Abusers don’t necessarily wake up in the morning and say “I want to destroy my family’s sense of safety and worth.” They see themselves as beleaguered heroes. “Things would be fine if you would just do everything I tell you to do and completely anticipate my moods. You know how I get when you’re like that.” Abusers are also experts in manipulating people and provoking people into yelling at them, which creates the situation that makes them feel justified in using force and creates a false sense of “Well, nobody’s blameless here, it’s both of our faults.”
You can love someone who is abusive, who engages in abusive behaviors. You can really and truly love them. You can search their behavior and yours for proof of how you handled it badly and how it is really a little bit your fault, and “take responsibility” and “apologize” but it doesn’t change what is happening. The part where you don’t want to apologize but feel like you have to in order to keep a roof over your head and stay in school? That’s part of the cycle, right on schedule.
Here’s what is going to happen if you and your dad apologize to each other right this second and you move back in (I am magic and I can predict the future):
Things will be good for a little while. There will be some kind of emotional catharsis and you’ll hug and cry and he’ll promise not to do it again. He’ll be a changed man! This was a wakeup call, you see!
Until one of you, any of you, makes a tiny “mistake.” He doesn’t want to yell at you, you all just make him by being so (stupid/irresponsible/selfish/loud/mouthy/talking back).
Because…notice how important it is that he apologize to you? Not questions about “Where are you, are you safe, are you ok?” It’s “Please let me apologize to you (so I can feel better about what I did and we can make it all go away.” Your dad is guilty of assault and battery. He should be asking…do you have any injuries? He should be saying, “Do whatever you need to do to feel safe. I do want to apologize to you, but don’t worry about me right now.”
Listen, I’m glad you reached out to someone, and I’m glad you trust me and this community enough to tell us this story, but I am not a trained domestic violence counselor or social worker and I am feeling very inadequate right now. What I know about is stories. I can read the story of your family and identify the pattern. But I can’t tell you what you should do or help you take the steps to make yourself safe. You’re going to need to call one or more domestic violence numbers, counselors, and/or social workers and talk to the pros. Since these kinds of situations are depressingly common, fortunately there are a lot of pros and they will have dealt with all of this before and know exactly what to tell you.
I don’t know where in the world you are located, but here are some of the big hotlines. I’m pulling from this site, which is talking more about intimate partner violence, but most of the behaviors and definitions are spot on for you, so don’t let that put you off. Call one of the numbers, tell the person what happened, and ask them to direct you to local resources.
Resources specifically for men:
In the US, The Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men & Women specializes in supporting male victims of abuse and offers a 24-hour helpline: 1-888-7HELPLINE (1-888-743-5754).
specializes in supporting male victims of abuse and offers a 24-hour helpline: 1-888-7HELPLINE (1-888-743-5754). UK: ManKind Initiative offers a national helpline at 01823 334244.
Australia: One in Three Campaign offers help and resources for male victims.
I think you should also talk to your college or university counseling office ASAP. Even if the semester hasn’t officially started, make the phone call. You need a trained professional on Team You right now.
I think your mom is very, very smart to encourage you to rent a room “for a while.” She knows your dad better than you do, and if she’s saying this? BELIEVE HER. I love her right now the most for not pressuring you to come back and make things right with your dad. This is a fucking heroic effort on her part, because she is getting the full performance from him. Believe her.
In the short term stay with friends or other family members. Down the road renting a room can be something you ask your dad directly for, as in, “Dad, you really scared me that night, and while I know you feel bad about it, I don’t feel safe or like I can live in the house right now. Can you help me cover the cost of a room this semester? And over time, we can both go to counseling and try to heal what happened that day?”
But that’s like, step 27 or something. The first step is you, somewhere you immediately feel safe, with some local pros in your corner, and not worried about whether you have to apologize to someone who grabbed your face and held it while he slapped you.
This is unfair. And horrible. And scary. And so, so fucking lonely. There are a lot of changes coming your way, and not all of them will be good changes, especially at first. I’m hoping you can ride it out and meet Future You in that small quiet room.
So much love for you,
Captain AwkwardWritten by RYAN BONNER (Patch National Staff)
WANTAGH, NY - A man who works as an air traffic controller at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility on Long Island was arrested Wednesday night after he was found to be in possession of drugs and loaded guns, police said.
Breen Peck, of Indiana, was arrested during a traffic stop in Wantagh around 10:22 p.m.
According to Nassau Police, Peck, 52, was driving a 2010 Toyota with dark tinted windows south on Willow Street when he turned left onto Byron Street without signaling.
Officers from the Criminal Intelligence Rapid Response Team pulled Peck over and during an investigation, Peck told the officers that he had a loaded handgun behind his driver's seat and another gun in the rear cargo area of the car, neither of which he had permits for, police said.
Peck was taken into custody and while being searched, police said officers discovered a substance believed to be crystal methamphetamine in his front pants pocket.
Peck is charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and numerous traffic violations. He was due to be arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead on Thursday.
Peck is employed at the TRACON facility in Westbury, police said. That facility is responsible for directing air traffic at three major airports–John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and LaGuardia Airport–as well as many smaller airports, including Westchester County Airport.
Photo: Breen Peck. Photo credit: Nassau PoliceLONDON (Reuters) - British banks need to raise fresh capital “as early as feasible” as the stability of the global financial system remains fragile, the Bank of England’s new risk watchdog said on Friday.
The Bank’s Financial Policy Committee said that banks had gone as far as they could to raise capital by keeping down pay, dividends and share buybacks.
“But the committee remained concerned that capital was not yet at levels that would ensure resilience in the face of prospective risks,” the FPC said. “It therefore advised banks t o raise external capital as early as feasible.”
The 11-member FPC reached this decision at its quarterly meeting on March 16, and said it would review progress by banks at its next meeting in June.
The FPC is one of a new breed of watchdogs springing up across the world to spot risks that go beyond a single bank, plugging a gap highlighted by the financial crisis.
The FPC held its first meeting in June last year, and next year it will gain legal powers to order banks to take action to improve the stability of the financial system as a whole.
On Friday, it listed the initial set of three powers that it wanted. First it wants to be able to order banks to raise or lower capital buffers to smooth out swings in credit supply. Second, it wants to be able to set capital requirements to cool specific sections of the lending market, for example commercial real estate lending or high loan-to-value mortgages.
Finally, it wants to be able to change banks’ overall leverage ratio - effectively how much they can lend in total.
It stopped short of calling for powers to be able to completely ban high loan-to-value or loan-to-income mortgages, saying that the public debate on this was not sufficiently advanced for it to be acceptable for the BoE to do this.
However, these powers will be kept under review and the FPC said it may ask for more powers in future.What Creative People Can Learn from the Guy Who Invented “Tarzan”
Paul Cantor Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 3, 2015
Edgar Rice Burroughs was supposed to be a lifelong failure.
Born in 1875, he flunked out of Phillips Academy, failed examinations to get into West Point and due to a weak heart, was discharged from the army. His brother loaned him some cash to open a stationery store, but his business quickly went bust. From there, he went to work at his dad’s storage battery business, and in 1900, 25-years-old and recently married, he was pulling in a whopping $15 a week. Three years later, one of his other brothers gave him a job at his gold dredging business, but then that company fell apart. Burroughs subsequently shuffled through a series of jobs selling electric light bulbs, candy and Stoddard Lectures. Anything to keep the lights on.
None of these jobs changed his lot in life. Burroughs was, ostensibly, still a loser. “I had decided I was a total failure,” he said. And indeed, he was. That didn’t stop him from trying, though.
Burroughs soon found a company looking to hire an accountant, and not knowing anything at all about accounting, bravely applied for the job and got it. He was lucky that his employer knew even less about accounting than he did, but he didn’t last long as an accountant anyway. He then tried his hand at the mail-order business, landing a job at a company and quickly advancing to the head of his department. Then his wife gave birth to their first child.
With another mouth to feed and the entrepreneurial bug in his veins, he decided to go into business for himself. This was probably among the dumbest decisions Burroughs ever made, because he had no startup money and when it was all said and done, he shuttered the business while deep in the red. Luckily, the mail-order company he’d previously worked at offered him an opportunity to come back, and it was at this point that Edgar Rice Burroughs’ life could have gone in two very different directions.
“I would probably have been fixed for life with a good living salary,” Burroughs said. “[But] occasionally it is better to do the wrong thing than the right.”
With his business gone, and perhaps having erred in declining to return to his old employer, Burroughs now had no job, no money, and also had another mouth to feed — his wife had just given birth their second child. Needing food, he pawned his family’s belongings, applied for any jobs he could find and waited for God to send him a sign that all was not lost. And then, finally, he landed a gig as a lowly sales agent for a pencil sharpener company. It was there, as legend has it, that while other agents were out trying to sell pencil sharpeners, Burroughs finally sat down at a desk and changed his entire life.
“I knew nothing about the technique of story writing,” said Burroughs. “[But] had good reason for thinking I could sell what I wrote.”
So, in 1911, at the age of 35, with years of failure burning him up inside, Burroughs began penning the story that would eventually become A Princess of Mars. Embarrassed that his pursuits would be considered childish— because what sensible 35-year-old man with a family thinks about Mars? — he didn’t tell his wife or friends that he was doing it. He just did it. When he was done, knowing absolutely nothing about publishing, he blindly sent the first 43,000 words to a magazine called The All-Story. To his chagrin, an editor there, Thomas Newell Metcalf, took a liking to the story, and helped him shape it up. Metcalf suggested he add another 30,000 words, effectively making it into a complete novel, and after that, he’d publish it. Burroughs agreed and in February 1912, the first part of A Princess of Mars began being serialized in The All-Story.
Burroughs was paid $400 for the rights to the story. Today, that would yield him, the struggling businessman with a family to feed and nothing but failure on his resume, a grand sum of $9,664.13!
Though this was a decent amount, even back then, it wasn't enough money to drastically alter the direction of things. Burroughs was still working a job that didn’t match his expenses and it wasn’t until he landed another gig, at a business magazine, that the course he was on really started to shift. While employed at that job, which finally earned him a decent wage— certainly enough to maybe relax a bit— he spent his nights not out drinking with buddies or his holidays vacationing in the Caymans, but rather, toiling away in obscurity, shaping the sentences and paragraphs of the novel that would introduce one of the most iconic characters in the history of all popular art— Tarzan of the Apes.
“Tarzan of the Apes” was published as book in 1914.
The rights to the first Tarzan story were initially purchased for $700 and even though he’d gotten more money for it, Burroughs, like most artists, doubted that the yarn was very good at all. He was surprised that it sold. But his popularity as a writer was growing and from then, he would continue to get more and more money for his stories. Still, it wasn’t quite enough, and with no royalties earned from magazine sales, he decided that books were the next logical step.
According to Burroughs, every major book publisher in the country turned down Tarzan of the Apes. For some reason— maybe because Burroughs didn’t have enough Twitter followers or Facebook likes— they didn’t think there was a there there. But a clairvoyant editor at the newspaper The Evening World — the Buzzfeed or VOX of its day — saw Burroughs vision and began serializing the story. The serialization lead to other papers doing the same— I think we call that aggregation now, except nobody gets paid for it — and with its popularity among readers at a fever pitch, the publisher A.C. McClurg & Co., which had initially told Burroughs to effectively go fuck himself, came back and asked to publish it as a book.
Tarzan’s popularity proved to be explosive, going on to sell millions of copies and being translated into more languages than human beings are even capable of speaking. Heck, even aliens know who Tarzan is. The books— overtly racist as they are; remember this was the early 1900s— were eventually turned into comics, radio shows, movies and other merchandise. Burroughs, after all his years of failing, had finally found something he was good at. And he was not a dummy in the least— he knew how to turn a nickel into a dime. It’s just that before Tarzan, he’d rarely had a nickel to start with.Lockheed Martin lost as much as four percent of its total value in the moments after US president-elect Donald Trump tweeted that the cost of the military jet maker's project to build advanced F-35 Lightning II fighters was "out of control."
Panicked investors dumping stock initially shaved off around $3.5 billion (£2.75 billion) from the company's value, though the share price had recovered somewhat by the close of trading on Monday, leaving it nearly 2.5 percent down on the previous day, or a dip of around $2 billion (£1.57 billion).
The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Trump claimed "billions of dollars can and will be saved on military purchases" after he is inaugurated as president of the US.
The US government's procurement deal for Lockheed's F-35 joint strike fighter is its most expensive ever—with costs said to be currently hovering around $400 billion (£314.5 billion), $100 billion (£78.7 billion) of which has already been spent, according to the New York Times. The project has been beset by cost overruns and hitches in both software and hardware throughout its 15-year history, and the first F-35 squadron only entered service in August, when fresh upgrades meant that pilots had managed "88 individual aircraft sorties without a software problem."
Last year, a test pilot admitted that the new fighter was at a disadvantage in dogfights with the venerable F-16, a fighter first introduced in 1978, because it climbed and turned slower.
In a markedly meek response to the future US president, Lockheed's F-35 general manager, Jeff Babione, described it as “the most advanced aircraft in history,” claimed that the company understood "the importance of affordability," and said that he believed the price of each aircraft would end up at $85 million (£66.9 million) by 2019 or 2020. Depending on the model, each unit currently costs between $98 and $116 million (£77-£91 million).
We understand it’s not just the acquisition price. Lockheed Martin and its industry partners are also investing in reducing the sustainment costs of the aircraft recognising that much of the cost of owning and operating an aircraft is after it’s delivered. We plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to reduce the cost of sustaining the airplane over its 30-40 year lifespan. We understand the importance of affordability and that’s what the F-35 has been about.
Regular Trump opponent and chair of the US Senate's armed services committee, John McCain, told Reuters he supported cost cutbacks to the project, saying: "He can reduce the buy over time, next year, as we look at it again."
Despite its many issues, the F-35 has broad political support across the US, because Lockheed has subcontracted manufacturing and engineering projects across many states. All of these provide jobs, making it tricky for elected officials to be critical of the project. The UK, Australia, Israel, Japan, and the Netherlands have all placed significant orders for the aircraft, with Britain investing $2.5 billion (£1.97 billion) as the sole "Level One" partner.
Last week, another of Trump's tweets caused a bump in Boeing's stock price. The right-winger and former reality TV star hit out at the company for the cost of replacing the presidential aircraft, Air Force One, shaving 1.5 percent from its value.I know.
Unlike the Empire, Sideshow has a long history of working with carbonite which is why we are able to bring collectors the latest addition to our ever-expanding line of Star Wars collectible Sixth Scale figures - Han Solo in Carbonite.
The Han Solo in Carbonite Sixth Scale Figure manages to capture (HA…get it?) the heart-stopping moment when we thought our favorite scruffy looking nerf herder might be doomed forever.
Multiple display options allow the carbonite slab to be positioned both horizontally, as it is moved through a Bespin hallway, and vertically, as it rests in the freezing chamber. The base includes swappable floor decos to simulate either scene, the somber exit from Bespin or the dramatic carbon chamber confrontation. Illumination in the base and along the carbon slab control panel completes the impressively detailed presentation.UPDATED: The filmmaker will serve a one-year sentence and pay a fine for making false statements to the FBI during its investigation into Anthony Pellicano.
John McTiernan, who directed such hit movies as Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October, will likely soon be headed to federal prison in connection with his role in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal.
McTiernan was sentenced in late 2010 to one year in prison and a fine of $100,000 after pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI in its investigation into the activities of Pellicano, the former Hollywood private detective who already is behind bars.
STORY: Chris Rock Settles Hungarian Model's Pellicano-Related Lawsuit
McTiernan’s request to reverse his guilty plea was declined Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court. His appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had been rejected in August. He had sought to suppress a digital recording where he discussed the use of an illegal wiretap by Pellicano, whom he had hired to investigate producer Chuck Roven.
That appeal was denied, but he was given a stay from prison until the Supreme Court could consider his case. Now that the high court has denied the appeal, he'll soon head be incarcerated. After serving his time, McTiernan will continue to be under a supervised release for three years.
McTiernan attorney Charles Sevilla of San Diego did not respond to a request for comment. In 2002, when the illegal wiretap was used, McTiernan was working on the remake of Rollerball, which Roven was producing.
Another attorney for McTiernan says there is a chance that there will be further delays. He says there is still a motion before the judge to reduce or eliminate McTiernan's sentence on the grounds that there has never been any proof presented that Pellicano actually wiretapped Roven. In a filing to the judge, a former McTiernan assistant declares that to her knowlege Roven was neveractually wiretapped.
However, the charge that McTiernan is guilty of is that he lied to the FBI. His defense hopes that the judge will see that only happened because he was falsely accused. Up to now the judge has not been sympathetic to such defense motions but they remain hopeful this will lead to more discovery, evidence hearings and possibly more appeals.
When he was first interviewed by authoritie about seven years ago,, McTiernan insisted his involvement with Pellicano was very limited. Later, when confronted with a recording that showed he hired the private eye, the director agreed to plead guilty.
STORY: Director John McTiernan Loses His Pellicano Appeal
McTiernan later hired new lawyers and worked to withdraw his guilty plea and suppress certain evidence. On his initial appeal to the federal court, the judges ruled he had gotten bad legal advice from his first lawyer and allowed him to withdraw his plea.
The filmmaker was indicted again, and after his renewed efforts to suppress the evidence failed, he entered another guilty plea.
An appeals court also rejected McTiernan’s argument that U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer should have recused herself after she allegedly made hostile comments toward him in court as she repeatedly denied his request to suppress the tapes.
Now the director-producer -- whose helming credits also include Predator, Last Action Hero and Basic -- again must appear before Fischer, who is expected to order him to report for incarceration. If the judge does not rule in McTiernan's favor on his remaining motiions, the final step could take a few weeks or a couple months, according to legal sources.Several months ago, my wife and I attended a prayer service at a synagogue that is well known for its spiritual, and spirited, approach. As we entered, the rabbi was leading a meditation. "Close your eyes and breathe in the peace of Shabbat [the Sabbath]." she said. "And on the out-breathe imagine that you are sending healing love to all beings." We passed a man who appeared to be deep in meditation. His eyes were closed, and through a slightly opened smile he slowly breathed in and out. As we moved to our seats, I accidentally stepped on his toe. He quickly turned toward me; his smile vanished and he angrily hissed, "Hey, watch it, buddy!"
In the irony of a person being angry at a stranger for accidentally interrupting his meditation about universal, unconditional love, this man demonstrated the disturbing, alluring and all-too common phenomenon of "spiritual narcissism."
To understand spiritual narcissism we must first understand the word "spirituality." My acting definition is, "The experience of a transformative connection." In other words, spirituality is experienced -- it is not a concept or construct. It transforms us. It changes how we act, think and feel in all environments. And it is a connection -- a profound contact with something and someone outside of our selves.
All three of these components are needed in order for spirituality to occur, but the most essential is that it be a connection -- between a person and the Divine, or between one person and another. Spiritual practices are designed to facilitate these connections, and begin with the knowledge that we have two selves: an ego-self and a true-Self. The ego-self is built on our strategy for ensuring that we are physically safe, stemming from our interpretation of the experiences of our lives (primarily our childhood) in which we determined what was required in order to survive. The ego-self may need to impress, dominate or control and sees others as either threats or tools. There is nothing inherently wrong with the ego-self; it is a necessary structure put in place |
’s the point I’m trying to get across.
“I don’t know what goes into Michael’s decision process, although obviously there are financial, sponsor and political considerations. But he has not let us know what engines he’ll be running next year. He’s told us we’ll know by the end of the season – but obviously that’s coming up very quick.”
On the subject of whether he will definitely stay with Andretti should it remain a Honda team, Rossi replied: “If this had been decided back in May, then there wouldn’t be any question about staying at Michael’s team. But we’re already quite a way down the road with other teams, and it’s down to my own due diligence to listen to the other team owners and team managers and make a decision based on the information I’ve learned. I’ve gained knowledge of their positive attributes and forthcoming improvements that I’d never have known about had I not picked up the phone.”OTTAWA — It’s unlikely a spike in consumer prices will knock the Bank of Canada off its long-range course for interest rates.
Inflation rose to a two-year high in June — led by food, shelter and transportation costs — surpassing monthly forecasts by economists and overtaking the central bank’s own predictions for the second quarter.
The overall Consumer Price Index rose by an annual pace of 2.4% last month, following a year-over-year advance of 2.3% in May, Statistics Canada said Friday. Most analysts had expected price increases to remain flat at 2.3% in June. Last month’s inflation rate was the highest since February 2012, when the year-over rate of gains reached 2.6%.
Meanwhile, core inflation — stripping out volatile items, including some food and energy products — rose by 1.8% in June, compared to an annual rate of 1.7% a month earlier. The consensus of analysts was for no change in the core rate.
“Some accuse the bank of ignoring the recent run-up in inflation, but it needs to focus on where inflation is going to be 18-24 months down the road, because monetary policy takes time to have an effect on the real economy,” said Leslie Preston, at TD Economics.
In its quarterly Monetary Policy Report, issued on Wednesday, the bank maintained that recent prices increases would prove temporary.
“It forecasts that inflationary momentum is expected to ebb next year,” Ms. Preston said.
In its MPR, the bank forecast said inflation would track at 2.1% between April and June. However, with the June CPI report, the second-quarter reading now works out 2.2% — the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2012.
“Wages remain so muted that it’s unlikely that this mini-burst in prices is going to be sustained for long,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
There might be “a ratcheting up of energy prices due to geopolitical [concerns], but barring that, I suspect a lot of this run-up that we’re seeing in other goods is a bit of a reaction, or response, to the extremely low readings we saw in 2013,” he said.
“It’s almost like the pressure valve has been opened up a bit to let off some of the pressures that built up in the last year.”
The bank’s inflation target is 2%, the midday point of policymakers’ 1%-to-3% comfort range. Their main tool for keeping inflation on target is the central bank’s benchmark lending rate, which has been at a near-record low of 1% since September 2010 — a level meant to stimulate economic growth after the recession. Most economists don’t expect the Bank of Canada to alter that rate until mid-2015, at the earliest.
Rock-bottom rates worked to get consumer spending up and running again, particularly in Canada’s real estate market. And while businesses have been less aggressive in investing and expanding their markets, households have continued to pile on debt and take responsibility for the lion’s share of economic growth — even as wages have been slow to keep pace.
“The average hourly wage rose by only 1.9% (in June, lagging half a percentage point behind overall inflation and a full percentage point behind food and shelter costs,” Erin Weir, an economist at the United Steelworkers union.
“One would hope that, as our economy grows, people would need to devote less of their incomes to basic necessities. But over the past year, rising food and shelter prices outstripped average wage increases.”
In Friday’s report, Statistics Canada said shelter costs rose 2.9% on an annual basis in June, down from a 3.4% year-over-year increase in May.
The federal data agency said consumers paid more for natural gas and property taxes in June than during the same month a year earlier. However, electricity prices rose by 4.2% from an annual pace of 7% in May.
Food costs were up by 2.9% in June, compared to a 2.3% annual gain the previous month. It cost more for meat and fresh vegetables last month, with food purchased at restaurants also more extensive.
Within the transportation sector, gasoline prices jumped by 5.4% in June, but that was still lower than the 6.3% annual rate of increase in May. Clothing and footwear prices rose by 1.6% year-over-year in June, up from a 0.6% pace the previous month.No, it wasn’t an April Fools’ prank. On April 1, the New Jersey Department of Transportation revealed revised plans for the $265 million, 12.5-mile Route 35 Reconstruction Project. The original reconstruction plan for the Hurricane Sandy-damaged Route 35, which was first announced in February 2013, was touted as a complete streets project, but it provided little in the way of bike accommodations other than paved shoulders in some segments of the right of way.
The updated plan includes 10 miles of bike accommodations — mostly dedicated bike lanes, with shared lane markings or “sharrows” in some locations. The change comes after a year of advocacy by Tri-State, along with the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition and Greater Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition, to assure that this project serves as an example for New Jersey and rest of the nation of how complete streets can be implemented.
The project, which extends through eight municipalities, has been divided into three sections:
Mileposts 0-4 (Berkeley, Seaside Park, Seaside Heights and Toms River)
Route 35 North, from the entrance to Island Beach State Park in Berkeley through 6th Avenue in Toms River, will have a continuous bike lane of either four feet or five feet in width for all but 11 blocks. These 11 blocks will include sharrows.
On Route 35 South, from 6th Avenue in Toms River to Grant Avenue in Seaside Heights, bicyclists will have a four-foot dedicated lane, however, between Grant and Lincoln Avenues, cyclists will have shared road infrastructure. From Lincoln Avenue, southbound cyclists would be diverted one block east to Boulevard, which has no bicycle accommodations, and then rejoin Route 35 south of K Street, where there will be a four-foot-wide bike lane all the way until the entrance to Island Beach State Park in Berkeley.
Mileposts 4-9 (Lavallette, Toms River and Brick)
This five-mile section of Route 35 is will see five-foot bike lanes that will be marked alongside the northbound and southbound travel lanes, with the remaining shoulder space serving as a buffer between parked cars and the bicycle lanes.
Mileposts 9-12.5 (Mantoloking and Bay Head)
In this northernmost section, the northbound and southbound roadways reunite, with two lanes of traffic in each direction. In Mantoloking there will be five-foot bike lanes on both sides of Route 35, buffered from vehicular travel lanes with five-foot-wide painted buffers.
Parking is permitted, however, along the highway shoulders in Bay Head, which doesn’t leave enough space for dedicated bike lanes. As NJDOT notes in the plan, bicycle accommodations in Bay Head remain only “conceptual,” so in the meantime, “Share the Road” signage and sharrows will be installed.
Cyclists aren’t the only winners
Tri-State and its partners are currently reviewing the pedestrian accommodations included in the updated plan, but according to NJDOT’s press release, new pedestrian accommodations will include:
63,000 linear feet of new or rebuilt sidewalk, including a continuous sidewalk along the entire 12.5 miles of the northbound lanes
1,200 ADA-compliant curb ramps
200 pedestrian countdown signals
The addition of a Pedestrian Hybrid Signal just north of the Route 37 interchange to promote safe pedestrian access to the bay in Seaside Heights
These updated plans are a vast improvement over what was presented last year, but some sections still lack dedicated bicycle accommodations and continuous sidewalks. Fortunately, advocates aren’t alone in pushing for more pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure: Both Brick and Lavallette passed Resolutions urging NJDOT to include continuous sidewalks on Route 35 south.If the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles seal the deal with Wily Mo Pena, as reported on Monday by Daily Sports Online, it will help the Eagles avoid taking a step back in the power department, but it won’t solve all the team’s problems.
What Pena, 33, gives the Eagles is a hitter who has already proven he can hit for power in Japan. Last season he led the Orix Buffaloes with 32 longballs, second only to Seibu Lions duo Ernesto Mejia and Takeya Nakamura, who finished tied for the Pacific League lead with 34 apiece, while driving in 90 runs. Pena also ended the year with a.830 OPS. Pena had 21 homers for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in his first season in Japan in 2012 before hitting just one in 2013, when he saw limited action due to injuries.
His addition would be impactful in that it gives Rakuten a replacement for departed slugger Andruw Jones.
Jones was the lone Eagles player to reach double digits in home runs in 2014, hitting 24, fifth most in the PL. Veteran Kazuo Matsui had the next-highest total with eight.
The Eagles struggled to find additional power in 2014 without third baseman Casey McGehee, a cornerstone of the 2013 Japan Series team (along with Jones) who left for the majors in 2014 and was named National League Comeback Player of the Year with the Miami Marlins. Jones, who walked an NPB-most 118 times (the Hiroshima Carp’s Yoshihiro Maru was the only other player to crack 100) remained a threat, but beyond him there was little to fear in the Eagles’ lineup from a power standpoint.
The same will be true with Pena this year unless new additions Gaby Sanchez and Zealous Wheeler deliver. Neither brings a resume filled with home runs to the table, but then again, McGehee had never hit more than 23 in an MLB season before slugging 28 for Rakuten in 2013.
Pena would be a good addition, but his overall impact on the offense rests on what the Eagles have around him.
First impressions: The Kimiyasu Kudo era in Fukuoka got off to a winning, though unofficial, start on Saturday, as the Softbank Hawks pulled out a 1-0 win over the Orix Buffaloes in Kudo’s first spring game in charge of the team since being hired over the winter.
The newly appointed Mitsuru Manaka also got off to a winning start, with his Tokyo Yakult Swallows scoring a 4-0 victory over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Sunday.
Hiromoto Okubo didn’t win, but he also didn’t lose in his first game without the interim tag in the Tohoku Rakuten dugout, with the Eagles and Fighters playing out a 2-2 tie on Saturday. The Seibu Lions’ Norio Tanabe, another interim-turned-full-time manager, had his first scheduled open-sen game in charge washed out on Sunday.
New Carp skipper Koichi Ogata lost his first game, 4-2 to the Yomiuri Giants, and will be happy to have it erased from his ledger when the season begins March 27.
No rest for the weary: Chiba Lotte Marines manager Tsutomu Ito gave new pitcher Chen Kuan-yu quite the workout during the team’s first spring game on Saturday. Chen got the start against the Chunichi Dragons and threw 82 pitches over four innings. Not exactly a light workload for the first day of the exhibition season.
The next-highest total of the weekend was registered by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters’ Naoyuki Uwasawa, who threw 68 over 3⅓ innings. Yuki Saito had the next-heaviest workload, throwing 64 pitches over four frames in the same game.What began as a “let’s-see-if-we-can-do-this” effort resulted in successful Amateur Radio contacts on 475 kHz in early August by two Canadian operators aboard the sailing vessel Hakuna Matata off the coast of British Columbia. The accomplishment may be an Amateur Radio first. Mark Mattila, VA7MM, and Toby Haynes, VE7CNF, equipped Mattila’s 31-foot offshore-equipped Beneteau sloop with the gear necessary to make maritime mobile operation possible on 630 meters. The vessel already had a 46-foot mast with an insulated backstay antenna for marine and ham radio communication.
Haynes designed the overall system, and work done on the vessel prior to the sailing season facilitated the radio experiments. This included installing new batteries, a new RF ground system braid and counterpoise conductors, and an antenna for 2-meter FM communication. Before the Hakuna Matata set sail, word went out among the local 630-meter community to be listening for CF7MM/mm on 475 kHz CW.
Haynes fabricated a 630-meter linear transverter for the project. Its bidirectional high-power mixer circuit that takes full RF output from an Icom IC-746PRO transceiver operating at an IF of 1.9 MHz and mixes with a local oscillator at 1.5 MHz down to 475 kHz. For receiving, signals pass in the other direction are upconverted to 1.9 MHz, with some minor signal attenuation.
Perhaps more critical were the antenna and RF grounding systems. The actual radiating element was a 38-foot long piece of #14 wire attached to the highest point on the mast. Grounding was accomplished by using the vessel’s cast-steel keel and a couple of 30-foot wires near the gunwales. Tuning and matching were achieved using a loading coil and variometer, involving a total of 1,120 μH of inductance. Operation was coordinated using a South Coast 2-meter FM repeater, and the 630-meter operation was scheduled for late morning and early evening. The propagation mode was ground wave.
Contacts were made while the vessel was at anchor in Boho Bay, Silva Bay, and Winter Cove. Stations worked on CW included VE7SL on Mayne Island, VE7BDQ in Delta, VE77VV in Victoria, VE7CA in North Vancouver, and VA7JX in Campbell river. VE7SL and VE7VV also were worked on 630 meters on SSB. The “best DX” was a contact from Silva Bay with VA7JX spanning 142 kilometers (about 88 miles).
Mattila and Haynes said they were impressed by the signal reports received, given the transmitter’s estimated 160 mW EIRP. “Received signals from participating stations varied from S-1 to S-9 +10 dB, and copy was easy for all contacts,” they said.
The yet-to-be-implemented US Amateur Radio regulations governing operation on 630 meters do not permit mobile operation.This is an impulsive purchase but I was pretty happy with him. He is well mannered and just so cute that I had no regrets with his purchase. I still have not decided a name for him but when checking on him this evening, I noticed him splatting. As an excited parent, I took pictures right away.
Here he is in a DIY sleep/ hedge bag enjoying a treat.
And him drinking from his tube.
There he is, splatting in his glory.
His ruby eyes just pierces your soul. 🙂
What excited me is I only had him for three days and he is already so comfortable around the house. He still huffs when I pick him up but he’s generally an eager and explorative soul. Very energetic and eats a ton.
My first time hedgehog is a very enjoyable playmate indeed. I love this hedgehog craze. 🙂
AdvertisementsI’m having a bad day. A real bad day. So this is what you get, folks: a list of my top 10 favorite swearing movies. Be it a memorable scene, or an overall, total badass bout of creative cursing, these 10 films popped in my head tonight as I sit here in a terrible funk. The best thing about swearing? It’s liberating. It feels good to get out of your system, and it’s even better when it’s loud. Anyway, if you are easily offended, skip this list. If you think a list of “bad” words (which ironically are in constant flux, and always will be as culture changes) will create “bad” people, then you need serious help. I believe there is a time and place for this kind of language, and for me—right here—that time is now. Enjoy my list of memorable cursing in the movies. Or fuck off.
10. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
This movie may have only one memorable swearing scene in it, but for any adolescent growing up in the 80s, the moment where Elliot calls his brother “penis breath” at the dinner table was a big freaking deal. This is a kid-oriented, PG, Steven Spielberg-directed fantasy film, mind you. That word (or those two, out together) was about as shocking as it was confusing. Why would anyone have penis breath, I thought? All good things must come to an end, of course, so in 2002, when Spielberg Lucas-ized “E.T” for another home video release, he released a version without the offending word. (Also gone? His Mom scolds him on Halloween for dressing like a hippie in stead of “a terrorist,” FBI agents guns are replaced with less-scary walkie-talkies, and E.T.s lips re matched digitally to his mouth.) Make sure you know which DVD you’re getting before you buy this one. Or just watch it here (at 6:30).
Michael: Maybe an elf or a leprechaun.
Elliot: It was nothing like that, penis breath!
9. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
This David Mamet-written movie, adapted from his own play, was jokingly referred to by its excellent cast (Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, Jonathan Pryce) as “Death of a Fucking Salesman.” The inner-workings of a sad and desperate real-estate office have never been so electrifying. Mamet’s dialogue crackles like the foul-mouthed poetry it is. This is a movie acted by actors who know how to swear—they know how to get every bit of mileage out of each word. But it’s also about the words around it, and how they can cut someone down to size in a second. Watch it.
Blake: You got leads. Mitch & Murray paid good money. Get their names to sell them. You can’t close the leads you’re given, you can’t close shit, you are shit, hit the bricks pal, and beat it, ’cause you are going out.
Levene: The leads are weak.
Blake: “The leads are weak.” The fucking leads are weak? You’re weak. I’ve been in this business fifteen years…
Ross: What’s your name?
Blake: Fuck you. That’s my name. You know why, mister? ‘Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. That’s my name.
8. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Tarantino’s first has a “fucks per minute” score of 2.69, which is pretty dam impressive. But what’s really impressive is that, like Mamet, he’s able to take the foul-mouthed lingo of his criminal protagonists and twist it up so that it sounds fresh and new. Of course, he gave himself one of the most memorable bouts of dialogue in the entire film, which was also shocking for its realistic violence (especially the part where Michael Madsen slices off a man’s ear). Here’s Tarantino finding his writing “voice”—pioneering the use of silly pop culture references coming from big tough guys in movies and mixing it up with as many curse words as possible:
Mr. Brown: Let me tell you what ‘Like a Virgin’ is about. It’s all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It’s a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Blonde: No, no. It’s about a girl who is very vulnerable. She’s been fucked over a few times. Then she meets some guy who’s really sensitive…
Mr. Brown: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa… Time out Green Bay. Tell that fucking bullshit to the tourists.
Joe: Toby… Who the fuck is Toby? Toby…
Mr. Brown: ‘Like a Virgin’ is not about this nice girl who meets a nice fella. That’s what “True Blue” is about, now, granted, no argument about that.
Mr. Orange: Which one is ‘True Blue’?
Nice Guy Eddie: ‘True Blue’ was a big ass hit for Madonna. I don’t even follow this Tops In Pops shit, and I’ve at least heard of “True Blue”.
Mr. Orange: Look, asshole, I didn’t say I ain’t heard of it. All I asked was how does it go? Excuse me for not being the world’s biggest Madonna fan.
Mr. Orange: Personally, I can do without her.
Mr. Blue: I like her early stuff. You know, ‘Lucky Star’, ‘Borderline’ – but once she got into her ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ phase, I don’t know, I tuned out.
Mr. Brown: Hey, you guys are making me lose my… train of thought here. I was saying something, what was it?
Joe: Oh, Toby was this Chinese girl, what was her last name?
Mr. White: What’s that?
Joe: I found this old address book in a jacket I ain’t worn in a coon’s age. What was that name?
Mr. Brown: What the fuck was I talking about?
Mr. Pink: You said ‘True Blue’ was about a nice girl, a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy, and that ‘Like a Virgin’ was a metaphor for big dicks.
Mr. Brown: Lemme tell you what ‘Like a Virgin’ is about. It’s all about this cooze who’s a regular fuck machine, I’m talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.
Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it’s like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the ‘Great Escape’, he’s digging tunnels. Now, she’s gettin’ the serious dick action and she’s feeling something she ain’t felt since forever. Pain. Pain.
Joe: Chew? Toby Chew?
Mr. Brown: It hurts her. It shouldn’t hurt her, you know, her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, ‘Like a Virgin’.
Joe: Wong?
7. The Big Lebowski (1998)
260 “fucks” in less than two hours isn’t a record, but for some reason the cursing in this movie, mostly bellowed at top volume to Donny (Steve Buscemi) by John Goodman, has really caught on with audiences. It’s no secret that “The Big Lebowski” is a modern cult classic; it’s just that I personally have never gotten out of it what everybody else does apparently. Either way, its legacy in swearing is too huge to ignore. Many will find this way too low on this list, but as one of the Coen brothers’ weakest efforts (second maybe only to “The Ladykillers”), you’re lucky it’s on here at all. It probably wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for this terrific little fan film: Watch “The Fucking Short Version of The Big Lebowksi,” a two-minute edited version of the movie’s highlights.
Walter Sobchak: I told those fucks down at the league office a thousand times that I don’t roll on Shabbos!
Donny: What’s Shabbos?
Walter Sobchak: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don’t work, I don’t get in a car, I don’t fucking ride in a car, I don’t pick up the phone, I don’t turn on the oven, and I sure as shit don’t fucking roll! Shomer shabbos!
The Dude: Walter…
Walter Sobchak: Shomer fucking shabbos.
The Dude: Oh fuck it. I’m out of here.
6. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)
I think we’ve all had a moment like this before. When Steve Martin’s weary traveler Neal Page is at the end of his rope trying to get home for Thanksgiving, he goes to a car rental agency and is greeted with the sweetest fake smile ever, from none other than the terrific Edie McClurg (who you’ve seen a million times before but probably never known her name). I could blabber on about how great this scene is, but I think it speaks for itself. 19 “fucks” in just over a minute. Read below or watch here (start at 2:24).
Car Rental Agent: [cheerfully] Welcome to Marathon, may I help you?
Neal: Yes.
Car Rental Agent: How may I help you?
Neal: You can start by wiping that fucking dumb-ass smile off your rosey, fucking, cheeks! Then you can give me a fucking automobile: a fucking Datsun, a fucking Toyota, a fucking Mustang, a fucking Buick! Four fucking wheels and a seat!
Car Rental Agent: I really don’t care for the way you’re speaking to me.
Neal: And I really don’t care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn’t fucking there. And I really didn’t care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile in my fucking face. I want a fucking car RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Car Rental Agent: May I see your rental agreement?
Neal: I threw it away.
Car Rental Agent: Oh boy.
Neal: Oh boy, what?
Car Rental Agent: You’re fucked.
5. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
This Stanley Kubrick movie would be higher on the list if it weren’t for the fact that R. Lee Ermey ended up making an entire career out of parodying the creatively foul-mouthed drill sergeant that he so perfected here. The 99 credits on his imdb list are filled with character names like “Sergeant,” “Drill Sergeant,” “General Wallace,” “General Barnarky,” “Colonel O’Malley,” “Colonel Ben Wilder,” and “Army Sarge”—even, intriguingly—“General Puddles.” Even still, it’s hard to shake the fierce performance he gave in “Full Metal Jacket,” harassing poor Private Pyle (Vincent D’Onofrio) to do something rash but not wholly unexpected. Ermey took trash-talking to a new level in this one.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Who said that? Who the fuck said that? Who’s the slimy little communist shit, twinkle-toed cocksucker down here who just signed his own death warrant? Nobody, huh? The fairy fucking godmother said it. Out-fucking-standing. I will PT you all until you fucking die. I’ll PT you until your assholes are sucking buttermilk.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy fucking walrus-looking piece of shit! Get the fuck off of my obstacle! Get the fuck down off of my obstacle! Now! Move it! I’m going to rip your balls off so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world! I will motivate you, Private Pyle, IF IT SHORT-DICKS EVERY CANNIBAL ON THE CONGO!
4. Clerks (1994)
Kevin Smith’s no-budget, black-and-white debut was originally rated NC-17 for—get this—language. That’s it. No violence, no nudity, just bad words. Miramax hired civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz to appeal the decision, and the MPAA relented and re-rated the film with an R rating. Ironically, the MPAA did so without altering a single frame or word of the picture. What was so groundbreaking about this film is that the characters talked like real people of the time. Well, OK, admittedly, they said shit out loud that most people were only thinking, but that is what made it so much fun. The amount of memorable scenes with swearing are too many too mention, but let’s just say that the number 37 will always have a special place in my heart. Read below or watch here.
Jay: I feel good today, Silent Bob, we’re gonna make some money, then you know what we’re going to do? We’re gonna go to that party, we’re gonna get some pussy, and I’m gonna fuck this bitch, I’ma fuck this bitch, I’ll fuck ANYTHING THAT MOVES! Yo, what the fuck you lookin’ at, I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass! Shit yeah. Doesn’t that fucker owe me 10 bucks? You know, fuckin’ tonight, we’re gonna rip off this fucker’s head, and take out his fuckin’ soul. Remind me if he tries to buy something, I’m gonna shit in the motherfucker’s bag. Hey, what’s up baby? What’s up, sluts?
3. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone undoubtedly have the most unique combinations of curse words and animal references ever. The great thing about all the swearing in the “South Park” movie is that it exists for parents and censors to be horrified at, while also showing what terrible hypocrites people are who think that mere “dirty” words are more damaging than truly dangerous ideas. Read below or watch here.
Kyle: You can’t say “fuck” in school, you fucking fat ass!
Mr. Garrison: Kyle!
Cartman: Why the fuck not?
Mr. Garrison: Eric!
Stan: Dude, you just said “fuck” again!
Mr. Garrison: Stanley!
Kenny: Fuck!
Mr. Garrison: Kenny!
Cartman: What’s the big deal? It doesn’t hurt anybody. Fuck-fuckety-fuck-fuck-fuck.
Mr. Garrison: How would you like to go see the school counselor?
Cartman: How would you like to suck my balls?
Mr. Garrison: What did you say?
Cartman: I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Actually, what I said was…
[picks up a megaphone]
Cartman: HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUCK MY BALLS, MR. GARRISON?
Stan: Holy shit, dude.
2. Goodfellas (1990)
Technically, Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” has 98 more “f” words in it, but it’s way longer and nowhere near as good as this, one of the definitive mob movies of all time. According to imdb.com, “fuck” is used 296 times in “Goodfellas,” for an average of 2.04 fucks per minute. I may be wrong, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet that most of those came from Best Supporting Actor winner Joe Pesci (no stranger to Scorsese’s world, having “fucked” up “Raging Bull”). Rotten language is used so often in “Goodfellas” that, spoken by Pesci and an all-star cast such as Robert Deniro and Ray Liotta, it begins to develop its own cadence. As it gets repeated, the effect is dulling and it is more than just “swearing”—it becomes another essential part of the setting.
Jimmy Conway: What’s the fuckin’ matter with you? What – what is the fuckin’ matter with you? What are you, stupid or what? Tommy, Tommy, I’m kidding with you. What the fuck are you doin’? What are you, a fuckin’ sick maniac?
Tommy DeVito: How am I meant to know you’re kidding? What you mean, you’re kidding? You breaking my fuckin’ balls?
Jimmy Conway: I’m fuckin’ kidding with you! You fuckin’ shoot the guy?
Henry Hill: He’s dead.
Tommy DeVito: Good shot. What do you want from me? Good shot. Fuckin’ rat anyway. His family’s all rats. He’ll grow up to be a rat.
Jimmy Conway: You stupid bastard, I can’t fuckin’ believe you. Now, you’re gonna dig the fuckin’ thing now. You’re gonna dig the hole. You’re gonna do it. I got no fuckin’ lime. You’re gonna do it.
Tommy DeVito: Who the fuck cares? I’ll dig the fuckin’ hole. I don’t give a fuck. What is it, the first hole I dug? Not the first time I dug a hole. I’ll fuckin’ dig a hole. Where are the shovels?
1. The Exorcist (1973)
From the dulling sensation of “Goodfellas” to as shocking as language can get—it’s “The Exorcist.” What could be more offensive than rampant blasphemy? For shocking and really horrifying swearing, nobody beats the shit that came out of little Linda Blair’s mouth in one of the scariest movies of all time. First, it was shocking to hear the mouth of a sailor on a 12-year-old girl. Secondly, it was shocking because she was possessed by the Devil, who felt very real and very powerful due to a methodical buildup of suspense from director William Friedkin and the growly, backwards-taped Satanic voice that overtook her. Thirdly, did I mention that her head spun around on her neck like a Sit ‘n Spin? She tells the men of the cloth what they can do with their cross, that’s for sure. I never thought anyone could talk like that when I saw this movie as a kid and I never wanted to hear it again, frankly.
Father Merrin: I cast you out! Unclean Spirt!
Regan: Shove it up your ass, you faggot!
Father Merrin: In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is he who commands you! It is he who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell!
Regan: Fuck Him!
Father Merrin: Be gone…
Regan: Fuck Him, Karras! Fuck Him!
Father Merrin: …from this creature of God!
Regan: Your mother sucks cocks in Hell, Karras, you faithless slime.NFL.com and Matt Bowen
Throughout the 2014 regular season, former NFL defensive back Matt Bowen will bring you an X's-and-O's look at the pro game. Here are his five key plays from the Week 7 Sunday NFL schedule.
Peyton Manning’s Record-Setting Touchdown Pass
Peyton Manning’s 509th career touchdown pass that broke Brett Favre’s all-time NFL record came on a basic outside breaking cut in the deep red zone to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas. However, the pass was classic Manning when we talk about the anticipation to make the throw (top of the stem) and the ball placement (upfield shoulder) to beat the coverage for six points.
Let’s take a look at the route, talk about the technique in the secondary at the cornerback position and focus on Manning’s record-breaking throw in the Broncos' 42-17 win over the 49ers on Sunday night.
Personnel: Posse/11 (3WR-1TE-1RB)
Formation: Empty
Offensive Concept: Out/Stick
Defensive Scheme: Red 4
Credit: NFL.com
This isn’t a complex route scheme from the Denver Broncos (empty alignment) with the inside stick concepts (quick curl routes) paired with two out routes versus a “Red” 4 coverage look (Quarters).
One thing to focus on before the snap is the depth of 49ers cornerback Tramaine Brock from an “off” position. Brock has enough cushion (distance between defensive back and wide receiver) in his pre-snap alignment to use a flat-foot read technique (no pedal) and challenge Thomas on the release.
However, Brock gets into his pedal at the snap with Thomas in a top-of-the-numbers split (alert for the out cut). This allows Thomas to release vertically off the line of scrimmage (with the cornerback increasing his depth) before breaking off the route at the top of the stem just across the goal line.
Credit: NFL.com
Because of Brock's initial depth, and the cushion versus Thomas, the Broncos wide receiver can establish leverage at the break point to run the out cut. This forces Brock to recover downhill—close the cushion—with the wide receiver now generating separation. And with Manning throwing this ball at the top of the route, Brock is stuck trailing the play from an inside-leverage position.
Credit: NFL.com
Look at this throw from Manning with Thomas now in a position to work away from the defender’s leverage on the out cut. The Broncos quarterback puts this ball on the upfield shoulder and gives his wide receiver the chance to make a play, with Thomas dragging the back foot to secure touchdown pass No. 509 to break the record.
That’s a perfect ball given the coverage look from the 49ers and the technique from Brock to play off-man (and pedal) inside the deep red zone.
Rams Execute the Fake P |
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Matthew C. Bates, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, said none of the other F-35s had suffered any cracks. The F-35 program office in the Pentagon said in a statement that it had suspended the flights as a precaution until the investigation was completed and the cause of the cracking was fully understood.
The turbine problem, first reported by Politico Pro, arose as the Pentagon has sought to persuade Congress to cancel the automatic cuts, which could force the military to reduce its budgets by about $500 billion over the next 10 years. The first installment of the cuts is scheduled to start on Friday, and it may force the Pentagon to delay buying three of the approximately 30 F-35 planes it had planned to order this year.
“We don’t know the severity of the problem with the turbine blade,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “It could be a one-off or it could be something that needs more attention. But either way, given the political scrutiny and the concerns about the plane’s cost and performance, this is a very bad time to have a problem.”
The F-35 was conceived as the Pentagon’s silver bullet in the sky — a state-of-the art aircraft with advances that would easily overcome the defenses of most foes. The radar-evading jets would dodge sophisticated antiaircraft missiles and give pilots a better picture of enemy threats while enabling allies, who want the planes, too, to fight more closely with American forces.Democrat Mark Warner says intelligence committee will discuss contacts apparently not yet ‘fully revealed’ between Trump aides and Russia
Two members of the Senate committee that will interrogate James Comey this week have previewed their questions for the former FBI director, saying they intend to ask him in detail about his interactions with Donald Trump and about the activities of Trump associates including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
James Comey Senate testimony: America braces for a historic political moment Read more
The Democratic senator Mark Warner said the intelligence committee hearing on Thursday would include discussion of contacts “I don’t think that have been fully revealed” between Russian operatives and Trump associates.
An air of historic suspense has been building in Washington in anticipation of Comey’s testimony. It will be the first time Comey has spoken publicly since he was fired by Trump a month ago.
The firing of Comey was followed by a flood of leaks from the executive branch pertaining to an FBI investigation, which Comey had been overseeing, of possible collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian operatives, and other matters.
One such leak alleged Trump had told Russian officials in the Oval Office that firing Comey “took the pressure off”. Similar leaks indicated that the former national security adviser Michael Flynn had contacts with Russians the White House explicitly denied.
In a strange cameo, Russian president Vladimir Putin weighed in on that question, in an interview with NBC News’ Megyn Kelly to air Sunday night. Putin gave a seemingly far-fetched description of the circumstances behind a photo that emerged in March of him sitting next to Flynn at a banquet.
“I made my speech, then we talked about some other stuff, and I got up and left,” Putin said. “And then afterwards I was told, you know there was an American gentleman, he was involved in some things. He used to be in the security services. That’s it. I didn’t even really talk to him. That’s the extent of my acquaintance with Mr Flynn.”
Then Putin chuckled.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the Russian affair and dismissed allegations of inappropriate contacts between his team and Russia as “fake news”. Comey’s testimony was an opportunity to sort out what was real and what was fake, Warner, from Virginia, said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
“As each week goes along, and more stories break, I think what the president deserves, and the American public deserves, is to go past reported press stories and actually get facts,” Warner said. Of Comey, he added: “He’s going to have a chance to tell his story.”
“Every one of us, Democrat and Republican, realize that this is one of the most important things we’ll ever do,” Warner said.
The Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine, also a committee member, said she and her colleagues were working overtime to prepare for Thursday’s hearing.
“Every member of the committee has been extremely active in reviewing the evidence that we do have so far,” Collins told CBS. “It’s taking up a great deal of time. I’ve made three different trips to CIA headquarters to go over the raw intelligence. That’s information that we don’t usually get to see.”
Collins said her questions would focus on Trump’s assertion that Comey had assured him three times that he, the president, was not under investigation.
“That phrase raises a lot of questions in my mind,” said Collins. “Does Mr Comey agree that that was what was said?”
Warner said part of the focus would be on Kushner. “We have a series of contacts as well between Mr Kushner, some may have taken place before the election, but obviously others after the election,” he said.
As the committee previewed its game plan, a former top security adviser to Barack Obama attacked Kushner, calling allegations that he attempted to set up back-channel communications with Russia during the presidential transition period “extraordinary, if not mind-boggling”.
Jared Kushner's redemptive mission threatened by tangled Russian web Read more
In her most extensive interview since leaving office, the former national security adviser Susan Rice said the Obama administration had gone to pains to ensure a “transparent” transition to the Trump White House.
The FBI is investigating contacts between Kushner and the Russian ambassadorto the US, Sergey Kislyak, who told superiors in December Kushner had suggested setting up a channel for communication that would be hidden from the US government, as the Washington Post first reported last month.
“What I’ve found most concerning about that report, which if true, is that Jared Kushner suggested to the Russian ambassador that they communicate using Russian communications in a Russian diplomatic facility to hide their conversation from the United States government,” Rice said.
“That’s extraordinary, if not mind-boggling, from the point of view of a national security professional. I’ve worked in this field for 25 years, and I have never heard of such a thing.”
Trump has also said those accusations are far-fetched.
“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” he tweeted, after the first reports about the alleged back-channel emerged.Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., slammed the Republican replacement for Obamacare Wednesday, saying the proposed bill “is not a repeal and it’s a bad replacement.”
The American Health Care Act, embraced by Speaker Paul Ryan, is in danger of losing too many Republican votes to pass during Thursday’s vote in the House. Brooks’s Freedom Caucus, a group of staunchly conservative lawmakers, is opposing the bill in its current form, and there was speculation Wednesday that the vote may be delayed.
“The best argument that the proponents of the legislation have right now is that it’s not as bad as Obamacare. Well, not being as bad as Obamacare does not make it good for the American people,” Brooks said, speaking with Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric.
Repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was one of President Trump’s key campaign promises. Failure to pass the repeal legislation in the House would deal the White House a blow early in the administration, and even if it passes, the law as written faces significant headwinds in the Senate.
Asked if he was concerned about the potential hit to Trump’s political capital, Brooks replied, “Quite frankly, that’s not something that’s persuasive to me.”
He also rejected the argument that any bill is better than no bill, saying, “Bad legislation is the worst thing that you can do.”
“If you keep Obamacare in place, there’s always the hope that we’re going be able to repeal it and do what America needs to lower their health care costs.”
Brooks advocated for the immediate passage of a bill that would result in Obamacare being repealed at some future date, allowing Republicans to formulate suitable replacement legislation in the interim.
Brooks was also in attendance when Trump warned Republican lawmakers that they may be in danger of losing their seats if the AHCA fails.
“I took it as humor,” Brooks said. “But at the same time, behind that humor is a potential threat.”
The congressman waffled when asked whether he supported the tax cuts for the wealthy contained in the legislation, saying he’s in favor of lower taxes “across the board.” He then volunteered a provocative idea the president has also proposed: mass deportations.
“One thing we can do to really, dramatically improve our financial situation as a country, and also the incomes of the people earning the least in America, is to secure our border and deport every single illegal alien here.”
Brooks was equally fiery while discussing his support for both iterations of Trump’s executive order barring citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from the U.S.
“Let me make sure I’ve got this right: You’re asking me whether I should be worried about whether we offend people, or whether I should be worried about Americans being horribly murdered?”
Pressed on that point, Brooks stood firm: “I’m for Americans living rather than getting killed at the hands of fundamentalist Muslims.”Brian Tallet's return to Toronto couldn't have gone much worse. The left-hander, who suited up for the Blue Jays from 2006-10, returned to Toronto's roster this summer, only to spend time on the disabled list then give up the game tying and winning runs in his only appearance for the Jays.
Less than 24 hours after serving up a walk-off win for the Orioles, Tallet is off of the roster. The Blue Jays announced that they have designated him for assignment to create roster space for Carlos Villanueva, who is returning to the active roster from a stint on the disabled list with a right forearm strain.
In 13 1/3 innings for the Cardinals and Blue Jays this year, Tallet has a 9.45 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. He was effective against left-handed hitters in 2010, but missed time this year with a broken left hand and then a right intercostal strain. Trever Miller, another former Blue Jay who returned to Toronto in the Colby Rasmus deal, suffered the same fate as Tallet, getting designated earlier in the month.Moeen Ali (left) and Alastair Cook added 44 for the first wicket in Sharjah
England were "encouraged" by Moeen Ali's display as an opening batsman in the drawn tour match with Pakistan A, says assistant coach Paul Farbrace.
Moeen, 28, made 22 in Sharjah following his elevation to partner captain Alastair Cook at the top of the order.
"He did really well," said Farbrace, who said Alex Hales is also in contention to open in the first Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
Media playback is not supported on this device Root backs Moeen at top of order
"We were pleased with how Moeen and Cookie applied themselves."
The first Test of the three-match series starts on 13 October in Abu Dhabi.
Off-spinning all-rounder Moeen, who took 3-41 on a slow wicket, has opened the batting for Worcestershire and in 20 of his 27 one-day internationals for England.
However, he has never done so in Test cricket and batted at eight in the recent Ashes series, with Adam Lyth - dropped for the trip to the UAE - preferred as Cook's partner.
"It's not something different; he has opened in the past," said Farbrace.
"We're very encouraged by what we've seen. We think he's got the credentials to do it, no doubt, but we have options when it comes to opening the batting."
Can Buttler find his form?
Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler struggled with the bat during this summer's Ashes, scoring 122 runs at an average of 15.25, and he made only one during England's 286-5 declared on Monday.
Asked if he had any concerns about the Lancashire player's form, Farbrace said: "None whatsoever.
"Yes, we want him to score runs but he's practised well and works very hard. I have no doubt a score is just around the corner for him."
Mahela Jayawardene averaged 49.84 in 149 Tests for Sri Lanka
'Magnificent input and a magnificent bloke'
Former Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene, who played 149 Tests and 448 ODIs, is working as a batting consultant for England in the United Arab Emirates.
"He has been excellent," said Farbrace, who coached Jayawardene, 38, during his time in charge of Sri Lanka.
"It is not just his advice for batting against spin but everything, from fielding at slip to the tactical side of things and his insight into the Pakistan side and how the Sri Lanka team think when they play against them.
"His input is magnificent, he is a magnificent bloke and he has given everything to our team.
"We are trying to get the most we can out of him before he goes back to Colombo."Two Republican articles of faith that would seem to be unconnected are that people on food stamps are deadbeats living off taxpayers and that people in the military are America's heroes. So how are they going to reconcile the $100 million in food stamps that will be redeemed at base commissaries this year?
The number of active duty military receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is believed to be low—in 2011, it was 5,000—but in 2012, $99 million in SNAP benefits were used on bases, and the figure was up 9 percent in the first six months of this fiscal year. In 2012, an additional $31.2 million in Women, Infants, and Children benefits were used on base.
The House's planned SNAP cuts will hit disabled veterans like Butch Griggs:
Griggs became a single parent after his ex-wife, who suffered severely from diabetes and other problems, died of cardiac arrest a year ago. In spite of both parents' problems, they got their oldest daughter through college last year, and Griggs got his 18-year-old son enrolled in college this week. He has three more children, ages 16, 10 and 9, to support. He takes a bus to the grocery store because he can't afford a car. And even with the pain in his back, he said he hauls the supplies home in a backpack. He described how he has to carefully parse out the $710 a month he gets in Social Security disability payments, the $550 he gets from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the $550 from SNAP to feed his family for a month. Often it means balancing what clothes to buy, which school supplies or events to pay for. Sometimes the cheaper choice winds up being more expensive, he said, explaining two of his kids wound up with foot problems from wearing cheap shoes.
Who knows, maybe for Republicans, being in the military is like being a fetus: You're exalted while you're on the inside, but once on the outside, you're completely on your own.Relations between President Karzai's Afghan government and Washington are at an all-time low. As Richard Holbrooke - President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan - prepares to make his first visit to the region since being appointed, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul looks at why the relationship has soured. Mr Karzai has fallen out of favour Hamid Karzai has become increasingly vociferous in his criticism of American military tactics and has been making half-hearted threats to shift his allegiance to Moscow if he does not get his way. Washington has yet to publicly declare its hand but a series of well-placed leaks, briefs and snubs have raised the prospect that it could move its support elsewhere in this year's presidential election. One Afghan newspaper spoke of "a new cold war". A senior Afghan government official says the new Obama administration has insulted President Karzai and one prominent MP accuses America of "running a shadow-government". 'Narco-state' The decline in relations began with a visit last year by Joe Biden, now the vice-president, to Kabul. Joe Biden's meeting with President Karzai reportedly did not go well At the time, as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, he attended a private meeting with Mr Karzai. A well-placed source describes Mr Biden, exasperated at not getting "straight answers" on drugs and corruption, launching into a verbal tirade and storming out of the meeting. In a country where honour and decorum are second only to God and country, this was less than tactful. On the campaign trail and more recently in confirmation hearings, senior members of President Barack Obama's team have questioned the effectiveness and honesty of Hamid Karzai's government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's written statement to Congress during her confirmation hearing called Afghanistan a "narco-state" that was "plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption". She may have been wise enough not to use the phrase in her public testimony but by the time it was reported on the front page of the newspapers in Kabul, it did not really make much difference. 'Potential impediment' Earlier in January the Nato secretary-general wrote an opinion piece about the lack of leadership in the country, laying the blame not at the feet of the Taleban but the lack of governance. Civilians need better protection, says Mr Karzai Then there was a recent article in the New York Times. Quoting anonymous "senior administration officials", it said Washington planned to take a tougher-line with Kabul and that Hamid Karzai was now regarded as "a potential impediment to American goals" in the country. Hamid Karzai is an avid reader of the Western press and is known to be highly sensitive to criticisms they may have of him. Publicly he has not responded but he is now under considerable pressure. His government's writ is limited to Kabul, the north and a few urban spots elsewhere in the country. His own popularity has fallen and some whisper privately and mischievously about his "state of mind". When asked whether the country was heading towards a crisis, one senior political figure responded that the country was already in one. Old Afghan hand President Karzai has been holding a series of meetings with former Mujahedeen commanders in the past few weeks amid suggestions that he is trying to align the country with Russia. The president wants new rules of engagement for Nato troops That has certainly been his public stance. As well as a deliberately leaked "letter of understanding" with Moscow, President Karzai publicly warned America that unless it supplied the military hardware he wanted, he would look to other countries for support. No-one was in a moment's doubt who this meant. The Russian ambassador, Zamir Kabulov, an old Afghan hand, was seen strutting around parliament last week. He has warned that the US and Nato are repeating the same mistakes of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. As he was posted to the Soviet Embassy at the time, his opinion is worth considering. Now President Karzai has sent a document to Nato outlining new "rules of engagement". If implemented they would substantially alter the mandate for foreign forces in the country. It seems inconceivable that there could be a real and lasting schism between Kabul and Washington. It will be the job of Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, to ensure that does not happen. But the date has been set for Afghanistan's presidential election and the West's disappointment with Hamid Karzai can no longer be disguised. A number of challengers are jostling for American support and in the current climate, their chances are starting to improve.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThe Ottawa police arson unit says it appears two overnight fires near the Central Experimental Farm were deliberately set and related to each other.
Several 911 callers first reported hearing an explosion and seeing flames around 11 p.m. Monday at 920 Dynes Rd., a series of rowhouses not far from Prince of Wales Drive.
Then, about an hour and a half later, another explosion and flames were reported at an unoccupied house at 1077 Dynes Rd., closer to Fisher Avenue.
View a map of the two fires here.
Before investigators started to sift through the ash and rubble at the rowhouse later Tuesday, Sgt. David Christie of the Ottawa police arson unit said it appears likely that the two fires are linked, and that they were deliberately set.
"You have two fires both occur within a short distance of each other, right around the same timeframe, it's highly unlikely you'd have two accidental fires starting in that manner," he said.
"Also there's some information about possibly a person seen fleeing the scene."
Investigators from the Ottawa police arson unit and Ontario Fire Marshal's office sift through the debris after a fire at a rowhouse at 920 Dynes Rd., near the Central Experimental Farm. (Andrew Foote/CBC)
Paramedics treated two patients from the first fire:
A 20-year-old man suffered second-degree burns on his upper body, paramedics said, and his airway was also hurt.
A 27-year-old man suffered burns on his face and chest.
Both were taken to hospital in serious but stable condition. One may need to be taken to a specialized burn unit in Toronto, Christie said.
Officials from the provincial Fire Marshal's office are also investigating due to the serious injuries sustained by the two burn victims.
'I heard a loud boom'
Sarah Hogan, who lives in the area, was walking home from a friend's place when she heard a possible explosion coming from the rowhouses.
"As I was walking from Dynes toward Prince of Wales I heard a loud boom, and was kind of startled by it. I looked behind me and I could see flames coming from the houses on Dynes Avenue," Hogan said in an interview Tuesday.
She estimates she was about half a block away when she heard the possible explosion, and said she went home to grab a camera to take pictures and talk to neighbours.
"You couldn't ignore the fire trucks, the paramedics, the police driving by with their sirens on.... It was a bit startling, hearing all the sirens," Hogan said.
Several people were displaced from the rowhouses, and firefighters said the Salvation Army and Red Cross were called in to help them. The people right next door to the badly damaged unit shouldn't be displaced too long, Christie said, although their home was damaged by the flames.
The people two doors over should be able to return soon, he added.When I posted the article on how to use a Playstation 4 controller on your PC, there were some interesting comments on Reddit. A lot of people preferred InputMapper, and thought that DS4Windows was deprecated. It’s not true, but there’s a very good reason they thought it was. These applications all share a common history, and today I’m going to start at the beginning and talk about how we got the software we have today.
Edit: It’s been pointed out that this article doesn’t mention that Steam’s new support for the DualShock 4 controller. What Steam is doing is great, and will get it’s own post very soon. For now, I wanted to show you the lineage of the tools we’ve all been using, because the way these developers built on each other’s work is interesting. Think of it as a history lesson.
Where it all started – Scarlet.Crush’s XInput Mapper
Back in 2011, a member of the pcsx2.net forums named Scarlet.Crush posted an XInput wrapper for DualShock 3 controllers. Installing it was a 12 step process, and it was met with some resistance for seeming to do what x360ce already did.
PlayStation controllers are more complicated than that, however. The PlayStation’s controllers register as HID Class Devices and appear to be HID-compliant game controllers, but the information it sends is not compatible with the native HID input driver to accept button and axis data. Scarlet.Crush’s XInput wrapper fixed this, and was the first application that let you use your DualShock 3 controller in games.
InhexSTER forks XInput Mapper, releases DS4Tool
When the DualShock 4 came out in 2013, pcsx2.net user InhexSTER made a program called DS4Tool based on the source code for DS3 Scp Tool. It still took a some work to set up, but it allowed people to play games with the newly released controller for PlayStation 4.
electrobrains forks DS4Tool, releases DS4Windows
DS4Tool is the basis for the software people use today. In March 2014, pcsx2.net user electrobrains announced the release of DS4Windows. When it was first released, it didn’t offer much over InhexSTER’s DS4Tool, but over the next few months, electrobrains continued to work on it, adding greater stability, performance, touch pad support, and more.
Jays2Kings forks electrobrains’ DS4Windows, releases DS4Windows J2K build
Jays2Kings forked electrobrain’s code later that month, creating his own build of DS4Windows. His version revamped the custom button mapping, and would go on to offer a cleaner UI, a profile system, and additional options for things like touch pad sensitivity, macros, and motion controls.
This is the same DS4Windows that you can now download at ds4windows.com. It’s still updated, and recently added support for the new official adapter from Sony, as well as more macros, a fix for Windows 10 anniversary update, and eight new languages.
jhebbel forks Jays2Kings’ build, releases InputMapper
In May, two months after Jays2Kings released his build of DS4Windows, pcsx2.net user jhebbel forked the Jays2Kings build and released his own build of DS4Windows. He added a proper Windows installer, fixed bugs, made UI changes, and added profiles that activated automatically when you launch a game.
The project was renamed InputMapper later that month, and it is still popular to this day. Jhebbel still posts regularly on the pcsx2.net forums, and InputMapper receives regular updates. He is currently working on InputMapper 2, which will be plugin driven, have more mapping options, and support more controllers.
Where things are now
With so many projects being called “DS4Windows”, it’s easy to see why people get confused. When jhebbel said that DS4Windows was deprecated in favor of InputMapper, he meant that “DS4Windows DSDCS Release” was deprecated.
Scarlet.Crush stopped working on the original XInput wrapper in March 2014. InhexSTER’s original DS4Tool was deprecated in July 2014, and electrobrains stopped working on the original DS4Windows in November 2014. But Jays2Kings’ DS4Windows and jhebbel’s InputMapper are still going strong, and both do a great job of allowing you to use your Playstation 4 controller in Windows.So the radio died on my XT1058 and AT&T sent me a warranty replacement. Not a BNIB unit, but it looks new. Anyways I get it set up and then the OTA for 4.4.4 is received. I install it. Once that is done, I set up the Moto Device ID thing and get:: Error: There is a problem with the clock on your device. Contact customer service. No codes or anything just that message.
I play with it a bit, and I can't fix it. I search the internet, can't find a fix for it. I do a factory restore and try to set up Moto Device ID, same error again.
At that point I call AT&T, their tech support can't fix it and they transfer me to Motorola tech support. They can't fix it either and said that this is a new known issue that is being investigated. Could be server side, could be software on the device, or it could be a device hardware issue. They are going to call me when a fix is found or they decide that it can't be fixed and they will replace my device. Again.
Has anyone else seen or heard about this issue? This is a new one to me as well as to AT&T...WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review of election-season cyberattacks, including the email hacks that rattled the presidential campaign and raised fresh concerns about Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections, the White House said Friday.
The review, led by intelligence agencies, will be a “deep dive” into a possible pattern of increased “malicious cyber activity” timed to the campaign season, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. The review will look at the tactics, targets, key actors and the U.S. government’s response to the recent email hacks, as well as incidents reported in past elections, he said.
The president ordered up the report earlier this week and asked that it be completed before he leaves office next month, Schultz said.
“The president wanted this done under his watch because he takes it very seriously,” he said. “We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections.”
U.S. intelligence officials have accused Russia of hacking into Democratic officials’ email accounts in an attempt to interfere with the presidential campaign. The Washington Post reported Friday that the CIA has concluded that Russia aimed specifically to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
The Post said the CIA presented its assessment to senators last week. The newspaper’s report cited anonymous U.S. officials who were briefed on that closed-door meeting.
Trump’s transition team was dismissive of the hacking claims Friday night, releasing a statement referring to intelligence agents as “the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”
The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations.
In the months leading up to the election, email accounts of Democratic Party officials and a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide were breached, emails leaked and embarrassing and private emails posted online. Many Democrats believe the hackings benefited Trump’s bid. Trump has downplayed the possibility that Russia was involved.
Schultz said the president sought the probe as a way of improving U.S. defense against cyberattacks and was not intending to question the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
“This is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the election,” Schultz said.
Obama’s move comes as Democratic lawmakers have been pushing Obama to declassify more information about Russia’s role, fearing that Trump, who has promised a warmer relationship with Moscow, may not prioritize the issue.
Given Trump’s statements, “there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee. If the administration doesn’t respond “forcefully” to such actions, “we can expect to see a lot more of this in the near future,” he said.
The White House said it would make portions of the report public and would brief lawmakers and relevant state officials on the findings.
It emphasized the report would not focus solely on Russian operations or hacks involving Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and Democratic National Committee accounts. Schultz stressed officials would be reviewing incidents going back to the 2008 presidential campaign, when the campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Obama were breached by hackers.
Intelligence officials have said Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney were targets of Chinese cyberattacks four years later.On a brilliantly crisp and clear fall-like day, a clutch of volunteers is hard at work in a Geauga County barn literally filled to the rafters with wooden barrels full of booze.
On this day, the team will drain just two of those barrels while working for hours on an assembly line comprised of stations for filling, corking, taping and dipping into molten wax each bottle that makes its way down the line. These two barrels along with 18 others comprise the very first batches of Tom’s Foolery Ohio Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a hand-crafted product years in the making.
You might know Tom’s Foolery for its distinctive apple brandy, or applejack, which it has been producing and selling for four years. But soon after owner Tom Herbruck began crafting his applejack, he came into possession of some pedigreed whiskey-making equipment from Michter's in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, one of the oldest American whiskey dist |
in the international game and representing your club."
Basically, Alexi doesn't have Donald Trump-level disgust with the NFL movement... but he's takin' a stand when it comes to reppin' the red, white and blue.
Team USA's Jermaine Jones feels the same... and doesn't think it's gonna happen in the MLS either.oneinchpunch via Getty Images Intelligent people are happier when they spend less time with friends, a new study suggests.
Are you an urban-dwelling loner who often prefers staying home with a book to going to a party? If so, psychologists say there could be a good evolutionary explanation for it.
You may not have to spend a lot of time with your friends to be happy, according to research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology. In fact, if you're an intelligent person living in an urban environment, spending less time with your friends might make you happier.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from a national survey of 15,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 28, which included information about their living environments, well-being, IQ and relationships.
After controlling the data for socioeconomic status, the researchers found that people who were less intelligent than average (as measured by IQ tests) and lived in higher population-density environments (like big cities) reported lower levels of overall life satisfaction than those who lived in rural areas. The data also revealed that the more social interactions with close friends they had, the happier these lower-IQ adults reported themselves to be.
However, the opposite was true for people with higher IQs than average. More intelligent people were more satisfied with their lives when they lived in a city, and they were happier when they spent less time with their close friends.
"The human brain in large part responds to the current environment as if it were the ancestral environment." Psychologist Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa
Why would the data show such results for highly intelligent people?
According to the "savanna theory of happiness," the things that made our ancestors happy on the African savanna -- such as living in more rural environments in close hunter-gatherer tribes -- might also make us happy today.
In other words, the average human brain may have evolved to function best in a rural environment with fewer people. When placed in an urban setting with a higher population density, our brains may signal for us to split into smaller social circles, Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the London School of Economics and the study's lead author, told The Huffington Post in an email.
"The human brain in large part responds to the current environment as if it were the ancestral environment -- as if we were still hunter-gatherers living on the African savanna," Kanazawa said.
Much like the "paleo diet," the savanna theory (or "paleo happiness") holds that the human brain and body still prefer the conditions of earlier times.
"The human brain -- just like any other human body part -- is evolutionarily designed for and adapted to the conditions of the ancestral environment," Kanazawa said. "The brain therefore has difficulty comprehending and dealing with entities and situations that did not exist in the ancestral environment."
Kanazawa theorizes that intelligence helped humans evolve to become concerned with more than merely surviving. Therefore, people with higher-than-average IQs may now be especially well-equipped to overcome stressors that our ancestors wouldn't have been able to mentally process -- like, say, living in Manhattan.
"More intelligent individuals are better able to... see such evolutionarily novel situation as higher population density as what it truly is -- a benign situation that requires no alarm or discomfort," Kanazawa said. "Hence more intelligent individuals are less likely to experience lower levels of happiness in response to higher population density than less intelligent individuals."
Of course, as with many other findings in evolutionary psychology, "paleo happiness" is just a theory. So take it with a grain of salt, and don't ditch all your friends on a whim.
"The savanna theory of happiness, as with all of my work, is a theory in basic science," he said. "Basic scientists like me merely seek to explain nature."
Kanazawa has courted controversy before, when he used weak evidence from his own research to argue that black women are less attractive than women of other races, New York Magazine reported. This time around, however, his research made it into a published, peer-reviewed study, and seems to have more support from the community.
Dr. Carol Graham, a leading happiness researcher and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, told The Washington Post that highly intelligent people may see socializing as an idle distraction from more important things, such as pursuing long-term career or self-improvement goals.Matthew Jaensch's sudden retirement (although he's classified as being on the long-term injury list) has opened up a spot for the Crows to nominate one of their six rookies. Developing ruckman Reilly O'Brien is a leading contender after impressive performances in NAB Challenge games over the past two years and the 201cm youngster can also play in defence, where the Crows aren't exactly blessed with big men. Mature-age recruit Jonathon Beech has slotted seamlessly into AFL life after kicking 35 goals for West Adelaide last season and the 187cm prospect could offer something up forward and through midfield. - Travis King
With 40 players currently on the senior list and no long-term injuries, it might be a little while before a rookie can be elevated. And Justin Leppitsch doesn't appear to have anyone at the front of his mind should an opportunity arise, with no rookies selected in Sunday's NAB Challenge squad to play Greater Western Sydney, despite the fact a handful of best 22 players were missing. Defender Hugh Beasley (six games) and midfielder Billy Evans (five) saw some action last year and might come into the frame again after showing they could compete well at the top level. – Michael Whiting
Ciaran Byrne played in two NAB Challenge games and was confirmed as the Blues' nominated rookie on Tuesday as they have 39 primary-listed players. The dashing Irishman, left out of the Carlton team for its final NAB Challenge game last Friday night, was impressive on debut against Essendon last season before being dogged by hamstring problems. Fellow Irishman Ciaran Sheehan, who played four games in 2014, was on the sidelines for much of last year after having hip surgery. The left-footer's hips are OK but he has had a few niggles over the pre-season. Ruckman Cameron Wood had shoulder surgery at the end of last season and missed a lot of training before Christmas but has been training well. Pint-sized forward Andrew Gallucci played in the first two NAB Challenge games and Billy Gowers has had an interrupted pre-season after having shoulder surgery late last season. - Howard Kotton
The Magpies have committed to elevating third-year rookie Corey Gault, the 200cm and 100kg key forward who booted eight goals in three NAB Challenge games. Collingwood football manager Neil Balme told The Age at the weekend that Gault's elevation was "a bit of a no-brainer" because he had "not done anything wrong so far, played well in each of the games and looks comfortable at the level". The 23-year-old West Australian, who can also pinch-hit in the ruck, is now in the mix for a round one berth. Gault was the standout candidate ahead of improving American forward/ruckman Mason Cox and impressive mature-age rookie Josh Smith, both of whom could remain in calculations for promotion during the season when the unlucky Matt Scharenberg is placed on the long-term injury list. - Ben Collins
The Bombers can upgrade two of their rookies before the season as part of the AFL's list concessions following the season-long bans to 12 of their players. But Essendon is likely to only promote a player if it believes the rookie is pushing for senior selection in round one, which means Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti is the leading candidate. The 22-year-old was chosen at last year's NAB AFL Rookie Draft after playing with the Bombers' VFL side, and he adds some bounce and pace from defence. Conor McKenna, Jake Long and Will Hams are the other rookies who featured for the Bombers during the NAB Challenge, with McKenna (a category B rookie) likely to see some senior action again throughout the year after impressing with his skill, smarts and pace around goal. - Callum Twomey
Anthony Morabito was looking the most likely rookie to be elevated following a very good summer but he injured his hamstring in early March and has been sidelined for an extended period. The Dockers might wait to see how he recovers before making a decision on his elevation. Key defender Tanner Smith is ready to be elevated if needed. He spent two seasons on the main list in 2013 and 2014 and has already played two games for the club. He was delisted and re-drafted as a rookie ahead of the 2015 season and was elevated last year before playing a game in round 23. Irishman Sean Hurley and youngster Josh Deluca have both had injury trouble and appear long shots to be promoted in the short-term. New rookies Matthew Uebergang and Ryan Nyhuis have been impressive in their first pre-seasons but both will be given time to develop in the WAFL. - Alex Malcolm
After the season-ending injury to rebounding defender Jackson Thurlow, mature-aged rookie Tom Ruggles has put himself in the frame with two solid NAB Challenge performances against Essendon and Fremantle. With 38 players on their primary list, the Cats don't have to wait for a long-term injury to promote a rookie although they may still put Thurlow on the long-term injury list. Ruggles, 23, knows the Cats' system and is big enough to cope with the game's demands although it would be a big call to throw him into senior football on Easter Monday against Hawthorn. Next in line is first-year player Jock Cornell but he will be given time, while Zac Bates has pace and is smart but he has several small forwards ahead of him at this stage. Defender Cam Delaney has been battling injury, while young ruckmen Tom Read and Padraig Lucey are still developing. - Peter Ryan
Tom Ruggles has impressed for the Cats in the NAB Challenge. Picture: AFL Media
The Suns upgraded veteran Danny Stanley last week as their nominated rookie. Stanley was delisted at the end of 2015 but re-drafted as a rookie, and the club had always committed to elevating him prior to the season. However, with ace midfielder David Swallow (knee) set to be put on the long-term injury list, there's a chance for another rookie to be elevated. Mature-age recruit Ryan Davis – who played 14 games for West Coast in 2008-09 – has almost locked up a round one spot with a strong showing against Adelaide last Friday night. South Australian defender Tom Keough is nipping at his heals, while teenager Darcy MacPherson may also get an opportunity later in the year if the chance arises. – Michael Whiting
With their 42-man list – two more than the rest of the competition – stacked with talent, the Giants are unlikely to use their rookie list early, if at all, in 2016. The club's two rookies Sam Reid and Daniel Lloyd are both mature bodies who'll add plenty to the depth at GWS but it's difficult to see them playing senior football unless there's some significant injuries during the second half of the season. Reid played the Giants' opening NAB Challenge game against the Western Bulldogs and was also among the best in the reserves last week. Lloyd was drafted from left-field as a 23-year-old medium-sized forward, so there's plenty of competition in front of him. - Adam Curley
For obvious reasons, opportunities have been scarce for rookie-listed Hawks and that's unlikely to change in the foreseeable future even though there's one spot available on the senior list. None of the Hawks' rookies played in the NAB Challenge, although Jermaine Miller-Lewis and Lachlan Langford were named in extended squads. Langford is progressing nicely as a versatile half-forward who can also play in defence or on a wing. Miller-Lewis came to the Hawks as a forward and played most of last season there for Box Hill's development team, but the West Australian is now learning defensive craft as a half-back flanker. - Travis King
The Demons can upgrade a rookie as part of the AFL's concessions for suspended defender Jake Melksham. Defender Josh Wagner and midfielder Viv Michie are the two in line to be elevated after strong pre-seasons. But the Demons are not compelled to promote a player before the start of the season and will treat any decision based on positional needs. Wagner, who was picked up after two solid seasons at NEAFL club Aspley, played in all three NAB Challenge games. Michie was delisted and then placed on the Demons' rookie list at the end of last season. He played 11 games for Melbourne in 2015 and will be in reserve if a midfielder is sidelined by injury. Mitch White may also be in contention although he has had an injury-interrupted pre-season. - Ben Guthrie
North coach Brad Scott told AFL.com.au in January that Majak Daw would be named as the Roos' nominated rookie ahead of round one, and the ruckman's upgrade was confirmed on Tuesday. After Daniel Currie's departure to Gold Coast in last October's trade period, Daw has emerged as North's best ruck option behind 2015 All Australian Todd Goldstein. Goldstein seems certain to shoulder North's ruck duties largely on his own again this season, so Daw's senior elevation – which was confirmed on Tuesday – will largely be for insurance purposes. With 39 players on its senior list, North cannot name another nominated rookie ahead of the season. However, the Roos moved second-year defender Ed Vickers-Willis on to the long-term injury list two weeks ago, and can elevate another rookie while he remains there. Former Saints midfielder Farren Ray and small forward Robin Nahas appear the leading candidates if North decides to exercise this option. - Nick Bowen
Majak Daw has officially been promoted by North Melbourne. Picture: AFL Media
The Power upgraded Nathan Krakouer to their senior list as the club's nominated rookie in February. However, the 27-year-old has been banned from playing in the seniors until round six after being out drinking while recovering from a hamstring injury. Subsequently, Krakouer suffered a broken jaw after being struck outside a Perth nightclub in the early hours of last Saturday morning. Port is also able to elevate two rookie players to replace banned duo Patrick Ryder and Angus Monfries. Kane Mitchell, given his experience, appears to be first in line to take a spot. Mitchell has played 31 matches, including eight last season, for the Power. Youngster Will Snelling, who captained South Australia in the Under-18 championships last season, may also come into contention later in the season. - Ben Guthrie
With a primary list of 39, the Tigers are able to upgrade one rookie before the start of the season and they have opted for midfielder Jason Castagna. The second-year Tiger is the rookie most capable of having an impact at senior level right now - either at half-back or through the midfield - and the decision to upgrade him was likely made following a setback to Reece Conca (hamstring) and with Chris Yarran (calf) underdone. Sudanese recruit Mabior Chol had been the frontrunner, playing all three NAB Challenge games and trialling as a tall forward and back-up ruckman in case injuries to key position players hit. Mature-age rookie Adam Marcon played in the opening pre-season game and won 13 possessions, with category B rookie Ivan Soldo also featuring in that game. – Nathan Schmook
With defender Jake Carlisle serving a doping ban until November 13, the Saints can nominate one rookie. The most likely candidate is Jason Holmes. While he is a pure ruckman and would not replace Carlisle in defence, St Kilda's ruck situation is delicate. Billy Longer was the incumbent ruck in 2015 but has not played a NAB Challenge match this year after a shoulder reconstruction at the end of last season. Nick Coughlan is another contender to be upgraded, as a direct replacement for Carlisle. Coughlan played in the backline in St Kilda's first pre-season game against North Melbourne. It's hard to judge him too much on that performance though, seeing as the Kangaroos ran through the middle with ease in the second half, but coach Alan Richardson said the defender showed signs. - Dinny Navaratnam
American Saint Jason Holmes competes with Demon Max Gawn. Picture: AFL Media
With just 39 players on their primary list and Gary Rohan (hamstring) on the long-term injury list, there's a couple of spots open at the Swans. Should the club choose to upgrade, small forward Tom Papley and defender Nic Newman top the list of candidates after solid NAB Challenge campaigns. Papley's defensive work inside the Swans' forward 50 has been outstanding and he's showed that he could be an option to fill in for veteran Ben McGlynn, who is still yet to be seen at senior level after struggling with hamstring issues all summer. Newman is a classy left-footer who had 19 possessions against Carlton on Friday night playing across half back and at 23 years of age, is a talented prospect. - Adam Curley
The Eagles have room to elevate a rookie but don't have any real need to. Midfielder Kane Lucas would be the most likely given his AFL experience and given the Eagles have suffered a few injuries to key midfielders. But none of the injuries have been severe enough to warrant being placed on the long-term injury list. Brant Colledge is also a readymade midfielder/forward who could step up but it appears he is behind Lucas. Youngster Jordan Snadden has trained very well in his first pre-season and could be one to watch. Simon Tunbridge has had a back issue that has slowed his summer. Irishman Paddy Brophy and former baseballer Corey Adamson continue to develop in the WAFL, while Alec Waterman remains on indefinite leave as he tries to overcome his issues with glandular fever. - Alex Malcolm
The Dogs have the capacity to upgrade two rookies at the moment, with former Bomber Stewart Crameri serving a season-long ban and the luckless Clay Smith able to be placed on the long-term injury list after his third knee reconstruction in as many years. Former Brisbane Lions skipper Jed Adcock looms as the man most likely to be elevated first, with Luke Beveridge an admirer of his versatility and the experience he will bring to a young team. The 30-year-old has had a solid pre-season, but has only featured in one of the club's NAB Challenge games. Out of the remaining three rookies, Roarke Smith is set to miss most of the season with an ACL tear, while running defender Brad Lynch and ruckman Luke Goetz are both lightly framed and will be given time to develop in their first year at the club. – Ryan DavidsonLOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 23: Actor Naveen Andrews attends the Champagne Launch Of BritWeek 2009 on April 23, 2009 at the British Consul General's Offcial Residence, Hancock Park, Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
The pilot centers around David (Patrick Fugit) and his desperate mission to free his wife, Sara (Eloise Mumford), after she's unfairly imprisoned during a political coup overseas.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrews will play "Roland, a renegade who will do what ever it takes -- for a price -- to rescue David's kidnapped wife, Sara. He's a British national and former Secret Air Service member who works as an illegal mercenary in some of the world's deadliest locations who is wanted in about a dozen countries."
In other pilot news...
Lili Taylor joins Fox's futuristic cop pilot. The "Six Feet Under" star will play "Maldonado, an ambitious and determined police captain who is willing to make sacrifices for the greater good," in the project from "Fringe" EP Joel Wyman and J.J. Abrams. [EW]
UK "Being Human" star boards James Caan comedy. Lenora Crichlow will play "Gigi Fernandez-Lovette, a fashionably fabulous beauty" who becomes friends with Terry (Maggie Lawson), the show's central character. Lawson's character is a single mom who moves in with her father (Caan) following her divorce and starts coaching her son's Little League team. [TVLine]
NBC finds their "About a Boy" boy in "1600 Penn" star. Benjamin Stockham will play Marcus in the pilot based on the Hugh Grant film of the same name. Though Stockham's casting is in second position to his role as Xander Gilchrist on "1600 Penn," it's not a great vote of confidence for the struggling political comedy. [THR]Ten years later, Carmelo Anthony still remembers where he stood.
He points to a spot between the 3-point arc and the sideline, recalling the position from where he watched a celebration some teammates couldn't bear to face.
"Everybody was walking off the floor. There was confetti, things on the court," Anthony said. "Everybody was celebrating and I stayed, I stayed right there on the court. I just wanted to see it and kind of feel it."
The Americans haven't felt it since.
The U.S. had just lost to Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 world basketball championship, a team coached by Mike Krzyzewski and led by likely future Hall of Famers LeBron James, Anthony and Dwyane Wade falling to a team that had no NBA players.
That 101-95 loss in Japan is the only defeat in 76 games since Krzyzewski took over in 2005.
Whether it was an upset depends on who you ask, but there's no debating what it meant to a U.S. team that hasn't looked back.
As the U.S. rolls into Rio and Greece tries to qualify this week, people on both sides remembered the buildup, the game and the aftermath.
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Jerry Colangelo had overhauled USA Basketball after the Americans' embarrassing performance in the 2004 Olympics, when Anthony was part of a team that managed only a bronze. But it would take a while to get the U.S. program to where it is now.
"From '04 to '06, it wasn't no organizational structure," Anthony said. "It was just come together, put a team together and just try to go out there and win."
Colangelo set out to change that by selecting players months in advance, then bringing them to camp and making roster cuts — something the U.S. has stopped doing.
"We really had tryouts," Chris Paul said. "Like, you think about it, you get to the highest point of your professional career, the NBA, and we had tryouts for the USA team. I remember diving on the floor against Luke Ridnour and stuff like that. So when you think back like that, it puts it all in perspective."
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James, Anthony and Wade, who had just been MVP of the NBA Finals, were the headliners of the team. Paul had won Rookie of the Year.
The rest of the team was good, but far short of a Dream Team — even though that's what U.S. teams with NBA players always get called across the globe. Kobe Bryant was the biggest absence after knee surgery on the eve of the Americans' training camp.
"A lot of people probably couldn't even name that team if you wanted to," Paul said. "We had guys like Kirk Hinrich, Elton Brand, Brad Miller."
The rest of the roster: Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Joe Johnson, Shane Battier and Antawn Jamison.
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The Americans arrived in the semifinals with a 7-0 record but had some struggles along the way. Puerto Rico scored 100 points on them in the opener, and the Americans were down 12 to Italy in the second half before Anthony bailed them out with a then-U.S. record 35 points.
Spain and Argentina, the reigning Olympic champion, were also 7-0 and met in one semifinal. The overlooked team was Greece, which had won all seven games in the worlds after winning the 2005 European championship.
"I think we had a really good group with inside and outside players, and also we had a team who could play smart to get the advantage," said Panagiotis Yannakis, who coached Greece.
___
Realizing the Americans' advantage in athleticism, Yannakis' plan was to play three guards who could control the tempo. Theodoros Papaloukas was one of the best in Europe, Vassilis Spanoulis was bound for the Houston Rockets and Dimitris Diamantidis a steady leader.
If they could protect the ball and pound it inside to 6-foot-10 Sofoklis Schortsianitis — nicknamed "Baby Shaq" — the U.S. transition game would be stalled.
"Some of the teams are afraid, but some other teams don't have the guards to protect the ball," Yannakis said. "Don't give them the opportunity to use their hands, because USA players, they use a lot of their hands on the ball. That's the reason we used three guards. All of them, they had the skills to control the ball."
___
The U.S. led by 12 in the first half, but Greece stormed ahead by making 25-of-33 shots (76 percent) in the second and third quarters. Carving the Americans up on the pick-and-roll, the Greeks got 22 points from Spanoulis, 12 assists from Papaloukas and plenty of help from the U.S., which made 59 percent of its free throws.
Most of the U.S. players quickly retreated to the locker room as the Greeks danced at midcourt.
"I just remember the end of the game," Anthony said, "and just standing on the court and Greece fans are going crazy, their team is going crazy."
___
Yannakis believed his team could do it — "We had the faith to play with anyone," he said — but Sacramento Kings center Kosta Koufos, who will play for Greece this week but was then a high schooler in the U.S. who stayed up well past 3 a.m. to watch, was surprised.
"You've got to understand Team USA's dominance through the years and that was definitely an upset for them," he said.
Colangelo's take?
"Would I consider it an upset at the time? Oh, for sure I would have. I still do," he said. "I think we might've played that team 10 times and won nine of those 10. But that was back to the old adage that on any given night."
___
Greece couldn't duplicate its effort in the final, getting blown out by Spain. The Americans beat Argentina for bronze, then went home to build a better team. Jason Kidd and Deron Williams were added to bolster a backcourt that would include Bryant the next year, when they powered through an Olympic qualifier they were forced to play in by not winning the worlds.
The teams would then meet again in Beijing, the Americans cruising to a 92-69 victory. But they would never forget the game two years earlier.
"I mean, the stars were aligned for Greece that night and I chose and still do, as much it pains me, to say out of adversity comes opportunity," Colangelo said. "And I think we were emboldened by the fact that we paid a price early, that we were potentially vulnerable and I think that helped prepare us for our future success."
___
Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BriancmahoneyA group of prominent rabbis organized by the group Jewish Funds for Justice -- "including the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as prominent Orthodox rabbis" -- have taken out a full page ad in today's Wall Street Journal to protest Glenn Beck.
They are asking Rupert Murdoch, owner of the WSJ as well as Fox News, to "sanction" Beck.
Specifically, they are responding to his days-long tirade last fall against George Soros and his "repeated perversion of the memory of the Holocaust."
They also want an apology from Fox News head Roger Ailes who dismissed complaints at the time as coming from "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."
Here's what the letter reads in part:
"In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only 'left-wing rabbis' who think so."
Also: The rabbis' note Mr. Beck has made "literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom [Beck] disagree[s]." Beck routinely compares American leaders to Nazis, has likened his crusade against progressives to that of "Israeli Nazi Hunters," and has said that putting the "common good" first leads to "death camps."
I'm not sure he "routinely" does it, but he certainly does it more than anyone else on television.
One suspects, if anything, they are likely to get an apology before they get any sort of'sanction.' Meanwhile, Fox News is likely to get is better ratings when Glenn Beck spends the next few days railing against this letter on his television and radio shows.
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HEY! Why not follow Wire on Facebook here and Twitter here.By Unicorn Riot
Washington, DC – The first trial of people mass-arrested during protests against Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2017 is well underway. Jurors are continuing to hear testimony from prosecution witnesses called by Assistant US Attorneys Jennifer Kerkhoff and Rizwan Qureshi.
The current trial group of defendants consists of six individuals, including two medics and one journalist, who were caught up in the indiscriminate mass arrest on 12th & L streets in DC on Donald Trump’s inauguration day. None of them are alleged to have committed any acts of property destruction or violence, but the prosecution claims that through their alleged conspiracy with “the group” they can still be held responsible.
The most recent hearings have seen three major components of the case established by the prosecution. An undercover officer testified to his recollection of planning meetings and protests that he attended. A detective also recounted his work extracting information from defendant’s phones, and details of cell data was scrutinized. Jurors also began to hear from the police commander who was responsible for ordering the mass arrest on January 20.
Testimony on Wednesday, November 29 picked up where Tuesday left off. The defense completed their cross-examination of the testimony of DC Police officer Bryan Adelmeyer, who had been sent in undercover to infiltrate “Disrupt J20” planning meetings for anti-Trump protests on inauguration day. Adelmeyer was questioned about different details of the January 8 “Disrupt J20” meeting that he attended in a church basement.
Mostly at issue was a video of the meeting, provided by Project Veritas and recently submitted into evidence by Assistant US Attorney Kerkoff. (Defense attorneys had not yet cross-examined Adelmeyer when the video was introduced during his direct testimony the day before.) When asked if the Project Veritas video had been checked by an expert for signs of tampering, Officer Adelmeyer said he didn’t know.
The defense then played portions of the video in which the timer at the bottom either jumped ahead in time or suddenly disappeared, demonstrating that the recording had been altered in some way. It was also pointed out that the government had admitted to editing the video to hide the identity of the Project Veritas employee who provided it.
Officer Adelmeyer admitted that he did not know if other Project Veritas members were at the meeting, raising the possibility that the far-right fake news entity, which boasts of using “entrapment journalism”, planted people in the video to say things which are now being used in court as evidence of conspiracy. When pressed by the defense, Adelmeyer also stated that he had been unaware that Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe pleaded guilty to “entrance under false pretenses” in 2013 after he allegedly broke into a Democratic Senator’s office.
The next witness was Detective David Evans. Evans said his job immediately after inauguration day, along with US Attorney Special Agent John Marsh, was to extract as much information as possible from cell phones and other electronics seized from those arrested at 12th & L streets. Evans stated that he used a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) made by the Israeli company Cellebrite to “download basically everything inside the phone.”
Extraction reports taken from each of the defendant’s phones was then presented. Information displayed on monitors in open court included detailed information about the specific Android phone (SIM, IMEI #, etc) as well as the defendants’ hotspot passwords and whether location services were enabled.
Detective Evans clarified that on phones with encryption enabled, he was only able to access basic device information and not the contents of the phone storage. (iPhones have encryption enabled by default, while many Android devices do not.)
One Cellebrite extraction report showing data taken from one defendant’s cell phone reportedly contains over 10,000 pages. In early 2016, we published an investigation detailing how data taken from phones by police using Cellebrite UFED devices is often then fed into NSA-preferred intelligence software to map out social networks.
Assistant US Attorney Kerkhoff proceeded to show emails and texts sent to a phone seized from a defendant. She offered emails containing basic information meant for street medics, as well as a jail support form, and asserted they were evidence of a premeditated criminal conspiracy. A short exchange of texts between two defendants who were arrested in the kettle at 12th & L just a few minutes after they arrived at the march, gave insight to the prosecution’s case.
The following messages were cited by Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff as evidence of a conspiracy because the messages show “their efforts to get her [the defendant] with the group and her efforts to join the group.”
-“Marching down 13th now.” -“Coming” -“I’m on Rhode Island and 1100” -“I’m chasing y’all down 13th” -“Turned on K”
Assistant US Attorney Kerkhoff made statements that seemed to claim that by continuing to seek out the protest march despite seeing a “trail of destruction” (Kerkhoff’s words) behind it, defendants in this text exchange were therefore involved in a conspiracy with the people who caused the damages.
The majority of texts and emails the prosecution showed from seized phones contained basic dispatch messages such as ‘medics needed in this area’ or other logistical info about time and location of different protest events, such as the locations of blockade actions at inauguration checkpoints. Other texts showed street medics discussing whether or not they would wear red tape identifying themselves at different protest events scheduled throughout Inauguration day.
No cell phone data provided as evidence in Wednesday’s hearing appears to have any bearing on the current defendants, except to show that some of them were either receiving updates about basic protest logistics or discussing in real-time their efforts to locate and attend a protest march.
Brett Cohen, defense attorney for Alexei Wood, a photojournalist who is currently facing a felony prosecution for covering the Trump inauguration protest, stated that DC Police seized several items of media equipment from Mr. Wood.
Before Judge Leibovitz ended court for the day, DC Police Commander Keith Deville began to testify. Deville was in charge of ‘Civil Disturbance Response’ on Inauguration Day & reportedly issued the order to carry out the indiscriminate mass arrest at 12th & L.
In what little testimony he did give before the clock ran out, Deville seemed to demonstrate a personal bias against anarchist protesters, saying “this particular group was going to be problematic … they were anarchists.”
DC Police Commander Deville's limited testimony in court so far seems to support the claim that he targeted the 'anti-capitalist and anti-fascist' march for an abusive mass arrest based on the group's political beliefs pic.twitter.com/4Bs1uQEYZe — Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) November 29, 2017
Police radio from January 20 was played, along with a video compilation of helicopter footage, included a revealing exchange between Deville and an unknown subordinate. Asking about a different group than the group of people in and around the anticapitalist and antifascist march whose mass-arrest he would order, Deville said “Is that group anarchist-type or just protests[sic]?” to which the DC police officer replied, “There’s some anarchists but they’re not all anarchists.”
Commander Deville’s testimony is expected to continue at length on Thursday, November 29. Our previous post: Trials Begin for Trump Inauguration J20 Protests
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J20 Trial Coverage & More:
DC J20 Protest Coverage:
Denver & Minneapolis J20 Coverage:Target Audience
The target audience was designated as students currently enrolled in co-op, formerly enrolled in co-op and now in the regular stream, and students who have used CECA services such as résumé help and cover letter preparation.
Distribution
The survey was made available to students via the Science Society (“SciSoc”) webpage, social media, and departmental clubs groups/pages. Principally, students accessed the survey via the SciSoc social media outreach. When students took the survey many (~40) shared the survey with their peers via Facebook's share function.
Survey Instructions
The survey was broken into three main forms of questions: informational assessment, services assessment, and free response. The informational assessment questions guided students to choose from a set of options for what Faculty (or program if in Science Faculty) they were part of, what year in University they were (eg. 1A or 3B), and how many co-op terms they had completed. The services assessment questions instructed students to rank in order of preference various aspects of the CECA, their advisors, and their experience with either Jobmine and/or WaterlooWorks as applicable. These questions comprised the majority of the survey, and were structured to minimize incidental bias in responses (viz. the order of survey questions attempted to reduce biased responses). The services assessment questions were ranked from 1 being Poor, to 5 being Excellent, with 3 as Satisfactory in between. The last question on the survey was a free response question to allow students to expand on issues they felt were outstanding, or to address concerns not |
retired or who did not win their election race).
The 30 that collectively had a negative tax rate made a total of $30.3 million in contributions to
members of Congress who are currently serving in office, nearly $58,000 per member on average. Of the 534 current members of Congress, 524 (98 percent) have taken a campaign contribution from one or more of these thirty corporations since 2006. The top five Congressional recipients of contributions since the 2006 election cycle from the 30 companies that collectively paid a negative tax rate were:
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) -
$379,850.00
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) -
$336,5000.00
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) –
$320,900.00
Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO and former House
Minority Whip) – $220,500.00
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKY)
- $177,001.00
The 30 companies that collectively paid no taxes from 2008-2010, over the current and past three
election cycles, contributed a total of $3.1 million to current members of the House Ways and Means Committee and $1.9 million to current members of the Senate Finance Committee.
Of the 61 individual members of the two above committees, only Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) did not take a contribution from any one of these 30 tax-dodging companies. Members of the House Ways and Means Committee received an average of $84,859 from these same thirty corporations, which is 66 percent more than the average $51,209 that other members of the House received from these companies.
Members of the Senate Finance Committee (excluding Senator Cantwell) received an average contribution of $83,209 from the thirty companies, which is 28 percent more than the average $65,206 that Senators who are not on the Finance Committee received.
Of the thirty companies that collectively paid no taxes, only PG&E has so far made a contribution directly to a super PAC from its treasury.
U.S. PIRG and CTJ conclude with recommendations to achieve the following:
Require full and honest disclosure: In the post- Citizens United world, we need new rules to require full and honest disclosure so citizens know who is backing the candidates they are being asked to support.
Achieve political equality in elections: Changing the campaign finance system that inherently favors moneyed interests by allowing corporations and individuals to directly translate their financial success into political power is key to restoring democracy and achieving lasting reforms.
Close the most egregious corporate tax loopholes, beginning with deferral, which allows corporations to defer paying taxes on offshore profits sometimes indefinitely, at great cost to the Treasury and other taxpayers.A Saudi national who was under investigation by the FBI checked a security checkpoint on the southwest U.S. border prior to the 9/11 attacks, according to 28 pages from a 2002 joint inquiry released by the House Intelligence Community on Friday.
The unnamed individual also discussed the possibility of smuggling terrorists into the U.S., the report reads:
The report lays out several new connections between members of the Saudi Royal Family and two 9/11 hijackers.
The report also points to a 1999 incident on board an America West flight from Phoenix to Washington D.C. that investigators came to believe was a “dry run” for the 9/11 attacks.
A terror-connected Saudi national named Mohammed al-Qudhaeein was flagged for asking a series of suspicious questions during the flight. He also attempted to enter the cockpit of the airplane. Al-Qudhaeein and an associate were headed for a party at the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., according to the report.
Both the Obama and George W. Bush administration opposed the release of the 28 pages, which were classified as “Top Secret.” The Obama administration caved into demands to release the redacted pages under increased pressure from lawmakers, special interest groups and families of 9/11 victims.
This article has been updated with additional information.
Follow Chuck on TwitterIt's a big day. We just announced our newest device. If you aren't up to speed on the OnePlus 3T, be sure check out the announcement thread for all the details.Now, let's get right to an incredibly important topic: custom software on OnePlus devices, including the 3T. Since the very beginning, the developer community has played a hugely important role in the OnePlus story, and we're always looking for ways to make software development easier for OnePlus smartphones.If you remember, we released device trees and kernel sources for the OnePlus 3 on launch day. Since then, you guys have absolutely blown us away with the things you've created. How could we possibly top launch day kernel sources and device trees? Well, there's really only one way: to release all of these resourceslaunch day. So, that's what we'll do.The device trees and kernel sources for the OnePlus 3T are available right now, before the phone itself even goes on sale. Pretty neat, huh? Head over to our Github page to download now.Of course, the same resources are still available for the OnePlus 3 on our Github as well. We believe that OxygenOS on the OnePlus 3/3T provides an amazing software experience, and we are quite proud of it. But, custom ROMs are pretty awesome too. At OnePlus, we’re all about user freedom and more options. Your phone is your phone - we’re not going to tell you how to use it.Never Settle.The York Avenue apartment block is subject to the city's latest'renovictions' | Photo: Jan Zeschky
Instead of enjoying the tail end of another Vancouver summer, the residents of 2336 York Ave are scouring the city’s scant rental vacancy listings for a new place to live before October.
They’re the latest to face a wave of “renovictions” sweeping the city, a term applied to the practice of landlords removing tenants due to planned renovations, then bumping up the price of rent when the work is complete, often by a large amount.
The letters appeared in the mailboxes of Lauren Stanley and her fellow residents at the end of July: 60-day termination notices from owner Peter Wall Mansion & Estates so that extensive renovations could take place through the whole building. When the work was completed, rent would be raised by at least $700 per unit.
“I teared up a little bit,” Stanley says, recalling her reaction. “I’ve called the place home for the last three years,” she adds, saying the 630-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment been the only place she’s lived in Vancouver since she moved from Kelowna.
“It’s not only that, it’s the process of moving – there’s money involved with that – there’s trying to find a place, there’s trying to find a decent building manager, because the one we have at the moment is a sweetheart,” adds Stanley, who currently pays $1,340 a month and is facing an increase of more than 50 per cent. “It kind of shocks you when you’re not expecting that.”
The situation is presumably even more daunting for one of her neighbours, who Stanley says has lived in the block for 29 years – and faces her rent rising to $3,000 per month.
Renovictions aren’t new, but no precise figures exist on the practice and how common it is, with only a selection of stories from across the city describing its often debilitating effects on tenants.
There are tales, too, of unscrupulous landlords ending tenancies due to promised extensive renovations, then doing little more than a paint job before jacking up the rent by 40 or 50 per cent. Tenants forced out have little recourse for justice because the burden of proving any wrongdoing lies with them.
Tenant advocates say the law – namely, the Residential Tenancy Act – has swung too much in favour of landlords.
“Historically whenever the rental market is tight, what we are seeing with tenancy is that landlords tend to be not as cognisant of their obligations under the act. They get sloppy. They have the power,” says Lorna Armstrong of the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre.
She says the root of the problem lies in the vacate clause, which has become almost standard in fixed one-year rentals.
At the end of the year, a new agreement must be negotiated, which allows landlords to get around maximum allowable annual increases in rent – in 2017, that’s 3.7 per cent – and inflate it by vastly greater amounts.
With rental units at a premium, most tenants are happy to check the box beside the vacate clause, or are unaware of its implications.
“Vacate clauses have synthetically raised rates for years well above market value,” Armstrong says.
This, in turn, Armstrong says, leads to landlords of long-term tenants realizing they are earning much less from rent than comparable units with inflated prices; and a renoviction is one way to bring them up to par.
“The vacate clause has raised rents so tremendously that landlords without one want to get on the greed wagon, so they evict everyone so they can get these higher rates,” Armstrong says.
Stanley is one of a group of York Avenue residents that has lodged a dispute with B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch. Under relocation guidelines introduced by the city in February 2016, their landlord must assist them with finding new accommodation while the renovations take place, but no details have been forthcoming.
It means they face the prospect of finding at least temporary accommodation in a city that recorded a rental vacancy rate of 0.7 per cent in 2016, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The York Avenue tenants have been offered one month’s rent in compensation by Peter Wall Mansion & Estates, as well as a moving allowance ranging from $500 to $750.
Armstrong says those facing renoviction have 15 days to challenge the notice. She advises following up with the landlord about the nature of the renovation: It should be significantly disruptive – knocking down walls, replacing plumbing or electrical, etc. – to warrant the removal of the tenant. In this case, the landlord must have permits for the work, which should have been issued before the notices were sent to tenants.
TRAC would like to see cities impose a moratorium on permits unless they’re for health, code or fire regulation reasons, as well as more compensation and notice for tenants receiving notice.
Armstrong also wants to see B.C.’s new NDP government step up and tackle the issue as it promised during the election campaign.
“We are very concerned by these type of evictions, particularly at a time when there is a supply-and-demand issue in the province,” said minister of municipal affairs and housing Selina Robinson in an emailed statement. “… It is clear that the law does not sufficiently protect tenants in these situations.
“We are planning to close loopholes and ensure tenants are better protected. We also want to ensure landlords understand their responsibilities in these situations.
“We know that not enough has been done to protect tenants and, over the months ahead, we will be taking more action to deliver on our commitments to renters in B.C.”
Calls to Darcee Wise, Peter Wall’s property manager for 2336 York Ave., were not returned before press deadline.
WestenderThe recently-released findings from an in-depth study of nearly 10,000 young adults show that Millennials who were homeschooled are less likely to leave the faith than individuals who attended private or public schools.
Late last month, Generations with Vision and the National Home Education Research Institute published the results of their Gen2 Survey. The study explores the correlations between different educational methods and the spiritual decisions of Millennials who were raised in the church.
“The purpose of the study is to examine these adults who were churched growing up and to understand the key influences which either encouraged or deterred them from believing and practicing the faith of their parents,” said the survey’s director and lead researcher, Dr. Brian Ray.
Using a sample size of 9,369 18-to 38-year-olds who were churched while growing up, the Gen2 Survey collected data on Millennials’ educational backgrounds, worldviews, and religious beliefs. The study found that individuals who were homeschooled, attended church regularly, and had good relationships with their parents were most likely to remain involved in the Christian faith.
“Having a strong relationship with the child’s mother and father, attending church as a child, and years homeschooled were all clearly positively associated with Millennials’ basic Christian orthodoxy, broader biblical beliefs, Christian behaviors (e.g., attending church, keeping sex in marriage, prayer, not using pornography), satisfaction in life, civic and community involvement, and having beliefs similar to one’s parents,” Ray stated.
87% of study participants who were homeschooled said they have strong Christian beliefs. Conversely, Millennials who were enrolled in public schools or private Christian schools were more likely to walk away from the faith later in life.
“Number of years in Christian school and number of years in public school were negatively associated with most of the adult beliefs and behaviors just mentioned,” Ray explained.
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Statistically, homeschooled young adults were six times as likely to be believers and seven times as likely to be stronger in their Christian beliefs as Millennials attending private schools. Homeschooled Millennials were also two times as likely to be stronger in Christian beliefs as those who attended Christian schools or public schools.
Educational experiences also influence lifestyle choices and beliefs, according to the Gen2 Survey. For example, approximately one-third of young adults who were raised in Christian homes and educated in public schools have engaged in co-habitating fornication, compared to 9% of homeschooled individuals.
Support of homosexual “marriage” was also lowest among homeschooled young adults, with 16% saying they support it. Nearly half of Millennials raised in Christian homes and educated in public schools supported homosexual “marriage.”
Kevin Swanson, director of Generations with Vision, said the Gen2 Survey is “vitally important,” because “it comes just as the largest numbers on historical record are migrating away from the Christian faith.”
“Some other surveys indicate as many as 70-90% of millennials and mosaics are leaving the Christian church,” Swanson said. “This is a major spiritual collapse.”
One of the best ways to fend off the widespread secularism and apostasy of our culture is through homeschooling, Swanson contended.
“Initial results give us this bottom line for the Gen2 Survey: Home education is the best educational choice, if we value the carrying on of the faith,” he said.
Overall, Swanson said the study’s findings reaffirm the importance of different influences in a child’s life.
“If your children are discipled in a Muslim mosque or by NBC, ABC, CBS, or Facebook for 35 hours a week, they can generally be expected to take on the faith that disciples them,” he asserted. “If they are discipled by parents or pastors for 35 hours a week, they will generally walk in the ways in which they are discipled. It really is that simple.”The federal government's determination that a 400-megawatt solar thermal power plant will not cause significant harm to a pristine strip of the Mojave Desert is a victory for those who want to place dozens of solar arrays on federal land in Southern California.
But a closer look at a federal draft environmental impact statement released last week reveals that even with extensive mitigation, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System project would destroy rare plants and permanently alter prized views from the nearby Mojave National Preserve. It would also annually consume an estimated 32 million gallons of groundwater in a region where water is scarce.
Such findings concern environmentalists who are almost certain to challenge the project. They also add to mounting criticism that the Obama administration is rushing to permit utility-scale renewable energy projects without considering the projects' effects on pristine public lands and the rare plants and animals that inhabit them.
Moreover, one of the central strategies for mitigating the project's environmental damage -- the relocation of federally protected desert tortoises -- is projected to kill nearly one out of every six animals that are transported, according to the draft EIS document.
"It's a good project in the wrong location," said Ileene Anderson, a staff biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, which has criticized a similar Mojave tortoise relocation effort involving the Army's Fort Irwin.
The Ivanpah project is one of several renewable energy proposals being fast-tracked under a new Interior Department policy aimed at speeding the development of domestic clean energy. The project's developer, Oakland-based BrightSource Energy Inc., has indicated it wants to begin construction of the massive thermal solar plant before next March, only weeks after public comment on the draft EIS is set to expire.
But Greg Suba, conservation program director with the California Native Plant Society, said the Bureau of Land Management, which jointly issued the draft EIS with the California Energy Commission, is failing to consider the proposal's greatest shortcoming.
"The question that's not being addressed here is basically why are they going on wild public lands first?" Suba said. "Our organization and many others understand why we need renewable energy, and why large-scale utility projects will need to be part of the initial equation. But why put these big-scale projects in the intact wildlands first?"
As proposed, the Ivanpah project would cut through 4,073 acres of undisturbed land, "substantially affecting many sensitive plant and wildlife species and eliminating a broad expanse of relatively undisturbed Mojave Desert habitat," the draft EIS states. Some of the impacts would be offset by the developer's planned purchase and preservation of 8,146 acres nearby, but such mitigation would not replace "permanently lost" habitat for tortoises and other species, BLM found.
Regulators also noted the project's "unmitigable" impacts to the nearby Mojave National Preserve, where solar arrays "could strongly alter the character of views of Clark Mountain from the valley floor, interfering with the public's ability to enjoy those views."
Yet the draft EIS concludes such impacts are reasonable given the project's "noteworthy benefits" of "reducing global carbon emissions" and helping California meet an ambitious goal of producing 33 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.
"No matter how we mitigate the project, the question is, 'Is the trade-off in impacts to the desert landscape, which is to be significant, worth the production of green energy from solar power?'" said Jan Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for BLM's California state office in Sacramento.
Fast-tracking solar
The Ivanpah project represents the latest in a string of emerging conflicts between environmentalists and federal regulators working to meet an Obama administration mandate to aggressively expand renewable energy resources to replace carbon-emitting fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.
And perhaps nowhere are the stakes higher than in the Mojave Desert, a landscape many environmentalists believe will soon be under siege from renewable energy developers attracted by the desert's unparalleled solar intensity.
"For us this is a difficult issue because we support renewable energy," said Joshua Basofin, California representative for Defenders of Wildlife in Sacramento. "The difficulty for us is how do we guide these projects to be more environmentally sustainable and minimize impacts to wildlife habitat?"
A total of 126 renewable energy project applications covering 1 million acres are under review by BLM officials for the California portion of the Mojave, according to agency statistics. Those include 63 solar power plant projects that, if built, would cover 567,974 acres.
At the same time, 351,000 acres of Mojave Desert has been designated by the Interior Department as a solar study zone, meaning it could gain even more federal backing as a site for commercial-scale solar development. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he wants to have at least 13 major solar projects under construction by next year, when the solar study zone areas are finalized.
And last week Interior officials announced they would fast-track five new renewable energy projects in California -- four solar plants and one wind farm -- with hopes of making the projects eligible for grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
But first up is the Ivanpah project, located about 25 miles southwest of Las Vegas. BrightSource Energy has applied for federal stimulus money grants for the project and also is racing to get the permits in hand by the end of 2010.
Keely Wachs, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement that when completed, the Ivanpah complex "will exceed all of the rooftop solar energy installed in 2008 in the United States and more than double the nation's total solar thermal energy capacity."
Moving desert tortoises
One of the central challenges identified in the draft EIS is the relocation of at least 25 desert tortoises currently occupying the development site to another location, preferably to the west of the proposed project. Once those relocations have occurred, deed restrictions would need to be adopted that keep the tortoise-occupied land off-limits "in perpetuity."
But relocating tortoises poses inherent dangers to the animals. The biggest problem, experts say, is that the tortoises instinctively try to return to their original burrows. And once in unfamiliar territory, they become easy targets for coyotes, ravens and other predators.
That is what happened last year when the Army moved 600 tortoises from their desert habitat to BLM land to make room for expanded training operations at Fort Irwin, about 50 miles north of Barstow, Calif. Roughly 90 transported tortoises died, primarily from coyote predation, prompting the Army and BLM to temporarily suspend the $8.7 million translocation program (Land Letter, Aug. 13).
"The track record for desert tortoise relocation is definitely suboptimal," said Anderson, the Center for Biological Diversity biologist.
Anderson said BLM should hold off on relocating additional tortoises until they can provide greater certainty that the animals will survive.
But BLM and the California Energy Commission already project that some will not survive the relocation, according to the draft EIS.
"Mortality for translocated desert tortoise has been estimated at approximately 15 percent," according to the draft EIS.
Basofin, the Defenders of Wildlife representative, said he is bewildered that regulators would approve a mitigation strategy that results in the death of federally protected tortoises. "It's enough to make your head explode," he said.
Bedrosian, the BLM spokeswoman, said the agency would look closely at the Fort Irwin relocation problems and make necessary adjustments to the mitigation plan for the Ivanpah site.
"Certainly that's going to be looked at because we want to make sure the tortoise transfer is successful," Bedrosian said.
An overlooked landscape
To some, the fact that energy firms have put a bull's-eye on the Mojave Desert reflects a kind of ignorance about desert ecosystems.
While public perception may hold that desert landscapes are barren, advocates say such notions are false. "It's a diverse area. It's full of life," Suba said. "But there are those who tend to marginalize and be dismissive of the desert as a valuable ecosystem."
Many of those biases are reflected throughout the draft EIS document, critics say.
For example, significant areas will be graded or cleared of vegetation to make way for roads, buildings and solar arrays. That, according to the draft EIS, will destroy habitat for rare plants like the Rusby's desert-mallow, which is classified by BLM as a "sensitive species," as well as the Mojave milkweed, which is found in the Ivanpah Valley project area and has been classified by California as vulnerable to extinction "due to extreme rarity."
Another species expected to be affected by the project is the desert pincushion of which 25 are known to exist in California and "approximately one-third of which occur in the project area."
The draft EIS acknowledges that effects to the Mojave milkweed and Rusby's desert-mallow cannot be sufficiently mitigated. Instead, the state and BLM want BrightSource Energy to conduct surveys for both plants on the more than 8,100 acres it will be required to purchase for the mitigation, as well as any land it purchases to relocate the desert tortoise.
"This requirement does not serve to reduce the impacts of the... project to less-than-significant levels," according to the draft EIS, "but provides information that might help inform future siting to avoid additional impacts from other development."
Scott Streater writes from Colorado Springs, Colo.
Copyright 2009 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.[UPD1] A few new pictures added
The evolution for the recently revealed Pokémon Amaura has been leaked by the website Jeux Video. Its name is Aurorus and has a new attack called Freeze-Dry which is super effective against Water-type Pokémon and may freeze opponents! Update: IGN has now released some pictures of Tyrantrum, Tyrunt’s evolution. It can learn Head Smash.
Game Details
In addition to the two new Pokémon, various game outlets got to play Pokémon X & Y and have revealed some small additions to the games.
New Kalos Pokémon will not be receiving Mega Evolutions, only Pokémon from generations 1 through 5
be receiving Mega Evolutions, only Pokémon from generations 1 through 5 It’s official, Masuda has confirmed that the overworld will not be in 3D, only battles and some special scenes
be in 3D, only battles and some special scenes PokéCenters will now feature an area to customize trainer appearance alongside the medical area and PokéMart
Pokémon now gain XP when the wild opponent is captured
Professor Sequioa asks you to run an errand at the start of the game: delivering a letter to your mother
Media Briefing Articles/Interviews
IGN.com — Men are from Mars, Pokémon X and Y are from France
Eurogamer — A new perspective: How Pokémon X and Y refreshes the series
Polygon — Pokémon X and Y director discusses the games’ strategic depth and Mega Evolutions
Trivia
Amaura and its evolution are both probably based on Amargasaurus. The artist of the above picture has depicted it with skin sails similar to the two Pokémon, but recent theories speculate that the rows of spikes probably stood on their own without any connecting tissue.
Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter! If you’re looking for some more user-to-user interaction why not register on our forums? Please remember to follow our Community Guidelines too!It's happened.
Yesterday, our opponents launched their first TV ad—and not surprisingly, it's full of the same sort of distortion and fear-mongering that was so successful in passing California's Prop 8. They've already bought $700,000 in airtime—that means every voter in the state will see their ad at least 20 times.
Click here to donate today so we can combat the distortions of their TV ad.
This ad takes distortion to a whole new level. As Maine's favorite blogger Gerald Weinand put it:
"As expected, it does not affirm traditional marriage, but uses fear in an attempt to convince voters that same-sex marriage will lead to—well, just watch for yourself."
And he's not the only one using that description. Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog sees through the ad:
"I have to say, I'm not impressed. It looks like an ad from the 80s. Of course, it's filled with all kinds of errors and inaccurate assertions..."
What errors and inaccuracies?
One glaring inaccuracy Sudbay finds is that the Associated Press headline used in the ad is completely fictional. The Associated Press never actually ran anything with the headline "Homosexual Advocacy Group Accuses Maine Diocese of Violating Tax Law," and it never would. Why? Because the AP does not use the word "homosexual" in any story or headline. Not only is it inflammatory and outdated, but the AP’s own style guide restricts the use of "homosexual."
Secondly, the TV ad references so-called "consequences of homosexual marriage," including the assertion that schools are forced to teach about "homosexual marriage."
Let me make two points: One, there is nothing about schools or education in Question 1. Two, this is simply a cynical page from California’s Prop 8 campaign to change the subject, divert attention, raise fears, and never, ever talk about fairness, equality or marriage for loving, committed same-sex couples.
Here’s what all Maine parents care about: That their kids are safe, secure and accepted. In Maine, we believe that all families matter, and that schools are a welcoming place for learning.
And here’s one lesson we know about Maine: We will not let any distortion, lie or misrepresentation about marriage equality go unanswered. Not one.
That’s why we’re going up soon with a strong rebuttal. On TV and radio.
But we need the netroots support from people like you to get these rebuttal ads up and keep them up. And we need to be nimble so that when the next attack comes, we’re ready and able to answer.
Please donate today so we can fight these distortions.
It's not all bad news though. Markos has announced that he is commissioning a Research 2000 poll for us. The results will come by the end of the week.
In the meantime, donate, donate, donate.This is a list of episodes for the series Captain N: The Game Master. While the Season 2 and Season 3 episodes were paired with episodes featuring the Super Mario Bros., the Captain N episodes themselves retained the title of Captain N: The Game Master. Season 3 episodes were half the time length of the previous seasons.
Series overview [ edit ]
Season Episodes Originally aired Season premiere Season finale 1 13 September 9, 1989 December 2, 1989 2 14 September 8, 1990 January 5, 1991 3 7 September 14, 1991 October 26, 1991
Episodes [ edit ]
Season 1 (1989) [ edit ]
Season 2 (1990–1991) [ edit ]
For season 2, the show aired in an hour-long block in between two episodes of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
No.
overall No. in
season Title Written by Original air date Prod.
code 14 1 "Gameboy" Dorothy Middleton September 8, 1990 ( ) 114 The N Team finally gains contact with King Charles again, wanting to help him escape the Mirror World through a warp that only opens every thousand video years. But he sends a supercomputer called Game Boy in his place instead. Game Boy ends up being more trouble than good for the N Team, and things get worse when Mother Brain plans to capture him and use his computer power for evil. Game elements: BurgerTime and Metroid 15 2 "Queen of the Apes" Sean Roche and David Ehrman September 22, 1990 ( ) 115 Mother Brain plots to switch bodies with Lana – only to have Donkey Kong and Gameboy interfere. Their brains are switched, with Donkey Kong in Gameboy's body and Gameboy in Mother Brain's body. While this poses problems for the N-Team, their worst problem is a gigantic, powerful Mother Brain, who is now in Donkey Kong's body. Game elements: Donkey Kong 16 3 "Quest for the Potion of Power" Rick Merwin September 29, 1990 ( ) 116 Kevin meets Link and Princess Zelda for the first time, and sets out with them on a journey through Hyrule to stop the evil wizard Ganon from being restored to his full power. Game elements: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 17 4 "The Trouble with Tetris" Michael Maurer October 13, 1990 ( ) 117 Lana reunites with her long-lost brother Lyle on the distant video world of Tetris, and Kevin and Lyle work together to stop Mother Brain from taking Tetris's power source, the Sacred Square. Game elements: Tetris 18 5 "The Big Game" Dennis O'Flaherty October 20, 1990 ( ) 118 Some of Kevin's high school friends are warped to Videoland for a football game against Dr. Wily's robot masters – winner takes the throne of Videoland. Game elements: Mega Man 2 and California Games 19 6 "The Lost City of Kongoland" Dennis O'Flaherty November 10, 1990 ( ) 119 The N Team travels to Kongoland to stop Mother Brain from getting a priceless artifact. But when Lana crosses paths with the artifact, she becomes an even deadlier foe than Mother Brain. Game elements: Donkey Kong Jr. 20 7 "Once Upon a Time Machine" Michael Maurer and Matt Uitz November 17, 1990 ( ) 120 Count Gruemon steals Kevin's Power Pad and Zapper in Hyrule, so he and Link set out into the world of Puss 'n Boots to get them back, along with the help of Pero the cat. Game elements: Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, and Puss 'n Boots: Pero's Great Adventure 21 8 "The Feud of Faxanadu" Michael Maurer November 24, 1990 ( ) 121 A power overload in the Palace of Power's football arena warps the N Team to Faxanadu – where they find themselves amidst a conflict between elves and dwarves – and an evil being bent on getting a powerful crystal that will let him conquer the video world. Game elements: Faxanadu 22 9 "Having a Ball" Dennis O'Flaherty December 1, 1990 ( ) 122 Mother Brain fires Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo for failing to capture the Triforce – so they steal the Triforce pieces for themselves while Link and Zelda are away at Lana's royal ball. Game elements: Zelda II: The Adventures of Link 23 10 "The Trojan Dragon" Matt Uitz December 8, 1990 ( ) 123 Dragonlord is back – and his new plan for conquering Dragon's Den involves hatching a deadly golden dragon. Zelda and Link once again help the N Team by building a mechanical dragon to help sneak in and thwart Dragonlord's plan. Game elements: Dragon Warrior, and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link 24 11 "I Wish I Was a Wombatman" Sean Roche and David Ehrman December 15, 1990 ( ) 124 Pit must help his television hero deal with Mother Brain, but finds his TV hero may not be all he thought he was. Game elements: Marble Madness 25 12 "The Invasion of the Paper Pedalers" Michael Maurer December 22, 1990 ( ) 125 The N Team takes a trip to an Earth-like world where Mother Brain is hypnotizing residents with a special kind of newspaper ink. They meet a paperboy named Julio who is trying to figure out the reason behind this, but they then discover why Julio is immune to the hypnotic ink - he is illiterate. Game elements: Paperboy 26 13 "Germ Wars" Ted Alben and Greg Klein December 29, 1990 ( ) 126 Kevin contracts a video virus he has no immunity to – so the N Team shrinks themselves down and goes inside Kevin's body to battle the virus. Game elements: Faxanadu, also inspired by Fantastic Voyage and Innerspace 27 14 "When Mother Brain Rules" TBA January 5, 1991 ( ) 127 A clip show of assorted moments from the first two seasons. Two versions of this episode were produced. The clips in "Version 1", which aired on NBC, had background music but no voices, and sparse narration by a generic narrator. "Version 2", which aired on WGN (and presumably on USA Network) had the voices restored, different background music (using the soundtrack from Season 2), and more narration provided by Simon Belmont. Neither version has officially been released, although it occasionally turns up on bootleg sets and online sites.
Season 3 (1991) [ edit ]
Among other cuts, episodes were scaled down to 11 minutes, as they shared a half-hour timeslot with the Super Mario World cartoons. 7 were new, while 6 were reruns. In order to fill up the other 6 timeslots, 5 episodes from the first two seasons were edited down to 11 minutes. They were "Three Men and a Dragon", "Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain", "Nightmare on Mother Brain Street" (November 30), "Quest for the Potion of Power" (no footage was cut, but rather, it was split into two 11 minute parts), and "Invasion of the Paper Pedalers" (November 2).French President Francois Hollande has split with the country's first lady two weeks after a tabloid reported that the leader was having an affair with an actress, an official said Saturday.
A presidential aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the matter, confirmed that Hollande ended his seven-year relationship with Valerie Trierweiler.
The break-up was first reported by French news agency Agence France Presse, which said that Hollande told it in a telephone conversation Saturday evening that "I make it known that I have put an end" to the relationship with Trierweiler.
Hollande, who has four children with former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, told the news agency that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as head of state.
He and Trierweiler have lived together since 2007, and while they're unmarried, Trierweiler occupied the so-called madame wing of the presidential palace, traveled abroad with Hollande and functioned as the first lady.
Hollande had dodged questions about Trierweiler's status since a Jan. 14 news conference at which he refused to say whether the 48-year-old journalist was still the first lady.
Those questions surged to the front pages of the world's newspapers after French tabloid Closer reported, with photographs backing it up, that 59-year-old Hollande was having an affair with Julie Gayet, a 41-year-old actress.
That caused Trierweiler to check into a hospital for a weeklong stay after the tabloid's report about the affair, during which suspense continued to build over the next twist in the love triangle.
Hollande promised at his news conference to clear up confusion over the identity of his first lady before a scheduled Feb. 11 state visit to the U.S.A longshoreman died Wednesday morning when the vehicle he was loading onto a ship jumped off the ramp and fell into the Savannah River at Georgia Ports' Ocean Terminal.
The accident occurred about 8:30 a.m. as a car carrier vessel was being loaded by members of ILA Local 1414.
Local 1414 President Tommy Stokes III said the accident is still under investigation. He declined to provide the worker's name pending notification of his extended family.
"We don't know yet what happened that caused him to lose control of the car," Stokes said, adding that the victim was a five-year veteran of the docks.
"The car went in upside-down," he said. "One of our longshoremen and a stevedore |
tensions. A lot is riding on progress on the political front, and until that happens, this will continue to be a very sensitive issue.”
There’s the rub. One cannot escape the politics on the ground. There remain obvious practical hurdles to Palestinian entrepreneurialism on the ground. Across the West Bank and the Gaza strip unemployment is high and mobility restricted. The restriction on movement means the senior management talent you would normally source from abroad for a start is a very big challenge.
But, like entrepreneurs in any parts of the world outside of Silicon Valley, some of the biggest barriers remain in the mind. Talking to Palestinians and Arabs living inside Israel you’ll find they freely admit, that the age-old risk-averse business culture continues to be one of the biggest hurdles to the development of startups. Then again perhaps this is understandable when so much of daily life is risky and hard to predict enough as it is.
Of course, there is an enormous irony here.
The very technology industry that Israel relied on to pull it out of economic isolation in the 80s and 90s and 2000s is the very same industry that many Palestinian entrepreneurs are looking to to pull them out of a similar predicament.
It’s an irony of such proportions that it is not lost on the small gathering I met in the Snobar in Ramallah.
“Palestine is where Israel was 20 years ago in terms of tech,” admits Khadder. But however long it takes, he, the Peeks and others plan to start the journey towards a new era of Palestinian tech startups.Tickets for last year's Super Bowl Superbowltickets.net THE BRONX — A Soundview man's "dream crushing" counterfeit Super Bowl ticket operation was shut down Thursday, Bronx prosecutors said.
Police arrested Kevin Walker, 42, after finding 124 fake tickets worth $113,900 in his Croes Avenue apartment and in a van owned by his housemate, according to the Bronx District Attorney's Office.
"The sale of these tickets would have potentially deprived fans of their hard earned dollars and crushed the dreams of young and old expecting to attend the much anticipated annual climax to the football season," Bronx DA Robert Johnson said in a statement.
Investigators working with the National Football League saw Walker leaving his apartment Wednesday about 6:30 p.m. with a shoebox, which he placed in a van parked outside.
Bronx prosecutors did not say why they zeroed in on Walker.
Police got a warrant to enter the apartment he was sharing with a woman and found the tickets, holographic paper, gold leaf paper, laminate glue, two packages of 4-by-6 photo paper, a cutter and hot press, according to the DA's Office.
Two other men were arrested Monday for allegedly selling counterfeit tickets, parking passes and Super Bowl events around the city.
Walker was charged with grand larceny trademark counterfeiting and was expected to be arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Thursday night. He is facing up to 15 years in prison.
There was no immediate information about his lawyer.Japanese direct investments to China are also falling. They declined 20 percent over the last three years, and the numbers for the first quarter of this year are showing no sign of any significant improvement in the months ahead.
China apparently can live with that, but Japan is finding it hard to get substitutes for its flailing export and investment business with the big neighbor. And that is a considerable difficulty at a time when Japan's economy showed virtually no growth in the first quarter and overseas sales – accounting for nearly one-fifth of GDP – declined 2.5 percent.
Weakening exports are a big setback for Japan's traditional business cycle recovery, because, typically, a sustained increase in overseas sales is necessary to set in train business investments, rising employment, personal incomes and household spending. That scenario is now impossible with declining exports and a weak (2 percent) growth of business capital outlays over the last two years.
Japan's business with South Korea is much worse than with China. Exports and direct investments are down 12.9 percent and 82.5 percent, respectively, in the first half of this year. Japan can probably shrug this off, but it is sad to see such a deterioration of economic ties.
South Korea can also live with that, but here is a punch that Seoul may find hard to take: Inter-Korean security threats could undermine the flourishing business with China.
Indeed, Beijing is strongly opposed to South Korea's decision to install a missile shield against military challenges from North Korea. China says that is unacceptable because such defense equipment poses problems for its own security.
Trilateral dialog
And the upshot is this: South Korean media are reporting about economic and other measures the Chinese are apparently taking to force Seoul to think again.
That is a tough call. China takes 25 percent of South Korean exports, and China's vast and growing markets are crucially important to Korean industries, ranging from automobiles to telecommunications equipment, tourism, cosmetics and entertainment. China also has a large presence in South Korea's insurance, high-tech, medical instruments, beauty products, and holds nearly one-fifth of the Korean public debt.
Clearly, a solution must be found to protect the economic relations among these three countries. Otherwise, the damage could extend to business transactions well beyond their trilateral framework.
For example, these three East Asian economies could take most of the business in the huge Central Asian and European markets as One Belt One Road projects are integrated with those conducted by the Eurasian Economic Union and with investment programs financed by the EU. This is not just the question of building highways, high-speed rail lines and port facilities; there is also an entire range of energy, hospitality, health, education and entertainment services that will be needed to complete these large transcontinental projects.Hacker collective “Anonymous” has found its latest victim.
After previously vowing to “expose” Trump, the group of internet misfits has set its sight on Ted Cruz.
More from The Political Insider
They are threatening to release damming information unless Cruz does THIS:
Via PoliticsForum:
Anonymous warns Ted Cruz that if he doesn’t drop out of the race, they will expose all of his indecencies, including his prostitute activities.
_____________ Anonymous even makes mention of Cruz’s “ulterior motives” that involve his wife, Heidi. It’s unclear whether Anonymous still plans on exposing Cruz for his indecency since one of Cruz’s scandals has already been exposed, but since he didn’t end his campaign over the rumors, Anonymous may feel that he needs an extra push. In the end, Anonymous signs off with their usual warning: “We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
We broke the news about the Ted Cruz sex scandal. It was picked up by the Enquirer and the main stream media has given it interest.
Is it actually true? We can’t say for sure but it is curious that Anonymous claims to have this damning info and is willing to go public with it.
Now Watch This
Read this Next on ThePoliticalInsider.com ‘Avengers’ Star Compares Donald Trump to a Plantation Owner
Is Ted Cruz done for? Share your thoughts in the comments!Some 1.2 billion people—almost one fifth of the world—live in areas of physical water scarcity, while another 1.6 billion face what can be called economic water shortage.1 The situation is only expected to worsen as population growth, climate change, investment and management shortfalls, and inefficient use of existing resources restrict the amount of water available to people. It is estimated that by 2025 fully 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, with almost half of the world living in conditions of water stress.2
Water scarcity has several definitions. Physical scarcity occurs when there is not enough water to meet demand; its symptoms include severe environmental degradation, declining groundwater, and unequal water distribution.3 Economic water scarcity occurs when there is a lack of investment and proper management to meet the demand of people who do not have the financial means to use existing water sources; the symptoms in this case normally include poor infrastructure.4 Large parts of Africa suffer from economic water scarcity. (See Figure 1.)
To measure water scarcity, hydrologists compare the size of a population with the amount of available water. According to the United Nations, an area is said to be experiencing water stress when annual water supplies fall below 1,700 cubic meters per person.5 A region is said to face water scarcity when supplies fall below 1,000 cubic meters per person, and absolute water scarcity is when supplies drop below 500 cubic meters a year.6
Regionally, nearly all Arab countries are considered water-scarce, with consumption of water significantly exceeding total renewable supplies.7 The region has less than 500 cubic meters of renewable water resources available per person annually.8 About 66 percent of Africa is arid or semiarid, and more than 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than 1,000 cubic meters of water resources each.9 (See Table 1.)
Although the Asia-Pacific region is home to almost 60 percent of the world's population, it only has 36 percent of global water resources.10 In 2009, the region had 2,970 cubic meters of water resources per person.11 Although this is not a sign of water scarcity, it is still less than half of the world's average of 6,236 annual cubic meters.12 Parts of northern China, India, and Pakistan suffer from both physical and economic scarcity. In comparison, the average amount of water available per person in Latin America is about 7,200 cubic meters, although it is only 2,466 cubic meters in the Caribbean.13
North America and Europe, in contrast, are well endowed with renewable water resources. Canada and the United States have about 85,310 and 9,888 cubic meters of water resources per person, respectively, while Europe has almost 4,741 cubic meters.14 People in these regions also consume a considerable amount of “virtual water”—water that is used in the production of goods, especially agricultural products such as grain, which can then be traded. According to UN Water, each person in North America and Europe (excluding former Soviet Union countries) consumes at least 3 cubic meters per day of virtual water in imported food, compared with 1.4 cubic meters per day in Asia and 1.1 cubic meters per day in Africa.15
Water resources face many pressures, including population growth, increased urbanization and overconsumption, lack of proper management, and the looming threat of climate change. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Water, global water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.16 World population is predicted to grow from 7 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050, putting a strain on water resources to meet increased food, energy, and industrial demands.17
At the global level, 70 percent of water withdrawals are for the agricultural sector, 11 percent are to meet municipal demands, and 19 percent are for industrial needs.18 These numbers, however, are distorted by the few countries that have very high water withdrawals, such as China, India, and the United States. A breakdown of water withdrawal by sector and region is shown in Figure 2.
Agriculture is one the most water-intensive sectors, currently accounting for more than 90 percent of consumptive use.19 Agricultural water withdrawal accounts for 44 percent of total water withdrawal among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but this rises to more than 60 percent within the eight OECD countries that rely heavily on irrigated agriculture.20 In the four transitional economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, agriculture accounts for 74 percent of water withdrawals, but this ranges from 20 percent in the Russia to 87 percent in India.21
Water use in agriculture is often inefficient, which has led to the overexploitation of groundwater resources as well as the depletion of the natural flow of major rivers, such as the Ganges in India and the Yellow River in China. Around 54 percent of the total area available for irrigation is irrigated with surface water, 5 percent with groundwater, and 41 percent with a combination of both sources.22 But when both sources are used together, less than 15 percent of it is surface water, which has led to a doubling of the global depletion of groundwater resources in the last 50 years.23 The Ganges, Indus, and Yellow River basins in Asia have already reached high levels of water crowding and suffer from sever water shortage due to overuse.24
Policymakers must introduce a variety of measures to address global water scarcity. One important initiative is to support small-scale farmers. Much of the public investment in agricultural water management has focused on large-scale irrigation systems. But supporting smallholder farmers, who in general operate without large infrastructure such as dams, canals, and distribution devices, can decrease the amount of water used in the agricultural sector. This support must be accompanied by smart subsidies. In India, for example, many farmers who receive free electricity all day are experiencing groundwater depletion due to overpumping.25 To address this issue, policymakers in the state of Gujarat reduced the amount of time that farmers could pump water to eight hours on a pre-announced schedule that meets peak demand but also reduces total water usage.26
Farmers can also use water more efficiently by taking a number of steps, including growing a diverse array of crops suited to local conditions, especially in drought-prone regions; practicing agroforestry to build strong root systems and reduce soil erosion; maintaining healthy soils, either by applying organic fertilizer or growing cover crops to retain soil moisture; and adopting irrigation systems like “drip” lines that deliver water directly to plants’ roots. Rice farmers, for example, can adopt the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which not only increases crop yields but uses 20–50 percent less water than conventional rice production.27 SRI is an innovative method of increasing the productivity of irrigated rice with very simple adjustments to traditional techniques. It involves transplanting younger seedlings into a field with wider spacing in a square pattern, irrigating to keep the roots moist and aerated instead of flooding fields, and increasing organic matter in the soil with compost and manure.28
While the growing world population is increasing the pressure on land and water resources, economic growth and individual wealth are shifting people from predominantly starch-based diets to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kilogram of rice, for example, requires about 3,500 liters of water, while 1 kilogram of beef needs some 15,000 liters.29 (See Table 2.) This dietary shift has had the greatest impact on water consumption over the past 30 years and is likely to continue well into the middle of this century, according to FAO.30
Water challenges are compounded by the fact that agriculture competes with other uses, including hydropower. All forms of energy require water at some stage of their life cycle, which includes production, conversion, distribution, and use. Energy and electricity consumption are likely to increase over the next 25 years in all regions, with the majority of this increase occurring in non-OECD countries. This will have direct implications for the water resources needed to supply this energy. It is anticipated that water requirements for energy production will increase by 11.2 percent by 2050 if the current mix of energy sources is maintained.31 Under a scenario that assumes increasing energy efficiency of consumption modes, the World Energy Council estimates that water requirements for energy production could decrease by 2.9 percent by 2050.32
Luckily, there are also technical solutions to more-efficient water use in the energy sector. For example, brackish water, mine pool water, or domestic wastewater and dry cooling techniques have been used for cooling power plants. Research is also ongoing into the water efficiency of biofuels, the energy efficiency of desalination, and the reduction of evaporation from reservoirs.33
Climate change will also affect global water resources at varying levels. Reductions in river runoff and aquifer recharge are expected in the Mediterranean basin and in the semiarid areas of the Americas, Australia, and southern Africa, affecting water availability in regions that are already water-stressed. In Asia—in particular, in countries such as Pakistan—the large areas of irrigated land that rely on snowmelt and high mountain glaciers for water will be affected by changes in runoff patterns, while highly populated deltas are at risk from a combination of reduced inflows, increased salinity, and rising sea levels. And rising temperatures will translate into increased crop water demand everywhere.34
To combat the effects of climate change, efforts must be made to follow an integrated water resource management approach on a global scale. This involves water management that recognizes the holistic nature of the water cycle and the importance of managing trade-offs within it, that emphasizes the importance of effective institutions, and that is inherently adaptive.35Complete Collection Available on December 20, 2016
DVD | Blu-Ray
About My Love Story!!
Takeo Goda's hulking physique and affinity for sports make him popular with other guys, but girls just find him intimidating. Unaware of his gentle nature, the girls that Takeo likes always seem to fall for his handsome best friend, Suna, instead. Takeo is resigned to being Suna's wingman, with no hard feelings between them, until Takeo rescues Rinko Yamato from a molester on the train. Unfortunately, while Rinko might see past Takeo's brutish appearance, Takeo's become so conditioned to girls preferring Suna that he assumes Rinko is the same! Being the good, genuine guy he is, he's going to do everything he can to help the two of them be happy. Will Takeo let himself believe someone likes him? Love isn't blind: it's just a little dense in MY LOVE STORY!!
Rating: TV - 14
Director:
Kyle Colby Jones
ADR Writer:
Kyle Colby Jones
ADR Script Spotter:
George Manly
English Dub Vocal CastPHOENIX (CN) – Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces four more lawsuits from people – two of them attorneys – who say Arpaio’s officers abused them after illegally arresting them last year for protesting Arizona’s immigration law.
Sunita Patel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, claims she was “falsely arrested and imprisoned for approximately 15 hours, during which time she was repeatedly subjected to illegal and abusive custodial interrogations, and then maliciously prosecuted for almost a year thereafter, all in retaliation for exercising her constitutional rights to engage in the First Amendment protected activity of observing and documenting Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office officers’ behavior during a peaceful political protest.”
Patel says she was standing on a sidewalk outside the Fourth Avenue Jail on July 29, 2010 “to observe and document the actions of the MSCO in policing First Amendment activity undertaken by hundreds of protestors peacefully protesting” the state’s immigration law, Arizona Senate Bill 1070.
Patel, who had been asked to provide legal support by Puente, an immigrant-rights organization, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, was wearing a neon green hat on the day of the protest to identify herself as “legal support,” according to her complaint.
Patel says Arpaio failed to train his deputies on “the First Amendment rights of bystanders to observe/and or document a protest and law enforcement (mis)conduct at said protest without suffering retaliatory and false arrest and/or malicious prosecution.”
Co-defendant David Trombi, then Arpaio’s patrol bureau resources chief, knew that Patel was there as a legal observer, but let her be arrested and taken to the jail, the Patel says. She says her camera was confiscated: she had photographed of protesters being arrested.
After being arrested, Patel says, she was falsely charged with obstructing a public thoroughfare and failing to obey the order of a police, and was criminally prosecuted for more than 10 months before charges were dismissed.
Patel seeks declaratory judgment and an injunction requiring Arpaio and Maricopa County to “develop and implement formal policies and procedures and training materials concerning the constitutional rights of individuals to observe, document and photograph law enforcement officers’ conduct,” and compensatory, punitive, and treble damages. She is represented by Darius Charney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Attorney Roxanna Orrell, who is licensed to practice in Texas and Minnesota, says she was in town to offer legal advice to protesters. She says she was not protesting, but merely observing, and was not “doing anything illegal prior to being arrested and was clearly arrested because of her obvious support of the protestors.”
Orrell says Arpaio pressed “false and baseless charges” of failing to obey a police officer, which “not only caused plaintiff great stress and anxiety but also posed a potential threat to her being able to practice law.”
Prosecutors dismissed the charges after being notified she had an attorney.
She seeks punitive damages for false arrest, emotional distress and violations of her civil and constitutional rights.
She is represented in Federal Court by Paul Gattone of Tucson.
The other two arrestees sued Arpaio and his office in Maricopa County Court.
Gustavo Ramirez says he was arrested and hauled off to a jail garage, also on July 29, 2010, though he was not violating any laws.
Before being arrested, Ramirez had said through a megaphone: “We are not criminals; the sheriff is a criminal. Arrest Arpaio, not the people. This has been one of the deadliest months for undocumented people crossing the desert,” according to the complaint.
In the garage, Ramirez says, deputies “unnecessarily pulled and pushed” him, “to vent their anger over what he had been saying in public about defendant Arpaio and SB 1070.”
One deputy pressed Ramirez’s face into the garage floor, while another “made sport out of kicking him in the back, legs, abdomen, and other parts of his body, including his hands,” Ramirez says.
He says deputies ground his face into the cement and held his hands behind his back, “jamming his arms up so excruciatingly far that they felt they would pop out of their sockets.”
When the beating ended, one deputy told him, “Now you’re not [resisting arrest],” the complaint states.
Ramirez says that since the beating he has had “terrifying flashbacks associated with the trauma he experienced from a car accident when he was 11 years old.”
He seeks compensatory and punitive damages for false arrest and assault. He is represented by Antonio Bustamante.
In the third complaint, Audrey Williams claims she was arrested the same day, for protesting outside the Wells Fargo Bank building, and charged with obstructing a public thoroughfare.
Williams says Arpaio’s office denied her her medication for fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis the 26 hours she was in the Fourth Avenue Jail.
She adds that “the extreme Phoenix summer heat, coupled with the stress of the arrest and booking process, exacerbated the pain,” and that jailers “grudgingly put her in a wheelchair.”
With no explanation, Williams says, she and other women were removed from a cell and placed into solitary confinement where she “was terrified of the constricted space into which she had been deposited.”
Williams says she “pleaded with jailers to be told why she had been isolated and dispatched to such a psychologically grotesque place,” and the jailer told her: “There is nothing you can say to make me put you back in population.”
She seeks compensatory damages for negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. She is represented by Antonio Bustamante.
Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff,” has been sued more than 300 times in recent years, often on civil rights charges. Plaintiffs include sitting and retired judges and other officials.
Like this: Like Loading...Ask a cop what kind of extremist they’re most concerned about and the answer is likely to be those opposed to the government, not Muslim terrorists.
A survey of 382 law enforcement agencies from around the United States asked officers to list the main violent extremist threat their agency faces.
Anti-government extremists were listed more than any other by far: 73.8%. Al Qaeda-inspired extremists came in a distant second, at 39.3%.
“Law enforcement agencies in the United States consider anti-government violent extremists, not radicalized Muslims, to be the most severe threat of political violence that they face,” the survey’s authors, Charles Kurzman and David Schanzer, wrote in their report (pdf).
Kurzman, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and associate professor of the Practice, Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, added that law enforcement “perceive violent extremism to be a much more severe threat nationally than the threat of violent extremism in their own jurisdictions.”
The survey also revealed that a large majority of law enforcement agencies rank the threat of all forms of violent extremism in their own jurisdictions as moderate or lower (3 or less on a 1-5 scale).
Coming in at third and fourth place as the most violent threats that law enforcement face were, respectively, environmental extremism (33%) and racist extremism (24.3%).
The researchers conducted the survey in 2014 in conjunction with the Police Executive Research Forum.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat (by Charles Kurzman and David Schanzer, Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security) (pdf)
In Post-9/11 World, Has U.S. Failed to Address the Rise of Non-Islamic Terrorism? (by Noel Brinkerhoff and Danny Biederman, AllGov)
Law Enforcement Personnel Now View Sovereign Citizens as Bigger Terrorist Threat than Islamic Extremists (by Noel Brinkerhoff and Steve Straehley, AllGov)
Homeland Security Dept. Slashes Investigations of Non-Islamic Terrorism (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)Supporter, ball boy, youth team player, ideologue, captain, coach, legend -- enemy.
He is now; for some, he already was.
Pep Guardiola returns to the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. He was there in March, hiding a big smile behind an even bigger scarf while sitting alongside his parents and his friend Manuel Estiarte as Lionel Messi nutmegged Manchester City's James Milner. He was there as a fan -- he had to abandon his original idea of heading to the game by foot, following the route he trod when he was younger, strolling past the Princesa Sofia hotel -- but there he was, a season-ticket holder sitting in his seat at the back of the lower tier in the main stand.
This time, if he sits at all, he will sit on the bench; the other bench, as Bayern Munich manager. For the first time in his life, the ball boy who ran onto the pitch to beg for Victor Munoz's shirt after Barcelona reached the European Cup final in 1985 and who won the trophy himself seven years later -- the first time the club had ever lifted the trophy -- will want Barcelona to lose. After the Champions League semifinal is over, whatever the result, he will go back to wanting Barcelona to win again. After the Champions League semifinal is over, most in Barcelona will go back to wanting Guardiola to win, all the more so if Bayern reach the final and face Real Madrid.
Most, but not all.
When the draw was made, Guardiola said the first message he got was from his daughter, who was happy that she was going back to see friends. "Barcelona was our life," Guardiola said. "But in the end it is only a game of football," he added. That line didn't convince. It will be much more than that, for good and bad.
"I hope and expect there to be a great welcome for Guardiola -- he will be handed the honour that he deserves," said Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
That might sound like a redundant statement, a response to a redundant question, but it was not. Whether it was a sincere response is another matter. Catalan and captain, Guardiola was the man Johan Cruyff entrusted to direct the "Dream Team" in 1980s and 90s and who won the league with Barcelona B and 14 trophies with the first team, including all six in his first year, en route to becoming the most successful coach in the club's history. His nickname was mite, the myth or legend. And that was when he was a player; by the time he had departed as manager, for some he was almost a deity.
Pep Guardiola's Barcelona dominated European football but attitudes towards him have been mixed since he left.
But he did depart, although he has somehow remained present since. And some won't welcome him back. The immense majority of the fans, probably all of them, will give Guardiola the reception he deserves. But in some sections of the media, the reception will be colder. Downright hostile, in fact. Nasty and unpleasant. Worse, it will not be -- has not been, in fact -- the occasional comment or criticism, but a concerted campaign. And, darker still, the suspicion lingers that behind it lie those who have run the club since Sandro Rosell took over as president in 2010, including some on the current board.
When Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012, he was exhausted. The fact that he departed did not please some, leaving them exposed; the way his departure was handled did not please him. His relationship with Rosell had become distant already. Ideologically they were always different.
Barcelona is a club where politics and self-interest invariably play a part, where there is paranoia and distrust, a club prone to debate and division. Even those who choose not to occupy trenches often find trenches assigned to them. Johan Cruyff vs. Jose Luis Nunez was a civil war that tore Barcelona apart and has not healed; the names change but some of the struggles remain. The media plays the role of propagandists, locked in the confrontation, deepening it; sides are taken, battles fought and provoked. Alliances are always seen, even when they are not real.
Guardiola is Cruyffista; Rosell the president who prompted Johann Cruyff to return to the club offices and angrily hand back his title of honorary president -- a title handed him by the previous president Joan Laporta, who once was Rosell's partner but is now his enemy. Bartomeu was Rosell's vice-president who took over the presidency and now wishes to run again. That long-standing division lurks, always latent even when it does not come to the surface. When elections loom, as they do this summer, all the more so. In the media, points are not just made, they are scored.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that conflicts and resentment going back the best part of two decades are played out on the page. Guardiola long felt, not unjustifiably, that the Godo group (La Vanguardia and El Mundo Deportivo) were mouthpieces for some within the club, champions of the current president and his predecessors, slayers of his opponents, and that the attacks on him were thus their attacks on him. Because he appears unaligned with the current board, his status must be undermined for the success to be theirs, it must not be his. On the other side, his status must be reinforced, increased.
As Pepe Reina, the former Barcelona youth-teamer watching on from the outside, put it from Munich this week: "That's Barcelona's entorno. It has always been like that and it always will be. Everyone is subjected to that, the pressure, the constant comparisons." This season there has been something close to a desperation to compare, between those who say this team just isn't like Guardiola's and thus somehow has no value and those on the other side, who have sought to show it was better, even when it was not.
The debate has been exaggerated at times and unhelpful too, often debilitating. The nostalgia likewise: for current Barcelona manager Luis Enrique, it has been suffocating and unfair. Just as one of Sir Bobby Robson's biggest problems was that he was not Cruyff, so one of Luis Enrique's biggest problems has been that he is not Guardiola. The "Dream Team" and the Pep team became swords of Damocles, hanging over the men who followed them.
Among the trophies Guardiola won while in charge at the Camp Nou were Champions League titles in 2009 and 2011.
Yet if that's the background, if that attempt to protect the man who coaches the team now against the ever-present memory of the man who no longer does and who is now coming back to beat them, at times it is still baffling. It is hard to understand and impossible to justify the attitudes towards Guardiola held by some, the viciousness with which they are expressed, hinting at private confrontations and resentments yet to be resolved or revealed.
At times the cynicism and relentlessness is devastating. In El Mundo Deportivo, any excuse is a good one, no attack too gratuitous. To read Santi Nolla, the paper's editor, is to wonder what exactly it was that Guardiola did to him. How else to explain the bitterness?
In the summer of 2013 -- in the course of a news conference in which tellingly he also noted, "If I want to have dinner with Cruyff, I'll have dinner with Cruyff" -- Guardiola was asked about a comment he had supposedly made in which he had suggested that Tito Vilanova, his successor as Barcelona manager, would not get the best out of Neymar.
The question prompted a response that revealed the tension that had not always been public, underlining his sense that they could not let go, even after he had gone. That the search for blame had become endless, the desire to seek fault relentless. If his response could be seen as a cause of the way El Mundo Deportivo has turned on him, it was in fact a consequence of that. And of what he believed to lie beneath.
"I went 6,000 kilometres away and only asked them to leave me alone but they could not do that," Guardiola said. He complained that the club had used Vilanova's illness against him, filtering out the news that he had not visited his former assistant while they were both in New York. Doing so had only one motive: to make Guardiola look bad. "There are things I will never forget," Guardiola said. "All I ask is that they stop using me, and my friends, to try to hurt me."
In turn, some defended Guardiola -- and were accused by El Mundo Deportivo of doing his bidding for him. One side's "news" was the other side's "strategic leak." And so it went on.
Leave me alone, Guardiola had said. They didn't. "Guardiola does not represent me," said El Mundo Deportivo's Cristina Cubero. Maybe that's it. Maybe the fact that he does represent so many Barcelona fans and the way they cling to him, even after his departure, is the problem, the source of their resentment. His status seems to sting them.
When Guardiola returned to watch Barcelona against City, Nolla's editorial was short and poisonous. Although it was coached in phrases like "Guardiola will always be welcomed here," it could have come with Batman-style KAPOWs and WHACKs and BOOMs on every line. Only it was more sly than that; instead, the sound would be the fleshy tear of a knife being slipped into the back of the manager Barcelona fans are supposed to love.
Guardiola has come to scout an opponent, the article began, something that by the way he didn't do when he was Barcelona coach. SLICE! Lazy Guardiola!
His football style was spectacular most the time, repetitive and predictable at others. SLICE! Boring Guardiola!
Guardiola went to Bayern after Jupp Heynckes won it all. SLICE! Lucky Guardiola!
Guardiola was lucky to have the best player in the world: this is "Messi's Barcelona." SLICE! It was never about the coach here anyway!
And on it goes. Nolla added that there is only one Barcelona coach and that's Luis Enrique.
On Wednesday night, there will be only one: Luis Enrique. But standing by the other bench there will be a former Barcelona coach. Pep Guardiola, the man the supporters will welcome back even as some in the boardroom and others in the pressroom grit their teeth. Luis Enrique's task this season has been harder because of the presence of the myth but he, unlike they, has no doubts. "Pep is my friend, and I always think my friends are the best," the Barcelona manager said.
Sid Lowe is a Spain-based columnist and journalist who writes for ESPN FC, the Guardian, FourFourTwo and World Soccer. Follow him on Twitter at @sidlowe.The victim, Maxime Roger of Chambrey CF Cycling Club, was travelling at around 60km/h when his TT extensions became detached from the base bars, according to an interview on French cycling website directvelo.com.
While at first it appears the fall was as a direct result of Roger's TT bars coming away from their mounts, road.cc's own Jo Burt pointed out that his tyre also appears to blow, which further knocked the rider's balance and ability to possibly save himself by quickly grabbing onto the base bars. Talk about getting all your mechanicals out the way in one go.
Roger painfully skids along the floor before coming to a stop near a grass verge, ending his day and his participation in the multi-stage event.
Edit: It appears the rider wasn't very seriously injured after the fall, explaining in the interview with DirectVelo that he has very sore knees but hopes to be racing again at the end of the month at the Trophy of Champions event.Photographs captured by astronauts on the International Space Station are in the public domain, so they’re often remixed into gorgeous time-lapse videos. Italian filmmaker Giacomo Sardelli went a step beyond many of the ISS time-lapses we’ve seen by adding in more than just epic music: he included short audio messages recorded by the astronauts who worked in the space station.
Sardelli writes that his goal with the video is to break down barriers that exist here on Earth:
I wanted to use pictures taken from the International Space Station to tell a story and share the message sent by the astronauts who worked on the station in the last 11 years. They are working to open a Gateway to Space for all humankind, but people on Earth must understand that they have to get rid of the concept of borders on our planet if they want to follow the astronauts to new worlds in outer space. While the cosmonauts speak a day passes on Earth, from dawn to sunset, until the Gateway opens with a burst of light. The ISS then gains speed, the astronauts are leaving our planet which they see spinning faster and faster, merging earth, oceans and people together, ready to follow |
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Bevan Dufty, the district’s former supervisor and a current mayoral candidate, said the neighborhood was in transition. He blamed economics — not sexual orientation.
“This is a fallout from the economic collapse,” Mr. Dufty said, “and the recovery was always expected to be slow.”
Indeed, when the details were considered, each closing appeared to be due to fiscal realities. For example, retail sales of books, videos and music have been affected nearly everywhere by Internet commerce, and some businesses failed when leases expired and parties could not agree to new terms.
Still, the totality of so many losses of established gay businesses has been felt. The Castro has been an enclave for gay men and lesbians since the 1970s. Harvey Milk, the assassinated gay civil rights leader, set in motion a national movement from a humble camera shop there.
Photo
The district has never been exclusively gay (one-third of residents self-identify as gay men or lesbians, compared with 13 percent in the city), but there has been some trouble in the past between residents and visitors. A large Halloween street party raged peacefully for years until it became a popular destination for tens of thousands of revelers — many of them heterosexual — from elsewhere in the region beginning in the late 1990s. Episodes of homophobia and violence followed, and in 2006 nine people were shot and wounded in a melee. The party has since been canceled or curtailed.
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In this context the incidents at Lime have become a flash point. Yet change in the Castro seems inevitable. In an age when homosexuals are receiving greater acceptance, fewer feel compelled to live in ghettos as they once did, and that means a more substantial mix of residents is likely, as well as services that meet their needs.
In fact, some establishments have opened in the area and attracted both gay and straight patronage without the drama surrounding Lime. Two blocks down Market, the bar Blackbird is flourishing with just such a mix.
Mr. Dufty hailed Blackbird’s success as a positive example of the neighborhood’s evolution. But he also said that the district’s legacy should not be forgotten and that its gay centricity needed to be maintained.
“You can’t take the Castro for granted. It’s worth fighting for,” he said. “We seek to be inclusive, but it’s essential that we remain anchored in our LGBT heritage.”
J. D. Petras, a businessman with several properties in the Castro, including Cafe Flore, a popular outdoor restaurant, has watched the Castro develop for more than 30 years.
“I’d love to see the Castro be a gay ghetto like it was in the 1970s,” he said, “but we don’t need it anymore. Gay people are everywhere.”
Despite some of the problems that others have reported, Mr. Petras said he welcomed the crowds flocking to Lime. He said the club’s patrons were helping to revive the depressed local economy.
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“It’s fun for young kids coming into the big city,” he said. “It’s good for our neighborhood. Who the hell cares if it’s gay, mixed or straight?”
Now, if only they could be potty trained, then perhaps the rest of the neighbors would feel as accommodating.
“I don’t want it to be spring break each weekend,” Mr. Dufty said.Government Tapping CONTENT, Not Just Metadata … Using Bogus “Secret Interpretation” of Patriot Act
We reported in 2008 that foreign companies have had key roles scooping up Americans’ communications for the NSA:
At least two foreign companies play key roles in processing the information. Specifically, an Israeli company called Narus processes all of the information tapped by AT &T (AT & T taps, and gives to the NSA, copies of all phone calls it processes), and an Israeli company called Verint processes information tapped by Verizon (Verizon also taps, and gives to the NSA, all of its calls).
Business Insider notes today:
The reason that Business Insider is speculating about the use of private Israeli companies to thwart the law is that 2 high-ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee – Senators Wyden and Udall – have long said that the government has adopted a secret interpretation of section 215 of the Patriot Act which would shock Americans, because it provides a breathtakingly wide program of spying.
Last December, top NSA whistleblower William Binney – a 32-year NSA veteran with the title of senior technical director, who headed the agency’s global digital data gathering program (featured in a New York Times documentary, and the source for much of what we know about NSA spying) – said that the government is using a secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act which allows the government to obtain:
Any data in any third party, like any commercial data that’s held about U.S. citizens ….
(relevant quote starts at 4:19).
I called Binney to find out what he meant.
I began by asking Binney if Business Insider’s speculation was correct. Specifically, I asked Binney if the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act was that a foreign company – like Narus, for example – could vacuum up information on Americans, and then the NSA would obtain that data under the excuse of spying on foreign entities … i.e. an Israeli company.
Binney replied no … it was broader than that.
Binney explained that the government is taking the position that it can gather and use any information about American citizens living on U.S. soil if it comes from:
Any service provider … any third party … any commercial company – like a telecom or internet service provider, libraries, medical companies – holding data about anyone, any U.S. citizen or anyone else.
I followed up to make sure I understood what Binney was saying, asking whether the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act was that the government could use any information as long as it came from a private company … foreign or domestic. In other words, the government is using the antiquated, bogus legal argument that it was not using its governmental powers (called “acting under color of law” by judges), but that it was private companies just doing their thing (which the government happened to order all of the private companies to collect and fork over).
Binney confirmed that this was correct. This is what the phone company spying program and the Prism program – the government spying on big Internet companies – is based upon. Since all digital communications go through private company networks, websites or other systems, the government just demands that all of the companies turn them over.
Let’s use an analogy to understand how bogus this interpretation of the Patriot Act is. This argument is analogous to a Congressman hiring a hit man to shoot someone asking too many questions, and loaning him his gun to carry out the deed … and then later saying “I didn’t do it, it was that private citizen!” That wouldn’t pass the laugh test even at an unaccredited, web-based law school offered through a porn site.
I then asked the NSA veteran if the government’s claim that it is only spying on metadata – and not content – was correct. We have extensively documented that the government is likely recording content as well. (And the government has previously admitted to “accidentally” collecting more information on Americans than was legal, and then gagged the judges so they couldn’t disclose the nature or extent of the violations.)
Binney said that was not true; the government is gathering everything, including content.
Binney explained – as he has many times before – that the government is storing everything, and creating a searchable database … to be used whenever it wants, for any purpose it wants (even just going after someone it doesn’t like).
Binney said that former FBI counter-terrorism agent Tim Clemente is correct when he says that no digital data is safe (Clemente says that all digital communications are being recorded).
Binney gave me an idea of how powerful Narus recording systems are. There are probably 18 of them around the country, and they can each record 10 gigabytes of data – the equivalent of a million and a quarter emails with 1,000 characters each – per second.
Binney next confirmed the statement of the author of the Patriot Act – Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner – that the NSA spying programs violate the Patriot Act. After all, the Patriot Act is focused on spying on external threats … not on Americans.
Binney asked rhetorically: “How can an American court [FISA or otherwise] tell telecoms to cough up all domestic data?!”
Update: Binney sent the following clarifying email about content collection:Emily Lakdawalla • May 9, 2013
Chang'e 3 undergoing thermal vacuum testing
A member of the NASASpaceflight.com forum has posted a large set of photos taken during Chang'E 3 thermal vacuum testing. They are all watermarked "China Space News" which is, as near as I can tell, a Chinese magazine -- I am hoping that the gigantic watermarks make it okay for me to post them. I'm posting them here in the spirit of asking forgiveness rather than permission, because I haven't been able to figure out a way to ask for permission. (EDIT: Here's where the photos were originally posted online.)
Thermal vacuum testing is one of the last major testing programs that a spacecraft has to endure before it is cleared for launch. It is a test that must be performed on the actual spacecraft that is headed for space -- not on an engineering model -- and it has to be done with the spacecraft essentially completely assembled. The whole ship is placed inside a testing chamber, and the chamber sealed and pumped down to as close to vacuum as is achievable. Then the chamber is run through temperature cycles to simulate the extreme heating and cooling that's experienced by a spacecraft exposed to alternating Sun and darkness in space.
Before I show you the photos, permit me an editorial comment: Oh my God, this thing is huge. In fact, it looks so huge that it makes me wonder whether it could serve as the base for a lander containing human astronauts. The rover is the rectangular box on top of the octagonal lander.
Here is a slightly closer view, in which you can see more detail on the rover, including its basket-like wheels.
A report on NASASpaceflight.com says that the current plan is to launch the lander and rover in December. China is actually building two complete spacecraft. Assuming that Chang'E 3 lands successfully, it is expected that China will do with the backup spacecraft what they did following the success of Chang'E 1: they'll launch the backup as a follow-on mission, called Chang'E 4.
We haven't had a lunar soft landing since the Soviets' last Luna lander. This is going to be awesome. Here's an earlier post of mine with more information ont he plans for Chang'E 3.
To make them more convenient to browse, I've added all 20 or so thermal vacuum testing images to my Chang'E 3 Flickr album.
Emily Lakdawalla Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist for The Planetary Society
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Despite what a recent PETA ad would have you believe, some vegetarians are fat. Take, for example, the herbiverous and tubby Dugong. Dugongs have long been hunted for their fat, meat, and oil and they’re easy targets: they swim slowly through shallow waters munching on seagrass like a cow on pasture. In fact, they’re often called seacows. Though dugongs are protected in the US under the Endangered Species Act, some are still killed by motorboat collisions and poachers.
There are about 100,000 dugongs left, the majority in Australian waters. Like their relative the elephant, dugongs can grow huge: up to 11 feet in length and 2,000 pounds in weight. The shy animals can only stay underwater for about 6 minutes, and sometimes “stand” on their tail flukes to push their heads to the surface, holding their front flippers in front of them like arms. This activity, combined with the dugong’s distinctive head and body shape, not to mention its “conspicuous” nipples, is thought to have inspired lovelorn sailors’ tales of mermaids and sirens. Accordingly, dugongs (along with manatees) belong to the order Sirenia
The dugong’s long lifespan (70 years) and a slow reproduction rate (one calf every 3 to 7 years) makes it less able to adapt to environmental changes than smaller, more fertile animals like squid or jellyfish. However, unlike some other animals, the dugong has no set breeding period and can mate year round. Although unusual now, there used to be “herds” of hundreds of dugongs, who would segregate cream-colored young in a “nursery” while blue-grey adults foraged for food. Now, most dugong groups sighted have only 6 or so members. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) dugongs are rarely found in captivity, but you can “adopt” your own dugong via the World Wildlife Fund here.
Follow Jen Phillips on Twitter.Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
Rochelle Yang started marathon training two years ago, working her runs into her hectic schedule as a full-time pharmacy student at the University of Iowa. She trained year-round, putting up with snow, sleet, and regular sub-freezing temperatures. Sometimes, it was hard fitting in runs into her day. After a 12-hour day of classes, studying, and working a part-time job, she'd get home at 7 PM, have a quick snack, and then bang out somewhere between 7 and 13 miles, sometimes on less than 5 hours of sleep.
"I'll be honest," Yang wrote to me via email, "there were many days I hated running" (although she did add a smiley to the end of that sentence).
She dreamed of running in the Boston Marathon someday, but didn't think she'd hit the qualifying time in the near future. Her goal for the first marathon she ran, in June 2015, was simply to finish without stopping or walking. She finished in 3 hours 50 minutes, only 15 minutes shy of hitting the Boston qualifier time, commonly referred to as "BQ." For the next four months, she trained hard trying to shave those 15 minutes off her time.
Read More: Running to Narnia: The Quest for the Two-Hour Marathon
At the IMT Des Moines Marathon in October 2015, Yang pushed herself, particularly in the last four miles, to hit BQ, which is 3 hours 35 minutes for her age group. "I remember thinking I would be okay with everything in my life going wrong for the next year if I could just beat the 3:35 pacer to the finish."
Yang crossed the finish line, exhausted and numb. Once she regained a modicum of wind, Yang called her parents, fighting to catch her breath and holding back tears at the same time, which, she remembers, made her sound like she was injured. Her parents asked if they needed to call an ambulance. Finally, she got the words out so they could understand.
"Dad, I just qualified for Boston!" She ran 3:32:51, or BQ-2:09.
Yang at the Newport News One City marathon in Virginia.
Yang wasn't automatically invited to run in Boston even thought she ran a fast enough time to qualify. Every year, more runners apply for Boston with BQ times than the race has slots. So they take applications on a rolling basis, accepting the fastest runners first and working their way backwards. Usually, all the slots are filled somewhere in the final group—between BQ-5 and BQ—but nobody knows exactly where the cutoff will be until the announcements go out. For the application period that ended just before Yang ran in Des Moines, the cutoff was BQ-2:28, 19 seconds faster than Yang's time. It would be close.
Yang put in so much work to BQ that it never even crossed her mind that some people don't put in the work. Some people cheat.
Derek Murphy started Marathon Investigation as "kind of an afterthought." He followed the stories of notorious alleged marathon cheaters like Mike Rossi and Kip Litton on the LetsRun.com forums, but didn't post much. Still, he realized the reason they aroused suspicion and got caught was because they publicized their fabricated accomplishments, attracting attention. After following Rossi's case closely, Murphy wondered, "How many more people are like this guy but we don't know about because they don't put themselves out there?"
A business analyst in Cincinnati with a wife and two kids, Murphy downloads race results and looks for anomalies. For the Boston Marathon, bib numbers are assigned in sequential order, so the earlier you get accepted—and, therefore, the faster time you have—the lower the bib number. Based on this, Murphy can roughly predict what time that runner ought to run in Boston if they qualified honestly. If a runner is far off his or her predicted time, Murphy flags it.
From that list, Murphy looks at the mat times, which, using a digital chip in the race bibs, logs a runner's splits every time they cross a mat at certain mile markers. From here, Murphy can spot issues quickly. If Murphy finds several missed mats in conjunction with impossible splits, such as a runner increasing their pace significantly over the second half of the race, they probably cut the course.
All in all, it takes Murphy about 30 minutes from the time he gets the data set to when he has a list of people who almost certainly cheated. From there, he researches their qualifying times and races, looking at photos, split times, and communicating with race directors on individual cases.
These methods are not all that different from those employed by LetsRun forum sleuths. Those threads—hotly investigating claimed athletic feats—have been some of LetsRun's most popular, according to the site's co-founder Weldon Johnson. Rossi, for example, gained international fame after the principal at his kid's school sent him a letter about the child's unexcused absences surrounding the 2015 Boston Marathon, in which Rossi ran. Rossi posted a snarky reply to Facebook, touting his personal accomplishments in qualifying for Boston. "They watched their father overcome, injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal." The Facebook post went viral and got him immense media attention.
But LetsRun's forums uncovered what they believed to be conclusive evidence that Rossi cut the course in his qualifying race, and that he should have never been allowed to run in Boston. Rossi has denied that he cheated in the race, and Lehigh Valley Marathon race officials did not disqualify him after the fact despite LetsRun's evidence.
More recently, a man named Robert Young tried set the record for fastest time running across America, but fell short amidst suspicions he was fabricating his efforts.
In the Rossi and Young situations, Johnson said, the threads were likely so popular because both runners insisted they were innocent. Young's feat was under suspicion in real time, so there were always new developments for the message board to discuss. Most of the other cheating threads tend to be shorter-lived. "But," Johnson added, "people are amazed at the sleuthing ability of some of our posters." Indeed, these threads involve hundreds if not thousands of intense runners with finely-tuned bullshit detectors, all doing their own smaller version of Murphy's marathon investigations.
Sometimes, commenters on Murphy's site or in the LetsRun forums wonder why someone would cheat in a marathon, the ultimate individual sport. But that's just one side of the question. After all, if running is such an individual sport, why would anyone spend so much time trying to catch them?
"For serious runners, race day is sacred," Matt Taylor, Founder and CEO of running apparel company Tracksmith and former head of global marketing for running at Puma told me over the phone. This is in contrast to what he called the "health and wellness movement" over the last decade or so, which encourages people to be active, raise money for charity, and jog in goofy costumes where everyone gets a finisher's medal. "I think that's rubbed serious runners a bit the wrong way because it's something we've always held as sacred."
So is the sleuthing and outing of cheaters a way to re-claim their territory? Taylor thought it was possible, but allowed that it's only part of the explanation. Particularly in the Rossi and Young cases, these guys were publicly bragging about their accomplishments, using social media to promote themselves. (He also emphasized that he doesn't much care what other people do and doesn't "want to be lumped in with people losing their shit over this.")
Social media and modern technology function as a double-edged sword. The tweets and Facebook posts people put up of finisher's medals they might not have earned taunt serious runners to out them. And the message boards, digital time mats, and race photos make it possible for it to happen in a matter of minutes.
But the main reason marathon cheats likely incite so much outrage in the running community is because cheating violates the very essence of the sport down to its philosophical core. As LetsRun's co-founder Johnson explained, "Running in its purest form is not a battle for external recognition but a battle within ourselves. Cheating changes this and is such an affront to the sport, that people spend a lot of time combating this. Many hard-core runners can't fathom why a runner would cheat in a race, so they go to great lengths to expose them."
This is, more or less, why Murphy spends many of his nights sorting through spreadsheets and looking at marathon photos of people he's never met. He also hopes it serves as a deterrent for anyone else who might course-cut their way to Boston. But there's an even simpler reason why he does it.
Murphy has run in 10 marathons himself, but his last one was eight years ago. Then, he had kids. He doesn't have the time or energy for training anymore. But, he still cares about running and considers himself a part of the community. Catching cheaters is his way of contributing now that he no longer participates. Also, spreadsheets and data analysis are his thing. He's good at it.
We're not saying any of these people cheated, but statistically speaking, one of them might have. Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Murphy first wrote about Jeff and Sheri Donnelly in April. According to Murphy's research, Jeff ran the Boston Marathon four times: 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015. Jeff qualified for 2015 with a time of 3:27:49 at the Desert Classic in Arizona, but ran a 4:28:04 in Boston, a full hour slower. Or, to put it another way, he qualified with a 7:55-per-mile pace but ran Boston at a 10:13 pace.
The Desert Classic didn't have mats, but Murphy looked up photos from the race, which occurred at the same time as a half-marathon. Both the half and full marathons were out-and-back loops. Jeff was photographed racing next to a 2 hour 30 minute half-marathoner towards the middle of the race, which doesn't make any sense. Jeff clocked a full marathon in only an additional hour.
His wife, Sheri, ran in the same race. She signed up for the full marathon, but the organizers dropped her to the half-marathoners because her time—identical to her husband's—would have meant she was the first female to finish, but they knew she wasn't.
In late 2015, Jeff and Sheri ran the Surfer's Point Marathon in Santa Barbara, CA, a two-loop marathon rife with course-cutting opportunities. Murphy found that Jeff wore a blue shirt over a green shirt for part of the race, but switched them at some point; a typical move for course-cutters in order not to be recognized by other runners.
Both Jeff and Sheri—who was also busted for course-cutting at the 2015 Big Wildlife Run in Anchorage, AK—ran BQ times at Surfer's Point and, according to Murphy's research, registered for Boston 2017, the same race Yang worked so hard to qualify for. Several calls to the Donnelly home were not returned.
Murphy also suspects Sheri ran the 2014 Boston Marathon with her husband despite the fact that she didn't qualify by using his bib to forge her own, changing his number #5895 to #5855. As Murphy points out, bib #5855 for the 2014 Boston Marathon was a 42 year old male who was photographed throughout the race.
When asked about Murphy's efforts specific to the Boston Marathon, a spokesman for the Boston Athletic Association, or BAA, told VICE Sports: "We rely on the race organizers and timing systems they employ to produce true and accurate results, and we also rely on the honesty and integrity of 99.99 percent of competitors who compete fairly and strive for their own personal records."
Murphy couldn't offer a precise number, but he estimates roughly three to four percent of Boston Marathon runners qualify by cheating. If accurate, this would mean roughly 600 runners out of 30,000 may have lied their way to the marathon.
"For the relatively tiny minority of participants who seek to gain unfair advantages," the BAA said, "there is sometimes no better method of rule enforcement than from witness accounts and reporting of fellow participants who also believe in a clean sport. And when such transgressions are reported, we trust race directors to fully investigate the matter, and adjudicate their race results if necessary."
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
After putting together his dossier on the Donnellys, Murphy notified the Surfer's Point Marathon race organizer, Bill Escobar, who reviewed the evidence and agreed with Murphy's findings. In September, Escobar disqualified the Donnellys, and notified the BAA that these runners were no longer eligible for Boston.
That same week, Yang didn't sleep well. She had applied for Boston and was anxiously waiting to hear back. She knew her chances were slim and tried her best to temper expectations, knowing -2:09 wouldn't have made the cut for the previous year's Marathon.
On Wednesday, September 28, she got the email. She was the only one in the office, so nobody heard her shout.
"YES!"
She didn't know it then, but the 2017 Boston Marathon cutoff time for the female 18-34 age group was BQ-2:09, precisely Yang's time. She straddled the cutoff line, but managed to fall just inside. Yang may have been the last person accepted for Boston 2017.
That day, another runner, via Reddit, brought Murphy's website to her attention. The Donnellys weren't the only runners disqualified thanks to Murphy's work. Yang concluded that, if it wasn't for him, she might not be in Boston.
Yang wrote Murphy an email, which he then posted to the site. She explained how she was just barely accepted, calling it "the biggest stroke of luck I may ever experience in my life. And I know I would not have gotten in if it weren't for the investigative work you do!
"You help get illegitimate runners kicked out of Boston so those spots can be filled by runners who have earned them. The time that you've put in, the work that you do that maybe feels thankless sometimes--has allowed a young runner to be able to complete her dream and run in her first Boston Marathon. And for that, I cannot thank you enough."
It's hard to say whether this conclusion is true. As Murphy wrote in the post, his work doesn't free up additional slots. A BAA spokesperson confirmed that disqualified runners don't have their spots filled. Instead, fewer people run.
But, Murphy also uncovered several dozen runners in the year leading up to Boston registration who, without his efforts, could have registered with falsified BQ times. Would those runners have pushed the cutoff to BQ-2:08? It's impossible to know.
This ambiguity opens the door to different interpretations, and the way runners perceive this dynamic is indicative of how they perceive running itself. You can believe Murphy helped Yang make the cutoff and that cheaters are an affront to everything the sport stands for. But you can also believe Yang will be running in Boston, not because of a business analyst in Cincinnati, but because of herself. She's running in Boston because, at the IMT Des Moines Marathon, there were 49 turns, six loops, and 175 feet in elevation change. If she had run a single second slower—slowed up to avoid a crowd before pushing through, taken the long angle around a turn, an extra half-beat when grabbing a water at the water station—she wouldn't be going to Boston, Marathon Investigation or not.
Want to read more stories like this from VICE Sports? Subscribe to our daily newsletter.Thanks to the MTV hit show Catfish, misrepresenting yourself to someone for your gain has become all to common.
Ricardo Agnant, took “catfishing” to a whole new level, scamming women into believing he’s a player for the Miami Dolphins to get them to sleep with him for three years.
Agnant, who goes by the nickname “Maserati Rick” (despite never owning a Maserati), even went to the length of sneaking into the NFL Regional combine at the Dolphins’ training facility, despite having never played football in college. Even worse, there’s no official record that he even attended college.
In April 2014, Agnant posted a photo of what appeared to be him signing a contract with the Dolphins, using a heavy filter to disguise the real Dolphin player in the photo.
According to Black Sports Online, the catfish even made car dealerships think he played for the Miami Dolphins, test driving expensive cars, using the drives as an opportunity to take photos and use them for his social media posts, pretending he owns them.
Agnant’s cover was blown when Redskins linebacker Lynden Trail asked his Facebook followers why “Black athletes with money marry white women?” Agnant then posted a response saying that black women are not “coachable” and they’re “stubborn, close-minded and always want to argue and be the boss.” The backlash after those comments was so great that Trail had to respond by tweeting out a photo of his black family to try to put distance between himself and “Maserati Rick.”
Agnant has since changed his Instagram name.
(The Grio)Dallas cop'makes death even worse' for NFL player David Edwards
Published: Friday March 27, 2009
Print This Email This A Dallas police officer is under investigation after he detained a NFL player who had been on his way to see a dying relative. Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats was rushing to the hospital to see his dying wife's mother. Dallas Officer Robert Powell refused to let Moats go into the hospital after running a red light. The relative died while Moats was held in the Hospital parking lot.
"The Moatses, who are black, said they can't help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them," the Associated Press reports.
"My mother-in-law is dying! Right now! You're wasting my time!" Moats reportedly screamed at the uninterested peace officer. "I don't understand why you can't understand that."
The officer is said to have responded, "Shut your mouth. You can either settle down and cooperate or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."
At a blog on The New York Times website, Lynn Zinser observes, "As if having your mother-in-law dying of breast cancer was not painful enough, Houston running back Ryan Moats had it made worse by a Dallas police officer who stopped him for running a red light near the hospital, would not listen to his pleas about the circumstances, drew his gun, threatened to arrest him and kept Moats in the parking lot while his mother-in-law died."
KVUE has more details here.
This video is from CNN's Situation Room, broadcast Mar. 26, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
Get Raw exclusives as they break -- Email & mobile Email - Never spam:'America's Got Talent' Marlon Wayans Among Top 3 Host Replacements
'America's Got Talent' Considers Marlon Wayans & Other Comics For Hosting Gig
EXCLUSIVE
Simon Cowell has whittled down his pick for a new host on "America's Got Talent" to just 3 guys -- one of whom is Marlon Wayans... TMZ has learned.
Production sources tell us 'AGT' brass is zeroing on Wayans and 2 other comedians to replace Nick Cannon. The other guys are Tone Bell and Brandon Mychal Smith.
Wayans is obviously the big name here... but we're told the 2 others have just as much of a chance to land the new gig considering their acting and comedy chops.
Bell is a stand-up and actor who's worked on shows like "The Flash," "Truth Be Told," "Chelsea Lately," and "Key and Peele." He's also made appearances on "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and "Comedy Knockout."
Brandon Mychal Smith is a straight up Disney kid, who starred in shows like "That's So Raven," "So Random!" and Disney movies "Starstruck" and "Let It Shine." He also played Little Richard in the James Brown biopic "Get On Up."
And of course, there's Wayans -- who's been in TONS of movies and shows. He's even got NBC hosting experience for their show "I Can Do That"... so he might have this in the bag.
We're told Simon still needs to meet with the 3 prospects to really see who'd be a good fit. He could even scrap them altogether, but for now... these are his top options.HOUSTON - The brutality of the gang is well documented -- from a middle school student hacked to death near the Addicks Dam, to a high school student murdered in Sam Houston National Forest, to a 14-year-old girl kidnapped, shot and left in the street. The latest murder also came with Satanic overtones.
“MS-13 has said to us in interviews: they kill for a living,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mark Sabol said.
MS-13 is a gang rooted in the violence of Central America. The "MS" stand for Mara Salvatrucha, which translates to Salvadoran gang. The gang was born on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s. Original members fled the violence of El Salvador and then banded together as a way to protect each other from rival gangs in the United States. Since that time, MS-13 has spread across the country.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the gang's numbers grew in 2015 as members snuck into the U.S. among the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children crossing into Texas.
A recent threat assessment from DPS shows Houston reporting some of the highest numbers of MS-13 members in the state. The DPS’s assessment noted MS-13's relationship with drug cartels, its propensity for murder and dismemberment "positioned the gang as one of the state's most significant gang threats."
“We see MS-13 activity all over (Harris) County and even the surrounding counties,” Sabol said.
Yet, MS-13 is far from the only gang operating in the Houston area. Houston police reported there are 353 gangs in our area, with roughly 19,000 members. Last year, our city saw 302 murders; 57 were gang related -- a point highlighted by a DPS map showing Harris County as one of three spots in the state with the highest amount of gang activity.
“Please don't underestimate (what) they're capable of doing,” Caroleta Johnson, a lieutenant with HPD, said. “They're involved in all types of crimes. They're involved in violent crime, non-violent crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, they're involved in burglary, identification theft.”
Johnson said the word “gang” can also have different meanings, from the well-known, well-organized groups to a loose collection of people who live in the same neighborhood.
“Just based on where they live, they kind of do their own thing. They make up their own rules, or some of them may not have rules,” Johnson said.
Johnson said a key component to combating gangs is understanding the culture, essentially, tapping into core motivations, beliefs and even the lingo as a way to counteract the gang life. Johnson said this where the public can help.
“We want to urge people not to ignore it, learn it, take interest in it and listen and provide this information to us,” Johnson said.
To that last point, the FBI and all law enforcement agencies in our area contributed to the creation of www.stophoustongangs.org. This site gives a breakdown of all the gangs in our area, complete with signs, symbols and so-called “colors.”
The site allows users to submit tips anonymously.
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Copyright 2017 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.At the Democratic Party’s political retreat last week, Party officials were so worried about rumors and leaks and so devoted to security that staffers were required to accompany reporters to and from the bathroom.
According to a report in Politico, reporters were also barred from entering the event hotel during times when open panels and open meetings were not being held, even if invited by a member.
“During Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks at the retreat Friday, reporters were required to have a staff member, usually a junior member of the press team, escort them when going to the bathroom or to the lobby,” Politico reported.
Democrats also set the media filing center at a completely separate hotel so that members of the media would be far from the event hotel for as much time as possible.
“It was a police state. It was absurd how heavy handed the capitol police and Democratic staff were in trying to control everywhere the press went,” New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters said.
This treatment is reminiscent of how reporters were treated at a Hillary Clinton event in September of last year.
In September The New York Times’ Amy Chozick revealed that reporters were required to have staffers shadow them to restrooms then as well.
“But, for me, perhaps the person who stands out is the |
cases mere retaliations for similar acts of violence committed by the Turkish state against its Kurdish citizens – are by definition “illegitimate”. Both the US and NATO dutifully recognized Turkey’s right to “defend” itself against “PKK aggression”. What is left out of the equation here, however, is that Turkey could hardly do IS a bigger favor than by attacking the Kurdish guerrillas that have proven to be the Islamic State’s most determined opponents.
It was the PKK that fought back IS in Shengal, rescuing tens of thousands of Yezidis, when even the US-backed and armed Peshmergas had left the battlefield with their tails between their legs. The battle-hardened PKK fighters have been integrated in the ranks of the YPG and YPJ, and without them such important victories as the ones in Kobane, Tel Abyad and, most recently, Hassaka would never have come to pass.
War over peace
If the US was serious about fighting IS, it would not only have been providing full support – both in deed and in word – to the YPG and YPJ and its sister organization, the PKK, but it would also confront Turkey on the mountains of evidence that they have in fact been supporting IS. It would demand that the borders with the Kurdish regions in Syria would be opened, and that the bombing campaign against PKK positions as well as the terror campaign against Kurdish civilians be seized immediately. Most importantly, it would take the PKK of the terror list.
Unfortunately, the US’ actions have shown that it is interested in no such thing.
Rather than defeating IS, its objective is the preservation and expansion of its influence in the region. For this, Turkey is a much more valuable partner than either the YPG and YPJ or the PKK. Action speaks louder than words, and in choosing its allies the US has shown clearly where its priorities really lie: power over democracy, influence over honesty and war over peace.Aiden Blinn | Contributing Reporter
Comedic rapper and hip-hop artist Lil Dicky will headline fall WILD, Social Programming Board announced Thursday.
The rapper, known for hits like “$ave Dat Money” and “Molly,” will perform in Brookings Quadrangle Oct. 6.
Like last spring’s WILD, fall WILD will feature two supplementary acts. Alternative hip-hop artist Lizzo will open the concert, followed by electropop group A R I Z O N A.
Lil Dicky first gained traction when the music video for his song “Ex-Boyfriend” went viral in 2013. Since then, he’s released a mixtape and a studio album, “Professional Rapper,” which includes collaborations with popular artists like Snoop Dogg, Fetty Wap and T-Pain.
“I think his witty lyricism is something I’m really excited for,” SPB WILD Director and junior Zach Alter said. “As indicated by [the comedy show with] Bo Burham a few semesters ago, the Wash. U. population really likes entertainers that have this witty and intelligent element to them, and I think the way Lil Dicky really differentiates himself is as a rapper who defies norms of the industry as well as points out dumb things that are done, perhaps, in rap culture.”
Last year, Natalie La Rose and Vanic supplemented headliner Jason Derulo, and Alter said the trend is continued this year to increase genre representation at the concert.
“It really helps us cater to as many tastes as possible,” Alter said. “At least during my tenure on SPB I’ve tried my absolute best to make sure we had every genre represented…although I didn’t get fully there, I hit the indie crowd, I hit the rap crowd, I hit the pop crowd, I hit the electronic crowd.”
Fall 2017 will also mark the first WILD headlined by a rapper since spring 2015, when Mac Miller took the stage.
“I think a rapper is going to play really well in the quad,” SPB president and junior Noah Truwit said. “It’s a really fun atmosphere, and paired with the openers, we really have a great mix of talent.”
Lil Dicky’s characteristic comedy-infused lyrics and untraditional style set him apart from previous WILD artists, a fact that Alter feels will only enhance the performance.
“I don’t think the comedic value of the music ever degrades its quality as music,” Alter said. “I think that comedy aside, he still has crazy catchy beats with amazing flows, and I think even with comedy aside, he’s a great rapper. The comedic aspect just brings a whole other element to the performance.”
Truwit believes that the rapper’s unique style, combined with the openers’ contributions, will contribute to a memorable WILD performance.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been more excited about a lineup,” he said. “We really have it all, and we’re really putting it all out there for this WILD, and I think every person in that quad is going to be thrilled, excited. And there’s going to be music they enjoy and remember.”
Additional Reporting by Sam SeekingsWhen Brad Richards was acquired by the New York Rangers, his performance was expected to inspire. His duty was that of a savior. Settling in New York, Richards has adjusted to his new city despite being a normal guy who just so happens to be a top NHL star.
Back in July of 2011, Richards was quoted by New York Post’s Steve Serby:
Q: …you don’t want to be perceived as a quote unquote savior.
A: No, I don’t. Be great if we won a Cup, then you can call me whatever you want.
Brad Richards kept busy this summer, and if you were a fan following his tweets, you know he loves Instagram. Posting his photo shoots with Henrik Lundqvist, to learning the guitar or spending time in his hometown of Murray Harbour, PEI it’s how Richards spent his summer vacation. Richards arrived back in New York from holiday just in time for the CBA talks and the waiting game. Richards is glad to be back on the ice and will likely not play in Europe during the lockout.
With the lockout lingering, his second season has been delayed. Fans eagerly waited for the possibility of a Richards-Rick Nash line and they may eventually get their wish. Coach John Tortorella sees the potential:
“It’s pretty obvious we’ll try him with Brad. I’m not sure who the other winger is going to be, and I do not like to divulge too much information right now, but we’re definitely going to try and work Brad and Nash together, especially with having Gabby hurt and out early in the year. I think it’ll work. I’m really anxious to see them play together.”
Richards landed in the most media frenzied cities. Promoting in New York is just business as usual, so why not celebrate his great season and community support with a spread in ESPN? Maybe he’s just showing off what power the Rangers will bring next season.
At 195 pounds and just 6 feet, he was chosen as the featured hockey player for this year’s edition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgngCWN32UU
“When people ask what playing hockey is like, I tell them to imagine a 40- or 50-second sprint but with people hitting you and you having to hit people back. Over 82 games of the season, it’s draining.”
Acquired in a stunning nine-year, $60 million deal, the forward was crucial to the success of the Rangers this past season, accruing 66 points. Richards’ bare all is just one aspect of the forward. Before he found an apartment in Manhattan, he stepped out in a Blueshirt jersey at a skating party for underprivileged children held by the Garden of Dreams Foundation. Founder of the Brad Richards Foundation, a charitable organization focused on helping children with life-threatening illnesses such as pediatric cancer, the foundations also provides aid for the families in need.
BRichards_1991 Buy your tix today for the Inaugural Brad Richards Foundation Benefit on Oct 2nd at @hotelchantelle. http://t.co/VFfRqxkB for all the info!
In his hometown on Prince Edward Island, he has donated half a million dollars to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital benefiting the hospital’s pediatric unit. The hospital has been able to afford newer, state-of-the-art medical equipment and provide better care for the children. He also hosts an annual Brad Richards PEI Celebrity Golf Classic to raise money for the foundation and the PEI chapter of the Children’s Wish Foundation and the Autism Society of Prince Edward Island.
Richards is known for his accomplishments in his NHL career, but his charitable causes support the advancement of youth and amateur sports. Exposing yourself to New York and its fans shows he has a sense of humor, plus it’s a great way to expose his commitment to helping others. What a nice guy!On 22nd June it will have been 75 years since the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, the Hitlerian invasion of the Soviet Union, the war of extermination, pillage and colonization which was to cost the lives of between 24 and 29 million human beings (according to recent estimates): Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians and other Soviet peoples who spearheaded the resistance – finally victorious – to Nazi Germany and its allies. It is sometimes forgotten that this aggression was led not only by Germans but by the armies, SS divisions and various other legions of most European countries, under fascist, right-wing authoritarian, or occupation regimes, which were to a greater or lesser extent collaborators.
The fact – explicit in the principal Nazi documents – is also neglected that Hitler’s “European project”, the destruction of the USSR and the colonization (economic integration) of a vast “Lebensraum” in the East was the major project of this war. Berlin’s Generalplan Ost provided for deportation beyond the Urals of thirty to fifty million Slavs, of whom a good number were to die – estimates were in the vicinity of thirty millions deaths. In the course of the first year of the invasion around twelve million Soviet prisoners of war were deliberately exterminated through starvation or shooting – a subject generally withheld from us – and 900,000 Jews, as implementation of the “final solution” got underway.
But the approach of the 75th anniversary is equally inspiring an indictment of the USSR and Russia. Make way for militant revisionism!
In the Baltic countries that are members of the European Union and NATO, and in Ukraine since the political overturn of February 2014, the accent is being placed on “Bolshevik barbarity” to which resistance was mounted by the local nationalisms allied with Germany. The death of millions of Soviet prisoners of war is imputed to Stalin “who had not signed the Geneva conventions” protecting prisoners. The war itself and its mass carnage are attributed to “the twin totalitarianisms” and certain historians and journalists (Russian oppositionists, Ukrainian nationalists) are putting into circulation the German theory according to which Hitler “was obliged” to attack the USSR given the imminence of a Soviet invasion of Europe.
The “revisionism” currently fashionable, including in Germany and Central Europe, focuses its attention on the acts of cruelty perpetrated by the Red Army and the anti-fascist resistance. In this new “inventory”, the work of often remarkable historians (notably in Germany) carries little weight with public opinion by comparison with the novels and fiction films, media “revelations” adapted to the political requirements and the new presumed expectation of the “the public”. Who would be so bold as to claim that “the past is unpredictable”?
Anniversary greetings!
Jean-Marie Chauvier is a researcher and specialist on Russia, Belarus and Ukraine
Translated from French by Wayne HallLos Angeles County leads the U.S. in imposing the death penalty
Seven of the top 12 counties for sentencing convicts to die were in California, according to a report showing death rows are primarily filled by just 2% of counties.
"The death penalty is not as American or as widespread as people might assume. It is clustered in a few counties," said Richard Dieter, the group's executive director.
The data were compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington to show how capital punishment is concentrated in relatively few places in the United States.
Los Angeles County had 228 inmates on death row at the start of the year, more than double that of second-place Harris County, Texas. Riverside, Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino counties also ranked in the top 12, as did Alameda and Sacramento counties. In all, seven of the top 12 were in California.
WASHINGTON — Although Texas executes far more prisoners than any other state, Los Angeles and three other Southern California counties lead the nation in sentencing convicts to die, according to a report released Wednesday.
Because most criminal cases are prosecuted by county district attorneys, not state officials, Dieter examined the death penalty data by county. Some district attorneys regularly seek death sentences, while others never do, he said.
"Only 2% of the counties in the U.S. have been responsible for the majority of cases leading to executions since 1976. Likewise, only 2% of the counties are responsible for the majority of today's death row population," the report says.
There is little correlation between the counties that condemn the most prisoners to die and those that execute the most. That may reflect the differences between the judges who hear inmates' appeals: In California, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, and the often liberal state appellate judges; in Texas, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, and conservative state appellate jurists. Prisoners can challenge their convictions and sentences with multiple appeals through state and federal courts.
Since 1976, Texas has executed 502 convicts, while California has put 13 to death. The report lists 62 counties that are responsible for the most executions, none of which are in California.
Nonetheless, the report demonstrates that California district attorneys have been willing to seek, and California juries have been willing to impose, the death penalty on convicted murderers.
At the start of 2013, the counties that had sent the most inmates to death row across the nation were Los Angeles, 228; Harris (Houston), Texas, 101; Philadelphia, 88; Maricopa, Ariz., 81; Riverside, 76; Clark, Nev., 61; Orange, 61; Duval, Fla., 60; Alameda, 42; San Diego, 40; San Bernardino, 37; and Sacramento, 35.
Nine of the top counties for executions were in Texas or Oklahoma. Harris was first with 115, followed by Dallas County, Texas, with 50.
[email protected]: Pharrell’s publicist says singer had ‘no knowledge’ of Newry gig>
B.E.D NIGHTCLUB IN Newry certainly ‘got lucky’ (groan) with this one.
Yes, after supporting Kanye West at his Marlay Park gig next Wednesday, Pharrell Williams will be heading up north to make an appearance at the Co Down club on Saturday.
Really.
Source: Facebook/B.E.D Newry
Tickets for the night are on sale now and apparently “flying out fast” – but some people must have thought the whole thing was a bit suspect (understandably), so the club have gone to great pains to dispel any ideas that it’s a hoax:
As you can see we have tagged Pharrell’s official Facebook and our artwork has his official logo (I Am Other)! THIS IS 100% LEGITIMATE OR HIS LEGAL TEAM WOULD DEMAND THAT WE REMOVE IT!
So that’s that then. Pharrell. Newry. Next Saturday night.
We don’t know either.
h/t Joe.ieTribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
When a Muslim extremist took hostages in an Australian café this month, effectively shutting down Sydney’s central business district, the ride-sharing company Uber sprang into action by raising its prices? Public disgust, both in Sydney and around the world, was palpable, and Uber backpedaled in the face of “price-gouging” criticism. But it shouldn’t have.
Uber has repeatedly taken heat for “surge pricing” — its practice of raising its prices when there is greater demand for its service. But this is what always happens in a free market. Always and everywhere — not only in emergencies — we face the problem of deciding who gets access to limited resources.
No rationing system is perfect but a free-market price is the best solution humans have developed, because a market price does two important things: It encourages consumers to consume scarce resources judiciously by making purchasing more costly and it encourages entrepreneurs to get more resources into consumers’ hands by making selling more lucrative.
In Sydney, there were people in the central business district who wanted to leave but had no rides out. Uber saw this and raised its rates significantly. This did two things: Some people who had a lesser need to get out decided to stay rather than to pay the surge prices, thereby freeing up cars for people who had greater needs, and some drivers who weren’t working decided to get their cars on the streets as quickly as possible, thereby increasing the total number of cars available.
Railing against price increases, or even legislating against “price gouging” as we do in the United States, doesn’t solve the underlying problem of scarcity. It only masks the symptom. A price spike is a messenger that announces a problem and a herald that summons the problem’s solution. “Price gouging” is the mechanism that gets entrepreneurs to provide more of the resource quickly and, at the same time, encourages people to consume less of it.
When the black-market price of gas in New Jersey spiked to $5 per gallon after Hurricane Sandy, everyone had an incentive to cut back on their consumption of gas. This left scarce gas available for those who were willing to pay the higher price. Who was willing? People are quick to respond “the rich.” But far outnumbering the rich are the grocers who needed to fuel generators to keep millions of dollars worth of food from spoiling; ambulance companies and fire departments that needed to move emergency vehicles; and hospitals that needed to keep lifesaving machines running.
In short, the people who were willing (albeit not happy) to pay $5 per gallon were the very people whom we would want to have the gas in the first place. By making it extra costly to buy gas, the high price ensured that the scarce gas would be available for those who had the greatest need.
When we regulate the market during times of scarcity, we prevent markets from doing what they do best: balancing our wants with our abilities. Whether a ride out of a dangerous area, gasoline in the wake of a natural disaster or anything else, anti-price gouging efforts short-circuit important market incentives.
Would it be nice if people in Sydney volunteered to drive those in need? Would it be nice if people in hurricane-ravaged areas voluntarily purchased less gas so that those in need could purchase more? Absolutely. And markets don’t prevent people from doing those things. They simply pick up the slack when volunteer efforts are inadequate. And in times of greatest need, volunteer efforts are almost always inadequate.
Antony Davies is associate professor of economics at Duquesne University. James R. Harrigan is director of academic programs at Strata in Logan, Utah.Jindal on BR General ER Closing: “Maybe Poor People Should Take Better Care of Themselves.”
Amid criticism over withdrawing financial support to help keep it open, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal suggested the numerous residents who depend on the Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Mid City emergency room should start eating right and be more careful now that it’s closing.
Baton Rouge General officials announced yesterday that the closest emergency room within 30 minutes for many of the city’s poorest residents will be shut down within 60 days, a victim of red ink and the Jindal administration practically begging for the label “Indian giver” after reneging on a promise last summer to provide funds to keep the ER open.
The hospital system originally voted to close the Mid-City ER in August, citing growing expenses associated with caring for the influx of uninsured patients — many from low-income neighborhoods in north Baton Rouge — who had previously gone to the LSU Earl K. Long Medical Center until the Jindal administration shut down the charity hospital facility on Airline Highway in April 2013.
A deal was soon reached to keep Mid City’s ER doors open with financial help from the state, but that deal fell through, a casualty of a looming $1.6 billion budget shortfall and a governor who really doesn’t give a shit about anyone who can’t help his presidential aspirations.
“We’re encouraging people to start leading healthier lifestyles by removing the crutch of a relatively accessible emergency room.”
Jindal responded to the growing chorus of subsequent criticism from people he couldn’t care less about by proposing that uninsured patients who currently use the General’s Mid City ER as a primary care source should start exercising more, eating healthier, and being more safe.
“I understand there are people who can’t afford health insurance who rely on this emergency room because they can’t afford the out-of-pocket expense of an urgent care facility or a primary care physician and because I’ve refused to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage,” Jindal said, “but there’s a very simple solution: Just don’t get sick or hurt.”
Jindal explained how low-income Baton Rouge residents who depend on the facility could get by without it with some common-sense preventive health care.
“Maybe poor people should take better care of themselves,” Jindal stated. “Cut back on the salt, fatty foods, and everyday accidents that aren’t at least fatal. That’s one way not to be a burden on our struggling health care system.”
As for the broken promise of funds, Jindal said that by not helping to keep the ER open, he’s actually helping people get healthier by giving them more incentive to do so.
“It’s not a broken promise; it’s a wellness initiative,” Jindal said. “We’re encouraging people to start leading healthier lifestyles by removing the crutch of a relatively accessible emergency room.”
Jindal concluded making his comments while sipping a protein shake enhanced with steroids and the tears of fat people with crushed dreams.Draxler, 22, only joined Wolfsburg last summer in a £25 million move from Schalke but has thrown his future at the club into severe doubt with a revelatory interview with Bild on Tuesday.
The forward, who made five appearances for Germany at Euro 2016, claims he had an agreement when joining Wolfsburg that he would be allowed if and when a bigger club made an offer for him.
Draxler says he was provoked into his public announcement by comments from manager Dieter Hecking which indicated he would be staying at the club. "We won't comment on every rumour, but we explicitly decreed that Julian will stay with us,” said Hecking.
"I am surprised that matters regarding my [future] are being communicated in the media," Draxler replied. "I expected that to go differently. For example that someone approaches me and asks me for my views instead.
"We shortly texted. I talked on the phone with coach Hecking. Two days after the semi-final at the Euro I explained my point of view and expressed my wish that I want to leave the club.
Wolfsburg's midfielder Julian Draxler celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League football match between Gent and Wolfsburg at Ghelamco Arena in Ghent on February 17, 2016AFP
"Now I'm back in Germany and things are being communicated via the media rather than with me in person. Now I also wanted to make myself heard.”
Arsenal and Juventus were linked with Draxler during his time as a Schalke player, with Arsene Wenger said to be keen on transforming him into a centre-forward.
Arsenal’s need for a new striker is more pressing than ever, with Theo Walcott admitting he now views himself as a winger again, and according to Sky Germany, they are Draxler’s first choice.
"When I transferred to Wolfsburg in 2015, we had a verbal agreement that I can leave the club when a possibility emerges. With Dieter Hecking as well as Klaus Allofs," Draxler added.
" It was obvious that Wolfsburg showed me a good perspective back then, but also served as stepping stone. "
"It was set between all persons involved that I could leave for an international top club when the chance presents itself. It was agreed that we would have reasonable talks, if other clubs show interest."
Expert view from Germany: 'I'm sure he has an agreement with Wenger'
Carsten Arndt of Eurosport.de gave us his take on Draxler's interview:
" In Germany Draxler is the biggest topic at the moment. Not because of the fact he wants to leave, but because of the method he is using to force his departure. As Draxler did at Schalke, he wants to break his contract again: just one year into a five-year deal! The fact that he had a cry on the media’s shoulder has cost him a lot of sympathy. I think he will join Arsenal. I’m sure he already has an agreement with Wenger. That’s the reason why he is putting his club under such high pressure. "
The Transfer Show: Is Draxler the new Henry?
When Arsene Wenger signed Thierry Henry as a wide forward he was 22 and had never scored double figures in a league campaign. At Arsenal, he achieved that feat for eight straight seasons after being transformed into one of the world's best centre-forwards.
Draxler is 22 and has reached double figures only once in the league. Spooky similarities or just a coincidence? The new edition of the Transfer Show delves into his possible move to Arsenal...
Bundesliga exodus to continue?
English clubs have already been greedily plundering their German rivals this summer with Manchester City on Monday signing Schalke's Leroy Sane in a deal worth £37m.
Arsenal also brought in Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for £35m, but Draxler, with four years left on his contract, would likely be the most expensive signing yet from Germany.McLaren Honda star Fernando Alonso will be sitting at the WEC Young Driver Test in Bahrain in Toyota: Le Mans participation “currently still completely open”.
After days of speculation, it’s finally clear: Formula 1 superstar Fernando Alonso will be driving in the Toyota TS050 at tomorrow’s Toyota TS050 as part of the Young Driver Test of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) tomorrow Sunday. While the Japanese cannot confirm the deployment for political reasons – Alonso will wear the logo of Toyota arch-enemy Honda on his chest for the coming weekend at the Formula 1 season finale for one last time – the Spaniard is more open-minded.
“Hopefully”Alonso grins on the question of a ‘Sport1’ reporter in Bahrain after a test in Toyota,”I’m looking forward to driving one of these great LMP1 cars with the super powerful hybrid drive. This test is like a gift to me,”says the Asturian, who will be driving a Renault engine at the rear of the McLaren in the coming 2018 Formula 1 season. Whether he will also participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same year is not yet certain.
“It’s still completely open. There’s nothing to say about that yet. Now I’m taking this test on Sunday. Let’s have a look,”he says” Today we want to enjoy the season finale of the WEC. It’s going to be the last race in the series for some teams – for example for Porsche,”says Mark Webber, a close friend of ex-Porsche-LMP1 star Mark Webber,”I’m also looking forward to a great race with lots of spectacle” Alonso told Sport1.Reading Time: 6 minutes
Just in from our friends over Hobbico. These is the initial press release from Hasegawa for 2015.
From 1973-2002, the Yamaha YZR500 led four 500 cc Grand Prix riders to ten separate world championships. One of the most famous riders to take the helm of the YZR500 was former World Champion Freddie Spencer. In the 1989 season, Spencer placed sixteenth with the Marlboro Agostini Yamaha team, scoring 33.5 points overall.
New carbon disc chamber and front fender parts
One marking option: Marlboro Yamaha Team
1989 WGP500, 16th place, no. 19 rider: Freddie Spencer
Total Parts: 170
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number HSGS1712
1/12 Yamaha YZR500 (0WA8) “Marlboro 1989”
MSRP $59.99 (USD)
1/48 F-16C Fighting Falcon “Black Knights”
Republic of Singapore Air Force standouts.
The Republic of Singapore Air Force is unlike the Air Force of any other nation. The aircraft of the RSAF can cross the entire landmass of their nation in just thirteen minutes. Without the benefit of large maneuvering areas, any attack on Singapore or its airspace has to be shut down immediately or the war is lost. Possibly because of that fact, Singapore maintains one of the most highly trained and well equipped militaries in the world.
New antenna parts and decals for the RSAF aerobatic team.
Total Parts: 121
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS7395
Description: 1/48 F-16C Fighting Falcon “Black Knights”
MSRP $49.99 (USD)
1/32 Kawanishi N1K2-J (George) “Prototype No. 6”
Flying with the rising sun
With the N1K2-J, Kawanishi did the impossible; turning a float plane into a dogfighter that could stand up to the best America had to offer. “George” fighters were quite capable of shooting down Hellcats, Corsairs and, in the hands of expert pilots, even the vaunted B-29 Superfortress. In larger numbers the N1K2-J could have had a massive effect on the war, but only 428 were built. By comparison 12,000 Corsairs, comparable to the N1K2-J, were produced by the U.S.
New antenna parts and decals for the RSAF aerobatic team.
Total Parts: 148
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS8240
MSRP: $69.99 (USD)
1/48 “Shindenkai No Maki” A6M2b Zero
Takeshi Nogami’s craziest creation.
Manga and anime enthusiasts all over the world are familiar with writer Takeshi Nogami’s crazy creations. His craziest one yet is “Shindenkai No Maki,” which features high school girls piloting World War II’s most famous aircraft – including the Mitsubishi® A6M2b Zero – in dogfights to the death. Whether you’re a manga fan or a warbird buff, this unique kit has something for everyone.
Design based on Takeshi Nogami’s popular manga, “Shindenkai No Maki”
Markings representing pilot Miyabi Amakasu, Ishigami Girls High School
Total Parts: 69
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS4719
MSRP: $39.99 (USD)
Egg Plane T-4 JASDF 60th Anniversary Combo (2 kits)
From flightless to fighter pilots
For five dozen years the JASDF flock has defended the airspace above their roosts in Japan. For much of that thyme, emerging pilots have been at the drumstick of the T-4. The trainer has been turning feckless flappers into fighter pilots for 219,000 flips of the egg timer (since 1985). It’s no spring chicken, but it’s still the cock of the walk. Even the Blue Impulse aerobatic team hand pecked the T-4 as their Grade-A bird. If you’re boiling to scramble a whole squadron of big, bold birds, build this brace of beauties!
Two egg plane models of the T-4 with markings for:
1) JASDF 1AW 31TSQ, JASDF 60th anniversary special marking Code: 778 (96-5778), Hamamatsu AB, September 2014.
2) JASDF 1AW 32TSQ, JASDF 60th anniversary special marking Code: 612 (86-5612), Hamamatsu AB, September 2014.
Total Parts (Per Kit): 35 x 2
Skill Level: 1
Stock Number: HSGS6059
MSRP: $32.99 (USD)
1/48 “Eien No Zero” A6M2b Zero Combo
Two ways to build “The Eternal Zero.”
Naoki Hyakuta’s novel, “Eien No Zero” centers on the lives of WWII Japan’s Zero pilots. There’s no doubt that this bestseller’s popularity will continue to grow with TV Tokyo’s 2015 miniseries!
Two A6M2b Zero kits
Four marking options:
1. IJN 721st NFG, Code: 721-37, Kyuzo Miyabe, Kanoya AB, Aug. 1945
2. IJN Tainan NFG, Code: V-125, Kyuzo Miyabe, Rabaul AB, summer-autumn 1942
3. IJN Carrier Akagi, Code: AI-116, Kyuzo Miyabe, December 1941
4. IJN 204th NFG, Code: 9-141, Kyuzo Miyabe, Rabaul AB, autumn 1943
Total Parts (Per Kit): 46
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS5227
MSRP: $39.99 (USD)
1/48 “Eien No Zero” A6M5 Zero Type 52
A classic warbird. A modern miniseries.
In 2014, the controversial World War II drama “Eien No Zero” (or “The Eternal Zero”) grossed about 7 billion yen during its seven-week theatrical run. It’s no surprise that it is being adapted into a three-part television miniseries. It is reported the program will feature sequences from Naoki Hyakuta’s original novel that weren’t included in the film.
Two marking options:
1. IJN Carrier Zuikakau, Code: 312-73, Pilot: Kyuzo Miyabe, early 1944
2. IJN 721st NFG, Code: 721-51, Pilot: Kyuzo Miyabe, Kanoya AB, Aug. 1945
Total Parts: 71
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS5226
MSRP: $39.99 (USD)
1/48 F-4EJ Phantom II “Air Superiority Camouflage”
Over the opposition
The F-4 Phantom II is a big, exceptionally fast and incredibly lethal fighter in service since the early sixties. The EJ variant is a model retrofitted to a purely air superiority role for the JASDF. Throughout its career, the Phantom II set several world records, chalked up air to air kills, destroyed ground targets, and conducted vital aerial reconnaissance. With the JASDF, the Phantom II has rarely had to exhibit its characteristic might but its flight records are impressive.
New antenna parts and decals for the RSAF aerobatic team.
Total Parts: 132
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS7396
MSRP: $57.99 (USD)
1/72 F-15J Eagle “JASDF 60th Ann.”
Celebrating the JASDF’s 60th birthday.
With over 100 victories and no losses in air-to-air combat, the F-15 Eagle has ruled the skies since the late 1970s. In Japan, 139 F-15J aircraft were produced by Mitsubishi® for JASDF service. To celebrate the JASDF’s six decades of service, select F-15Js were decorated with a special 60th anniversary livery in 2014.
One marking option: JASDF 6th AW, 306th
Sq., JASDF 60th Anniv. special marking, Code: 960 (72-8960), Komatsu AB, July 2014
Total Parts: 138
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS2139
MSRP: $42.99 (USD)
1/700 IJN Heavy Cruiser Aoba Full Hull
Sail the indomitable Aoba
Despite being hit with naval gunnery, strafed, bombed, torpedoed, and colliding with another warship, the Japanese Heavy Cruiser Aoba put up a fight until the day it was finally, irrevocably sunk. Along the way, Aoba participated in some of the most famous conflicts of the war—at Guam, Wake, Guadalcanal, and Coral Sea—plus countless smaller convoy escort missions. Now, Hasegawa is offering an elegant, full-hull version of this mighty warship.
New hull, rudder, screw shaft, propeller, gun barrels, and display stand plus full decals.
Total Parts:
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number: HSGS3166
MSRP: $69.99 (USD)
1/72 Su-35 Flanker Prototype
Fitting further features to the ‘Flanker’
Technically, the Su-35 is just a modified Su-27. But since the Su-35 is loaded with improved avionics, vectored thrust engines, additional hardpoints for weapons and more, it’s practically a whole new airplane. Its Mach 2.25 speed and over 17,000 lbs (8,000 kg) of ordnance capacity is extremely impressive. Even with all its impressive performance, the Su-35 is only intended as a stopgap for until Russia’s fifth generation fighter is released.
New upper fuselage parts with larger size pitot tube
Two marking options:
1. Russian AF Code: 901
2. Russian AF Code: 902
Total Parts: 299
Skill Level: 3
Stock Number:
MSRP: $49.99 (USD)
1/700 IJN Heavy Cruiser Furutaka Full Hull
The full measure of Furutaka
In the chaotically confused battle of Cape Esperance, a group of Japanese warships, including the Furutaka, ran into American warships in the darkness. In the ensuing combat, both commanders thought their ships were firing on friendlies and both were, in part, correct. Furutaka sustained over ninety direct gunnery hits and one torpedo hit. Despite horrific damage, Furutaka was able to limp out of the melee under its own power, saving most of the |
, I’ll tell you that much. Every day is 83 and sunny, the beach is 2 blocks away from me... it feels like I’m constantly on vacation even though I’m constantly working, which is ideal in a sense.
The girls on Tinder are totally reasonable and good looking, too.
How much has your history in marketing played into what you’ve done so far? From your YouTube presence to the Kickstarter campaign, it seems like you’ve been able to implement your old life a bit.
I can’t really say. I don’t think it’s impacted what I’m doing from a branding perspective now, because all of that just felt obvious to me from the get-go. I will say, I don’t know that I would have begun rapping had I not had that job at the ad agency. Here’s why.
I used to work on the Doritos account, and every few months I had to send out a report about chip sales to everyone who worked on the account at my agency. It was so boring, and nobody seemed to actually care. So one time, I decided to deliver the report in the form of a rap song. Over Drake’s “best I ever had”. Everybody at my agency’s mind was blown.
I then was tasked to make a music video for an internal Doritos meeting, which ended up showing me how easy and simple it is to make legit looking music videos.
So after doing that at work, it clicked for me. What if I did this for topics of my choosing, rather than chip sales? And the rest is history.
In closing, what should people expect from Professional Rapper? And also the 76ers 2015 NBA season?
Professional Rapper is going to be super hot. I think it’s going to sound a lot more like a really good rapper who happens to be funny, rather than a comedian who happens to be a really good rapper, if that makes sense.
Very topic-driven. Great beats. Diverse style. Some serious, some funny, some hybrids. Hopefully some great features (we’re working on that now). About 11 or 12 songs. Some interludes.
I think there could be legitimate radio singles on it, without them feeling mainstream or generic. Which is something I’m proud of. I think the sky is the limit for it. It feels like an adult project, a professional project, if you will.
Sixers are gonna suck dick. But everybody in Philly knows it’s about 2018 and on. I look forward to watching them grow.
::
Visit www.lildicky.com to download So Hard the mixtape.
Youtube: LilDickyRap
Twitter: @lildickytweets"We are examining several scenarios, including exit scenarios," she said, without elaborating.
Fischer, whose country renounced nuclear energy in a referendum in 1978, welcomed the news, saying Switzerland "would do anything... to ensure maximum safety" for its people.
Switzerland announced last month that it was suspending nuclear plant upgrades amid fears of a disaster at Japan's earthquake and tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant.
Comprehensive safety tests were also being conducted on the country's five nuclear plants, Calmy-Rey said, adding that Bern did not want to wait for the European Union to set parameters for planned stress tests on the bloc's 143 reactors.
Switzerland has five nuclear power plants in operation and had recently been holding consultative polls on whether it should renew three of them.
Calmy-Rey also met Monday with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano, and with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong
Smoke billows from one of the towers of the World Trade Center and flames and debris explode from the other tower, September 11, 2001. AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong
Are you the kind of person who likes to hear to a good conspiracy theory?
Some people simply do not like the discomfort that a conspiracy theory creates. But for others, conspiracy theories are intriguing. They like to explore all of the possibilities that a conspiracy theory presents, in the same way that they like to explore puzzles or mystery novels. Sometimes a conspiracy theory is ridiculous and learning about it is a form of entertainment. Or you may find that the theory is credible and it makes you think. It's interesting to consider the theory, weigh the evidence and come up with a conclusion.
In the 21st century, one event reigns supreme in the catalog of conspiracy theories: the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States. This event is seared into the nation's consciousness and significantly affected the entire planet. It seems inevitable that people would cry "conspiracy" about any event with this much impact. However, the conspiracy theories around 9/11 have been strong and consistent.
The whole controversy surrounding 9/11 boils down to one simple question:
Did 19 terrorists cause all of the destruction witnessed on 9/11/2001, or did a group of people in the U.S. government conspire to create that destruction for political gain?
The U.S. government has offered the terrorist explanation, and that is the story that many people believe. A large number of people, however, refuse to believe this "official story." They believe conspiracy theorists when they say that the U.S. government actually masterminded and executed the attack.
We could spend a great deal of time arguing one side or the other. Instead, we'll focus on the process. Isn't it fascinating that there can be two credible explanations for such a complex event, and that both explanations can be so diametrically opposed to one another?
How does a conspiracy theory like this get started? What is required to fuel it into a full-fledged public debate? Can the theory ever be proven? What does the possibility of the theory say about our society? In this article we will explore these questions and many others as we look at the events of September 11.
Conspiracy Theory Basics
Image courtesy Amazon
Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK" addresses a controversial version of the events surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination.
A theory seeking to explain a disputed case or matter as a plot by a secret group or alliance rather than an individual or isolated act. [ref]
The dictionary defines a conspiracy theory in this way:A conspiracy theorist, therefore, is a person who formulates such a theory.
There is a certain negative undertone to the term "conspiracy theory" in today's society. Detractors will point out that many conspiracy theories contain certain features that undermine their credibility. In this article, however, we will use the term "conspiracy theory" in its neutral sense. We are using it to mean an alternative explanation for an event, as it is defined in the dictionary.
In modern times there have been a number of "conspiracy theories." One example is the assassination of John F. Kennedy. After the assassination, the government offered its explanation of the events. A large number of people (at one point, more than half of the adult population in the United States) simply do not believe the government's explanation. This particular conspiracy theory rose to such a high level in the public consciousness that an entire Hollywood movie was made about it: "JFK", directed by Oliver Stone and released in 1991.
The Kennedy assassination really started the modern "conspiracy theory" movement. This is an event where the "official" government explanation of the crime was openly ridiculed by a large number of "normal citizens." Many people believe that the Kennedy assassination was carried out as part of a larger government-centered conspiracy, rather than as a random event arranged by a single gunman.
In the same way, a very large number of people do not believe that "terrorists" carried out the events seen on 9/11. Instead, they believe that the government caused those events.
Next, we'll look at how conspiracy theories get started.Public support for teachers in the ongoing labour dispute has taken a significant fall, according to a new survey performed earlier this week, just days before school was scheduled to begin on September 2.
The new independent survey by Angus Reid Global indicated that 36 per cent of responded are more inclined to support teachers in the dispute while 35 per cent support the provincial government. Nearly a quarter of respondents or 23 per cent support neither parties.
In contrast, a June 2014 survey taken just weeks after the full-scale strike began indicated 44 per cent were in support of teachers and 31 per cent.
Those who are parents and guardians of children have also softened their support for teachers, with 38 per cent taking the teachers’ side and 34 per cent supporting the government. Conversely, previous polls conducted in June indicated support for teachers was two-to-one over the government – 49 per cent vs. 25 per cent.
There has also been changes to opinion on the proposed salary increases. 42 per cent of respondents now say teachers are asking for too much money and 12 per cent say the government offer is too low, compared to 36 per cent and 21 per cent in June. However, nearly half or 46 per cent want both parties to compromise on wage issues.
When it comes to the decade-long issue of class size and composition, support for the government’s position has increased. 55 per cent of all respondents say the government should following the court ruling, down from 62 per cent in June. Support for the decision to appeal has also risen to 45 per cent, up from 38 per cent in the last survey.
British Columbians are highly pessimistic about the likelihood of the BCTF and provincial government reaching an agreement by the first day of classes on Tuesday. 89 per cent say it is unlikely and the remaining 11 per cent believe an agreement in the next 96 hours will be achieved.
Half of respondents with children or 51 per cent say the continued job action would have an impact, but they would be able to manage around it, while nearly a third or 29 per cent said the strike would have a “major” impact. One-fifth of respondents or 20 per cent said the strike would have “not much impact” on them.
In terms of the length of strike, 41 per cent of respondents with children in public school say they can manage for as long as it takes. Another 17 per cent say they can manage a few days or a few weeks. Currently, 8 per cent say they are already at a breaking point and cannot manage.
Feature Image: school strike via Shutterstock
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DH Vancouver Staff Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to @DailyHiveVan @DailyHiveVancouver Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to [email protected]
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.A young Arab-Israeli waiter at a Jerusalem café bashfully asks for a selfie. Gill Rosenberg “the Israeli-Canadian woman who went to Kurdistan to fight ISIS” obliges, smiling though she seems a bit uncomfortable.
The 31-year-old Vancouver native says it’s been like this since she got back to Israel in mid-July – people asking for selfies or honking and waving as they pass her on the street, her feet barely touching the ground as she makes her way through a series of interviews with the press and meetings with politicians past and present.
She says she left Kurdistan when the Iranian imprint on the fighting became a real danger – flying to Paris to meet Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana, before returning to Israel a week later.Whatever fighting she may have taken part in against Islamic State, she doesn’t seem a battle-hardened or jaded veteran. There’s an almost nervous way about her, she seems to shake some during the interview. Other than her trademark backward New York Mets cap (“Because they’re the underdogs”), she somewhat gives off the air of a nice Jewish girl from Canada, if one who looks like she could be dangerous if backed into a corner.Rosenberg first made international news in November 2014, when reports emerged that an Israeli woman had joined Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State. The story became a sensation – a Jewish-Israeli-Canadian woman with a criminal past fighting jihadists is pretty hard to beat – and picked up steam later that month, when unverified reports surfaced that she had been kidnapped by jihadists near Kobani, the Kurdish city that was under siege by Islamic State for some time earlier in 2014.Canadian-Israeli anti-ISIS fighter: If we don't fight them there, they'll come hereA day later she killed those rumors by posting a message on Facebook assuring everyone she was not kidnapped. Her story then disappeared from the Israeli press, until she returned in July and the Gill Rosenberg media blitz began. At the moment, she seems to still be catching her breath, staying with friends in the capital and entertaining job offers with humanitarian organizations dealing with the situation in Syria and Iraq, including a Montreal-based group she said raises money to pay ransoms for captive Yazidi and Christian girls.Sitting at Malha Mall in Jerusalem one afternoon late last month, Rosenberg recounted how she made the decision to travel to Erbil by way of Amman in November of the past year after months of watching reports on social media of Yazidi, Kurdish and Christian women being kidnapped raped, and persecuted for their religion.Adding that once she saw the Kurds had female fighters on the front line she decided to ship off. “We as Jews say ‘never again,’ and we shouldn’t stand by when a genocide is taking place,” she says. It’s a line she’s repeated in other interviews, but she admits her own troubled past was a factor in the decision.Just five months before she made headlines, Rosenberg says she was still living on house arrest with a Satmar rabbi in the hassidic village of Kiryas Joel, when a New York court sentenced her in July 2014 to time served for her role in a highly-sophisticated phone-based scam run out of “boiler rooms” in Israel that bilked hundreds of US senior citizens out of what investigators believe was more than $25 million, between 2005 and 2009.Before her house arrest, she’d spent more than four years in jail, while her co-defendants fought extradition back in Israel. A month after her court date in July 2014 she left the US for Israel, and touched down in Jerusalem, living with a friend and “just hanging out.”She says she started applying for jobs, but like many English-speaking immigrants, her only options seemed to be telemarketing and for her that was a trigger, far too close to what she’d been doing years earlier when the scam was in full force.Months later, she says she reached out on Facebook to a Kurdish foreign fighters group called “Lions of Rojava,” and met them in Erbil after flying in to Iraqi Kurdistan in early November. From there she said she served for three months with the YPG, the main fighting force of the Kurdish Supreme Committee, including three weeks on the front line. Eventually the bitter cold and dire conditions on the Syrian front became too much and she left for Erbil. There she made contact with Dwekh Nawsha, a Christian militia whose raison d’être is to protect Assyrian villages from Islamic State, whose fighters control villages only kilometers away.The admin of the Dwekh Nawsha Facebook page confirmed she served with the group just like the rest of their volunteers, but added that she did not mention being Israeli, only that she was Canadian. In her profile picture she’s shown wearing fatigues with a Dwekh Nawsha patch and on the group’s Facebook page there’s a photo of her in fatigues wearing a keffiyeh, a balaclava and a baseball cap by 5.11 Tactical gear. She says a typical day with the militia was spent on guard duty or in patrols in and around Assyrian villages like Bakufa, where she said all of the foreign fighters lived in the same house, just 2 km. from Batnaya, a village that was under Islamic State control.“A lot of the work is just holding lines, daily firefights, up all night and sleep all day.” When asked if she worried about what would happen if she got caught, especially as a woman, a Jew and an Israeli, and about the difficult position that would have put Israeli authorities in, she said, “I never would have let it happen. Your last grenade in your pouch is always for yourself, in your worst case you’re going to hold that grenade and take yourself out with as much Daesh [Islamic State] as possible,” she said, adding, “I mean, it didn’t happen,” with a grin and a shrug belying the rather morbid subject.Rosenberg grew up in the Vancouver area and was the valedictorian of her graduating class from the Maimonides Jewish High School in 2001. She later studied airport operations management in British Columbia before moving to Israel in 2006, at the age of 22.She joined the IDF through the MAHAL program for overseas volunteers. She said she initially enlisted in the Karakal Battalion, the only predominantly female combat unit in the IDF, but was reassigned because she’s an only child and could not get approval to serve in a combat unit. She then decided to enlist in a search-and-rescue unit of the IDF Home Front Command, which she said seemed the most interesting option for her.She served 14.5 months in the army and once she was out – having made aliya – she was working as part of a criminal conspiracy that would eventually see her spending years incarcerated in the US, and later, facing her life as a convicted criminal looking to reinvent herself back in the Middle East.She doesn’t shy away from talking about her past, which seems to have played a strong role in her decision to leave for Kurdistan last year. “I think to some extent I was trying to do the right thing. I guess it’s [Syria and Iraq] the wrong place to seek redemption, but I try to make amends for my past. Unfortunately the crime that was committed, I hurt a lot of people, I still feel I have a lot to make up for.”Rosenberg is by no means the first person looking for their second act in Kurdistan. No one has an exact figure on how many foreign fighters are serving or have served with the Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, but they’re a motley bunch. They run the gambit from former US and UK military personnel battle-tested in Iraq and Afghanistan, to onetime soldiers from the West who served in rear-echelon support roles and are looking for their first taste of combat, to an assortment of fighters with no prior military experience.One of these fighters – who also made US headlines – is a former Marine from suburban Houston named Louis Park. A friend of Rosenberg’s, he served with her in Iraq and can be seen in her Facebook profile picture, in which they’re both wearing Dwekh Nawsha uniforms (and he a US Marine Corps baseball cap), against the backdrop of a barren desert landscape with fires burning on the horizon. Park said he was an infantryman in the Marines from January 2011 to mid-January 2015, and served in Afghanistan from March 1 to September 9 in 2012.Chatting on Facebook from what he described as a Dwekh Nawsha village near the front line with Islamic State just north of Mosul, he describes how last October he was still in the Marines serving stateside when he read an article about foreign fighters going to Kurdistan to join the fight against Islamic State and decided he had the ability and responsibility to help, and missed the action anyway.He arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan in February, and he said he’s been with Dwekh Nawsha ever since. He said he’s been in a few gun battles, but for the most part “it’s tossing mortars and DShK [heavy infantry machine gun] rounds at each other.”He said he missed Rosenberg, whom he knew for five months and served alongside her in the village, where a small group of foreign fighters all live in the same house. Still, he said Rosenberg probably had enough, at least for now.“People just reach their limits.”When asked why he thinks Westerners join the fight against Islamic State, puting their lives on the line in someone else’s war, he said, “some people are called by morals or conviction, some do it for fame or to get away, some miss the action from before or want the action. Some want the purpose and reason.”And Rosenberg?“She said it was for redemption, to do the right thing.”Redemption has been a long time coming for Rosenberg, and it seems she’s not convinced she’s there yet.THE CASE THAT would eventually lead to the biggest-ever extradition of suspects from Israel to the US broke one day in a jewelry store in the diamond district of Manhattan, where a package was received on its last stop before it was to be shipped to Israel. The feds had been tracking the parcel following a series of complaints by senior citizens, who had been bilked out of tens and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars by phone scammers telling them they’d won the lottery or other cash sweepstakes,and would need to send a one-time processing fee to claim their winnings.Not long after the package was seized, Avi Weitzman, assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, was sent by his superiors to look into the scam while on a family trip to Israel in 2008. Investigators had reason to believe that the scam’s “boiler rooms” were located in Israel, but it took time convincing Israel Police to open an investigation. Once the local cops came on board though the case picked up steam and in July 2009 11 people in Israel – including Gill Rosenberg – were arrested and began awaiting extradition to the US.“Rosenberg and her partners in crime engaged in a heinous scam, cheating elderly Americans out of millions of dollars, without a shred of guilt or remorse,” Weitzman said. Weitzman referred to the scam as “one of the most despicable financial crimes I’ve ever seen.”He said that calling it a financial crime is a bit of a misnomer in that it “ruined hundreds of peoples’ lives.” He described elderly people who had to move out of their assisted care facilities or were no longer able to afford their medicine. He believes that the scam “hastened some elderly victims’ death.”In the indictment filed in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York in July 2009 Rosenberg also known as “Roberta Schwartz” and “Gila,” is named among nine defendants, most of them Israelis, indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud through telemarketing, mail fraud through telemarketing and wire fraud through telemarketing, carried out between 2005 and July 2009.The indictment described a division of labor that included “qualifiers,” who called the victims using the information from more than 185,000 leads they bought from brokers in the US. They would ask questions to determine if they had enough money to make the scam worthwhile. If so, they were then transferred to “salespersons” or “shooters” who posed as attorneys at a US law firm. All of the activity was overseen by managers.Working out of two boiler rooms in Tel Aviv and a third in Eilat, the shooters informed the victims that in order to receive their prize they had to pay several thousand dollars in fees and taxes, and gave them instructions for how to send the money by wire transfer or mail to individuals and businesses in the US, Cyprus and elsewhere. After they sent the money they would be contacted again by the shooters who would convince them to send additional payments of tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, the indictment read. At all times the calls were masked so that they would not be shown as coming from Israel. The co-defendants used fraudulent IRS tax documents, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements and forms purporting to be from the Publisher’s Clearing House and other sweepstakes.They would often impersonate IRS or sweepstakes officials in calls to the victims, and in some cases, impersonated FBI agents and prosecutors in follow up calls to victims who had expressed concern about the legitimacy of the sweepstakes win.The indictment names Rosenberg specifically as having on March 11, 2009, contacted an undercover law enforcement officer, who she believed to be a potential victim residing in New York City. She told him that he’d won a $500,000 prize but would need to pay approximately $4,200 by wire transfer to a co-conspirator in Israel in order to claim it. Rosenberg plead guilty and would remain in jail for more than four years, until she was released to house arrest in November 2013, which she says she spent in Kiryas Joel, staying with the family of a Satmar rabbi who posted her bail. Rosenberg would not reveal the name of the rabbi, but said that she met him in jail, where he was a clergyman helping Jewish inmates.On July 15, 2014, Rosenberg was brought for a sentencing hearing, where she was ordered released on time served, as well as two years’ probation for each of her three convictions. In his request for leniency, Rosenberg’s attorney David Wikstrom detailed how just after her arrest she confessed and described how one boiler room in Tel Aviv worked and testified to investigators about the different roles of her co-conspirators. One of them, Judge Loretta Preska said in the hearing, “is believed to have connections to Israeli organized crime figures.”Wikstrom said of his client “this is a woman – now a woman – then a girl, deprived of a normal childhood, went right from what I would call an abusive parental relationship into the army, and then right to work in the scheme. She is 30 years old and never built a life for herself.”After her attorney’s statements, Rosenberg addressed the judge, saying, “I know full well how horrible it was the damage I caused. All I can tell you is that the person I was five years ago is not who I am today.”She spoke about how the person she was when she was arrested was the type whose way of dealing with problems was “run away from them, and I didn’t care who got left in my wake.” She said being incarcerated “forced me to face myself, and I didn’t like what I saw.”Prosecutor Peter Skinner described Rosenberg as being less culpable than co-defendants Avi Ayache, Yaron Bar, and Matt Getto, but still more culpable than others arrested. She was a shooter and filled other roles in the scam. She would fill in for Getto at times, managing the boiler room on Hanegev Street in Tel Aviv when Getto was not available. At the end of the hearing, she was sentenced to time served and released on six years supervised release, as well as $8.2 million in restitution.She is required to pay 10 percent of her monthly income while in the US, as well as other restrictions – including that she not possess a firearm – which Rosenberg says only apply in the US. Her release included the requirement that she leave the United States after 30 days, when that time came she headed back to Israel, and just a few months later, to Kurdistan. She says she is still required to check in with her probation officer once a month online, a requirement she says she kept while she was in Kurdistan, even when Internet access was spotty.When she touched back down in Israel last month from Kurdistan, Rosenberg was nervous. It’s illegal to travel to an enemy state – such as Iraq and Syria (though Israeli businessmen and journalists regularly travel to Iraqi Kurdistan and are not prosecuted) – and a number of Arab Israelis have been prosecuted for traveling to those same countries in the past few years, albeit for the most part to join jihadist forces fighting the Assad regime. She says that when she arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport officers from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) called her in for questioning in a side office, but only for 10 or 15 minutes. They took her details and released her, but according to Rosenberg they weren’t that interested in her and mainly just asked questions about Moti Kahana, and what he’s been doing in Syria.MOTI KAHANA SPEAKS fast, talks about himself in the third person and when he describes his work history it’s best to be seated and with a road map if possible. Since Rosenberg returned to Israel, Kahana has appeared alongside her in interviews and served as a media consultant of sorts, though it’s unclear to what extent that’s been his idea or Rosenberg’s. Interview requests sent to Rosenberg on Facebook went unanswered, but after writing Kahana, a business partner named Itai arranged the meeting with Rosenberg at Malha mall and said he and Kahana have arranged all of her media interviews, helping her weather the storm of interest in her story.A native of Jerusalem and a father of three who has lived in New Jersey for 22 years, he’s a serial entrepreneur of sorts, building a different company every few years and selling it he says, including a service that siphoned gas out of rental cars before they were sold at airport lots and a series of micro-financing initiatives involving women in the Middle East. He worked in hi-tech up until five years ago. When the Arab Spring began in 2011, he said he began sending money and cellphones to people in Libya, to help them document Gaddafi regime atrocities.He later turned his attention to Syria when the civil war broke out there in March 2011 and began sending cell phones and helping people on the ground get access to the Internet, as he described it.“I don’t believe in shalom, ‘Hava Nagila,’ ‘Kumbaya’ or whatever, I believe in mutual interest,” he says, speaking by phone from a café in Paris, where he said he’s working full time on “issues involving Syria.”In July 2014, The Jerusalem Post reported how a mixed Jewish-Muslim family had fled Syria and landed in Israel, an escape facilitated by Kahana, along with the nongovernmental organization Israel Flying Aid. His name also emerged in a Tablet special feature on Steven Sotloff in June, in which he was described as an Israeli businessman involved in Syria, who claimed to know where the body of the Jewish-American journalist is being kept. He said he is still searching for the body and has been speaking to people in the know.“Everything I do in life is for Moti Kahana – if this also helps get Sotloff home, and to get Gill Rosenberg home and get Jews to Israel, okay,” he says.Kahana says he first heard about Rosenberg when her kidnap scare broke last year, and that he first met her in May, when he managed to convince her to briefly leave the region, flying her from Erbil to Vienna where Rosenberg said they discussed projects, including his desire to save religious artifacts from areas of Syria and Iraq that could fall to Islamic State. While there, in a moment she admits was surreal and confusing, he took her with him to the Eurovision song contest, where Kahana wrapped himself in an oversized Israeli flag and Rosenberg sat next to him in the crowd in a cocktail dress texting and Facebooking with friends back in Kurdistan.Days after the Eurovision, she was back in Kurdistan she said. But where does Rosenberg fit into Kahana’s plans? He mentions a micro-financing firm he runs that does work in the Middle East, as well as a grandiose plan he hopes to put into effect in Jisr e-Zarka – the seaside, crime-ridden Arab village that is annually ranked one of Israel’s poorest locales. It involves renting Rosenberg a house there, where she’ll help with “women empowerment programs” and be responsible for security to some extent, saying that “if people there start shooting at each other, she’ll know what to do.” He says he’s been in talks with local leaders in the village to bring street artists from across the world to paint the walls of buildings throughout the entire village, creating what he says will be “the biggest open-air museum in the world.”Though Rosenberg says she later told Kahana she’ll pass on the Jisr e-Zarka idea and focus her energies elsewhere, Kahana says that regardless she is good for publicity and helps draw the attention of the media.“Of course she’ll bring a lot of publicity, would you be talking to me otherwise?”MEANWHILE, THE HEAD of a Montreal-based charity says he believes Rosenberg would be “the perfect face” for his organization. Steve Maman, a Casablanca-born 42-year-old father of six, is the founder of the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq (CYCI) that collects funds to pay the ransoms for women and children held captive by Islamic State. He describes himself as an Orthodox Jew who drives a Harley and in his day job imports exotic and vintage cars to Quebec, does some real estate and imports crystal light fixtures from Italy.Two years ago, he said he traveled to Iraq in a hunt for exotic cars that had belonged to Saddam Hussein and his sons, and while in country met Reverend Canon Andrew White, an Anglican priest dubbed “the Vicar of Baghdad.”Just like that, an Orthodox Sephardi exotic car collector from Montreal was in legion with a British leader of Christians in Iraq to launch a charity to help Christian and Yazidi women. He would soon start trying to recruit Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli ex-con and former IDF soldier, to be the face of the organization.Maman said White built the infrastructure on the ground and with money streaming in that Maman raised in the Montreal Sephardi community – by his estimate some $200,000 – he says he was able to liberate families from Islamic State, reaching what he said is a total of 123 children since he began the efforts eight months ago.White estimated the number at 59 girls, though he admitted that it’s very hard to get a clear picture of what’s happening on the ground in Iraq with the program. On Maman’s organization’s website there is a video purportedly of two women being returned to their family on the outskirts of Mosul on July 14 this year, as well as an image of Maman shaking Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper’s hand as the words “there is hope” run across the screen.The video includes a quote attributed to a Yazidi woman saying, “I have been raped 30 times and it’s not even lunchtime. I can’t go to the toilet. Please bomb us!”Maman says funds are wired to their men on the ground who have contacts in Mosul, purchasing the release of the girls and having them transferred to a team in Kurdistan, which documents their rescue. The actual business end of the organization’s work is murky though. Maman says his group’s guys on the ground take the money for expenses and to pay brokers, and when asked if the money he is raising in the Canadian Jewish community is then being used to pay ransom money to jihadists from Islamic State, he says that he doesn’t know what they do with the money and that “it’s none of my business and how they get the girls, we have no clue.”A minute later though, when pressed if sending money in an indirect way to Islamic State could violate Canadian law, he compares his actions to those of Oskar Schindler bribing Nazi officers to spirit away Jews during the Holocaust.“Money buys girls,” he explains simply. In Rosenberg he says he sees an ideal face for his organization, and one who will be a boon to their efforts to get PR and raise donations.“I told her what better face than yours on our organization, I think it will help people donate, because they already know your story and we can set up campaigns on Facebook and Twitter [using it],” Maman said, adding “if I could raise a million dollars it would help us do a lot of work on the ground.”He said he plans on sending Rosenberg to Iraq in August, in order to start working on arranging more releases of young girls.“The images of her helping children on the border will help too. It’ll be a massive reaction in the media,” Maman says.Gill isn’t so sure. She said that she and the CYCI had been discussing sending her to Iraq but there’s nothing solid for now and she’s not in a rush to ship off again. She admits that her well-publicized past as a con artist could pose a problem for the organization.“This is the one thing that scares me, that people will say yeah right, this is fraudulent or a scam. I’m not concerned about harm coming to me, I just don’t want to damage the organization because they’re doing god’s work,” she says.By last week though, it appeared she’d made up her mind. In a hand-held video she posted on Facebook, she can be seen standing in a playground, announcing her decision to officially join the CYCI to raise awareness as a volunteer.“You know for me, not too long ago I was given a second chance in life and the greatest thing to me would be to pay that forward and give someone else a second chance like I received,” she says into the shaky camera, before starting the next chapter in the Gill Rosenberg saga.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed”- The Man That You Fear
Marilyn Manson cucked after Columbine, although I can hardly blame him. If a kid went out and shot-up a Chuck-E-Cheese after reading “From the Arcade to the Girlfriend Experience,” I’d probably end up cucking too. It’s a heavy toll to pay for a guy who was just having a good bit of fun trolling.
Yes, that’s right- if you weren’t in on the joke, or actually took the old bastard seriously- Marilyn Manson started his career as a pre-internet, proto-troll. A tremendous practical joke, a long-con, being played on the very people paying to see him. And, yeah, two kids took it too seriously, played some Doom, and fucked the whole thing up.
Good art is sometimes hiding in plain sight; defying expectations to the point of invisibility despite nearly begging to be seen. Heavy metal is the perfect genre to commit this kind of artistic trickery– its thematics are brain dead and expectations are low. If an artist manages to slip one past the goalie, manipulating the genre’s tropes into something more than the usual cartoonish nightmare imagery, they can always shrug their shoulders and play dumb if found out.
Iron Maiden played this game wonderfully with their song “2 Minutes to Midnight,” comparing the immorality of nuclear war to abortion. If full-scale war is considered the exploitation of the powerless for the personal gain of the powerful, how is abortion considered virtuous freedom?
What really separates one from the other? Iron Maiden seems to think the line is as thin as a “madman play on words,” and if anyone seems to catch on, they can deny the rouse and |
dinner goes before heading home with the person. One thing I will tell you from multiple years of experience is that the longer you wait the more you lose out on everything.
By this, I’m kind of talking about every aspect of life. People that don’t seize opportunity generally get beat to it and are late to the game. You don’t want to be that person! So back to the topic of Ethereum cause that is why you are all here.
Developer Interest
The technology is gaining speed and is open source which is my favorite part. When Microsoft decided to go open source for developers they saw innovation greater than Apple. Apple decided to be hard headed and keep the development to their inside groupies which was a loss in ways. In 2015, Microsoft decided to open source the.NET framework. The.NET framework has seen a 61 percent growth in the number of developers engaged in the past year. Additionally, there has been dramatic growth in the Github activity related to the.NET framework.
If you think about exponential numbers you start to understand this weird phenomenon. People from all over the world have access to this system and can develop it to change the world. Just thinking about that sends chills down the back of my neck cause it has so much power.
New DAPPs Coming
The exciting part about Ethereum is the constant innovation and applications coming to support the blockchain. This includes a wide array of apps with many use cases. You can check them out here and see which are still in development.
The one I’m watching close is Raiden which I have stated before. I believe it will change the ability of the Ethereum blockchain to be faster with transactions. If speed is achieved correctly then the rest of the blockchain can be designed and developed at levels we can’t fully see yet.
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FacebookA reader makes up for being late to the party by eviscerating Resident Evil 6, and suggesting a much better idea for what it should’ve been.
Resident Evil 6 – getting everything wrong
I know I’m seriously late for putting the boot in, but gadzooks Resident Evil 6 is terrible. I was recently given it as a birthday present as my new girlfriend knew I was a fan of the series, but although I’m only up to the second chapter on Leon’s campaign, I’m almost certain I’ll never be able to get through it all.
There’s no flow to what passes for gameplay, there’s seemingly no sense or intuition to the control set up, dire QTEs are never more than a few minutes away and the levels are nonsensical windy corridors filled with unavoidable death by random and pointless cut scenes. I’ve never seen a game (or anything else come to think of it) try to be and do so much, and fail so hard at any of it.
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It feels like a game put together by small children who used to try to play arcade games without putting any money in, just hung off both joysticks and stared up at the flashing images on the screen, who then grew up and thought, ‘I know, I’ll make one of those game thingies, I know how they work’. Resident Evil 5 was poor compared to 4, but next to 6 it’s a master stroke.
After 5 and the slight hints at plant manipulation I had an idea of where I though the story might go. I pictured an American farm community setting, somewhere back of beyond. Plenty of tall cornfields and the like. Remote. Vulnerable. Somewhere shadowy organisations could have tested their latest creations unchecked. I saw a return to the horror roots of old with the evolved action, viewpoints and camera of the new. I saw references to things like Children Of The Corn and that episode of the X-Files with the green bugs that escaped from the logged trees and cocooned people.
I saw a face from the history of Resident Evil, lost, forgotten, living out his days quietly away from those who would have had him court marshalled and imprisoned: Billy Cohen. I saw the trailer. Darkness falling. Billy trying to protect the few surviving townsfolk in the cornfield with a burning torch, setting the corn alight to keep the dangers that lurked in the darkness back, the flames encircling the small group, as the camera pulls back to reveal a burning ‘6’ around them, whilst from every angle hideous things moved in for the kill.
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Chris and the others could have come along for the ride. Rolling in in the nick of time and uncovering the gigantic research lab under the ground beneath them and clearing it out once more. Plenty of scope for U.S. wide pandemic from contaminated crops in the food chain. Plenty of scope for action and tense scares in spooky looking farm towns, tightly packed subterranean bases, open forests and fields, even cities and beyond depending on how far they wanted to roll it out.
But no. We get… this shockingly conceived mess. The burning ‘6’ logo I saw in my head looked great. What the world got looks like a woman engaged in an unnatural act with a giraffe, surely a Capcom in-joke that this game sucks.
Thank God for BioShock Infinite’s imminent release, hopefully I can tell her I’m saving Resident Evil for later while I get through that and it’ll keep me going until she’s forgotten she bought it for me and I can dispose of it somehow. I’d trade it, but that means some other poor soul might have the chance to play it…
I do so hate to see a good thing get spoilt and Resi used to be so, so good. Keep up the awesome work GC, thanks for reading.
By reader yourhomeisatrisk (PSN ID)
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email [email protected] first thing that Shanette Booker had to do, when she awoke one dawn to find that her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Andre Booker, had shot himself to death on the floor of their bedroom closet, was to gulp down her shock and horror and get her two young boys out of the house.
She took them to a friend's place down the street, somewhere safe and familiar, and arranged a sleepover for that night so she could deal with the police, the coroner and the funeral home. Finally, she checked into a local hotel and, alone at last, broke down.
The rising toll of military and veteran suicides -- 350 active-duty troops and some 8,000 veterans last year -- is a needless tragedy, a national failure to fully address the underlying problems of stress and mental health disorders, suicide experts say.
But the immediate, crushing impact lands on the families. These survivors are stunned, blindsided by violence that seems to come without warning, and left alone to struggle with shame and guilt. They, too, are Invisible Casualties.
"Families very often fall apart," said Kim Ruocco, who started a suicide survivors support group after her husband, John, a Marine Cobra gunship pilot, took his life in 2005. "You find addiction, multiple suicide attempts among other family members, and reclusiveness -- people have pulled out of their churches and communities because they haven't gotten the support they need," she said. "Survivors after a suicide loss are at a much higher risk of suicide themselves."
As Shanette Booker knows, the aftermath is especially challenging for parents.
"My children still don't know the whole story," she said of the awful events of Aug. 19, 2011. "Mentally they're not ready for that kind of shock to their system."
"I had tons of questions about how to get my children through this, what to tell them about it, and how do I keep them safe," Ruocco said. "Now that they have had this happen in their life, maybe this becomes an option or a way to solve problems -- the idea has been brought into our lives and I want to protect them from it."
Like other suicide survivors, Ruocco was simply overwhelmed after her husband's sudden death. It wasn't just having to deal with her 8- and 10-year-olds, but coming to terms with the fact and manner of his death, the social stigma of suicide, and gnawing questions about her own role. Was there something she could have done to prevent this?
She found a swarm of government and nonprofit resources, but it was harder to find a sympathetic and understanding person with whom to talk. Only other suicide survivors, she felt, could really understand the social stigma, the shame and guilt she felt. "I used to pray for peace from my thoughts and the conflicts that were now in my brain," she told me. "The multitude of the loss and the grief and the questions and the pain -- I just wanted some peace and some comfort and healing. I didn't know where to get it."
Ruocco has a master's degree in social work and decided to take action. She began working through an existing organization, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), which provides care and comfort to anyone grieving for a loved one who died while serving in the military. The suicide survivors support group she started in 2007, under the TAPS umbrella, was built around what she needed. And what she needed, it turned out, was what other suicide survivors also craved. She now has seven paid staffers, 80 trained peer mentor volunteers and a database of 4,000 suicide survivors.
But until they began to find each other, many of these survivors say they felt lost.
Army Reserve Spc. Jason Cooper
After Terri Jones' son, Army Reserve Spc. Jason Cooper, died by suicide, she didn't know whom to notify. The soldiers in his unit, just back from Iraq, were scattered in five different states. She lived in southern Iowa, miles from any military base.
Jones, stunned by her loss, finally called the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. After explaining why she was calling, she was transferred from one office to another, but never did find the person who would say, 'I'm so sorry, thank you for letting us know.' Several months later, still swamped by grief, she was fired from her job because, her boss said, "your heart's just not in it anymore."
"I started just Googling and searching for people out there I could cling to and help me through the process," Jones said.
Kim Suggs, a public school speech therapist in Lockport, La., also felt lost and isolated after it became known that her husband, Chief Warrant Officer Milton E. "Bobo" Suggs, had died by suicide. Her coworkers simply avoided her. "I'd walk down the hallway and swish! People were back in their classrooms," she said. "No one wanted to be around me. People can't tolerate that much pain."
Her friends had told her to call anytime she needed to talk. But she soon realized, "Nobody wants to get a phone call at 2 a.m."
THE 'WHY'
For the survivors, one of the hardest parts of suicide's aftermath is having to accept that they will never understand all the reasons someone takes his or her life.
Kim Ruocco
"Suicide is like a jigsaw puzzle that someone's thrown on the ground and the pieces go everywhere, and we as survivors grab these pieces and try to put them all together," Ruocco said. The fact is, she added, "We'll never have all the pieces."
The older generation of veterans, who are most at risk of suicide, often never talk about their combat experiences or their inner turmoil -- leaving families mystified and bruised after a suicide. "It's easy to see physical wounds," said Leslie Copeland, whose father, Doug Fisher, took his life in January 2000, 21 years after he returned from Vietnam. He was physically wounded and in pain for the rest of his life. His psychological wounds, she concluded after his death, "were invisible -- but very deep and very scarring." But, she added, "he almost never talked about it."
"We all ask that question, 'Why?'" said Terri Jones. Retelling the story helps. But even sympathetic outsiders may tire of hearing about it, she said. Even so, "You have to keep going back over all the pieces of your story, and other suicide survivors are willing to hear your story over and over, until you finally get the pieces you have together."
Eventually, said Kim Suggs, "you come to terms with it." Her husband was by himself in his room, at the U.S. base in Djibouti, Africa, when it happened, she said. "I have never gotten any details, and that's okay. I don't want to know. It wouldn't change the outcome."
Or as Shanette Booker put it: "Now it's real, baby. He's gone, and the question is, what do you do now?"
THE GUILT
Suicide survivors can be tormented by the nagging conviction that they should have seen this coming, and could have done something to stop it. "These are invisible wounds only because we don't look hard enough," said Andy Weiss, whose son Army Lt. Danny Weiss died by suicide March 4, 2012, just before his fourth deployment to Afghanistan.
Danny Weiss, with one of three awards he won at Officer Candidate School graduation in 2009.
"We are all complicit to some degree in the failure to properly take care of our service members and veterans in general," Weiss said. "Danny's death is not different and there is blame to go around, from the top of our leadership down to me as his father," he added later in an email. Among those who must share the blame, he said, are those who were closest to Danny, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in which he served.
Terri Jones lives with the knowledge that she did see something wrong -- and never said anything about it. Her son Jason was suffering through insomnia, panic attacks and severe flashbacks. She didn't know how to intervene and was afraid she'd do the wrong thing. "I'd just kind of go along with it," she said. "I didn't want to say something that would set him off."
In the aftermath of his death, she said, "the guilt of failing your child is immense."
But military people work in high-stress and often dangerous situations and are good at hiding pain, fatigue and anger, Ruocco said. Her husband would have a bad day; the next day he would tell her he went for a run and felt much better. "You'd hang on to those days," she said, and postpone asking for help. "As a military spouse you have a real fear that telling anybody outside your own family is going to make things worse for him."
After John died, she told people she never saw it coming. But gradually, she realized, she had seen that something was wrong. "I just didn't know what to do with it," she said. When I asked what warning signs she saw, she paused. "There was a time when my husband said to me, 'I can't feel anything.' As a spouse, I heard, 'I can't love you.' So we had a fight about how he couldn't love me instead of me saying, 'Tell me more about how you can't feel anything,'" she said with a tone of regret.
This question -- could I have prevented this? -- torments the survivors. Thirteen years after her father died by suicide, Leslie Copeland said, she has graduated high school and college and gotten married -- all without her dad at her side. "Now I can only ask, what could I have done? And when are we going to take care of the people who sacrificed everything for us? When?"
Others decide to leave such questions behind. "You have to let it go or it eats you alive," Kim Suggs said. "I had to come to the peace of knowing that no matter what I did, I could not have done anything" to prevent it.
THE SHAME
A suicide can mark families with the stigma of failure within a military culture that prizes strength, fortitude and heroism, suicide survivors say. Survivors sometimes find that military friends and neighbors -- whom they had grown close to while their family members were away on long combat deployments -- suddenly go silent. "My husband went from being a hero to a zero," Ruocco said. Before he died, even he felt the same way.
"He was very good at what he did, but he felt that telling anyone he was not okay would wipe out everything he had worked so hard to achieve," she said. "I was afraid his death would do the same, that people would remember him for how he died instead of how he lived."
"Suicide is not accepted; it's frowned upon, shoved to the side," Shanette Booker said. Her late husband was assigned to the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, N.M., when he shot himself with a handgun he had recently purchased. Even within their Army community, she said, people "don't acknowledge those heroes that have lost their lives" from suicide.
Other survivors feel their loss is devalued because a suicide death is viewed differently from a battle death. "He may not have died a heroic death, but he lived a heroic life," Ruocco said of her late husband. "It's important for us that people know that the way they died does not define them."
THE HEALING
The decision to move on with their lives is an important milestone for suicide survivors. Don Lipstein, whose son Navy Petty Officer Joshua Lipstein died by suicide March 15, 2011, explained, "I will always miss my son and love him, but I don't want his death to define my life."
Don Lipstein
The Defense Department does not issue the Purple Heart medal to those who have died by suicide. The medal is meant to honor those killed or wounded in action against an enemy.
The shame, guilt and unanswered questions are a heavy burden that many survivors find can be eased in the company of other survivors. That's a role that Ruocco and her colleagues are seeking to fill.
Under an agreement with TAPS' suicide survivors program, the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force ask families who have just lost loved ones to suicide if they consent to having their names forwarded to the program. A trained outreach coordinator contacts them within two weeks to offer help. TAPS assigns a relevant peer survivor, matching mother to mother, or father to father, to assess families' needs, connect them with support groups, recommend free counseling, and in other ways draw them into the larger community of survivors.
"Connecting with other suicide survivors is incredibly healing; it calms those rollercoaster emotions, the overwhelming questions and feelings," Ruocco said. "You're exhausted -- and now you don't have to explain anything."
"You can look in each other's eyes and say, 'Yes, this is awful, but we are going to get through this together.'"
This article is part of a special Huffington Post series, "Invisible Casualties," in which we shine a spotlight on suicide-prevention efforts within the military. To see all the articles, blog posts, audio and video, click here.Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust choir’s A Bridge Over You is in second position behind Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself
NHS choir: 'I want to show how proud I am of the health service by getting our song to No 1'
The coveted Christmas No 1 slot has been taken by a collection of good, bad and downright awful songs over the years – but this year a surprise contender is in the running.
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust choir’s A Bridge Over You, a reworking of Coldplay’s Fix You and Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, may yet reach the top spot this festive season. The song is in second position, trailing behind Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself, which had a narrow lead of just 3,000 combined sales at the halfway stage of the chart week.
Working in a psychiatric ward at Christmas made me commit to the NHS Read more
“It’s a proper charts battle,” said Katie Rogerson, a children’s doctor in London and choir member. “It’s just ridiculous that it’s the NHS versus Justin Bieber, but that’s all in the jolliness of it.”
The song was originally produced two years ago following the choir’s work with choirmaster Gareth Malone on the BBC2 programme Sing While You Work, originally broadcast in 2012. In October this year, Rogerson, one of the choir members; Harriet Nerva, a junior doctor; and Joe Blunden, an NHS communications manager, started a grassroots social media campaign to get the song to No 1 this Christmas.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choir perform their song A Bridge Over You. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA
Nerva, 26, a junior doctor at Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge, decided to launch the campaign after a bad day at work. “A patient with cancer that I had been looking after for quite a number of weeks died.” she said. “I was listening to the song and it dawned on me that a great way of translating how I was feeling and how proud I was to work for the NHS would be getting [the song] to No 1.”
In a challenging year for the NHS, with the junior doctors contract and planned cuts to bursaries for nurses and allied health professionals occupying the headlines, Nerva and Rogerson think the song promotes some important messages. “I think some of the messages in the song are very pertinent... It’s to say we’re here for you, throughout the week, 365 days a year.” said Nerva.
Rogerson added: “It’s a challenging time for the NHS and morale is quite low... We do feel that. People have a genuine concern for what’s going to happen and for the future of the NHS... We’ve got this fantastic institution that we’re incredibly proud to work for. We wanted people to recognise all the brilliant things that happen on an everyday basis rather than feel miserable and unappreciated.”
The campaign has received huge public support. Nerva said: “It’s been quite touching having people tell us their stories about how they love the NHS and how it has saved their life.”
Everyone in the NHS dreads working at Christmas – but it fills me with pride Read more
The song is also dedicated to all those professionals and patients who will be spending the festive season in hospital. Rogerson said: “Everyone always makes the best of it... but no one really wants to be in hospital on Christmas Day. We’ve got this image of the song making those people feel like the rest of the country hasn’t forgotten them.”
As for whether the song will get the top spot, Rogerson said: “It would be phenomenal. If everything stops right now, we’ve been touched and overwhelmed and everyone’s been so wonderful and generous. You don’t expect an NHS choir to make the top 40 so to be honest, we’re [already] massively pleased. If we got to No 1, it would be insanity but a really good version of it.”
You can download the song here. All proceeds will be shared between healthcare charities, including Carers UK and Mind – with a percentage also being distributed to Samh (Scotland) and Niamh (Northern Ireland).
Join our network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.The most notable downtown story of 2014 was a death: streetcar.
The departed VIA Metropolitan Transit project left some San Antonians heartbroken and others overjoyed — depending on which side of the issue they were on.
The debate raged on and on about the plan that would have connected the Pearl to the north through downtown to Southtown, while having streetcars circulate east-west on Commerce and Market streets.
On the one side were the critics: Is it a mover of people or an economic generator? If it's really about mass transit, why not connect the airport to downtown, for example — a route seemingly needed more? The price tag — $280 million — is too much for such a frivolous project. Oh, and San Antonians vehemently defeated light rail in 2000.
On the other side was an equal set of arguments: Streetcar is not the same as light rail. While it would only connect parts of downtown, streetcar is the baby step to developing a multimodal transit system. Plus, reinforcing downtown's infrastructure can only have a positive, domino-like effect on the entire city.
Lawsuits were filed. Even Governor-elect Greg Abbott, at the time the Texas attorney general, weighed in when it came to VIA's desire to use Advanced Transportation District sales tax revenue bonds to fund two multimodal centers downtown.
Finally, in a stunning news conference, Mayor Ivy Taylor and Judge Nelson Wolff conceded that the plan (any rail plan, really) was too unpopular to proceed without a public vote.
When Taylor made the announcement, it was just days after she replaced the man who coined the phrase “Decade of Downtown.”
Former Mayor Julián Castro leaving his San Antonio post to join President Barack Obama's Cabinet — and the subsequent political shuffle — ranks second on my top stories of the year. Seems the “Decade of Downtown” mantra fades each day Castro has been gone. New city leadership certainly isn't promulgating it, either — there are just a few remaining acolytes and bloggers.
Coupled with Castro's exit was former District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal's resignation in November to run for the House District 123 seat vacated by Rep. Mike Villarreal, who is running for mayor. Together, Castro and Bernal threw their weigh around as elected officials to push the downtown agenda — most of which made sense.
Taking the third spot is the opening of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Its builders kept reminding us that the $200 million building was "world class." Underneath the pomp and circumstance, there were whispers of derision about its exclusivity and whether the arts center was all it was cracked up to be.
The exclusivity? I'm still on the fence.
But it undoubtedly bolstered San Antonio's arts scene, bringing the likes of Paul McCartney and other top acts while solidifying a home for the San Antonio Symphony and a handful of other locally based performance groups.
Happening kind of under the radar, but coming in fourth, was the latest wave of large-scale apartment projects. Most notably, the lattices were begun for the 350-unit Agave, 411 E. César E. Chávez Blvd., by North Carolina-based Greystar and the 302-unit Rivera, 1130 Broadway, by Austin-based Argyle Residential. Combine 210 Developers' near completion of Peanut Factory Lofts on the near West Side with the announcement of a handful of other sizable projects — another West Side development by 210 and two others on or near the Museum Reach — and it seems like downtown's latest wave of residents is forthcoming.
Who knows whether the next wave of dwellers will bring downtown to that critical mass of locals-based, everyday activity. But it's more momentum to build on.
The near East Side, especially Dignowity Hill, was in the news seemingly all year. While downtown growth as it spread outward had had an infill effect to the north and a more seamless effect on the already opulent King William District, the East Side and discussion of gentrification — whether it was happening or not — had downtown leaders, residents and observers talking.
Then there was the convoluted mess of the Hays Street Bridge, Alamo Beer Co.'s first brewery and the vacant property at 803 N. Cherry St. As we closed 2014, the city sold the Cherry Street property to Alamo Beer — but the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group and the city both had filed motions in various courts. This debate is likely to drag on for another year.
The public also got its first clear look at the concept behind the redevelopment of HemisFair Park. At Alamo and Market streets, buildings frame the so-called civic park — a big courtyard at the corner, a large green space, a promenade and water features. Work also began on the Yanaguana Garden, the playground-like area south of the civic park that abuts Southtown.
Also high on my list were the changes to La Villita — all that work and planning for such a lukewarm response to new retailers and restaurants.
There’s also the major downtown land swap pitched by Weston Urban and involving the city and Frost Bank, which received a lot of attention because it would result in downtown's first tower since the 1980s. However, a final deal had not been announced by year’s end.
Xavier de Richemont's kaleidoscope-like projection on the San Fernando Cathedral façade gave our downtown one of those choice public art displays usually found in other cities.
And the city successfully transformed Travis Park from a den of depravity to an enjoyable park, after a cop was stationed by it 24/7.
[email protected] is brokering a joint statement on the South China Sea ruling with its counterparts in the Group of Seven (G-7) advanced economies as part of a "proactive diplomacy" drive, though its own reaction to the verdict tomorrow may be muted.
Local media reports last week said the G-7 is expected to issue the statement - the group's third on maritime security since April - to pressure Beijing to respect the decision and follow international law and norms in settling disputes.
China has refused to take part in the arbitration brought against it by the Philippines over its expansive claims in the South China Sea and has said it will not recognise the ruling.
Countries in South-east Asia have a positive track record of referring disputes to the international legal process and abiding by the rulings, analysts have said.
One of these is the dispute between Singapore and Malaysia over Pedra Branca, an island 50km off the Singapore coast.
Related Story Tribunal case is far more than just a matter of rocks and reefs
Although Singapore had possession of the island, it agreed to arbitration at the International Court of Justice, which in 2008 awarded sovereignty over the island to Singapore. Both countries abided by the outcome, allowing them to continue to work together.
KEEPING LATITUDE The Japanese government wants to keep space for questioning the court decision when necessary. But Japan will probably repeat its basic stance - the territorial dispute should be dealt with in accordance with the 'rule of law'. DR RYOKO NAKANO, from Japan's Kanazawa University, who noted that Japan has resumed Antarctic whaling in spite of an international court ruling for it to cease such actions, and that may prompt Tokyo to keep its response to the South China Sea verdict low-key.
In the current case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Japan is not a claimant state in the South China Sea, which is a vital waterway for global trade. But it sees the increasing Chinese military might as a threat and, to counter this, it has pledged naval support to Vietnam and the Philippines.
Dr Masashi Nishihara, president of Japan's Research Institute for Peace and Security, noted that Tokyo, as leader of the G-7 this year, is taking efforts "to bring its G-7 counterparts in line with Asean allies".
He said: "Before the G-7 meetings, some of the European countries did not take any particular interest in the South China Sea, but since then they have begun to take greater interest."
France raised some eyebrows at last month's Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore when it proposed that European navies coordinate patrols in Asian waters to reinforce a rules-based maritime order.
Japan is embroiled in a separate dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea.
Tomorrow's decision follows Chinese allegations last week - which Japan has vehemently denied - that two Japanese fighter jets had taken "provocative actions" at high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets over the East China Sea.
But Dr Ryoko Nakano, who teaches international relations at Japan's Kanazawa University, noted that Japan may keep its response low-key for two reasons.
First, it remains uncertain how recently elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will deal with the decision and Japan "does not want to look overexcited".
Dr Nakano also noted that Japan has resumed Antarctic whaling in spite of an international court ruling for it to cease such actions.
"The Japanese government wants to keep space for questioning the court decision when necessary," she said.
"But Japan will probably repeat its basic stance - the territorial dispute should be dealt with in accordance with the 'rule of law'."Consumers are throwing away more than £500m a year by failing to switch their broadband package, according to a new report.
Research by comparison website Broadbandchoices.co.uk showed that four in ten households haven't switched providers in more than four years, despite a huge reduction in prices.
The study found that many customers can now get a broadband and home phone service bundle for just £62 a year, down from £132 four years ago – meaning they are over-paying by 50pc.
"A lot of customers are stuck on outdated packages and could get so much more for their money if they just switched," said Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at Broadbandchoices.co.uk.
"People are used to shopping around for energy, insurance or even petrol, but customers are still failing to regularly switch their broadband service, potentially pouring more than £500m down the drain each year."
Switching apathy has long been a problem in the broadband market, despite industry regulator Ofcom introducing guidelines last year to make the switching process easier.
In fact, recent figures from Sky show that more than a quarter of consumers wrongly believe that think they will be without broadband for a week or more if they switch provider.
"One thing we consistently hear from consumers is that they think switching broadband will be complicated and difficult, but this couldn't be further from the truth nowadays," said Mr Baliszewski.
But how can consumers switch broadband providers seamlessly?
Compare like for like
Before you make the switch, use an Ofcom-approved site that details hidden costs like installation charges, line rental and monthly prices after any special offer discounts expire. It is important to get a realistic picture of what you will have to pay in the first year, so get your sums right before switching.
Watch out for exit penalties
Read your current contract to be certain that it has expired, allowing you to switch without any early exit fees. The fees are determined by the types of service to which you subscribe and the number of months left on your contract. Penalties are not capped. For instance, if you cancel a bundle contract with eight months left, you could have to pay up to £160, depending on the provider.
Also take note of the length of the new contract length you are signing up to – some providers have 18 month terms rather than the standard 12 months.
The need for speed
Think about how you will use the internet to decide how many megabytes (MBs) you want to download in a second. The bigger the figure, the faster the internet connection. If you use the internet only for light surfing and emailing, you are unlikely to need a package with high download limits.
If you regularly download large amounts of data, such as films, you may want to consider a service that offers up to 20MB and a large storage capacity. If, however, you just want simple downloads and basic web and email access, a 2MB service should be enough and will usually cost much less. A service of up to 8MB is useful if you want to send photos or regularly download files.
You can find out how fast your broadband connection is by logging on to thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html.
Although, bear in mind that if you spend a lot of time downloading movies and games it is usually worth opting for a package with a 'truly unlimited' download limit to accommodate your activity and avoid excess download penalties.
Look for discounts
There are other ways to cut your bills, even if you do not want to switch providers. One way to do this is to pay your line rental up front.
Line rental is a "hidden cost" of broadband and in many cases is pricier than the package itself. Some providers, like Sky and BT, offer a significant discount of around £50 to customers who pay for their line rental upfront so its worth doing if you can afford it.
While other providers offer additional discounts and incentives if you subscribe online rather than over the phone. Price comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.com, Simplifydigital.co.uk and Broadbandchoices.co.uk also frequently negotiate exclusive deals with providers on your behalf, so check here first for the best offers.
Fierce competition, combined with the recession, means telecoms companies are working even harder to keep customers. Once you have shopped around, it is worth speaking to your current supplier to ask for a better deal.Stand-your-ground statutes benefit whites more than blacks, are unnecessary and cause minority men to live in fear, several experts said Friday to the US civil rights commission as it evaluates racial disparities in the laws.
But one dissenter, an African American lawmaker from South Carolina, said the law benefits black defendants by putting in place an extra hurdle in the way of arrest by police officers who may have hidden racial biases.
“Stand your ground, the way I intended when I voted for it, it’s meant so people don’t have to live in fear,” said Democratic state Representative Todd Rutherford.
Rutherford’s voice was in the minority among more than a dozen experts who testified before the US commission on civil rights in Orlando during their only “field” hearing outside of their base in Washington. Stand-your-ground laws provide that individuals have no duty to retreat from a place where they have a right to be and may use any level of force, including lethal, if they reasonably believe they face an imminent and immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death.
One commissioner was skeptical of the benefits of stand-your-ground laws, saying they pervert traditional self-defense laws.
“The problem with all this is that people are dying,” said commissioner Michael Yaki, a former member of the San Fransisco board of supervisors who runs a consulting firm.
The laws in around half of the 50 states came under renewed scrutiny in 2012 following the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen, in a Sanford, Florida, town house complex by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic. While Zimmerman didn’t invoke a part of the law that allows for a an immunity hearing, during which a judge decides whether the case moves forward or is dropped, stand-your-ground defense language was included in the jury instructions at his trial last year. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in Sanford, about 30 miles from where Friday’s hearing was held.
The commission decided to examine stand-your-ground laws after Martin’s fatal shooting, said Martin Castro, the commission’s chair. Next year, the commission will issue a report with recommendations for President Obama and Congress.
“It will be beyond anecdote, but concrete statistical information,” Castro said.
Stand-your-ground laws have made young black and brown men fearful, said Ahmad |
17:20Z, last updated Friday, Apr 18th 2014 17:20Z An Allegiant Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration N407NV performing flight G4-448 from Las Vegas,NV to Duluth,MN (USA) with 160 people on board, was climbing out of Las Vegas' runway 07L when upon contacting departure the crew reported hitting a bird and requested vectors, they needed to monitor and check their gauges. The aircraft stopped the climb at 10,000 feet. After about 7 minutes, after consulting with dispatch, the crew decided to return to Las Vegas and advised they were doing an overweight landing and needed the longest runway available, runway 07L was assigned for the landing (runways 01 were active for landings). The crew advised they were on normal operations, had the airfield in sight and were cleared for a visual approach to runway 07L. The aircraft landed safely on runway 07L about 25 minutes after departure, vacated the runway and stopped on the adjacent taxiway for an inspection by emergency services.
A post flight inspection revealed that the aircraft had flown through a swarm of bees with a large quantity of bees impacting and obscuring the windshield and parts of the swarm being ingested into the engines.
Passengers reported a burning smell developed in the cabin when the aircraft climbed out.
A replacement MD-82 reached Duluth with a delay of 2:15 hours.
The airline confirmed bees clouded the windshield and were ingested into the engines.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAY448/history/20140414/2211Z/KLAS/KDLH
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Interview: The human factor named "Simon Hradecky" and the team of man and machine Get the news right onto your desktop when they happen © 2008-2019 by The Aviation Herald, all rights reserved, reprint and republishing prohibited. We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our site, learn moreIndeed, that points up perhaps the most central problem with the president’s proposed rating system: the idea that everything can be measured.
There is no way to accurately reduce the complex issues in higher-education quality — graduation rates, loan debt, percentage of Pell grant recipients, lifetime income — to a single rating number. Getting more low-income students to graduate from college would be an unqualified good, but that doesn’t mean they are prepared for the working world.
There is a simpler solution to the president’s desire to provide more information to low-income students and their families. The White House could make all the data it thinks is important available on a searchable website. Rather than attempt to reduce the information to one number, or to rate schools against one another in an arbitrary way, the administration should make many types of data easily available and let people rate schools for themselves.
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to the problem of how to get more low-income students into college, or how to see them through to graduation. More information may help some families make better choices about where their children should attend college, but that information alone does not address the cultural barriers to access or the structures that are most needed to help students succeed.
Nor will that data tell students whom they will attend class with, what kind of social pressures will be placed on them by their peers or what the classroom environment will be like. The data will also tell us nothing about the advising systems at different colleges. Where will low-income students get good advice about course selection or the emotional and moral support they might need when they encounter difficulties?
Understanding the cultural feel of a campus and knowing which schools offer good advising would be much more important for most low-income families than the data the president wants to collect and distill into a single number.
The president is right to highlight the poor educational opportunities available to many low-income students. To ignore this problem would be to abandon the American dream. But he needs more than numbers to get the job done.In the past month alone, 31 residents have died from starvation, or in attempts to run the Hezbollah-manned blockade that encircles the town. A report compiled by the Syrian-American Medical Society and made available to VICE News found that a kilogram (two pounds)of flour now retails for around $100, while the average Syrian makes less than $200 each month.
Desperate escape attempts like this one — which was reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and confirmed to VICE News by local residents — have become more and more common in Madaya, a village of 40,000 that's been under siege since July by a combination of Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and his ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
As they reached the southern edge of town, someone tripped over a landmine, and the loud blast alerted a nearby Hezbollah checkpoint of their escape. The fighters opened fire, and between the explosion and the barrage, both mother and daughter died.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a pregnant woman and her daughter tried to sneak out of Madaya, a mountain village perched in the snow-capped peaks of southwestern Syria.
Correction: a previous version of this story contained photos purporting to show malnourished children in Madadya. VICE News has since learned that the pictures may not have been taken in Madaya, and has removed them.
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Correction: a previous version of this story contained photos purporting to show malnourished children in Madadya. VICE News has since learned that the pictures may not have been taken in Madaya, and has removed them.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a pregnant woman and her daughter tried to sneak out of Madaya, a mountain village perched in the snow-capped peaks of southwestern Syria.
As they reached the southern edge of town, someone tripped over a landmine, and the loud blast alerted a nearby Hezbollah checkpoint of their escape. The fighters opened fire, and between the explosion and the barrage, both mother and daughter died.
Desperate escape attempts like this one — which was reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and confirmed to VICE News by local residents — have become more and more common in Madaya, a village of 40,000 that's been under siege since July by a combination of Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and his ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
In the past month alone, 31 residents have died from starvation, or in attempts to run the Hezbollah-manned blockade that encircles the town. A report compiled by the Syrian-American Medical Society and made available to VICE News found that a kilogram (two pounds)of flour now retails for around $100, while the average Syrian makes less than $200 each month.
"I had strawberry leaves for dinner today," Rajai, a 26-year old English and math teacher in Madaya, told VICE News by phone, asking that his name be withheld for security reasons. "I haven't had a real meal in three months." Since the siege began in July, he's lost 50 pounds. "Kids are eating leaves off the trees, and the very old and very young are dying," he said.
As the death toll mounted in December, residents of Madaya began posting desperate pleas on social media, along with disturbing images, reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.
— Thomas van Linge (@arabthomness)January 4, 2016
In a picture dated January 3, a group of young men hold a poster in English pleading with the UN and the Pope to do something to lift the siege.
Anybody can here that? Can you answer our cries only once?— Raed Bourhan (@raedbrh)January 3, 2016
According to Rajai, the Assad regime is punishing his hometown for its participation in the Syrian uprising in 2011. When peaceful protesters took to the streets in the nearby city of Zabadani in April 2011, Rajai joined in. "We wanted to clean this country of Assad," he said. He was arrested and tortured. Now, after five years of civil war, his outlook is bleak.
"In the early days of the revolution, we used to say no one could be made to feel hungry or afraid," he said. "But now we know we were wrong."
Madaya lies on a strategically key line in Syria's ballooning multi-front, multi-party civil war. The town is nestled within the Qalamoun mountain range, alongside the Lebanese border, less than 30 miles (50 km) from the capital Damascus. Stamping out unrest in Qalamoun, said Joshua Landis, the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and editor of the blog Syria Comment, is key to the regime's survival. "If rebels there broke out, they'd have a straight corridor to Damascus," he said.
In the early years of the revolution, many of the mountain villages along the Lebanese border sided against the Assad regime, throwing in their lot with the expanding constellation of rebels who took up arms across the country.
As the revolution grew more violent, the Syrian-Lebanese border became a key route for arms smugglers, who were funneling weapons dangerously close to the Syrian capital. Assad and his Iranian, Russian, and Lebanese allies made securing that border zone a top priority — more pressing even than retaking northern territory from groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda's Nusra Front.
So with the help of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Assad has been brutally crushing restive zones along the mountain range by setting sieges reminiscent of medieval warfare. Besides checkpoints and minefields, the regime and its allies employ brutal blockades that prevent food or water from reaching the isolated towns. "They are starving people into submission," Landis said. "It's a very old tactic."
In September, Hezbollah moved into the town of Zabadani, just two miles (three km) north of Madaya, and the town's only real lifeline to the outside world. A few beleaguered rebel fighters were allowed safe passage out thanks to a deal brokered by Turkey and Iran.
As Hezbollah stormed the city, it forced people it considered hostile to move to Madaya, a tactic residents say was designed to separate out pro-regime and anti-regime civilians. Loay, a 28-year old student in Zabadani, was forced to relocate to Madaya with his mother when Hezbollah took over his town. "They said: go to Madaya," he told VICE News by phone. "There you will die, from starvation."
In Madaya, he said, it's like "another world." "Everyone," he added, "is starving."
Loay's mother Umm Mohamad, 52, also hasn't had a meal in months. "My only dream is to have a piece of bread," she said.
Syrian human rights groups are watching Madaya with horror. "They are making it into a big prison and suffocating the area," Dr. Ammar Ghanem, a Syrian physician who grew up in the area, told VICE News. A member of the Syrian-American Medical Society's board, Ghanem still has family stuck inside, and has been monitoring the humanitarian situation from afar. "The regime want people to die there," he said.
Medical services in the town are meager. "They have no supplies, and no training — one of their only doctors is a veterinarian who is now operating on humans," Ghanem said. "We would like to send in supplies, but of course, we cannot get through the blockade."
The United Nations has struggled to get any aid into the besieged town. In October, it managed to secure safe passage for a shipment of biscuits to Madaya and Zabadani. But the food turned out to be expired.
Over the past three months, the Assad regime has prevented any additional shipments, essentially signing death warrants for dozens of children and elderly civilians in the coldest months of the winter.
But there are also very practical reasons for the siege. Hezbollah is trying to trade the civilians in Madaya for the well-being of Shiite civilians under siege by rebel forces in the northern cities of Kafrayya and Fua. "It's a negotiating ploy," Landis said. "Basically Hezbollah is taking hostages." Indeed, in September, members of Ahrar al-Sham, the militant Sunni group that's blockading the Shiite villages, began negotiating with the Syrian regime to simultaneously lift both sieges. Though the negotiators were able to arrange for the safe passage of some fighters from Zabadani, so far, the deal has yet to bear fruit for the embattled civilians.
Though the siege undoubtedly takes a humanitarian toll, multiple residents in Madaya told VICE News that fighters with Ahrar al-Sham are present in the town. The group fights with Al-Qaeda in the north of Syria. But Landis, the Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma, stresses that the men who joined Ahrar in Madaya are most likely not ideologues. "They are fighting for their lives," he said. "They'll make alliances with whoever they think will save them."
As the siege grinds on, civilians are increasingly losing hope, and fear their plight will always be in the shadow of the war up north against the Islamic State. "Sure, people may read about us if you write something," Rajaai, the teacher, told VICE News. "But when they finish reading, they'll forget us."This story also appears on Dat Winning.
In the midst of a hectic NBA off-season, with star players seemingly on the move every week, the strangest basketball news this summer had nothing to do with free agency. When a video of Klay Thompson botching a half-hearted attempt at a 360° dunk in China surfaced on Twitter, we were introduced to the phenomenon known as #ChinaKlay.
Klay Thompson went to China to show them what the talents of an NBA player look like in real life pic.twitter.com/DdxZFJ5ZUv — Ben B (@guga31bb) June 24, 2017
Throughout the next week, #ChinaKlay kept popping up in photos and videos circulated throughout Twitter, encompassing a wide range of scheduled activities:
And perhaps best of all, here is #ChinaKlay trying to eat a Chinese roll that is either way too hot or way too cold.
Back here in the U.S., Thompson often seems detached, and his interactions with media are usually unremarkable. He is always good-natured, but tends to keep his feelings to himself. #ChinaKlay, on the other hand, is our favorite, lovable dork, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Man does that guy look happy with life.
Fresh off signing a ten-year, $80-million endorsement extension with Chinese sportswear brand Anta, Thompson was in China on a promotional tour. Thompson admittedly didn’t know much about Anta when he first signed on in 2014, but relished the opportunity to explore the new Chinese market.
“Knowing that I could be really big in China, that was really cool to me,” said Thompson in an interview with Nice Kicks. “The shoe market sometimes is over-flooded in the States, and I thought, ‘Well, why not branch out and be global.’”
Thompson particularly sought to have major creative input into the design of his signature shoes and individual player tours as part of his deal. Because larger American brands promote far more players, Anta would be able to devote more attention to Thompson’s wishes and concerns.
If anyone was puzzled by Thompson’s decision to sign with Anta, it was a decision that has literally paid off with his NBA success, which includes two NBA championships and three All-Star team nods in the past three years. Thompson is now Anta’s biggest marketable commodity, with only Rajon Rondo filling out their roster of NBA player endorsements. Under Anta’s new deal, Thompson now owns one of the top ten richest basketball shoe deals in 2017.
Being big in China, however, still doesn’t mean much stateside. Chinese sportswear brands have not been able to crossover into the U.S. market, with quality and originality still appearing to be the missing element. If this is a reputation that bigger Chinese sportswear brands are working to steer away from, newer brands like Uncle Martian haven’t helped change that perception.
And yet, #ChinaKlay has somehow transcended these and other cultural differences to perhaps start the wheels turning on a potential U.S. market. On a social media platform banned in China, we have gotten to see not only the best Klay, but a completely different world of fandom, a place where Klay can truly be happy. These are moments that can connect sports fans across different continents. #ChinaKlay is universal.
After Thompson missed the dunk attempt in the beginning of his trip, he immediately hoped it wouldn’t go viral, but we must be glad for it. For once not so long ago, there was Ping-Pong Diplomacy, then Muhammad Ali visited China, then Yao Ming went to the NBA, and now Klay Thompson. With a strained relationship to China under the current administration, few things can be said to be better for sports-based U.S.-China diplomacy than #ChinaKlay, and the world is better for having him.
Cover photo from NBA China.Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) walked out of a meeting Thursday afternoon with an ultimatum over his head and his health vote uncertain. President Trump had just ordered a vote on his endorsed plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, a bold attempt to break Republican rebels and ram the plan through the House. Meadows led one of the rebel groups, the House Freedom Caucus, and Trump had forced him into a choice: back a bill that Meadows said left too much of Obamacare in place, or shun it and allow the whole law to stand.
This is The Art of the Deal in action, one reporter said, as Meadows emerged from the gathering of House Republicans. “Yeah, I read his book too,” Meadows replied, smiling. “In order to get the best deal, you always have to be prepared to walk away.”
Trump had walked away. “The president wants a vote tomorrow one way or another,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) said, walking out of the same meeting. “If it doesn’t pass, we’re moving beyond health care.”
The next 18 hours would be a test of Trump’s move — whether it would succeed and Trump would be hailed as a master negotiator, or whether conservatives like Meadows, and moderates with their own concerns, would call his bluff and defy him on the floor.
It would end with Trump folding.
For a moment, Trump looked like he was in control
Late Thursday, it appeared as though Trump had, after days of negotiations and grim-looking whip counts, found a path to victory in the House.
That day, he invited both the conservative Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group — the moderate Republicans in the conference worried the bill was moving too far to the right — to the White House. Everyone thought they had the ear of the president, and the power to demand more from him in the bargain.
“Anytime you don't have 216 votes, negotiations are not totally over," Meadows had said after the White House meeting. “Whether the vote is tonight, tomorrow, or five days from here... we're going to get to the finish line.”
Trump, though, had decided he was done negotiating.
That news came down to House Republicans in their conference meeting Thursday afternoon. Party leadership tried to marry the pressure of an impending Friday vote with a rallying cry for party unity. It was working. Strongly conservative members of the House stood up and publicly changed their votes to yes — even some in the Freedom Caucus, Meadows confirmed.
Not everyone was swayed. After the meeting, Freedom Caucus members Dave Brat (R-VA) and Raúl Labrador (R-ID) piled into an elevator to meet with members of their caucus. But they would have “nothing to report,” Brat said.
Their chair, Meadows, was still a no vote, but a more sheepish one. He admitted there was a “motivating” argument against opposing the bill: It would leave Obamacare as is.
Faced with a list of amendments Trump and House leaders had made to the bill — all of them making it more conservative — Meadows paused. “That’s true the deal has improved,” he conceded. “I’ve got to run the numbers tonight,” as if to imply there was room in his stance.
The momentum shifted again on vote day
On Friday morning, the halls of the Capitol were quiet. On the House floor, debate on the bill had begun. Democrats denounced it with rousing speeches and giant poster boards.
The Republican side of the room was almost empty. The House was in the motions of moving toward a vote, but with every hour, social media brought more news of GOP defections. The fervor of Thursday night had given way to Friday morning sobriety, of unpopular provisions and constituent pressure.
Trump’s negotiating had moved to Twitter, trying to whip conservative votes. “The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!” he tweeted.
By 10 am, Mo Brooks, a Freedom Caucus member, came out a firm no: "I will vote against the American Health Care Act because it has more bad policy than any bill I have ever faced," he said.
Then Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), the chair of the Appropriations Committee, came out as a no, concerned about the loss of coverage in his “Medicaid-dependent state.” By 1 pm, Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), an ally of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s who had been notably silent on the bill, followed suit.
Part of the “Coverage Caucus,” members concerned that the American Health Care Act would take away health insurance from too many people, Comstock is among the handful of Republicans representing a district that voted for Hillary Clinton in November. The final concessions made to the Freedom Caucus, repealing essential health benefits like maternity care and mental health, had lost her vote.
Trump’s attempt at a balancing act was faltering.
“I think if it passes, it passes by two,” Collins said in the early afternoon, talking about his own whip count. “I have 21 hard no’s and another 20 on the bubble. Let's put it this way: They want to vote no. If it goes down, it goes down by 40.”
Nothing could be changed that wouldn’t lose votes on either side of the caucus, and Trump’s ultimatum was souring the conference.
Paul Ryan went to the White House, the end
The clock was running out.
Just a few hours before the 3:30 vote on Friday, Ryan paid Trump a visit, reportedly to tell him their efforts had come short — they didn’t have the votes. Under Trump’s previous instruction, this would mean the bill would die on the floor.
But at 3:35, House Republicans weren’t casting their votes — they were called in to the same room they had been Thursday night. The meeting was short. As the last representatives were pushing through the crowds of reporters to enter the room, Ryan was already leaving the conference from the back door.
“This bill is dead,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) told reporters.
“We appear incapable of passing a bill that all of the conference has run on for multiple election cycles,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said. “I don’t know if we could pass a Mother’s Day resolution right now.”
Trump instructed Ryan to pull the bill, a leadership aide confirmed.
He had folded.
“This is the toughest, thorniest political policy issue that we currently have. My guess is that [Trump] has learned through this process that politics is different than business,” Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) said, on his way to treat his staffers to consolation drinks.
After 17 days, two overnight committee markup sessions, and three manager’s amendments, Obamacare remained the “law of the land,” Ryan said in a press conference.
“It felt like no matter what you did to accommodate people, they came back with a new set of things,” Walden said. “We went a long way.”
Mark Meadows had no comment.walk down Pennsylvania Avenue en route to the White House, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, in Washington. Thousands marched during the 57th Presidential Inauguration parade after the ceremonial swearing-in of President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
A little over 20 million people watched President Obama's second inauguration on television, Nielsen reported Wednesday afternoon.
The ratings agency counted up the viewers across 18 different networks. It said that 20.552 million people watched coverage airing from 10 AM to 4:30 PM on Monday. (CNN was the top-rated cable news network, and NBC the top-rated broadcast network.)
The numbers were a steep drop from Obama's first inauguration, which drew 37 million viewers, and was the second-lowest rating for an inauguration since 1969, as the New York Times' Bill Carter noted.
This is not surprising: TV viewership is down for all programs, not just inaugurations, and second inaugurations are rarely as popular as first ones.Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts
According to the official economic fairy tale, the US economy has been in recovery since June 2009.
This fairy tale supports America's image as the safe haven, an image that keeps the dollar up, the stock market up, and interest rates down. It is an image that causes the massive numbers of unemployed Americans to blame themselves and not the mishandled economy.
This fairy tale survives despite the fact that there is no economic information whatsoever that supports it.
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Real median household income has not grown for years and is below the levels of the early 1970s.
There has been no growth in real retail sales for six years.
How does an economy dependent on consumer demand grow when real consumer incomes and real retail sales do not grow?
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Not from business investment. Why invest when there is no sales growth? Industrial production, properly deflated, remains well below the pre-recession level.
Not from construction. The real value of total construction put in place declined sharply from 2006 through 2011 and has bounced around the 2011 bottom for the past three years.
How does an economy grow when the labor force is shrinking? The labor force participation rate has declined since 2007 as has the civilian employment to population ratio.
How can there be a recovery when nothing has recovered?
Do economists believe that the entire corpus of macroeconomics taught since the 1940s is simply incorrect? If not, how can economists possibly support the recovery fairy tale?
We see the same absence of economics in the policy response to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. First of all, the only reason there is a crisis is because instead of writing off that part of the debt that cannot be paid, as in the past, so that the rest of the debt could be paid, creditors have demanded the impossible -- that all the debt be paid.
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In an attempt to achieve the impossible, heavily indebted countries, such as Greece, have been forced to reduce old age pensions, fire government employees, reduce social services such as health care and education, reduce wages, and sell-off public property such as ports, municipal water companies, and the state lottery. These austerity packages deprive the government of revenues and the population of spending power. Consequently, consumption, investment, and government spending all fall, and the economy sinks lower. As the economy sinks, the existing debt becomes a larger percentage of the GDP and becomes even more unserviceable.
Economists have known this ever since John Maynard Keynes taught it to them in the 1930s. Yet there is no sign of this foundational economics in the policy approach to the sovereign debt crisis.
Economists it appears have simply vanished from the earth. Or, if some are still present, they have lost their voices and do not speak.
Consider "globalism." Every country has been convinced that globalism is imperative and that not to be part of the "global economy" means economic death. In fact, to be part of the global economy means death.
Understand the economic destruction that globalism has wreaked on the United States. Millions of middle class factory jobs and professional skill jobs such as software engineering and Information Technology have been taken away from the American middle class and given to people in Asia. In the short-run this drops labor costs and benefits the profits of the US corporations that offshore the jobs, but the consequence is to destroy the domestic consumer market as jobs that permit the formation of households are replaced with lowly paid part-time jobs that do not.
If households cannot form, the demand for housing, home appliances and furnishings declines. College graduates return home to live with their parents.
Part-time jobs hurt the ability to save. People are only able to purchase cars because they can get 100 percent financing, and more in order to pay off an existing car loan that exceeds the vehicle's trade-in value, in a six-year loan. These loans are possible, because those who make the loans sell them. The loans are then securitized and sold as investments to those desperate for yield in a zero interest rate world. Derivatives are spun off these "investments," and a new bubble is put in place.
When manufacturing jobs are offshored, the US plants are closed, and the tax base of state and local governments declines. When the governments have trouble servicing their accumulated debt, the tendency is not to meet their pension obligations. This reduces retiree incomes -- incomes already reduced by zero or negative interest rates.
This unraveling of consumer demand, the basis for our economy, was entirely obvious at the very beginning. Yet junk economists or hired corporate mouthpieces promised Americans a "New Economy" that would provide them with better, higher paying, cleaner jobs to take the place of the jobs moved abroad. As I have pointed out for more than a decade, there is no sign of these jobs anywhere in the economy.
Why did economists make no protest as the US economy was shipped abroad and deep-sixed at home?
Globalism also devastates "emerging economies." Self-sufficient agricultural communities are destroyed by the introduction of large-scale monoculture agriculture. The uprooted peoples relocate to cities where they become a drain on social services and a source of political instability.
Globalism, like neoliberal economics, is an instrument of economic imperialism. Labor is exploited, while peoples, cultures, and environments are destroyed. Yet the propaganda is so powerful that people partake of their own destruction.BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union and the United States should continue to negotiate the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal as long as possible, despite opposition in many European countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel carries an apple basket as she poses with German 'Apple and Flower Queens' presenting collections of apples from a variety of German orchards ahead of a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, October 5, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel triggered an intense debate in Europe about the free trade deal when he said in August that the talks had failed because Washington did not want to compromise with its European counterparts.
“We are still continuing the discussions about TTIP and I think we should continue them as long as possible,” Merkel told a meeting of the German BGA trade body on Wednesday. “We will never fall below the standards set by the European Union.”
Opponents of the deal argue it would weaken environmental standards and give too much power to multinational companies. But Merkel said a successful deal could “write a new chapter in the history of globalization”.
Gabriel told the BGA trade group he did not believe the TTIP trade talks could be completed this year.
“I expect that we’ll need a new start after the U.S. president election,” Gabriel said.
He said the European Union’s free trade deal with Canada, which had set high standards for protections, would help prevent adoption of a European-U.S. deal that offered worse conditions.
BGA President Anton Boerner told the meeting: “TTIP may be the last chance for Europe to participate in a trade deal that allows us to set the standards for global trade.”
Such standards might not please everyone, but they would “definitely be better than the ones that other countries without democracy and respect for human rights would write,” he said.
U.S. and European officials have said they expect talks on the trade deal to continue at least until a new U.S. president is sworn in next January. Some German and French officials have said it might be helpful to resume the talks under a new name.
A senior German government official said Germany expects an intense debate at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington this week on the growing risks of populism and growing opposition to free trade.
“For us and also many others, a free world economy, free movement of goods and no protectionism are basic pillars of an order that we have always advocated and supported,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is likely to stress at the IMF meeting that Germany’s investment rate is above the European average and that Berlin plans to further boost domestic demand with additional tax cuts, the official said.
The IMF maintained its forecast for weak global growth on Tuesday and warned that further stagnation would fuel more populist sentiment against trade and immigration that would stifle activity, productivity and innovation.Mary Carde, Cherrybrook He's waiting for the queen to give him some heirs.
Arthur Grey, Wentworth Falls What causes the headache you get when you eat ice-cream too fast? Ice-cream headache is caused by "crossed wiring" or "convergence" in the sensory system of the head. Cold liquids, solids or gases passing over the palate and pharynx stimulate cold receptors there and these send nerve messages to the brain. In the brain, some of these incoming messages inadvertently junction with brain cells that also receive signals from parts of the head that help process the sensation of headache. This fools the brain cells - and hence the ice-cream eater - into thinking a headache is occurring. Ice-cream headache is much more common and intense in people who have an underlying headache disorder such as migraine. This suggests that both ice-cream headache and migraine are at least partly the result of "wiring defects" or an oversensitive sensory alarm system.
Dr Geoff Lambert, Headache Research Laboratory, University of NSW The dentist's bill for the filling.
Nathan Smith, Bondi Have there been any documented or anecdotal cases of death from overdoses of wasabi, chilli or other hot spices? Very improbable. After ingestion just be sure to eat lots of ice-icream as an antidote. Later, when you're in a private, seated position, you'll be so glad you had ice-cream for dessert.
Ken Rose, Chatswood I recall hearing about a US Marine Corps cadet who was forced to drink a bottle of tabasco sauce during "hazing" (what the Americans call bastardisation) and died.
Julian Mallett, Hughes ACT Why don't dogs have belly buttons? They do. Like all mammals, dogs are viviparous; they give birth to live young. When the pup is born the umbilical cord is bitten through by the mother and the remains wither away and fall off, leaving a belly button. The mother licks her pups regularly; saliva promotes healing and in most puppies the hole heals cleanly. It is not always easy to see the belly button in an adult dog and admittedly, dog belly buttons don't look quite like the human version, being basically an elongated scar, often hidden by hair, located just astern of the rib cage.
David Buley, Seaforth Why do people raise their arms above their heads in victory?
Their sweat has a triumphal scent (it's a little-known scientific fact) and it depresses the opponents even more as it evaporates. The invention of deodorant, however, has made this action obsolete - but the motion and purpose behind it is embedded in the human subconscious. Catherine Mah, Chatswood Any answers
- Why do you sometimes feel more energetic and awake the day after a late night than you have all week after eight hours' sleep a night? - Why is the image of the unshaven male so popular in advertising but deemed unattractive and sloppy in daily life?
- Who was Simon, and why do we have to do what he says? - Where is the Universe? - What is the origin of "tickled pink"?
- What and where |
Super Bowl, of course.
For the purposes of today's post, I'll stick with the initial list of 88 names. And that list brings the number of future Pro Bowlers drafted by the Dallas Cowboys over the last 10 years to 13 players. Here's the full list of those 13 players:
Drafted Round Pick Name Pos Pro Bowls 2007 1 26 Anthony Spencer DE 1 2007 6 178 Nick Folk K 1 2008 1 25 Mike Jenkins DB 1 2008 2 61 Martellus Bennett TE 1 2010 1 24 Dez Bryant WR 2 2010 2 55 Sean Lee LB 1 2011 1 9 Tyron Smith T 4 2011 3 71 DeMarco Murray RB 3 2011 6 176 Dwayne Harris WR 1 2013 1 31 Travis Frederick C 3 2014 1 16 Zack Martin G 3 2016 1 4 Ezekiel Elliott RB 1 2016 4 135 Dak Prescott QB 1
Martellus Bennett and Dwayne Harris both made the Pro Bowl after they left Dallas, but they were drafted by the Cowboys so they count against the Cowboys' tally. As you probably gathered from the title of this post, those 13 future Pro Bowlers drafted by the Cowboys over the last 10 years are more than any other team drafted over the last 10 years.
The Cowboys are often believed to have an advantage in Pro Bowl voting because of their popularity, which is probably true in a general sense, but that popularity didn't help this year's 12-2 Cowboys land more than five spots on the Pro Bowl roster this year, so there's that. And it's not like the Cowboys padded their stats by somehow having more draft picks over the last 10 years than other teams. Far from it.
Since 2007, the Cowboys have selected 81 players in the draft, 13 of which went on to make at least one Pro Bowl. That's a "success rate" of 16%. Here's how that success rate compares across the league over the last 10 years.
MOST PRO BOWLERS DRAFTED SINCE 2007 Team Draft Picks Pro Bowlers in % Dallas 81 13 16.0% Kansas City 83 12 14.5% Carolina 70 10 14.3% Minnesota 83 11 13.3% New Orleans 59 7 11.9% Seattle 88 10 11.4% NFL average 2,552 219 8.6%
Pro Bowlers are often used a measure of a GM's quality, and if that measurement has any merit, the Cowboys' GM ranks at the very top of the league over the last 10 years. How can that be, knowing that the oft-ridiculed Jerry Jones is the GM in Dallas, some would ask?
Mac Engel of the Star-Telegram, who's made a living off criticizing Jerry Jones, dejectedly penned an article yesterday in which he predicts (with a lot of snark) that Jones will be a Hall of Famer soon. Along the way he explains why Jerry Jones gets all the blame and none of the credit for what happens in Dallas.
As a general manager of an NFL team, he can't win even when his team does. No matter what he does as the GM of the Cowboys, he will never receive the credit, but will always be handed the blame. The Cowboys are enjoying one of their best seasons in his near 30-year tenure, and how often do you hear anyone praising him? The perception is that when the Cowboys win, it's either blind luck or somebody else's doing; if the Cowboys lose, it's on Jerry.
One reason for that perception is that people often confuse what Jerry does with what a GM on many other teams does. Regular GMs spend countless hours every day watching film, watching practice and evaluating their players, draft prospects and free agents. Jerry Jones doesn't do that, or at least doesn't spend nearly the amount of time on those tasks as a regular GM does. Instead, Jerry has his guys who do that work for him. These days, 'his guys' are Will McClay, Jason Garrett, and Stephen Jones, along with recent addition Lionel Vital. And the quality of those guys has a direct impact on the quality of the players the Cowboys have drafted.
The following table illustrates that in stark numbers, as we look at the numbers over Jerry Jones' entire tenure, but split them into three distinct periods: the Jimmy Johnson years, the Larry Lacewell years, and what for a lack of a better term we'll call the Post-Lacewell years:
1989-1993
Jimmy Johnson
1994-2002
(Switzer/Gailey/Campo) 2003-2016
(Parcells/Phillips/Garrett) Pro Bowl % 20% (13 of 65)
7.8% (6 of 77)
17.0% (19 of 112)
NFL average 9.0% 11.1% 9.9% Cowboys NFL rank No. 1
No. 29
No. 1
Note that these numbers only contain drafted players who made the Pro Bowl, not the undrafted players, where the likes of Tony Romo, Miles Austin, Matt McBriar, and L.P. Ladouceur would make the Cowboys' numbers look even better, though this would likely be true for other teams as well.
Jerry Jones got off to a great start with Jimmy Johnson, and a large part of their joint drafting success is owed to the Hershel Walker trade, which gave the Cowboys some great ammunition in the draft. That brief period of brilliance was followed by a long, dark period during which Larry Lacewell was in charge of scouting, Jerry Jones got more involved in the draft, and a succession of head coaches led the Cowboys to ever worse season records. The Cowboys revamped their scouting operation once Parcells was brought in, and despite unmitigated disasters like the 2009 draft, the Cowboys of the last 14 years have put together a pretty good draft record compared to their NFL peers.
Here's a further breakdown by the last three coaching regimes:
03-06, Bill Parcells 07-10, Wade Phillips 11-16, Jason Garrett Pro Bowl % 19.4%
18.2%
14.6%
NFL average 13.3% 11.8% 6.4% Cowboys NFL rank No. 4
No. 3 No. 1
The Bill Parcells Cowboys delivered Pro-Bowlers at a rate similar to that of Jimmy Johnson, but without the benefit of a Hershel Walker trade. Again, note that the Pro Bowls from the UDFAs brought in under Parcells are not included here.
Parcells helped the Cowboys improve their scouting organization, and although Wade Phillips gets blamed for a lot of things in Cowboys Nation, his tenure did bring the Cowboys six Pro Bowlers in Dez Bryant, Anthony Spencer, Mike Jenkins, Nick Folk, Sean Lee, and even Martellus Bennett, who in 2014 finally got his first Pro Bowl nomination with his third NFL team.
Garrett's tenure has seven Pro Bowlers to its credit so far (Tyron Smith, DeMarco Murray, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Dwayne Harris), but that number could easily increase over the coming years. Even so, under Garrett's tenure, the Cowboys have a higher Pro Bowl percentage among their draft picks than any other team in the league.
I'm generally very cautious about using Pro Bowls as a measure for anything, especially given the vagaries of the voting process and the recent inflation of alternates, but since Pro Bowls are often used as a proxy for the success of a GM, we'll take them at face value today.
The Cowboys are far from perfect in their drafting. They've done a pretty good job with their first-rounders, but their second-rounders over recent years haven't quite panned out the way the team had hoped. And if you're looking for reasons to criticize the Cowboys front office, like so many observers seem to enjoy doing, you'll find reasons aplenty in the lower rounds as well.
But overall, the Cowboys have done better in the last ten drafts than most other teams, and if you take future Pro Bowlers as your success criteria, the Cowboys have outperformed every other NFL team.
So the next time somebody wants to tell you how good their team's front office is and how the Cowboys' front office has no clue, ask them how many Pro Bowlers their front office has drafted recently. You'll find that conversations tend to end pretty abruptly after that.
NFL Teams ranked by percentage of draft picks to make 1+ Pro Bowls, 2007-2016INDIANAPOLIS -- Chicago Bears coach John Fox and general manager Ryan Pace received multiple opportunities Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine to give quarterback Jay Cutler votes of confidence but declined, leaving their sessions with the media taking noncommittal stances on the signal-caller.
Fox said he met recently with Cutler but has not decided about the quarterback's future.
"We're not up against a deadline," Fox said. "My experience has always been that you need to gather the information, and in turn, you usually make better decisions. We're in that process, and we'll keep you posted."
Bears coach John Fox said he met recently with Jay Cutler but has not yet decided about the quarterback's future. AP Photo/Paul Sancya
One component of the evaluation process is simply getting to know Cutler, Fox said.
"Well, I think just getting to know him [is important]," Fox said. "You know, everybody's got perceptions. But I think that getting to know the guy, this is a relationship business, and that takes time. So I don't want to stand up here and give you a final evaluation when I'm maybe a quarter through the test."
Pace echoed Fox's comments, saying the team plans to "maximize" the time it has to make a quarterback decision and be thorough.
"Cutler has outstanding physical talent, there's no denying that. It's just getting to know the individual and all of the other intangibles that make a great quarterback," Pace said. "Again, that's what we're doing now. That really takes getting to know the person, right? So that's the process we're going through. Me and John have both been around all different kinds of quarterbacks, it's just figuring out him as a person."
When it comes to a young quarterback versus a veteran, Pace said he has no preference and just wants the best guy because of how critical the position is. The Cutler evaluation will go further than a two-, three- or four-year window, Pace said.
"There's certain things that were happening last year that might have been tough for him, and so we're going to analyze that and go further," Pace said. "The quarterback position is the hardest position to evaluate, so I think the more games we can look at, the more evidence, the more accurate we can be with our decisions."
Cutler set Chicago's season-single record in completions (370) during the team's 5-11 2014 campaign and posted career highs in completion percentage (66) and passing touchdowns (28). But Cutler tied Philip Rivers for most interceptions in the NFL with 18.
Cutler also lost six fumbles to lead the league in turnovers and was benched for a Dec. 21 loss to the Detroit Lions in favor of backup Jimmy Clausen, who had played for Fox in Carolina.
The Bears met with recently released quarterback Josh McCown at the combine Wednesday to discuss a possible reunion. McCown played for Fox in Carolina (2008-09), and spent three seasons with the Bears (2011-13), before signing a two-year deal to join former Bears coach Lovie Smith in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers released McCown on Feb. 11.
Cutler's $15.5 million base salary for 2015 is guaranteed, and $10 million of the quarterback's 2016 salary is guaranteed if he's still on the roster on the third day of the new league year (March 12).
"Some of it's obvious with deadlines," Fox said. "They don't start until March. We're going to take the full amount of time to gather information, visit and build a relationship, and hopefully make the best decision for our organization. I don't think there's any question that there's ability and talent there. But there's a lot more that goes into it, and we're evaluating as we speak."
Cutler owns a regular-season record of 61-58.CONCORD — A New Hampshire House Committee on Tuesday rejected a bill that sought to legalize a casino in the state.
CONCORD — A New Hampshire House Committee on Tuesday rejected a bill that sought to legalize a casino in the state.
The House Ways and Means Committee decided Tuesday in an 11-9 vote not to recommend passage of legislation that would license one casino with up to 5,000 video slots and 150 table games. The proposed regulations are much more extensive than were in the bill killed by the House last year, but limits on the number of video slots allowed and other details about a new casino are nearly identical.
Gov. Maggie Hassan has long argued that New Hampshire should legalize a casino to capture gambling profits that otherwise will be spent in Massachusetts casinos.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
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— A suspected burglar was wounded early Thursday when a Goldsboro woman shot him in the chest in her backyard, authorities said.
Wayne County deputies found Christopher Todd Brogden, 28, wounded in the yard of a home on Providence Church Road at about 4:30 a.m. He was listed in stable condition at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.
Paige Ham, 28, told deputies that she heard a noise in back of her home, looked out a window and saw the lock on her storage building was missing. While her roommate called 911, she went outside with a gun to see if anything had been stolen, she said.
As Ham approached the storage building, a man ran out toward her, and she fired one shot, hitting him, she told deputies.
Investigators said Ham won't be charged in the shooting, but charges are pending against Brogden in connection with the break-in.Image caption The Lotus Sutra was discovered in 1931
A rare Buddhist manuscript, discovered by cattle grazers in 1931, has been released in book form in India.
The Lotus Sutra was found in Gilgit region, now in Pakistan.
The document, which dates back to 5th century, is perhaps the only Buddhist manuscript discovered in India.
Believed to be one of the most revered Buddhist scriptures, it represents the discourse delivered by Buddha towards the end of his life.
The Gilgit Lotus Sutra is kept at the National Archives of India in the capital, Delhi.
'Important find'
The book - a facsimile edition which is an exact replica of the manuscripts - will be launched by the National Archives jointly with the Institute of Oriental Philosophy and Soka Gakkai, a Japan-based non-governmental organisation recognised by the UN.
"This will help greatly to preserve the rare documents for posterity and make them available for future research," Prof Mushir-ul Hasan, Director General of National Archives of India, said.
The manuscripts were discovered in a wooden box in a circular chamber inside a Buddhist stupa by cattle grazers who brought the box to the Wazir of Gilgit.
The Wazir of Gilgit sent it to the Maharaja of Kashmir in Srinagar.
The document was studied by Hungarian-British archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein who announced the important find to the world.
Officials at the National Archives say the ancient manuscripts managed to survive for centuries because they were written on the bark of the bhoj (birch) tree which does not decay and were kept in the freezing sub-zero temperatures of the Gilgit region.
The Lotus Sutra is one of the most sacred scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, which is strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.She is a feminist. And one out of two Swedish womenaccusing Julian Assange in sweden..The case is from Assange not wearing a condom,which for some reason is illegal if you have sex with a feminist in sweden.She has been working in Cuba, Palestine and some other exotic places.She is extremely well connected.Like the guy on the Foreign Ministry that handles the Assange case,whose a close friend to her. MMM!What can one expect from a country that names their shoes…Slutspurt…meaning final sale..lol
New word for today; feministisk inrätta
Meaning; feminist set up
Revealed: Assange ‘rape’ accuser linked to notorious CIA operative. The dildo shoe wearer from sweden is also “a gender equity officer at Uppsula University. When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along. Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity. Dildo shoes and her co-accuser did not complain to the police but rather “sought advice”, a technique in Sweden enabling citizens to avoid just punishment for making false complaints.In a House floor rant on Friday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) railed against gender transition-related health care for transgender troops by comparing the procedure to the Ottoman Empire’s practice of castrating slaves.
King, who has a long history of offensive comments, delivered his floor speech after the House rejected a measure intended to reverse an Obama-era requirement that the Defense Department pay for service members’ hormone therapies and gender reassignment surgeries. The amendment proposed by Republican Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler was narrowly voted down 214-209.
“What they did in order to keep them from reproducing was that they did reassignment surgery on those slaves they had captured, that they had put into their janissary troops,” King said. “And that reassignment surgery was they took them from being a virile, reproductive male into being a eunuch.”
King claimed that transgender individuals would enlist in the Army just to have gender reassignment surgery.
“This policy, clearly enacted, clearly advertised, is a neon sign for people that want to have sexual reassignment surgery,” King said.
“They will line up at the recruiter’s office, and they’ll go into the office…and the military will be saying ‘We had to turn this person away because they were too heavy. And this one had flat feet. And this one had a bad eye. And this one had a congenital defect of one kind or another.’ But if they don’t have those, and they want sexual reassignment surgery, we’ll cut ’em up and remake ’em into something different to the tune of $3.5 or nine billion dollars over a 10 year period of time, and put ’em off in the recovery room for two years before we can put them to work and use ’em.”
“Can you imagine someone…taking up a bed in Walter Reed hospital, maybe a roommate with someone who was hit by an IED. Someone who lost a couple of legs, amputated, in the dangerous, dangerous service of the freedoms of our country. Can you imagine those two beds side by side? One of ’em missing a couple of legs, or an arm, or an arm and a leg, or two arms. And the other one saying, ‘Well, I just came in for sexual reassignment surgery.’ I won’t say the next things in my mind.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) also railed against allowing transgender people in the military, arguing that transgender members of the U.S. military are an “advertising bonanza” for “radical Islamists,” and that being transgender is a “type of lifestyle.”
“When it’s advertised that the United States Congress is in favor of taking men and surgically making them into women with the money that they would use to protect the nation otherwise…then it is an advertising bonanza for the radical Islamists,” Gohmert said.
“Because my Muslim friends tell me, the recruits, you’re right, if that’s how stupid they are, this society has no right to remain on the earth. We need to take them out. They are too stupid.”
ThinkProgress’ Annabel Thompson noted that Gohmert had referred to these unnamed “Muslim friends” earlier in his speech: “friendly Muslims — Muslim friends, yes, I do have them from around the world.”
“We will take that money that could save another member’s life, and we’ll spend that on this expensive surgery to change your organs, maybe cut ’em off or add some,” Gohmert said, referring to gender reassignment.
“Congresswoman Hartzler’s attempt to strip healthcare from service members and their families in a time of war was unpatriotic, unc onstitutional, and just plain vile, we are pleased to see that the House of Representatives voted down this amendment,” OutServe-SLDN executive director Matt Thorn said in a statement. “It would have been harmful to trans servicemembers, spouses, and families with trans children; it would have undermined our mission readiness by degrading our capabilities as a fighting force. OutServe-SLDN will continue to support and defend our trans brothers and sisters in any and all legal and advocacy matters.”
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter lifted the ban on transgender people serving in the military last year and troops have been able to access “medically necessary” treatment since October of last year, reports Time.
Time adds:
In late June, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delayed the enlistment of new transgender troops, originally planned to begin on July 1 of this year, giving the branches a further six months to assess whether that change will affect the “readiness or lethality” of the force. Transgender troops already serving in the military were not affected by the decision.
The Williams Institute estimates that there are roughly 8,800 thousand active duty military members who are transgender.
Other research has suggested the number could be as low as 1,500. However, it should be noted that not all transgender people need or want surgical treatment.Script For Broken Lizard’s ‘Super Troopers 2’ Turned In; ‘Beerfest’ Sequel ‘Potfest’ Likely Too
Those who follow the Broken Lizard comedy team have been awaiting word that Super Troopers 2, the sequel to their classic 2001 indie comedy, is officially happening for a long, long time. And will continue to wait.
Last we heard a script for the movie had been completed, but some legal complications had to be sorted out first. Now comes word that said script has been turned in to Fox Searchlight, but said legal complication still needs to be worked out. If it is—and they do seem to think it will eventually be resolved—then the movie is a go.
Details of this legal issue are unknown, though Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan, two Broken Lizard members who were promoting their new (non-Lizard) movie The Babymakers (which is directed by Chandrasekhar, stars Heffernan, and arrives in theaters and on VOD services this Friday, August 3rd—Read our review here!), spoke to ComingSoon and shared an update.
The duo said:
“We’re hoping to make ‘Super Troopers 2’ as a group if we can work out a legal situation with Fox Searchlight. They’re into [it], they like it. We’ve written a script, we’ve handed it into them, they loved the script. We have an issue with the first film and the accounting so if that can all be resolved, I think we’ll end up making it.”
Another popular movie from Broken Lizard is 2006’s Beerfest, which isn’t as beloved as Super Troopers but is about as good as drinking with friends movies get. At the end of that movie, a sequel called Potfest was joked about with a Willie Nelson cameo. But fans liked the idea too much to let it remain a joke and voiced their excitement to see it become an actual movie.
Apparently, surprising as it may be, Potfest is also a possibility:
“We’ll also probably make ‘Potfest,’ which was a joke, but then Willie (Nelson) said he would do it, and Snoop Dogg and Cheech (Marin), they both said they would do it and we’re like, ‘We can probably do this.’ You go into the TSA, that’s the number one movie they ask for. I think there may be an audience for that.”
Again, nothing is official yet. But it is looking more and more likely that both Super Troopers 2 and Potfest are a matter of time and patience from fans.
Are you excited to see these sequels from Broken Lizard? Or are you more into their original comedies?Nintendo Goes Steampunk: Awesome Gameboy Case Mod
Steampunk mods are a dime a dozen these days, but it’s rare to see one that actually makes us want to pick it up and play with it. This Gameboy case mod from customizer extraordinaire Thretris is beautiful, well-done and oh-so-begging for us to plug in a cartridge and start playing.
The entire case has been painted in a lustrous distressed gold and adorned with gears, springs and tubes to heighten the Victorian feel. The red LED has been switched out for an orange one, and it even boasts a pro sound mod to make the sound output louder.
Thretris says this mod took him about a week to complete, and judging from the way he touches it in the above video, he’s pretty fond of it. According to his website he may even consider selling it, so if you’re in the market for the awesomest steampunk gadget we’ve ever seen, hop on over there – or take a look at his gallery and see if you can figure out how to make one of your own.Vegan banana blueberry muffins are just as delicious as bakery muffins but without the eggs and dairy!
Can you believe it’s June? I can’t! It seems like the warm weather takes forever to get here, and then once it arrives, the nice, warm, sunny months just start flying by. Oh well.
Since it’s June, that means that more and more delicious fruits and vegetables are in season, hooray! I can’t wait until there is more variety at the Farmer’s Market here, which probably won’t be until July. I’ve been pretty happy with the berry selection at the grocery store lately – we found some HUGE blueberries the other day. Is it bad that I go through the carton and pick out the biggest ones to eat rather than put them in whatever I’m baking? I can’t help it.
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These vegan banana blueberry muffins are so simple, and so tasty. They are super easy to mix up, and are really moist due to the banana and the almond meal. I used whole spelt flour, but if wheat is not a problem for you, you can use whole wheat flour.
5 from 2 votes Print Vegan Banana Blueberry Muffins. Moist and flavorful blueberry muffins made without eggs or dairy. Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 25 minutes Total Time 35 minutes Servings 18 Calories 240 kcal Author Kelly Roenicke Ingredients 2 1/2 cups whole spelt flour
2/3 cups almond meal
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup organic canola oil
2 ripe bananas mashed
2/3 cup non-dairy milk
1 cup fresh blueberries rinsed and patted dry Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, combine spelt flour, almond meal, sugars, salt, and baking powder. Add mashed banana, canola oil, and non-dairy milk. Stir to combine. Add blueberries and stir gently. Pour batter into muffin tin - fill cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Makes 18 muffins. Nutrition Facts Vegan Banana Blueberry Muffins. Amount Per Serving Calories 240 Calories from Fat 99 % Daily Value* Total Fat 11g 17% Sodium 137mg 6% Potassium 166mg 5% Total Carbohydrates 32g 11% Dietary Fiber 3g 12% Sugars 17g Protein 3g 6% Vitamin A 0.6% Vitamin C 2.3% Calcium 6.7% Iron 6.6% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
adapted from Bakerita.
These are the perfect weekend breakfast or brunch muffin! I also think that these muffins look so good – I really want to try them!
I’m looking forward to more blueberry recipes as summer goes on. And strawberry recipes…pretty much ALL the berries! :)L. L. Zamenhof developed Esperanto in the 1870s and 80s and published the first publication about it, Unua Libro, in 1887. The number of Esperanto speakers has grown gradually since then, although it has not had much support from governments and international organizations and has sometimes been outlawed or otherwise suppressed.
Standardized Yiddish [ edit ]
Around 1880, while in Moscow and approximately simultaneously with working on Esperanto, Zamenhof made an aborted attempt to standardize Yiddish, based on his native Bialystok (Northeastern) dialect, as a unifying language for the Jews of the Russian Empire. He even used a Latin alphabet, with the letters ć, h́, ś, ź (the same as in early drafts of Esperanto, later ĉ, ĥ, ŝ, ĵ) and ě for schwa. However, he concluded there was no future for such a project, and abandoned it, dedicating himself to Esperanto as a unifying language for all humankind.[1] Paul Wexler proposed that Esperanto was not an arbitrary pastiche of major European languages but a Latinate relexification of Yiddish, a native language of its founder.[2] This model is generally unsupported by mainstream linguists.[3]
Development of the language before publication [ edit ]
Zamenhof would later say that he had dreamed of a world language since he was a child. At first he considered a revival of Latin, but after learning it in school he decided it was too complicated to be a common means of international communication. When he learned English, he realised that verb conjugations were unnecessary, and that grammatical systems could be much simpler than he had expected. He still had the problem of memorising a large vocabulary, until he noticed two Russian signs labelled Швейцарская (švejtsarskaja, a porter's lodge – from швейцар švejtsar, a porter) and Кондитерская (konditerskaja, a confectioner's shop – from кондитер konditer, a confectioner). He then realised that a judicious use of affixes could greatly decrease the number of root words needed for communication. He chose to take his vocabulary from Romance and Germanic, the languages that were most widely taught in schools around the world and would therefore be recognisable to the largest number of people.
Zamenhof taught an early version of the language to his high-school classmates. Then, for several years, he worked on translations and poetry to refine his creation. In 1895 he wrote, "I worked for six years perfecting and testing the language, even though it had seemed to me in 1878 that it was already completely ready." When he was ready to publish, the Czarist censors would not allow it. Stymied, he spent his time in translating works such as the Bible and Shakespeare. This enforced delay led to continued improvement. In July 1887 he published his Unua Libro (First Book), a basic introduction to the language. This was essentially the language spoken today.
Unua Libro to Declaration of Boulogne (1887–1905) [ edit ]
Unua Libro was published in 1887. At first the movement grew most in the Russian empire and eastern Europe, but soon spread to western Europe and beyond: to Argentina in 1889; to Canada in 1901; to Algeria, Chile, Japan, Mexico, and Peru in 1903; to Tunisia in 1904; and to Australia, the United States, Guinea, Indochina, New Zealand, Tonkin, and Uruguay in 1905.
In its first years Esperanto was used mainly in publications by Zamenhof and early adopters like Antoni Grabowski, in extensive correspondence (mostly now lost), in the magazine La Esperantisto, published from 1889 to 1895 and only occasionally in personal encounters.
In 1894, under pressure from Wilhelm Trompeter, the publisher of the magazine La Esperantisto, and some other leading users, Zamenhof reluctantly put forward a radical reform to be voted on by readers. He proposed the reduction of the alphabet to 22 letters (by eliminating the accented letters and most of their sounds), the change of the plural to -i, the use of a positional accusative instead of the ending -n, the removal of the distinction between adjectives and adverbs, the reduction of the number of participles from six to two, and the replacement of the table of correlatives with more Latinate words or phrases. These reforms were overwhelmingly rejected, but some were picked up in subsequent reforms (such as Ido) and criticisms of the language. In the following decade Esperanto spread into western Europe, especially France. By 1905 there were already 27 magazines being published (Auld 1988).
A small international conference was held in 1904, leading to the first world congress in August 1905 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. There were 688 Esperanto speakers present from 20 nationalities. At this congress, Zamenhof officially resigned his leadership of the Esperanto movement, as he did not want personal prejudice against himself (or anti-Semitism) to hinder the progress of the language. He proposed a declaration on founding principles of the Esperanto movement, which the attendees of the congress endorsed.
Declaration of Boulogne to present (1905–present) [ edit ]
World congresses have been held every year since 1905, except during the two World Wars.
The autonomous territory of Neutral Moresnet, between Belgium and Germany, had a sizable proportion of Esperanto-speakers among its small and multiethnic population. There was a proposal to make Esperanto its official language.
In the early 1920s, a great opportunity seemed to arise for Esperanto when the Iranian delegation to the League of Nations proposed that it be adopted for use in international relations, following a report by Nitobe Inazō, an official delegate of League of Nations during the 13th World Congress of Esperanto in Prague.[4] Ten delegates accepted the proposal with only one voice against, the French delegate, Gabriel Hanotaux.[citation needed] Hanotaux did not like how the French language was losing its position as the international language and saw Esperanto as a threat. However, two years later the League recommended that its member states include Esperanto in their educational curricula. Many people see the 1920s as the heyday of the Esperanto movement.
In 1941, the Soviet Union started performing mass arrests, deportations, and killings of many Esperantists and their relatives for fear of an anti-nationalistic movement, but it was interrupted by the Nazi invasion.[5]
Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf[6] that it was created as a universal language to unite the Jewish diaspora. The creation of a Jew-free National German Esperanto League was not enough to placate the Nazis. The teaching of Esperanto was not allowed in German prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. Esperantists sometimes were able to get around the ban by convincing guards that they were teaching Italian, the language of Germany's closest ally.
oktobro among other translations. A Soviet calendar page for 22 October 1935 including the Esperantoamong other translations.
In the early years of the Soviet Union, Esperanto was given a measure of government support, and an officially recognized Soviet Esperanto Association came into being.[7] However, in 1937, Stalin reversed this policy. He denounced Esperanto as "the language of spies"[citation needed] and had Esperantists exiled or executed[citation needed]. The use of Esperanto was effectively banned until 1956.[7] While Esperanto itself was not enough cause for execution, its use was extended among Jews or trade unionists and encouraged contacts with foreigners.
Fascist Italy, on the other hand, made some efforts of promoting tourism in Italy through Esperanto leaflets and appreciated the similarities of Italian and Esperanto.
Portugal's right-wing governments cracked down on the language from 1936 until the Carnation Revolution of 1974.[citation needed] After the Spanish Civil War, Francoist Spain cracked down on the Anarchists and Catalan nationalists among whom the speaking of Esperanto had been quite widespread; but in the 1950s, the Esperanto movement was tolerated again,[8] with Francisco Franco accepting the honorary patronage of the Madrid World Esperanto Congress.[citation needed]
The Cold War, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, put a damper on the Esperanto movement as well, as there were fears on both sides that Esperanto could be used for enemy propaganda. However, the language experienced something of a renaissance in the 1970s and spread to new parts of the world, such as its veritable explosion in popularity in Iran in 1975. By 1991 there were enough African Esperantists to warrant a pan-African congress. The language continues to spread, although it is not officially recognised by any country, and is part of the state educational curriculum of only a few.
Evolution of the language [ edit ]
The Declaration of Boulogne [1] (1905) limited changes to Esperanto. That declaration stated, among other things, that the basis of the language should remain the Fundamento de Esperanto ("Foundation of Esperanto", a group |
ected specimen, it offered an education to anyone passing by.
There wasn't a solid bottom or back, and every exterior surface was covered with fabric. Inside was a wooden chassis, solid hardwood and plywood. The hardwood was joined together in spots with rows of staples. I'd never seen that before.
The springs were remarkably sparse. This half-couch only had about six springs for the seat, and another six for the back. They ran parallel to each other, separated by the world's cheapest twine.
This couch would usually be used with cushions on the seating, so the seat area wasn't padded very much.
The slope of the back was defined by the curl of those springs, except the top angle was aided a bit by a little bump of added foam. Well, I guess it is a strip of foam, shown here you can only see the cross-section.
The mysteries of this couch are dispelled!
Except... how did this couch get cut in half in the first place? Was this done to keep an infested couch from finding a new home? Were enterprising copper thieves delving into a brave new world? Did General Zod practice his heat vision on it? Was it divided by King Solomon in a divorce settlement?
We may never know.
Levitra Couches (2005)Pick up a new iPhone and, as part of the setting up process, you will be asked to connect a bank card to the device. After a straightforward confirmation process, your smartphone is now capable of making payments just as a contactless-enabled card is, with all the ease of getting out the phone you're likely clutching anyway. Samsung is set to release a similar system, Samsung Pay, by the end of March.
However, this is just the start of a movement towards alternative means of payment that will make even the process of removing your card from your wallet seem downright inconvenient. The card has not been stripped of its necessity, but we are entering a world in which payment is more flexible than it ever has been, with multiple devices capable of making different kinds of transactions. The average US citizen makes 376 non-cash purchases every year, and this number is only set to grow alongside the availability and diversity of wearable tech that doubles as a contactless card.
Global investment in financial technology (FinTech) jumped from $4 billion in 2013 to $12 billion in 2014, and wearable payment tech is just one offshoot of it. The growth is part of a wider trend of changes to financial services - from P2P lending to the increase in use of digital currency - and the advancements could benefit both bank and saver. For one, the use of different technologies makes less likely the chance of a false decline, a security measure in place when spending money abroad, designed to protect against fraud. The value of false declines hit $118 billion per year, according to the Financial Times, 13 times the amount lost to actual fraud. And at MWC 2016, held in Barcelona, the future of payment technology - and payment security - was on display.
Smart rings, fitness trackers, smart watches and more all have the potential to make payments in the very near future. Not only are the big financial incumbents focusing their efforts, startups specializing in the field are burgeoning. The ways in which alternative payments are being brought to market is interesting, too. Topshop's partnership with bPay - Barclaycard's contactless division - has already brought into existence a number of 'bespoke products' fitted with bPay, from wristbands to smartphone covers to keychains. And, as the technology hits the high street (as well as smartphone contactless payment becoming a more normalized means) any public scepticism surrounding alternative payment methods should erode, and the range of available products will only grow.
Topshop's inclusion of bPay has been matched by the fact that Hublot and Bulgari watches are set to have WiseKey introduced, giving them payment capabilities. These are both early examples of high street adoption taking to the public what has, up until recently, been the domain of the financial services. Payment capability is arguably the most functional of the otherwise gimmicky additions to wearables to be developed recently, and it seems it is here to stay, as more innovative security solutions promise to assuage lingering public scepticism.
MasterCard, one of the key proponents of alternative payment methods, announced in 2015 that they had successfully - alongside Canadian biometrics company Nymi - completed the first wearable payment system to be authenticated by the user's heartbeat. The wristband, which detects the wearer's unique heartbeat pattern, executes a payment when held up to any terminal that accepts MasterCard. Its lack of other functionality makes it a relatively inviable product at present but its functionality could be feasibly put into watches or designer jewellery.
But perhaps the most eye-catching of the security conscious developments on show at MWC 2016 was MasterCard's'selfie pay'. A natural graduate from the improvements in fingerprint recognition technology - buying on mobile can utilize TouchID, for example -'selfie pay' can be used to authenticate more expensive transactions. The system, which uses facial recognition, commands a blink to confirm that you are more than simply a 2D photograph, and authorizes the transaction. The technology may initially seem gimmicky, but the process is actually very secure and is being designed to replace SMS password systems and relatively laborious pin-entry processes. The mobile is becoming a payment hub and if contactless card is a little insecure for your liking, unless you have an identical twin, selfie-pay could be for you.We here at Coilhouse are enthusiastic proponents of body mods. Be it through hair, fashion or tattoos, we’re all about the power of transformation! Sandy Paws Grooming Shop feels the same way.
If you’re in California and possess a large curly canine, you can call up Sandy Paws for a transformation of your pets’ very own. A cut, a color and a bit of vision go a long way, as these images prove. Why settle for a pedestrian poodle when you can have a blue peacock? Or, how about a camel, a ninja turtle, or even a dragon?
Don’t let your furry friends protest! After all – what do they know about beauty? Here is their chance to transcend their earthly shell and be born anew. This is no time for reservation, so don’t be shy. Let your fantasy run wild and they’ll thank you in the end...Right? You decide, while you check out some of my other favorites under the jump.
Posted by Zoetica Ebb on January 5th, 2009
Filed under Adornment, Art, Crackpot Visionary, End of the World, Faboo, Flora & Fauna, Hair, Lifestyle, Silly-looking typesOver a decade ago, a team at Blizzard took up accessibility as its mantra and made a game called World of Warcraft. A man named Mark Kern led them through countless UI iterations in search of the easiest and most intuitive interface; he directed them to build huge numbers of quests, ensuring the player never had to worry about where to go next.
Now though, Kern works at Red 5 Studios on a game called Firefall. And he worries he helped Blizzard make a terrible mistake.
“It worked,” he says. “Players came in droves, millions of them. But at what cost? Sometimes I look at WoW and think ‘what have we done?’ I think I know. I think we killed a genre.”
Kern pinpoints one particular problem with what he describes as the “creeping casualness that permeates all MMOs” – a gradually flattening difficulty curve. He believes that a sense of achievement is the first casualty of easier questing, and soon enough reaching max level becomes the only real challenge in the game – hence the contemporary MMO player’s obsession with the ‘endgame’.
“Nobody stops to admire a beautiful zone or listen to story or lore, because there is no time to do so,” he explains in a lengthy blog post. “You are fed from a fire-hose of quests that you feel compelled to blaze through, whose content is so easy and quick to accomplish, that you are never in one place long enough to appreciate the incredible world around you. We feel bored by these quests, simply watching numbers on our quest trackers count down to completion before we are fed the next line of quests.”
As a consequence, says Kern, we lose the “whole journey in between”.
The knock-on effect of all this is that developers have no motivation to design intricate or unique quests, knowing that players will simply burn through them with their eyes locked on the horizon.
“This makes the situation even worse, as not only do we not have a sense of accomplishment, but we enjoy these quests chains less and less as they become simpler and more cookie-cutter,” Kern despairs. “The moment to moment gameplay suffers.”
Eventually, Kern writes, developers end up driving away the very players they’d hoped to attract. But this is no slippery slope argument – it’s already happened.
“No wonder we have such a huge crowd of jaded and bored MMO players,” says Kern. “Every MMO that follows the WoW formula is a trivial exercise, dominated by rote and convention, trading off the joy of the journey for a series of meaningless tasks. And when we race to the end, we expect some kind of miracle end-game that will keep us playing.
“It never does.”
With Firefall, of course, Kern hopes to provide an antidote to this – instilling a little challenge and depth into a field long-starved of both. If you’re a former MMO fan, let us know: do you think he’s managed to put a finger on what’s wrong with the genre?
Thanks, Shacknews.Anti-Poverty Groups Alarmed At Obama Budget
Anti-poverty groups are upset at deep cuts in President Obama's budget affecting programs that help low-income people, including community service block grants and low-income energy assistance. They argue that cutting such aid will hurt the nation's economic recovery by targeting those struggling to get back on their feet.
MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
As NPR's Pam Fessler reports, the groups are worried now about how the president's opening bid will influence what happens on Capitol Hill.
PAM FESSLER: The first warning that things would be tough came in the State of the Union address when President Obama talked about the deficit. Advocates for the poor took note of two lines especially.
BARACK OBAMA: I propose cuts to things I care deeply about, like community action programs.
FESSLER: And then he added this.
OBAMA: But let's make sure that we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
JEANNIE CHAFFIN: And that is exactly right. We don't want to do that.
FESSLER: Jeannie Chaffin is with the National Association for State Community Services Programs. She and others plan to make this point repeatedly in the coming months. Chaffin says the president's plan to cut Community Services Block Grants in half would devastate one of the country's biggest anti-poverty programs, which now serves about 20 million low-income Americans.
CHAFFIN: There's a lot of need out there that we can't meet at this current funding levels.
DANA JONES: Cut this building in half. In fact, half of the debt on this building is paid for with that block grant.
FESSLER: Dana Jones runs the community action agency in Washington, D.C., one of more than a thousand such agencies across the country. He's mad that he's been targeted for cuts while things like entitlements and taxes have been left alone. His agency provides job training, Head Start, housing, tax preparation and other services for the poor.
JONES: The least employable, those who are marginalized in this society. And quite honestly, if we're not willing to address that population, then America can't succeed.
FESSLER: Deborah Weinstein is executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, an advocacy group for the poor.
DEBORAH WEINSTEIN: In a way, the president seems to have gone out of his way to show that he was serious about reducing the deficit by cutting programs that he does care about. That is not much comfort to the low-income people who will be affected and harmed by these cuts.
FESSLER: And one of the most controversial is a proposal to reduce home energy assistance for the poor by about $2.5 billion.
RALPH MARKUS: A lot of homes would be cold, basically, is what would happen.
FESSLER: Ralph Markus administers the program in Maryland. He says about 50,000 households in the state could lose help paying their heating and other energy bills.
MARKUS: It also potentially can be a health risk. A lot of our families are families with either disabled persons or a lot of elderly apply for the program.
FESSLER: Linda Couch, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, thinks more housing aid is needed. But she says...
LINDA COUCH: I would say, all in all, the president seems to have recognized how critical these safety net programs are. We just hope that, you know, this isn't the high-water mark.
FESSLER: Pam Fessler, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Participants
We conducted this randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial at 11 academic medical centers and associated medical practices in the United States. Enrollment of patients took place from July 2004 through July 2008. Staff members at each center enrolled patients 45 to 75 years of age who had at least one colorectal adenoma removed within 120 days before enrollment, had no remaining polyps after a complete colonoscopy, and were anticipated to undergo a 3-year or 5-year colonoscopic follow-up examination recommended by the treating endoscopist. Eligible patients were in good general health and did not have familial colorectal cancer syndromes or serious intestinal disease. We did not include patients who had conditions that indicated that the study agents would pose a health risk (e.g., a history of kidney stones or hyperparathyroidism) or who had conditions that would indicate a need for either agent (e.g., osteoporosis). We also did not include patients who had a serum calcium level that was outside the normal range, a creatinine level that was more than 20% above the upper limit of the normal range, or a 25-hydroxyvitamin D level that was lower than 12 ng per milliliter or higher than 90 ng per milliliter.
Study Design and Oversight
In a partial factorial design, we evaluated four regimens, all of which involved two identical tablets taken daily: 1000 IU of vitamin D 3, 1200 mg of calcium as carbonate, both agents, or placebo. Women could elect to be randomly assigned to receive either calcium or calcium plus vitamin D (two-group randomization); all other patients were randomly assigned to receive one of the four regimens (full factorial randomization). The doses of study agents were chosen to increase the total intake substantially, with a margin of safety below the highest mean daily intake level believed unlikely to cause adverse effects in most people at the time that the trial began (2000 IU of vitamin D and 2.5 g of calcium).22 In accordance with the protocol, study treatment was to continue until the anticipated 3-year or 5-year colonoscopic examination.
At enrollment, participants provided information regarding demographic data, medical history, medications, nutritional supplements, behavioral factors, and diet (using the Block Brief 2000 food frequency questionnaire [Nutritionquest]). Enrollment was followed by a placebo run-in period of 56 to 84 days to identify and exclude participants who were considered unlikely to follow study procedures. Subsequent randomization by the coordinating center was performed with the use of computer-generated random numbers with permuted blocks and stratification according to clinical center, sex, anticipated colonoscopic examination at 3 years or 5 years, and full factorial or two-group randomization. All study staff were unaware of the treatment assignments, with the exception of the data analyst and statistician, some of the programmers, and pharmacy personnel.
Participants agreed to avoid taking study agents outside the trial. However, because of increasing publicity regarding the possible benefits of these supplements (especially vitamin D), daily personal use of up to 1000 IU of vitamin D, 400 mg of elemental calcium, or both were permitted, although discouraged, from April 2008 onward.
Participants were contacted by telephone every 6 months and queried regarding adherence to study agents, illnesses, medication and supplement use, dietary calcium intake (see the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org), and colorectal procedures. Records were collected that included data on major medical events, colorectal surgical procedures, and endoscopic examinations. Two physicians who were unaware of the study group assignments adjudicated the diagnosis of adverse events. Bottles of study tablets were mailed to participants every 4 months. Patients who wanted to take a multivitamin were offered a special preparation that did not include calcium and vitamin D. The study intervention ended on August 31, 2013; the treatment-phase follow-up continued until November 30, 2013, to accommodate the final 5-year participants.
Blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, calcium, and creatinine were measured at baseline and at year 1, as well as at year 3 for participants with 5-year surveillance cycles. The level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was also measured shortly before the end-of-treatment examination. The laboratory methods are described in the Supplementary Appendix. Levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were seasonally adjusted according to the month in which the blood was drawn (see the Supplementary Appendix). The net change in 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels was defined as the posttreatment level minus the pretreatment level in participants who received vitamin D, minus that difference in participants who were given no vitamin D.
The study end points included all adenomas that were diagnosed in any colorectal endoscopic or surgical procedure at least 1 year after randomization and up to 6 months after the anticipated 3-year or 5-year colonoscopic examination. A single study pathologist who was unaware of the treatment assignments reviewed the slides for all excised colorectal lesions. We distinguished between lesions that were proximal to the splenic flexure and lesions that were more distal. Advanced adenomas were defined as those with cancer, high-grade dysplasia, more than 25% villous features, or an estimated diameter of at least 1 cm. Study diagnoses were compared with the diagnoses made by the pathologists at the clinical centers. Discrepancies were resolved by means of a detailed adjudication procedure (see the Supplementary Appendix).
The study was conducted and reported in accordance with the study protocol, which is available at NEJM.org. The authors designed the study, analyzed the data, wrote the manuscript, and vouch for the completeness and accuracy of the data and analysis. Pfizer Consumer Healthcare provided the study agents. No institution or company affected the analysis or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
All participants provided written informed consent; the research was approved by the institutional review board at each center. An independent data and safety monitoring committee oversaw the study.
Statistical Analysis
In our primary analysis, we compared the risk of one or more adenomas after randomization to vitamin D versus no vitamin D, calcium versus no calcium, and calcium plus vitamin D versus calcium alone. Participants who did not undergo the anticipated colonoscopic examination at 3 years or 5 years were included in the analysis if they had had a colonoscopic examination performed at least 1 year after randomization. The sample size and statistical power considerations are described in the Supplementary Appendix.
Figure 1. Figure 1. Subgroup Analysis of the Effects of Supplementation with Calcium or Vitamin D on the Development of One or More Adenomas. The body-mass index (BMI) is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters. NSAID denotes nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug.
In the prespecified primary analysis, contingency tables and standard chi-square tests were used for the comparison of adenoma occurrence among randomized groups. The calcium analyses included only the participants who underwent full-factorial randomization. Subsequent multivariable generalized linear models for binary data were used to estimate adjusted risk ratios and confidence intervals. The covariates were age, sex, clinical center, number of baseline adenomas (one, two, or three or more), anticipated 3-year versus 5-year surveillance interval, and two-group versus full-factorial randomization. Clinical centers were grouped geographically when necessary because of sparse data. One subgroup analysis was prespecified: the effects of vitamin D in participants with baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels below the overall median level were compared with the effects in those with levels above the median level. Eight additional post hoc subgroup analyses were conducted, as described in Figure 1. Interactions were assessed with the use of Wald tests. For interactions with variables that had more than two levels, we used a one-degree-of-freedom test for trend over medians within strata. In all analyses of randomly assigned treatments, participants were evaluated according to their assigned treatment group, regardless of their adherence to the study treatment and procedures. Sensitivity analyses were conducted with imputation of missing end points as either adenomas or no adenomas.
In a post hoc observational analysis, we similarly assessed associations between adenoma risk and baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels among participants who were not randomly assigned to take vitamin D, as well as the association between adenoma risk and baseline calcium intake among participants who were not randomly assigned to receive calcium. The analyses were adjusted for a number of covariates, including (but not limited to) age, clinical center, surveillance interval (3 or 5 years), and number of baseline adenomas (one, two, or three or more).
Two-sided P values of less than 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Statistical analyses were conducted with the use of SAS software, version 9.4 (SAS Institute), and STATA software, version 12 (StataCorp).Story highlights Typhoon Utor makes landfall with gusts of 200 kilometers per hour
Philippine authorities report one person dead and 20 missing
It's the strongest storm anywhere in the world so far this year
More than 650 houses are damaged in one coastal province
The world's strongest storm of the year so far plowed across the northern Philippines on Monday, killing at least one person and leaving 20 fishermen missing.
Packing winds as strong as 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph), Typhoon Utor made landfall early Monday on the east coast of the Philippine island of Luzon, damaging hundreds of houses.
"It's the strongest typhoon we've had so far on the planet this year," said CNN International meteorologist Samantha Mohr. "So that gives you some idea of the magnitude of this system."
Utor, known in the Philippines as Labuyo, churned west-northwest over Luzon, dumping heavy rain on the island's hilly terrain and bringing the risk of landslides. It weakened as it moved over land, and by Monday afternoon, it had begun to head out into the South China Sea.
Aid groups in the Philippines, which had been preparing for the storm's arrival for several days, said they were only just beginning to assess the situation on the ground in the hardest-hit areas.
"There's a high risk that part of the population may get isolated because of landslides and difficulty moving around," said Anna Lindenfors, country director for Save the Children in the Philippines.
The country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported one death in the province of Benguet on Monday afternoon.
Twenty fishermen who had headed out to sea before the storm's arrival remained unaccounted for, the agency said. But dozens of others who had initially been reported missing had returned home safely, it said.
The agency reported damage to 673 houses in the province of Aurora, where the storm made landfall.
The typhoon destroyed nearly 80% of the infrastructure in Casiguran, a town that lay in Utor's path across the province, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported.
The storm tore apart rickety houses and ripped the roof off a local hospital, the local broadcaster said, showing images of flattened homes buried under fallen trees.
Situated near an area of the Pacific Ocean where typhoons form, the Philippines regularly suffers severe storm damage.
An average of 20 typhoons hit the Southeast Asian country every year, and two or three of those cause serious damage, according to Plan International, an aid and development organization.
Utor is expected to pick up more strength over the warm waters of the South China Sea over the next day or so before making landfall on the southern coast of China on Wednesday.Design team Cristina Taranu and Reiner Mengesdorf united in 2006 to create the company Reinerland. Cristina lived in Romania and Reiner in Germany, prior to moving to New York City. Together they show an eye for color and play with diverse metal textures, drawing from technical skill and their fine arts backgrounds.
Cristina developed an interest in jewelry design while working in theatre, which led her to becoming a student at Studio Jewelers Ltd. Reiner is a visual artist who has exhibited his abstract paintings in New York, Europe and Japan.
The jewelry collections are sculptural in their roots with an infusion of organic style and beauty. Seeking unique stones from all over the world for their original details, together they create a form of art that is both playful and bold. Each piece is carefully handcrafted and honed in their New York studio.At some point or another, it became an unspoken routine.
Hilda and Ed Hawkins would park their Toyota Camry at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, where they lectured three days a week, and Hilda would get out and peer up at the World War II-era crane overlooking the parking lot.
"I know," Ed told his wife. "Don't even say it."
She hardly needed to: Anyone could see the crane badly needed maintenance. Its peeling burgundy paint was giving way to a grimy, brown-and-orange rust, and pigeons had long since laid claim to the operator's cab at the top, flying through an open window to nest.
Now the museum is raising money to restore the 100-foot-tall, 74-year-old crane. Officials say the project could take more than a year and cost as much as $500,000.
Renderings show the crane cleaned and repainted a sea-green color called "shipyard green" with yellow accents, and lit up in various colors at night. Museum executive director Anita Kassof said she hopes the crane will be "a landmark in this neighborhood."
Photos from inside the cab of a 1942 crane on the grounds of the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Photos show the cleaning process inside the crane, which had become home to birds over the years. Read more about the project. (Courtesy of Butch Cummings with Ace Environmental) (Courtesy of Butch Cummings with Ace Environmental)
"This neighborhood is improving all the time, there are more and more people here, and I think they deserve something better than a crane which looks like it needs repair," she said.
The first step? Evicting the birds — and cleaning out 25 years' worth of droppings.
Three workers from Ace Environmental in Curtis Bay donned HAZMAT suits and went up in a cherry picker lift to spend five hours scraping, shoveling and disinfecting the inside of the cab. All told, they removed an estimated 500 pounds of guano.
"It had a pretty foul odor to it," said Nick McDevitt, a field technician who lives in Glen Burnie.
Allan Cooper, an environmental supervisor from Pasadena, said the floor wasn't stable in some places. "You've got to watch your step," he said.
The windows were re-sealed the next day to keep the pigeons from returning. An inspection, 3-D scan, engineered drawing and platform removal also concluded last month. The first phase of the project cost just under $25,000.
The next will involve putting up scaffolding, removing the boom, scraping the old paint and rust off the crane and repainting it — a $325,000 process that will begin when it's fully funded.
Museum officials then plan to spend $150,000 to outfit the crane with LED lights.
The museum has raised more than $12,000 in an online fundraising campaign and will continue to accept donations.
The project won a $15,000 grant from the Baltimore National Heritage Area, one of only eight competitive grants the nonprofit awarded this year, executive director Jeff Buchheit said.
The nonprofit has also funded repairs to the Carroll Mansion, the Patterson Park marble fountain and the front facade of St. Vincent de Paul church in Jonestown this year.
The crane that stands outside the Baltimore Museum of Industry is slated for some renovations and upgrades. These photos show how the crane appears now and how those involved with the project anticipate it will appear when the updates are complete. Read more about the project. (Ashton Designs rendering) (Ashton Designs rendering)
When Baltimoreans list the city's landmarks, Buchheit said, they generally name the usual suspects: the Bromo Seltzer tower, the shot tower and the Washington Monument, among others.
"I doubt currently that anybody would rattle off the crane as one of Baltimore's icons," he said. "But hopefully after this work is done, it'll be in that list."
The 100-foot-tall Bethlehem Steel Clyde Model 17 DE 90 crane was built in 1942 by the Clyde Iron Works Company of Duluth, Minn. The model was called a "whirley crane" because it could turn 360 degrees.
For three years during World War II, it was part of an unprecedented shipbuilding effort.
Steelworkers used the crane and others like it at the Bethlehem Steel Fairfield Shipyard to build about one-sixth of the nation's Liberty cargo ships, and in record time.
By September 1943, the shipyard was building the ships in less than a month, and launching one every 35 hours, according to the Maryland Historical Society.
The shipyard's employment peaked at 46,700 workers, who flooded to Fairfield from all 48 states. More than 90 percent of those hired were inexperienced in shipyard work, the historical society wrote in "Maryland in World War II," a set of historical volumes prepared for the state by the War Records Division.
"On a number of occasions during the war," the historians noted, "Bethlehem-Fairfield led all East Coast yards in production."
When the Fairfield Shipyard closed at the end of the war in 1945, the crane was moved to Pier 3 of the Bethlehem Steel Key Highway Shipyard. It remained there for nearly 40 years, helping workers repair and convert warships into commercial vessels.
It was the last crane standing when the Key Highway Shipyard closed in 1982. Harborview Limited Partnerships, which bought the waterfront land, donated it to the Museum of Industry in 1991.
It was disassembled and loaded onto barges for the trip down the harbor to the museum's parking lot, where it was painted and put back together at its current location, straddling the exit.
To select a new paint color, museum officials and designers pored through old photographs. They found one from the early 1980s that showed the crane was originally green, said Jeremy Hoffman, a senior designer at Ashton Designs.
"The current color scheme really blends in with all the red brick of the neighborhood," Hoffman said. "We said, 'Let's look back to history and get what the crane originally looked like.'"
The inspiration for the lights came from the Titan Clydebank in Scotland and the Uljanik Shipyard in Croatia, he said. Both have become nighttime tourist attractions for their spectacular light displays.
Ashton Designs created the National Bohemian sign atop Brewer's Hill, the former Tide Point sign in the Inner Harbor and the scoreboard and clock for Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Hoffman said he sees similar potential in the crane.
"Old buildings having reinvented lives," he said. "To see this crane have a reinvented life as well, it's a really nice parallel to what you see going on in the rest of the city."
Michael Raphael, president of Direct Dimensions in Owings Mills, took a 3-D scan of the crane that can be printed to scale and used for surface area and other measurements.
Raphael compared the work, which his firm did free of charge, to a scan he did of the Washington Monument last year.
"These are monumental pieces with a high degree of exposure and importance," he said. "Among many other things, these are the first things that this laser scanning technology should be applied to."By Bilby
“Step light, strike hard.”
The ultra-rare PAX Sivir will return to the grid with new colors as Neo PAX Sivir, craftable with 10 gemstones from 31/8/17 at 19:00 BST until 8/1/18 at 07:59 GMT, when it will return to the Legacy vault. Neo PAX Sivir will also drop as a skin shard, which has an increased chance to appear in the new Epic Capsules.
Epic Capsules do not require a key and contain three skin shards, with one guaranteed to be Epic or higher. They have an increased chance to drop gemstones, and the store will also feature a bundle of five Epic Capsules with a bonus Hextech Chest and Key. Epic Capsules will be available from the 31/08/17 until 8/9/17 at 07:59 BST for 750 RP each.
Owners of the original PAX Sivir skin will automatically receive Neo PAX Sivir and a special loading screen border for their OG skin. The original PAX Sivir will NOT be given away, added to loot, or made available again.Click here to view the news article Legal Issues Send us feedback about this article
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Click here to login Scientist fired by Merial alleges Heartgard Plus coverup Dr. Kari Blaho-Owens seeks damages, whistleblower protections
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Kari Blaho-Owens, Ph.D., makes that claim and others in a
Blaho-Owens, hired in 2006 as Merial's head of global pharmacovigilance, contends that Merial executives deliberately suppressed studies showing that Heartgard Plus is losing efficacy and fired her when she refused to destroy documents questioning the drug’s effectiveness.
Heartgard Plus is primarily marketed to prevent heartworm infestation in dogs. It contains ivermectin and pyrantel, two broad-spectrum antiparasitic agents. The meat-flavored chewable tablets are given monthly to dogs to control hookworms and roundworms, in addition to preventing heartworms.
In a statement to the VIN News Service, Merial officials promised to "vigorously defend the case."
"At Merial, we stand by the effectiveness of our products," the statement says. "Merial is confident that the Heartgard (ivermectin) brands are highly effective when used in accordance with their FDA-approved labels. Heartgard Plus is the number-one choice of veterinarians for the prevention of heartworm disease — a serious threat to dogs."
By contrast, the 29-page lawsuit alleges active disregard by Merial executives to the possibility that Heartgard might not be 100-percent effective — even after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA CVM) repeatedly asked Merial to change the product’s label and notify veterinarians that in some cases, Heartgard Plus had not worked as advertised.
The drug's eroding efficacy wasn't news to the company, the lawsuit contends, insinuating that Merial executives had known of mounting troubles with the effectiveness of Heartgard Plus since at least 2000. The FDA
The lawsuit states that Dr. Felipe Dolz, then-director of Merial's regulatory affairs, believed that acknowledging that Heartgard Plus is less than 100-percent effective on the label would put Merial at a marketing disadvantage unless the CVM posed an industry-wide policy that would equally affect competitors.
The FDA spent four years pressuring Merial to lose the 100-percent effectiveness claim in reference to Heartgard Plus until the company complied in 2006. But another CVM-issued warning letter came in 2007, this time alleging false advertising. The CVM challenged Merial's promotional verbiage that claimed using Heartgard in pets would control the spread of zoonotic diseases to humans, though there was no scientific evidence to support that claim.
Behind closed doors, Merial officials blamed the appearance of efficacy troubles with Heartgard Plus on a surge in product sales and lack of compliance on the part of owners — not a product failure, the lawsuit says. But Blaho-Owens found the statistical analysis and methodology of an internal investigation that allowed Merial to come to those conclusions to be steeped in flawed science. Among her criticisms, Blaho-Owens noted that Merial's study was not blinded and evaluated just 7 percent of all Heartgard Plus-related adverse event cases. Her own cursory investigation demonstrated that Heartgard Plus had an approximate 20-percent failure rate, the lawsuit says.
Upon pushing higher ups to conduct more sound analysis of the drug's efficacy, the lawsuit says Blaho-Owens was shut down. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Merial improperly filed adverse event reports with the CVM, effectively burying the ones that showed efficacy troubles with Heartgard.
A query to the CVM seeking insight into the legitimacy of the lawsuit’s claims was not immediately returned. The CVM lists more than 26,000 adverse event reports involving oral ivermectin and pyrantel — active ingredients in Heartgard Plus — but regulators do not tie brand names to the events, and several other manufacturers make pet parasiticides with formulas containing those chemicals. Furthermore, though ineffectiveness is named as an impetus for some of the adverse event reports, a variety of other reactions are listed.
In September 2009, Blaho-Owens was notified of a
Rather than destroying the document (the contents of which are not detailed in the lawsuit), Blaho-Owens reported the request to Merial's legal counsel, Adam Bassing. It was then that she learned that the class-action lawsuit related to Merial's refusal to change its labeling as initially ordered by the FDA in 2002.
She also learned of another Merial whistleblower who had accused the company of falsifying sales data — figures that Blaho-Owens relied on to perform her own safety and efficacy analysis for the FDA and international regulatory authorities |
take action. But more specifically, this perspective results from a misattribution of what motivation really is.
Motivation is a not an emotional or psychological state per se, but a label we apply to the successful repetition of a behaviour.
Think about this for a second. When you first start a new behaviour – learning to meditate, designing your first website, tackling a new project at work – are you really in a state of motivation, or are you focused on the outcomes of the action? For many of our biggest goals, we put up with short term uncomfortable feelings in pursuit of a long term vision. This is because creating value in the world takes time. Occasionally, starting a new behaviour is coupled with a sense of enthusiasm, but this too is primarily tied with the longer vision of where the action will lead.
The takeaway from this is not to wait until you feel motivated, but to restructure your thoughts around a new behaviour to take action, then use strategies to make that action into a habit. When people look at us, they’ll see a continuity of action towards a goal and call us motivated.
How do we change our emotions to help kickstart a habit?
The first thing you need to do is view the thought “I don’t feel good to take action” as a cognitive distortion – an irrational thought that your mind is using to justify your current state and protect against potential uncomfortable feelings at some point in the future. In CBT this is called Emotional Reasoning and has been shown to be a primary cause of inaction that is often experienced with depression. It’s based on the idea that emotions are reactions to thoughts, which always precede and elicit how we feel. As such, changing your thinking can go a long way to changing how you feel.
Next, re-evaluate your distorted thought and replace it with a rational one. For example, “I’m not in the mood to meditate” might become “I might not feel great at the moment, but learning to meditate is important to me. I know the value of it on my well-being and know that it is capable of changing negative moods into positive ones.”. The key here is to try and remove the block by telling your subconscious mind that actions are elicited for their desired consequences, not because an emotional state propels us to behave.
This exercise can be performed in your head, but to get the most out of it try writing down the distorted thought, the name of the distortion (i.e. Emotional Reasoning), and the rational response to it. This will help feed the information into your subconscious and go a long way to disrupting the thought pattern.
The last step – you guessed it – is to take a small action towards the new habit. If you’re learning to meditate, stay where you are and take 3 deep breathes or do a minute of square breathing. How does that make you feel? Better than before? Is it easier for you now to now sit down and focus on your breathing for 5 minutes?
If so, congratulations. You’ve just created the start of a new habit and motivated yourself into action.
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If you liked this post, please sign up to our newsletter and get our free ebook The Dharma on Accomplishing Anything.‘ The Walking Dead ’ season 3 shambles out its first entry with premiere episode “Seed,’ but how does it hold up to the comic book continuity?
After many months out on the road, Rick Grimes and the other survivors happen upon a prison facility that could sustain them long-term, but also poses them with the deadly task of clearing out the hundreds of walkers within first. So, what’s next for ‘The Walking Dead’ as the new season goes on?
As AMC's incarnation weaves in and out of storylines from the books and adds its own original characters and developments, we've compiled an in-depth guide for fans of the comic as well as AMC's The Walking Dead to enjoy! Check it all the comparisons we found and let us know your thoughts on ‘The Walking Dead’ season 3 premiere “Seed" in the comments below!
AMC/Image
1. ON THE ROAD AGAIN…
AMC : Following the climactic events of ‘The Walking Dead’ season 2 finale “Beside the Dying Fire,” it seems that Rick Grimes and his merry band of survivors have continued to press their luck out on the road, some 8 months having passed from last season. Lori is visibly much more pregnant, while both Carl and Hershel have let their hair grow out on the move. The group continues to scavenge from house to house and town to town, charting their progress on a map and taking great care to avoid potential Walker herds.
THE COMICS : After leaving Hershel’s farm (which was never overrun, and in fact Glenn remained there to be with Maggie and the Greenes), the group spent little more than a few weeks scavenging before stumbling on the prison. And while Rick’s group was certainly smart, they were never extensively shown to plot the potential course of undead herds. Smart, really.
AMC
2. CARL, THE CHILD SOLDIER
AMC : Without a house to consistently disappear from, it seems Carl has become quite capable in the past 8 months, carrying his own weapon and maintaining watch duty with the trust, and respect of his father. We could maybe do without the hair, though.
THE COMICS : While Carl had been given a gun as far back as the campsite, he was never seen to be so trusted and proficient at the time the survivors found the prison. Along with the still-living Sophia, the books’ seemingly younger Carl still needed to be watched at most times.
AMC/Image
3. PRISON ON THE HORIZON
AMC : Out hunting, Rick and Daryl are the first to discover the prison, which Daryl dismisses as Rick formulates a plan to make it their new home.
THE COMICS : Much like ‘The Walking Dead’ season 3 premiere, the survivors first laid eyes on the prison while breaking to scavenge for food, though in that case it was Andrea and a still-living Dale who first saw the facility on the horizon.
4. SECURING THE PRISON, PHASE ONE
AMC : The survivors first clean out a fenced-in path to the facility itself, allowing them to at least secure the field before settling down for the night. The next morning, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie and T-Dog form a phalanx to clear out the immediate area outside the cell blocks, attempting never to break rank.
THE COMICS : Securing the initial areas of the prison seemed to take far less effort in the books, as a group consisting of Rick, Tyreese and Andrea managed to clear most of the courtyard hand-to-hand, before an outpouring from inside the facility was put down in a steady hail of gunfire.
5. A MUCH DESERVED REST
AMC : Having secured at least the field, the survivors set up a camp free from the danger of stray walkers, while Hershel muses that he can use the land for farming. Beth even sings a jaunty tune to keep the group entertained. Isn’t that nice?
THE COMICS : Similarly, the group settled down for the night in one of the secure outside areas, prior to emptying out the inside of the prison facility. It wasn’t until a few days in that Rick had the idea to go back and retrieve Hershel and his family from the farm, in the hopes of using his expertise to plant crops at the prison.
AMC
6. CAROL AND DARYL! CARYL!
AMC : Though nothing seems explicitly clear about her intentions, Carol pays a visit to Daryl during his watch duty, and after a moment of Daryl rubbing her shoulders proposes that the two “screw around.” Given they both laugh it off, we can’t quite gleam from the exchange whether something has happened between them before, or will in the future, but it’s the most blatant Carol/Daryl shipping we’ve seen thus far.
THE COMICS : Obviously Daryl Dixon has no comic book counterpart (yet), though he does seem to fit the same role as Rick’s right hand man Tyreese, whom comic Carol was similarly involved with. But not for long…
AMC/Image
7. RICK AND LORI’S MARITAL WOES
AMC : It would seem Rick has grown quite cold toward Lori in the months since killing Shane and taking control of the group, as while he does his best to protect and provide for everyone, especially his wife, he has little interest in talking things out with his wife. Given her affair and the way she pitted Shane and Rick against one another, we don’t blame him.
THE COMICS : Rick was never quite so harsh toward Lori in the books, even though he was on some level aware of her affair with Shane, and the likelihood he was the father of the baby. Granted, Rick wasn’t the one to kill Shane in the books, and it certainly wasn’t something Lori suggested he do, either.
AMC/Image
8. MEET MICHONNE
AMC : While we saw a cloaked Michonne saving Andrea’s life at the end of season 2 finale “Beside the Dying Fire,” Danai Gurira’s official introduction as Michonne sees the sword-swinging zombie slayer stealthily infiltrating a pharmacy, and decapitating several walkers with ease as she picks up some asprin for her companion.
THE COMICS : In the books, Michonne was first introduced saving a still-living Otis’ life on his way back to the prison, similarly dispatching walkers with finesse and skill with her twin “pets” in tow.
AMC/Image
9. SECURING THE PRISON, PHASE TWO
AMC : After clearing out the initial yards, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Maggie and T-Dog first secure Cell Block C to house the other survivors while they explore the darker parts of the facility. The interior of the prison proves especially difficult to secure, with waves of zombies roaming the pitch-black halls, and a labyrinthine structure that forces Glenn to spray-paint arrows on the walls to navigate.
THE COMICS : Rick and Tyreese are the first to explore the interior of the prison, only facing a handful of walkers before stumbling upon the cafeteria. It would take several more trips to clear out other areas of the darkened prison, but the survivors were rarely so overwhelmed indoors as in AMC’s version.
AMC/Image
10. CARL’S NEW BETH FRIEND
AMC : As the survivors settle into their new prison digs, it’s clear that the 13 year-old Carl harbors quite a crush on the girl (now) closest to his age, Hershel’s 17 year-old daughter Beth. Hershel subtly chases Carl off when it seems the boy might want to bunk with Beth, and the look he and his daughter share afterward suggests she knows of the infatuation.
THE COMICS : Not only does Beth have no comic counterpart, but throughout the books Carl has always been closest to the still-living Sophia. The two paraded as boyfriend and girlfriend in the early days of the prison, though in a harmless, “icky” sort of way.
AMC / Image
11. LORI AND CAROL’S FRIENDSHIP
AMC : While Lori and Carol were never shown to be exceptionally close in the first two seasons, it seems the two women have developed quite a rapport, with Carol often helping tend to Lori’s pregnancy needs.
THE COMICS : As women of similar ages with children, Carol and Lori also bonded quite a bit in the books, especially by the time they arrived at the prison. You know, until Carol went crazy, slit her wrists, tried to marry both Rick and Lori, and willingly made herself zombie kibble. But that probably won’t happen on AMC, right? Right?
AMC/Image
12. MICHONNE AND ANDREA, SO CUTE IT MAKES [HER] SICK
AMC : After rescuring Andrea from certain doom, Michonne and her new best friend have spent the better part of 8 months together surviving on the landscape, though it seems for the moment that Andrea has developed a deadly infection. As usual, Andrea resists being cared for or made a victim, and insists Michonne go on without her, before the two set off to find a new place to hole up.
THE COMICS : Comic Book Michonne and Andrea were never shown to be exceptionally close, and in fact didn’t get along in their initial encounters. Andrea once caught Michonne seemingly talking to herself, a fact the woman flatly denied before cursing her under her breath. Over time, the two would grow more friendly toward one another.
AMC/Image
13. SUIT UP!
AMC : Having encountered several walkers outfitted in riot gear, Rick and the others have to work together to put down the undead guards, before salvaging their body armor for the venture inside the actual facility. Some of it was still…a little gooey.
THE COMICS : Glenn and Maggie were the first to discover the prison’s store of riot gear, having found it when they snuck off to…cuddle. Let’s go with cuddle. Glenn had much more fun with the gear in the books, wearing the full armor complete with helmet and visor, even when it wasn’t entirely necessary.
AMC
14. LURKERS!
AMC : Though the term is hasn’t yet been said aloud, the walker that bites Hershel displayed tendencies most similar to a “lurker,” zombies that remain perfectly inanimate until someone living comes close enough to be bitten.
THE COMICS : Much like AMC’s prison, the comic facility held plenty of “lurkers,” zombies who often waited in the dark or remained motionless until easy prey walked by. At least two survivors were bitten in this manor.
AMC/Image
15. HERSHEL DOESN’T HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON
AMC : Searching the prison hallways for the separated Glenn and Maggie, Hershel steps too close to a seemingly motionless walker that suddenly springs to life, and bites his left ankle. After killing the walker, Rick and the others drag Hershel to the nearby cafeteria, before Rick makes the difficult decision to hack off Hershel’s leg to prevent the spread of infection.
THE COMICS : What a twist! In the books, it was Alan who was first bitten in this manner, with Rick again the one to decide hacking off the leg was the only way to survive. Alan ended up dying from the injury anyway, though mostly because the amputation wasn’t performed safely enough. Some time later, Dale too was bitten on the leg by a wayward lurker, though in his case the amputation was successful and Dale ended up living a great deal beyond the prison. Which path will AMC’s Hershel follow, we wonder?
AMC / Image
16. GASP, THE INMATES ARE ALIVE!
AMC : Another twist! As Rick and the others tend to Hershel’s wounded leg in a seemingly abandoned cafeteria, five nervous figures pop up from behind a wall to observe the commotion, as Daryl trains his flashlight to see that all five figures are in fact inmate survivors of the prison! Though five men are seen, the episode’s credits only identify four: Big Tiny, Tomas, Andrew and Oscar.
THE COMICS : Under far less perilous circumstances, Rick and Tyreese burst into the prison’s cafeteria expecting to find a horde of walkers, only to be surprised by the blithe appearances of four living inmates offering them some of their food. From left to right, these inmates were Axel, Thomas, Andrew and Dexter, each of whom would come to have a lasting influence on the survivors.
Only Andrew seems to be a direct adaptation from the comics, minus his hair, though it might be worth noting that the comics’ Thomas and AMC’s Tomas share similar names, if little else. What do you think AMC’s prisoners have in store?
What did you think of The Walking Dead season 3 episode 1, 'Seed'? Did we miss anything else from the comics you might have caught? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check back next week for our in-depth comic-to-TV comparison of episode 2, 'Sick'!Ok now im mad! The reason is I now have to wait an entire year to find out what happens next! This book reminds me of another like it called Revelations by Jessica Souders as well as Breathe by Sarah Crossan. Where they are trying to escape their worlds.
In the short I LOVED IT! I read it in a day and I so want to read more!! I hope to get an ARC of book two way sooner than a year from now! But, at least I have other stories to keep my company until then.
I love how much time Destefano took in creating this new world that hangs in the sky. It didnt bog down the story and it really made you think about what the characters are going through. I would be one on the ship no doubt! I have always wanted to travel the world. I loved all the characters especially Basil whose love is unyielding even after all the world goes to crap!
I think it would be interesting to know when you were going to die like they do in this story. That you are born you are married off and you know who you are going to be married to at a young age. Then you do what you can for your trade and then you are basically killed off. All in around 80 years or so.
It would also be interesting to know who you are going to marry. With them being in 10th grade they already know. It would be neat to form ties that young. I think in some cases it would form bonding relationships. The only sucky thing is if your betrothed dies then you are stuck being along FOREVER and well thats just not cool. That I couldnt live with at all.
Ok so this one is a big giantic 5 stars for me! Now to hunt down a finished signed copy!
"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."\1. Nobody is showing up. In droves.
2. The bar has been raised in Major League Soccer. Columbus isn't even close.
3. Columbus isn't profitable. Not by a longshot.
4. Trolls, trolls, trolls--and lots of 'em! That's Columbus Crew fans.
5. US soccer has no promotion/relegation. Columbus hasn't earned their MLS status.
6. The governor of Ohio himself said Columbus "hasn't created a spark" in 20 years.
7. Other markets deserve a shot after Columbus wasted one for decades.
8. HISTORICAL bad attendance. Not keeping up with MLS.
9. The League loses nothing by losing Columbus.
#SaveTheCrew.If you follow soccer, particularly Major League Soccer, you've seen this sad missive spammed on nearly every soccer-related article online.It's the battle cry of Columbus Crew followers. They're upset that their investor/operator, Anthony Precourt, is planning to move the team to Austin, Texas for a variety of reasons. None the least of which are really terrible fan support, poor civic partnerships, and little to no governmental partnership.And the truth of it is thatFor lots of reasons.Now, unlike Crew "fans"--who seem to just have a hashtag, I have these pesky things called "facts."The Columbus CrewThe Crew "fans" response is that it's the investor/operator's fault. They blame lack of marketing, lack of promotions (not enough Beer Nights for people to get their drunk on), and allude to mysterious plots to keep people from buying tickets.Between 2005 and 2011, the Crew didn't once average 17,000 fans. Only once did they crack 15,000. Twice they got less than 13,000. This is a team without any competition in the realm of major league sports for the majority of their season. And they've had over 20 years to get it right.(The only competition being the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, which are being equally non-supported by Columbus, finishing 27th out of 30 at just 14,665 in 2016.)And here's a telling statistic. The Columbus Crew, in all-time attendance figures--In 21 years, the Crew have averaged over 18,000 one time. Their first year, playing in a 100,000 seat stadium. They averaged around 14,000 four times.So, eight of their 21 years? Well under 15,000. Their all-time average is a paltry 15,450 a season.For the playoffs? It gets even worse.In 2014, BARELY 9,000 showed up for a playoff game. Their all-time average is 13,491. And Crew "fans" would have you believe there is crazy wild undeniable passion for this team. Believe that, and I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.Just this year, a first year franchise, Atlanta United averaged 48,000 per match. And got over 70,000 on several occasions when they opened their stadium's seating completely.For those keeping score, that's over three times the average of the Columbus Crew. In Atlanta's first year.Seattle, 43,000. Toronto, 27,000. Orlando, 25,000. NYCFC, 22,000. These are all teams that haven't had 20 years--in a small market with no competition--to get it right.This year, the league average was 22,000. Columbus averaged 15,000. That's 7,000 less than the league average, for those keeping score at home.A second division USL team down the road, FC Cincinnati, is averaging 21,000. The math is inescapable."Save our team! Even though we aren't showing up and never have!" Sure. We'll all get right on that.According to Forbes, Columbus is the least valuable franchise in Major League Soccer.And also, according to Forbes, they're losing $5 million a year.Why? Well, the first thing would be the Hashtag Warriors who don't actually show up for games.Other factors include little to no TV revenue. Lesser dollars than larger markets in ad and digital ad sales. And no participation by the local business community to make it that way due to the very obvious lack of fan support.Crew "fans" claim they need a TV deal. They apparently don't realize that the NFL started a practice in 1973 of blacking out local broadcasts of games until a certain percentage of tickets were sold to the game. That's good business sense. Why hand out the game for free until the stadium is full?And, as the numbers blatantly indicate, that stadium isn't going to be close to full. Columbus isn't a major market that can trade tickets for a TV contract that can bring huge numbers. Particularly when fan support just doesn't pass the smell test on the part of sponsors or broadcasters.Merchandising? The Columbus Crew didn't have a jersey amongst the league's top 25 best-sellers this season. So that's not really happening, either.The team can't generate revenue, and with the "Hashtags do more than buying tickets" attitude of their "fans"?There's little to no chance anyone--Anthony Precourt or anyone else--is going to just hemorrhage money so "fans" who consider the convenience of NOT showing up to games as their birthright have a team in town."Save our team! Even though we won't even go through the motions by showing up and never have--in order to get local sponsors interested in upping their rate!" Funny how people aren't exactly tripping over themselves to help "fans" who won't show up to games, isn't it?The hashtag. That's what they've got.Now, a SMART group of fans would reach out to other people with an actual appeal. Rather than spamming every single article online with just a hashtag.That, and further troll behavior directed at those who are tired of having their soccer comments section spammed--and respond accordingly with #KillTheCrew.If an article was ABOUT the Columbus Crew? OK. We can all live with that, to some extent.But an article about Minnesota United's first season? About the Sounders-Toronto MLS Cup final? About the struggles of a Houston Dynamo player? Dozens of articles having NOTHING to do with the Columbus Crew? It's tiresome troll behavior that turns more people off from their cause than gains followers.In fact, the "fans" of the Crew loudly crow about their online petition to save the Crew. It has 16,500 signatures. Remember the part where the league average for attendance is 22,000? That's right. After months, they have less than a single MLS game, but think it's a groundswell of support.#KillTheCrew is becoming more and more popular all the time. Nobody is going to help trolls who wouldn't help themselves.Here's the response I got to facts and reality from a Crew "fan" named Jason Woolever who works with Holony Media. Instead of responding with counter arguments, or even insults about my appearance, logic, background, or knowledge--heAnd, in true Crew "fan" form, he showed his class by going full-on sodomy.Classy, huh? And this is just a drop in the bucket. The Crew fans want you to #SaveTheCrew, but they don't like facts about attendance, team value, or any other sort of unflattering reality.And they respond like fourth grade trolls. Time after time after time."Save our team! We'll troll every article till you do! And when you mention that trolling and spamming isn't the best way to earn sympathy and followers? WE'LL MAKE UP TROLL STUFF!" Bright people, these Crew fans.Unlike nearly every league in the world, Major League Soccer has no system of demoting the worst-performing teams on the field, and promoting teams that finish at the top of the lower leagues.Therefore, a Major League Soccer franchise is a golden ticket into the first division of American soccer.Giving them away to cities and fans who won't support their team, or have no reasonable chance of ever being profitable just won't do in this day and age. Not with the Atlantas and Seattles and Orlandos of the world doing things the right way for viable clubs.Losing money, a piteous trollish fan base that won't show up to games, and little chance of becoming profitable via business or government partnership isn't going to cut it with Cincinnati up the road averaging 21,000 a match. Sorry.You don't get to stay forever for free. You've had over TWENTY YEARS, Columbus. Sorry.This is self-explanatory and pretty much makes its own gravy.Apparently, the people in Columbus don't remember the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Or the Miami Fusion.There's precedent in Major League Soccer for underperforming franchises.Cities are vying even now for precious and valuable expansion franchises in MLS. They're stepping up to the plate with agreements to build new, modern stadiums. They're coming to the table with civic and government partnerships.Columbus? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Just "lose money and stay here." Oh, and the trolling.Here's how the Crew finished in attendance rankings for the last ten years. You've seen the actual numbers already. Here's how they're doing amongst their counterparts.2007. 11th of 14 teams.2008. 9th of 15.2009. 9th of 15.2010. 9th of 16.2011. 17th of 18.2012. 14th of 19.2013. 12th of 19.2014. 16th of 19.2015. 16th of 20.2016. 16th of 20.2017. 20th of 22.Tell me again how it's all Precourt's fault. (The 2008 figure is from an MLS Cup winning year. Under 15,000 per match. So, even when the Crew is winning, the stadium isn't full.)The results are in. Nobody's clamoring to #SaveTheCrew. And why should they?The Crew "fans" should long ago have saved themselves. Why should anyone get motivated to leap into action for a bunch of people who a) happily champion their right to troll anyone and anything under the sun, and b) who failed to support their team when they had the chance?The answer is that there is no reason. MLS leaving Columbus is no great loss. No loss at all, in fact.Sure, there was a time of great hope and optimism about a small market team taking hold--a la the Green Bay Packers--then being embraced by the city universally and creating a groundswell of support.It didn't happen. It's been two decades. So, #SaveYourBreath. The Columbus Crew need to die.And Austin needs to start buying tickets.The Raiders dropped a bit of a bombshell on the first day of free agency, releasing former number seven overall pick, Darrius Heyward-Bey along with former eighth overall pick Michael Huff.
The move was somewhat expected for DHB. He was set to make over $10 million next season and with the team looking to cut big contracts, he was a prime candidate. I asked him if he saw the move coming and he spoke plainly.
"Well, you know, you understand the business side of things," said Heyward-Bey. "That's what football is, it's a game but it's also a business. You also prepare yourself that ‘hey, it's very slim that a guy plays his whole career in one place.' So I've always been prepared for that."
The first few years of the young receiver's career were tumultuous ones. From the moment he was drafted, he had harsh criticism from the media and the fans. He was seen as a typical Al Davis speed pick because his resume didn't show enough to suggest he was worth the seventh overall pick.
Yesterday, he tweeted that he was closing one chapter of his life and beginning a new one. I asked him about what he thought of that first chapter.
"Um, you know, ups and downs," he responded. "Didn't start off that great but the way I fought through adversity and the way that I worked on my game, I'm very proud of because I think a lot of people would have folded in a situation like that where I felt like I overcame a lot of bad things."
A great deal of that initial adversity came the moment he was drafted. The most infamous criticism coming from former NFL wide receiver turned analyst, Cris Carter, who latched onto the fact that DHB's highest college accolade was making Honorable Mention ACC. He harped on the words "Honorable Mention" and had the rest of the ESPN draft crew cackling just after they had spoken with Heyward-Bey via satellite.
The "ups and downs" came in his on-field performances during his four years in Oakland. The first two seasons were nothing to write home about. He had a total of 35 catches for 490 yards in those two seasons. The third season was an "up" for him in which he had 65 catches and was 25 yards away from a 1000 yards season.
Then the new regime came in and the receiver who spent three seasons working to prove himself, had to do it all over again for a new coaching staff and front office. They wanted to see if he could duplicate or improve upon his 2011 season, and he took a step back, catching 41 passed for 606 yards. They were already hesitant to try and extend his contract even at a lower rate. The eventual solution was to simply cut ties.
Even after all he went through, he is grateful for his career to this point.
"I just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to play for that organization, the Raiders organization. And then for the fans just thanks for all the support. Each and every game, home game, away game, they come out to show us a lot of love and I really appreciate that."
Now that one chapter of his football career has closed, it's time to open another one.
"The next chapter of my life is a new team and trying to help that team win a Super Bowl. Looking forward to just continue to get better, become a better football player and I'm looking forward to that."
With that in mind, DHB has a message for his future team about what kind of player he is and what he brings to the table.
"I think I'm gonna bring a guy that's smart, who brings leadership, -- I had that role the last two years with the Raiders -- and a guy that's gonna bring it each and every day. Big play capabilities. I've shown that I can break some tackles and get into the endzone."
Free Agency began less than 48 hours ago so it's still early yet. We may have seen the last of him in Silver and Black but I don't expect it will be too long before DHB is able to begin trying to prove his strengths to his next team.
Follow @LeviDamienApparently (ok that is according to wikipedia), October 1, 2015 is the first International Coffee Day.
There’s lots of cute comics on coffees on cyberspace. Here’s a collection on goComics, my favourite source of free quality comics.
Finland has the highest consumption of coffee per capita in the world. Maybe that’s why out of all coffee comics, my favourite ones are by Finnish cartoonist Samson: Dark Side of the Horse
Google “Dark Side of the Horse Coffee” and you will find it. There are various ones he drew on coffee, and I love them all.
Looking back, the godzilla cartoon I drew at the top is kind of my first Infographic. I didn’t even know the word until I landed on I Love Coffee by Ryoko Iwata, where you can find lots of cute Infographics about coffee. She has a book published called Coffee Gives Me Superpowers
as well.Meetings between UK government and Facebook et al are more ritual than battle as they avoid subjects both parties disagree on, such as tax and user privacy
As the government and technology companies butt heads yet again over extremist material on social media, both sides may be giving a silent prayer of thanks that the battleground is one on which they are both quite comfortable.
Top tech firms avoid encryption issue in government talks Read more
Unlike many disagreements, extremist material on social media is one where each side broadly agrees on what the best outcome looks like. Neither the government nor the social networks – in this case represented by Facebook, Google, Twitter and, oddly, Microsoft, but not Apple – want pro-Isis material sitting on the open net for anyone to read. All agree that the systems in place need improvement and all are working on better models and definitions to help precisely identify extremist content and remove it rapidly.
That is not to say there are not disagreements over the detail. Parsing the UK home secretary Amber Rudd’s comments on Sunday, about finding “people who understand the necessary hashtags”, at their most reasonable interpretation, the government would like tech firms to not only take extremist material down, but prevent it from being posted in the first place.
Technology firms, perhaps reasonably, object that to do so would turn them into judge, jury and executioner over content that is for the most part legal, if unpleasant. And even that may be a moot point given pre-emptively censoring content is somewhere on the scale of technologically tricky to effectively impossible.
Simple term searches, such as those used in China to prevent social media users discussing the Tiananmen Square protests, fail in the face of human ingenuity at coming up with synonyms and allegory. For evidence, take a look at the American far right, which decided to use the product names of tech companies in place of ethnic slurs: “kill all the Skypes”, for instance.
But the potential for disagreement is, by and large, limited to a narrow area of dispute and one where the technology companies and government can always come out of any discussions agreeing to work together in the spirit of shared ambition.
That is very different from other, more divisive, disagreements, like those over how much tax should be paid in which jurisdiction, the extent to which giant technology firms have, and abuse, monopoly power, or the tension between the revenue sources of social media companies and the personal privacy of their users. On those discussions, there is not only the potential of damaging disagreements, but also much more at stake for the technology companies if they lose the argument.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Uber VP of communications, Rachel Whetstone – pictured here in her former role as Michael Howard’s political secretary – is part of the rotating door between government and the upper echelons of the technology industry. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
It’s no surprise that the two groups want to keep on largely good terms, however. Small though Britain may be on the world stage (and two years from shrinking further), it still represents a large, wealthy market for all the firms summoned to meet the home secretary. And for the British government, technology firms occasionally seem like a form of magic, a bottled potential which only Silicon Valley has ever really been able to successfully replicate. No government wants to be perceived as “anti-tech”: to do carries connotations somewhere in between “anti-business” and “anti-success”.
That pro-technology attitude is helped by what can be seen as a rotating door between government and the upper echelons of the technology industry, in both the UK and US.
Rachel Whetstone, the VP of communications for Uber, hit the headlines earlier this week for her close ties to David Cameron’s administration. Whetstone, who is married to sandal-wearing former policy adviser Steve Hilton, is close to both Cameron and George Osborne, and allegedly used those connections to successfully lobby Boris Johnson to support the cab-hire company.
Twitter’s public policy manager in the UK is former Tory parliamentary candidate Nick Pickles; Airbnb’s lobbyist team in the US includes former Republican congressman representative Vin Weber. In 2016, it was found at least 80 people have made “revolving door” moves between European governments and Google in the preceding decade.
From the government’s point of view, the need for easy wins in the court of public opinion – looking tough on tech firms who, if they didn’t radicalise the perpetrator of the attacks in Westminster, are probably radicalising someone, right? – is balanced by a desire to avoid the tricky business of actually legislating.
Not only is there not really time to hammer out a carefully considered bill on hate speech now that Brexit is likely to dominate the agenda for the foreseeable future, but doing so would open the government up to questions that it doesn’t really want to have to answer.
Questions like “what actually constitutes extremist material?”, “How can you write a bill that limits what can be said on social media without also affecting what can be printed by the British press?”, and “Won’t any bill serve to concentrate yet more power on the large tech firms, who are the only ones with the resources to actually implement such filters?” |
whether it’s extra ice in the morning or coming up to watch film. He is looking for every opportunity to make himself better.” If the Leafs take Hanifin, it would be easy to see him eventually paired with Morgan Rielly, giving the Leafs a pair of young stud defencemen who could dominate puck possession. It could also make Jake Gardiner expendable. “(Hanifin) can be physical,” Brown said. “He’s not one of those guys who’s always looking to seek and destroy. But his positioning is so good and his size and strength are so good, when the opportunity is there he can separate a guy from the puck.” In their history, the Leafs have drafted as high as fourth only six times. They would have drafted third in 1991, but they traded the pick to New Jersey in a misguided attempt at the playoffs. The Devils used that pick to take hall of famer Scott Niedermayer, and if there is a comparable for Hanifin it’s Niedermayer.
“Has some of the same pieces to his game that Scott Niedermayer had,” said Mark Seidel, chief scout for North American Central Scouting. “He does things at high speed. He can use his foot speed to get back to pucks and give himself enough time to make a play. “His decision to fast-track to play at Boston College has accelerated his development because he has played against grown men all year.”
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Hanifin, a product of the U.S. national development program, is six-foot-three, 205 pounds. “There are definitely parts of my game I need to work on to be an impact player in the NHL,” Hanifin said Saturday at the NHL draft lottery. “One of my goals this summer is to work hard physically so I can potentially, maybe, play at that level next year. “If I were to make the NHL, I would need to learn a lot and adjust.” He had five goals and 18 assists in 37 games as a freshman for the Eagles. He said he wants to work on getting shots to the net. “My skating ability is the strongest part of my game,” he said. “Every part of my game I want to get better at. My skating allows me to be a two-way defenceman who can contribute offensively and, at the same time, be strong in my own zone.” Hanifin is a bit like McDavid in some ways. He came to Boston College as a high-profile freshman. He handles crowds with aplomb. But he didn’t overstep his place as a freshman on an experienced team, said Brown. “All the local kids know who he is, so when the kids come it to the room he always stops to say hello and the kids are in awe. Noah does a terrific job at that,” Brown said. “But he also came in with no airs, or no feeling of entitlement at all. “He came in as a freshman and just wanted to earn everything he got, including his teammates’ respect. His work ethic and the way he goes about his business immediately got the older guys’ respect.” This is the second in a series looking at who the Leafs could draft with the No. 4 pick this summer.
Read more about:“With summer temperatures and increased tourist activity, the department has assessed the site, and as landowner, we are moving to bury the remains of the whale on the beach,” Dan Davis, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources said.
The Nova Scotia government has finally removed the putrid carcass of a whale from a popular beach.
The remains of the rotting whale on a popular beach in Nova Scotia had turned into a political football.
“An excavator has been hired to do the work.”
While residents of Sandy Cove in Digby Neck and tourists were holding their noses, both local and provincial politicians claimed it was not their responsibility to bury or remove the stinking corpse that has been there for well over a month.
Sandy Cove is considered one of the finest beaches in Nova Scotia and attracts thousands of tourists drawn to the Bay of Fundy every year. Having a rotting whale there is not exactly what the glossy brochures portray.
More whale-related news:Beached humpback whale dies on shore near VancouverGuinea pig are tiny sociable rodents that cannot bear being lonely. In fact they could die from isolation. That is why in Switzerland they have an unusual animal welfare law that prohibits guinea pig owners from keeping the tiny furry rodents on their own.
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So what happens when one guinea pig dies?
Priska Kung, a swiss animal lover, runs a ‘rent-a-guinea pig’ service to provide companion to lonely guinea pigs that have recently lost their partners. She house around 80 guinea pigs in the village of Hadlikon, 30 kilometers from Zurich.
Kung, a teacher by profession, is the founder and the president of IG Meerschweinchen, one of Switzerland’s guinea pig associations. At the age of 2, she got her first guinea pig and she started breeding them when she was 12.
“It’s a hobby that costs me more money than I earn from it,” says Kung.
image source
Kung claims that filing a guinea pig for rent is not easy. It is actually more complicated than it seems. Even though guinea pigs are famous for their friendly characteristics they can be choosy about who they stay with. That is why she ensures both of the guinea pigs match before she rent them out.
“It’s important that none of the rental guinea pigs just keep getting passed on,” says Küng. “If an animal has been hired out once, it either stays with me for the rest of its life or it moves somewhere else for good.”
Thanks to Kung’s ‘rent-a-guinea pig’ service guinea pig owners doesn’t need to purchase younger guinea pig and get stuck in a never ending circle of purchasing new guinea pig every time the old one dies.A poisoned well? Fracking studies stir doubts
Updated 5:48 p.m. Eastern Time On Monday, protesters poured into a hearing room in Albany, New York to make the case that the state should not lift a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing - better known as "fracking" - later this month. Their overriding message: There is no evidence that fracking, the controversial process of extracting oil and natural gas from huge underground rock formations, is safe. "As of yet, there has been no study that satisfies any of the concerns that people have in New York," said Travis Proulx of Environmental Advocates of New York. "We have no answers here in New York on the public health, economic or environmental impacts." That isn't to say, of course, that there haven't been studies done on the issue. But in the fraught debate over fracking, it isn't always easy to decide which ones to trust, and how much to trust them. 5 things you need to know about fracking In May, the Shale Resources and Society Institute at the State University of New York at Buffalo released a research report that used data from Pennsylvania to argue that fracking had become increasingly safe. "[T]his study demonstrates that the odds of non-major environmental events and the much smaller odds of major environmental events are being reduced even further by enhanced regulation and improved industry practice," said the study, which was released just one month after the institute was founded.
The release prompted an outcry from professors and students at the university as well as a response from a Buffalo-based nonprofit called the Public Accountability Initiative. The group found that data in the report contradicted its central claim, that the report had not been adequately peer reviewed (despite a press release claiming otherwise), that the methodology was flawed and the language was biased toward industry. It also pointed out that the authors of the report as well as the co-directors of the institute had close ties to the oil and gas industry, including as consultants or employees for oil and gas companies.
Six months later, SUNY Buffalo announced that it wasn't just pulling back the report - it was closing the Shale Resources and Society Institute altogether. University President Satish K. Tripathi pointed to a lack of "sufficient faculty presence in fields associated with energy production," inconsistent disclosure of financial conflicts of interest, and "actual and perceived" conflicts "between sources of research funding and expectations of independence." On Tuesday, meanwhile, New York state officials revealed to Bloomberg that they had hired longtime SUNY Buffalo professor Robert Jacobi to study the links between fracking and earthquakes. Jacobi, a former director of the Shale Resources and Society Institute, has worked as an advisor to gas drillers for nearly two decades. His research will be included in an environmental review study out next week that will help decide whether the state's fracking moratorium is lifted. Amid fracking boom, research questions The debate over fracking America is in the middle of a fracking boom, one driven by advances in technology (most notably horizontal drilling) and the discovery that the United States is home to previously unimaginable stores of untapped oil and natural gas. In 2007, Penn State Professor Terry Engelder calculated that there were 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, which runs for about square 95,000 miles underneath Pennsylvania, New York and four other states. (The US Geological Survey had previously estimated the shale held just 2 trillion cubic feet.) Engelder's discovery and others around the country revealed that America's shale held "the equivalent of two Saudi Arabias of oil," as Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon put it.
The discovery has had a transformative effect on the American energy economy. It means the United States is becoming less reliant on foreign energy sources; some proponents say it will eventually mean energy independence. For struggling Midwest towns like Youngstown, Ohio, which saw its fortunes fall with the steel industry's decline, fracking represents an economic lifeline. Over the past five years or so, fracking projects have transformed communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere in the country, sometimes turning residents who sell their land rights into millionaires - or "shaleionares." Natural gas burns cleaner than the coal it has begun to replace as an energy source. But, environmentalists say, it also carries with it a host of as-yet-understood risks. They argue that the boom is outpacing the science - that states and local communities, desperate for the money and jobs that fracking can bring, have been ignoring the costs, both present and future. As the debate has raged, the industry has turned to academia to calm concerns. It got what appeared to be a piece of good news last February, when the University of Texas at Austin released a study that found there is no evidence that fracking contaminates groundwater.
Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into shale rock formations deep underground at high pressure, which causes the rock to crack and release natural gas. Critics say chemicals from the fracking fluid used in drilling, as well as the natural gas and other chemicals released from the rocks, can enter aquifers; the Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2011 report, which has been contested by fracking advocates and remains in draft form, that chemicals from fracking were present in well water in Wyoming.
Why fracking is controversial The lead author of the UT study, Dr. Charles Groat, said his aim was to "separate fact from fiction" in "what has become an emotional debate" over fracking. "There is at present little or no evidence of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing of shales at normal depths," his report found. "No evidence of chemicals from hydraulic fracturing fluid has been found in aquifers as a result of fracturing operations."
A few months later, the Public Accountability Initiative released a report of its own. It found that two sections of the Groat study were marked as rough drafts and that numerous citations were missing from the "environmental impacts" section. It also found that paper had not been peer reviewed - despite claims to the contrary from the director of the UT Energy Institute, Roy Orbach - and that Groat had declined to reveal his connection to industry. That connection was not incidental: Groat earned $413,900 as a board member of the oil and gas company Plains Exploration and Production in 2011, according to the report - more than double his university salary.
In the wake of the revelations, the University of Texas at Austin named an outside panel of experts to review the study. It found "failures and inadequacies in several procedural areas," according to a December news release, including "the failure of the principal investigator to disclose a conflict of interest that could have had a bearing on the credibility a reader wished to assign to the resulting work." Groat retired from his faculty position amid the controversy, and Orbach resigned; the university removed the study from its website.
Academics defend industry ties The SUNY Buffalo study was authored in large part by Timothy Considine, who is now at the University of Wyoming, and Robert Watson, a former Pennsylvania State University professor who is now retired. The pair has been criticized by anti-fracking activists for generating what the activists claim is industry-friendly scholarship. In 2009, when Considine was at Penn State, the two men collaborated on a report for the university's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences that found natural gas production could generate $13.5 billion for Pennsylvania and almost 175,000 jobs by 2020. The study also said that Pennsylvania should not tax natural gas production and that "[p]roposals to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act pose yet another serious threat to the development of the Marcellus Shale and other unconventional gas sources." Fracking: "Facts" obscured by both sides of debate The study, which was affixed with the Penn State logo, was funded by the Marcellus Shale Association, a coalition of oil and gas companies. (The connection was not initially disclosed; the report was later reissued with the disclosure.) Critics, including the nonprofit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, derided the report as pro-industry advocacy, noting that other estimates found a smaller economic impact from fracking. Eventually the dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, William Easterling, said in a letter that the report contained flaws and "may well have crossed the line between policy analysis and policy advocacy." The study was nonetheless reissued on a yearly basis, and the jobs estimate was revised upward. Pro-fracking lawmakers and figures from industry used it to argue for fracking in Pennsylvania without taxation or certain regulations. Citing the study, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a fracking proponent, repeatedly referenced the university at a committee hearing, saying that "Penn State University -- I'm still quoting -- also concluded that federal regulation was a serious threat to Marcellus [Shale] development." Watson, who is now retired, strongly denies claims that his scholarship is slanted toward industry. "That's baloney," he said. "I was a faculty member at Penn State for 30 years, and the one thing I can say about Tim [Considine] and I, we're not academic whores." "I consider myself to be an honest man. And this is not to beat the drums, I'm an evangelical Christian also," he added. "And as a consequence, I'm very serious about maintaining the highest level of ethics with respect to both my personal life and my professional life. If somebody came in and tried to twist my arm with respect to the work I was doing, I'd throw them out of my office." Considine, like Watson, said that his research is not influenced by funding sources. "There's a lot of unfair things that are being said out there and I think the public is being disserved by the scare tactics that a lot of these groups are engaging in over fracking," he said. In a follow-up email, he added, "I have no agenda to promote," pointing to his past work at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, where he wrote reports on natural gas. Considine, who believes the benefits of fracking far outweigh the costs, attributed the shuttering of the Shale Resources and Society Institute at SUNY Buffalo to politics. "There's a lot of politics going on at the University of Buffalo about shale, and I think the politics ruled the day," he said. He added that a new version of the study will soon be published in a peer-reviewed journal. "There is no debate about whether natural gas development creates jobs. It does," he said. "We're arguing about the magnitude." Industry money flows to universities, professors Last year, for the first time since 2009, Penn State did not release an updated version of the paper co-authored by Considine and Watson, since no current Penn State faculty members at Penn State would sign onto the project. Engelder, the Penn State professor who is one of the leading pro-fracking figures in academia, said he turned down Watson's "last minute" appeal to sponsor the report, "purely for the reason that I'm a geologist and this is a study of the economics as much as anything on the impact of the Marcellus Shale and the state of Pennsylvania." Both Engelder and Watson acknowledge having been paid throughout the years to consult for the oil and gas industry. (Considine says he has "no financial interest" in the industry.) Engelder said that, dating back to 2007, industry consulting has amounted to an average of one third of his income each year. Universities require faculty to disclose consulting connections on conflict of interest forms, though these forms are not easily available to the public.
"I should point out that this policy was instituted when it was discovered that good faculty will leave academia when the salary differential between industry and academia becomes too large," Engelder said in an email. "The idea was to allow faculty the experience of a direct exposure to industrial problems while attempting to narrow the relatively wide gap between industry and academic salaries. It is really in the best interest of the university to keep the best faculty."In my previous post entitled, CodeIgniter: PHP Development Fun – Part 1, I talked a little about my excitement regarding CodeIgniter. So far, I have found the learning curve to not be too steep and continue on my trek to develop my own website with the framework.
Today, I wanted to talk about what I have been working on with CodeIgniter. I decided I wanted to make my own versions of Popurls, or AllTop. This is something I could have done in an hour or two with WordPress and some plugins as well as a bit of SimplePie usage, but on CodeIgniter, it has taken a little longer, but the excitement I experience as each piece works is much greater than if I had done the hack job of using WordPress for something it wasn’t intended for.
The first step for me was coming up with my database and then adding some information to it, and using the scaffolding feature in CodeIgniter, I was able to do this quite easily. Unfortunately, this wasn’t perfect as I was using two tables, and taking information from one table, to be used to reference the other was a pain in the butt. I decided to create my own administration panel to control the input of data into my site.
There were only three pieces of data that I wanted to have to input: the site name, the URL and selecting which category I wanted it to be in.
At first, I coded the category selection system in a convoluted way before realizing how silly it was. Much of the mistakes I have made in programming thus far have been planning and logic mistakes that could have been avoided if I had taken the time to really sit down and think through my plans.
My Administration Panel
Creating my administration panel was as simple as adding another view with the relevant form, and creating a function to insert the information into my database.
I first had to create a function in my front.php controller related to showing the administration panel view, and showing the right categories in my option box.
[php]
function add_blog()
{
$data[‘query’] = $this->db->get(‘niches’);
$this->load->view(‘admin_view’, $data);
}
[/php]
Then I needed to create a form in my admin_view.php file to fill out the details of the site I was adding. The following is of course without the requisite xhtml that should surround the form and create a layout to look pretty.
[php]
echo form_open(‘front/submit’);
echo “Site Name: ”.form_input(‘name’);
echo “
Site URL: ”.form_input(‘url’);
echo “
“;
echo “ “;
foreach ($query->result() as $row):
echo “
“;
echo form_close(”);
[/php]
And lastly, I needed a function in my front.php controller for putting that inputted information in the database which was as simple as:
[php]
function submit()
{
$this->db->insert(‘sites’, $_POST);
redirect(‘front/add_blog’);
}
[/php]
I know I’ve been bad, as I haven’t locked down my little administration panel yet, but this does show how easy it is to manage a database with CodeIgniter, from querying the database, displaying rows, and then inserting information into another table, I would have needed to write a lot more PHP had I done this without a framework.
Also, if you know of a way to do this with less code, better code or have any thoughts or opinions on these CodeIgniter posts, please let me know in the comments below.I have had numerous conversations over the years with other Catholic dads about the challenges of raising kids in today’s world.
The discussions usually center on the bad cultural influences affecting our children, our hectic schedules, and our well-intentioned desire to be better fathers.
We mean well, but how do we move from conversation to action? The stakes are high, and this generation of children desperately needs fathers to step up to their responsibilities.
I was blessed to grow up with great parents. We didn’t have much, but my parents made sure my sister and I had love, discipline, faith, strong values, and a solid work ethic. My mother played a vital role in our family, as all mothers do, but I find as I grow older that I am most like my father.
I pass on to my own children many of the lessons he taught me, and I still look to him for wisdom and advice.
Look back on your own upbringing. What role did your father play? Were there other role models? Just as many of us live out the lessons we learned in our youth, our children will someday emulate us. They are always watching, and we have to decide if we will be their heroic role models who consistently set the right example or relinquish our fatherly responsibilities to a host of bad societal influences. Which will it be?
After recently reflecting on my conversations with other dads, I made a list of the actions I am working on which I learned from my father and my own experiences as a parent. Just making this list was convicting and challenging for me, as I became acutely aware of where I fall short. Yet developing this list has also inspired me, and I try to reflect on these actions during my prayer time each day.
I have a long way to go, but I believe living up to the expectations below will keep me headed in the right direction:
Surrender. We have to surrender on an ongoing basis to Christ for his will to be done in our lives. Guys, we are not in charge … as much as we want to be! St. Ignatius of Loyola once said: “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to him and if they were to allow his grace to mold them accordingly.” Be a Man of Prayer. Our children will be much more likely to pray if we do. Work on developing a daily prayer routine with the goal of at least an hour a day devoted to prayer. Sound difficult? Think about how much TV we watch a day or time spent answering email. Consider how much time we spend in our cars each day and how much time we devote to exercise. We have more than enough time for prayer if we schedule it and integrate it into our day. Also, imagine the powerful influence we can have on our children if they see us on our knees in prayer each night at family prayer time. Understand Our True Vocation. For those of us blessed to be married and have children, we must recognize that helping our families get to heaven and being good husbands and fathers—not our business careers—is our real vocation. Ask yourself: “Is my work serving my family? Or is my family serving my work?” Invest Time. Our children need our time. Put down the smartphone; turn off the TV; cancel the golf outing. Let’s spend more time with our kids! In the absence of a father’s time with his family, you can bet there are countless bad influences ready to take his place and guide his children in the wrong direction. I paraphrase author-theologian Scott Hahn, who wrote that in our modern age the father or mother who is willing to walk out of the office after forty hours in order to have more time with his/her family is the real hero. Be Courageous. Christians are meant to stand out, not blend in. Blending in speaks to conforming so that our faith becomes part of the mainstream … and we need to fight the culture. These are difficult times, and we have a responsibility to love and defend Christ, be great role models for our families and stand up for our faith. Practice Detachment. Are we too focused on acquiring toys, bigger houses, nicer cars, or the next promotion? We need to let go of the things that are in the way of our prayer lives, Mass attendance, charitable giving, volunteering, time with our families, and certainly our relationship with Christ. Love Our Wives. Husbands, we must love and cherish our wives, plain and simple. Our children will learn to love others by how they see Mom and Dad love each other. We need to say, “I love you” to our wives and our children as often as possible. Let’s show our wives respect and cherish the critical role they play in our families. “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” So said Theodore Hesburgh.
Today’s kids face significant challenges and strong fathers, without a doubt, are part of the solution.
Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on how we are doing as fathers and a husbands. Take the results of this reflection to prayer and reconciliation. Most importantly, commit to make the necessary changes.
As Catholic men, we have a responsibility to be strong fathers and husbands, leaders in our parishes, good stewards in our communities and humble followers of Christ.
Let’s look to the inspiring example of St. Joseph, patron saint of fathers, workers and the universal Church, for his obedience, humility, selflessness, courage, and the love he showed to Mary and Jesus.
If we can emulate St. Joseph even a little each day, we will be that much closer to becoming the men and fathers we are called to be.
Editor’s Note: This post is adapted from Randy Hain’s fifth book, Journey to Heaven: A Road Map for Catholic Men (Emmaus Road Publishing), with permission of the author and Emmaus Road Publishing. The book is available through Amazon.com, EmmausRoad.org or found in your local Catholic bookstore.
Would you like to learn more about Randy Hain’s newest book? His seventh book, Special Children, Blessed Fathers: Encouragement for Fathers of Children with Special Needs (Foreword by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput), is available in both hardcover and paperback.GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you for doing this.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's great to be here.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you've done all meetings on Capitol Hill, but I'm trying to figure out where this all goes. Because the- the Republican leader is still saying no revenues in any kind of a deal. I assume your bottom line is that any deal has to include revenues.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Right.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So, is your strategy to break them or to go around them? What is it?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I don't think it's to break or go around them. I think it is to identify- members, particularly in the Senate, but I think also in the House, who are just tired of havin' the same argument over and over again. And- what I call the common-sense caucus, which says- we can do sensible deficit reduction with a combination of entitlement reform, some judicious spending cuts, closing some tax loopholes that nobody really defends on their own.
I mean, you don't hear people say, "Man, that's a great tax loophole- that we should keep." And if we do all those things, then instead of arbitrary cuts that hurt our economy, we can actually put in place- a growth strategy that creates jobs and protects the middle class and helps them thrive and grow. And- and that's what I've been talking about-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But that-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: -for the last two years.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: -that common-sense caucus on the Republican side, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, other Senate Republicans-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: -say they're gonna need to see a lot more entitlement reform from you before they can sign onto any new revenues, like putting- raising the Medicare eligibility age back on the table. Is that back on the table?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, one of things that- you know, I've discovered in some of these dinners, which has been- useful, is that people don't always know what I've actually proposed. And- it's a lot easier to have a conversation when there's something specific. So- I've said, "Here- this may not have gotten reported on. Maybe you guys didn't see it in your office. But here are the things we're looking to do."
And, you know, there's a finite number of changes that could be made to deal with our deficit. And I say, you know, "Do you guys like this? Do you not like that? What is it that you wanna do? Why don't you guys specifically tell me?" And through that process, potentially- you may see emerging- some consensus. Now-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But even the ones who've seen your plans say they need to see more.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well- I understand. Which is why, at some point, I think I take myself out of this. Right now, what I'm trying to do is create an atmosphere where Democrats and Republicans can go ahead, get together, and try to get something done. And, y- you know- I think what's important to recognize is that- we've already cut- $2.5- $2.7 trillion out of the deficit. If the sequester stays in, you've got over $3.5 trillion of deficit reduction already.
And, so, we don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next ten years, it's gonna be in a sustainable place. The question is, can we do it smarter, can we do it better? And- you know, what I'm saying to them is I am prepared to do some tough stuff. Neither side's gonna get 100%. That's what the American people are lookin' for. That's what's gonna be good for jobs. That's what's gonna be good for growth.
But ultimately, it may be that- the differences are just- too wide. It may be that ideologically, if their position is, "We can't do any revenue," or, "We can only do revenue if we gut Medicare or gut Social Security or gut Medicaid," if that's the position, then we're probably not gonna be able to get a deal.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Where-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That won't- that won't create a crisis. It just means that we will have missed an opportunity. I think that opportunity is there and I'm gonna- make sure that they know that I'm prepared to- work with them. But ultimately, it may be better if some Democratic and Republican Senators work together. We can-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you might poison the well if you put forward these ideas
(OVERTALK)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know -I think whatever I'm for, it's very hard for a Republican to also be for. I think they always have to be a little bit- you know, maintain some distance-
(OVERTALK)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Some of them are trying to call you out right now. Paul Ryan today put forward his budget. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Right. Right.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And he said he's challenging you to come forward with a budget that also reaches balance. Are you gonna do that?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: No. We're not gonna balance the budget in ten years because if you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget, it means that you have to voucherize Medicare; you have to slash deeply- into programs like Medicaid; you've essentially got to- either tax- middle-class families a lot higher than you currently are; or you can't lower rates the way he's promised. So, it's really- you know, it- it's a reprise of the same- legislation-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Balanced by any point?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: -that he's put before. No. I think that there is a possibility. Look, balancing the budget in part depends on how fast you grow. You remember- you were in the Clinton administration. The reason that you guys balanced it was a combination of some tax hikes, some spending cuts, and the economy grew.
And, so- you know, my goal is not to chase- a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we're gonna be bringin' in more revenue. If we've controlled spending and we've got a smart entitlement package, then potentially what you have is balance. But it's not balance on the backs of, you know, the poor, the elderly, students who need student loans, families who've got disabled kids. That's not the right way to balance-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: -our budget.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: -one more question about the spending cuts. You've been takin' a lotta heat for this cancellation of the White House tours. They get- the Secret Service says it's costs about $74,000 a week. Was canceling them really necessary?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know, I have to say this was not- a decision that went up to the White House. But th- what the Secret Service explained to us was that they're gonna have to furlough some folks. What furloughs mean is- is that people lose a day of work and a day of pay.
And, you know, the question for them is, you know, how deeply do they have to furlough their staff and is it worth it to make sure that we've got White House tours that means that you got a whole bunch of families who are depending on a paycheck who suddenly are seein'-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So no reconsideration?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: -a 5% or 10%- reduction in their pay. Well, what I'm asking them is are there ways, for example, for us to accommodate school groups- you know, who may have traveled here with some bake sales. Can we make sure that- kids, potentially, can- can still come to tour?
But- but- I'm always amused when people on the one hand say- the sequester doesn't mean anything and the administration's exaggerating its effects; and then whatever the specific effects are, they yell and scream and say, "Why are you doin' that?" Well, there are consequences to Congress not having come up with a more sensible way to reduce the deficit. And what I'm proposing is if we do it smart, if we do it sensibly, if we do it in a balanced way that the American support, including, by the way, a majority of Republicans, then we don't have to- do arbitrary stuff. We can do it in an intelligent way that's gonna improve our economy.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you about North Korea. Seen a lotta belligerent behavior from the-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Yeah. Yeah. -regime in recent days. Canceled the 1953 armistice. And your director of national intelligence James Clapper told Capitol Hill today for the first time did North Korea and nuclear weapons and missiles pose a serious threat to the United States. So, can North Korea now make good on its threat to hit the United States?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: They- they probably can't, but we don't like margin of error, right, when it comes to-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It's that close?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, and I don't th- it's not that close. But what is true is, is they've had nuclear weapons since well before I came into office. What's also true is missile technology improves and their missile technology has improved. Now, what we've done is we've made sure that we've got defensive measures to prevent- any attacks on the homeland. And we're not anticipating any of that. But we've seen outta the North Koreans is they go through these periodic spasms of- of provocative behavior.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is this one more serious?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well- I don't necessarily think it's different in kind. They've all been serious. Because when you're talking about a regime that- is oppressive towards its people, is belligerent- has shown itself to sometimes miscalculate and do things that are very dangerous- that's always a problem. And, so, we've s- what we've done is organized the world community to strengthen sanctions, to sink- strengthen unilateral sanctions on- North Korea.
I think what's most promising is we're startin' to see the Chinese, who historically have- tolerated misbehavior on the part of the North Koreans because they're worried about- regime collapse and how that could spill over to them. You're startin' to see |
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Myths & Monsters |
smoothly, with bar owners wide open to the idea of new, independence-seeking customers.
While legal experts and commentators have predictably poured cold water on the micro-nation’s bid for statehood, the unexpected support for the idea of Liberland left some wondering if the starry-eyed attempt does stand a chance.
The current practice of state recognition has been described as combining two approaches to statehood: the constitutive and the declarative theories.
According to the former, Liberland could achieve personality in international law only if it is recognised by other sovereign states.
The latter, declarative theory, posits four criteria which Liberland would have to meet in order to be considered a proper country: a government; a defined territory, a permanent population; and the ability to enter into relations with other states.
As things stand, Jedlicka’s team is opting for this second route. Jedlicka’s masterful PR stunt, portraying the Liberland project as peaceful and essentially harmless, certainly helps his prospects.
Even if Liberland becomes the first micro-nation to actually achieve some sort of recognition (dozens of failed attempts include “The Principality of Sealand” and “The Republic of Minerva”), the challenges of nation-building extend beyond his initial steps.
There are roads, bridges and sewage systems to be built, residential homes to be constructed, and law enforcement forces to be assembled – feats difficult to achieve for a government reliant on voluntary tax revenue.
The draft constitution’s guarantee of unrestricted border-crossing seems hard to reconcile with basic security precautions. On top of that, future Liberlandians might want to consider the nasty dangers looming in the corners of “tax havens” – fraud, money laundering, and terrorism – and to carefully design preventive mechanisms.
The will is manifestly there. Let’s wait and see if there is a way.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Jake Lynn
Environics Communications
202.296.2002
[email protected]
Magnetic Mirrors Enable New Technologies by Reflecting Light in Uncanny Ways
Artist's impression of a comparison between a magnetic mirror with cube shaped resonators (left) and a standard metallic mirror (right). The incoming and outgoing electric field of light (shown as alternating red and white bands) illustrates that the magnetic mirror retains light's original signature while a standard metallic mirror reverses it upon reflection. Credit: S. Liu et al.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2014—As in Alice’s journey through the looking-glass to Wonderland, mirrors in the real world can sometimes behave in surprising and unexpected ways, including a new class of mirror that works like no other.As reported today in The Optical Society’s ( OSA ) new high-impact journal Optica, scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, a new type of mirror that forgoes a familiar shiny metallic surface and instead reflects infrared light by using an unusual magnetic property of a non-metallic metamaterial.By placing nanoscale antennas at or very near the surface of these so-called “magnetic mirrors,” scientists are able to capture and harness electromagnetic radiation in ways that have tantalizing potential in new classes of chemical sensors, solar cells, lasers, and other optoelectronic devices.“We have achieved a new milestone in magnetic mirror technology by experimentally demonstrating this remarkable behavior of light at infrared wavelengths. Our breakthrough comes from using a specially engineered, non-metallic surface studded with nanoscale resonators,” said Michael Sinclair, co-author on the Optica paper and a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA who co-led a research team with fellow author and Sandia scientist Igal Brener.These nanoscale cube-shaped resonators, based on the element tellurium, are each considerably smaller than the width of a human hair and even tinier than the wavelengths of infrared light, which is essential to achieve magnetic-mirror behavior at these incredibly short wavelengths.“The size and shape of the resonators are critical,” explained Sinclair “as are their magnetic and electrical properties, all of which allow them to interact uniquely with light, scattering it across a specific range of wavelengths to produce a magnetic mirror effect.”Conventional mirrors reflect light by interacting with the electrical component of electromagnetic radiation. Because of this, however, they do more than reverse the image; they also reverse light’s electrical field. Though this has no impact on the human eye, it does have major implications in physics, especially at the point of reflection where the opposite incoming and outgoing electrical fields produce a canceling effect. This temporary squelching of light’s electrical properties prevents components like nanoscale antennas and quantum dots from interacting with light at the mirror’s surface.A magnetic mirror, in contrast, reflects light by interacting with its magnetic field, preserving its original electrical properties. “A magnetic mirror, therefore, produces a very strong electric field at the mirror surface, enabling maximum absorption of the electromagnetic wave energy and paving the way for exciting new applications,” said Brener.Unlike silver and other metals, however, there is no natural material that reflects light magnetically. Magnetic fields can reflect and even bottle-up charged particles like electrons and protons. But photons, which have no charge, pass through freely.“Nature simply doesn’t provide a way to magnetically reflect light,” explained Brener. Scientists, therefore, are developing metamaterials (materials not found in nature, engineered with specific properties) that are able to produce the magnetic-mirror effect.Initially, this could only be achieved at long microwave frequencies, which would enable only a few applications, such as microwave antennas.More recently, other researchers have achieved limited success at shorter wavelengths using “fish-scale” shaped metallic components. These designs, however, experienced considerable loss of signal, as well as an uneven response due to their particular shapes.To overcome these limitations, the team developed a specially engineered two-dimensional array of non-metallic dielectric resonators—nanoscale structures that strongly interact with the magnetic component of incoming light. These resonators have a number of important advantages over the earlier designsFirst, the dielectric material they use, tellurium, has much lower signal loss than do metals, making the new design much more reflective at infrared wavelengths and creating a much stronger electrical field at the mirror’s surface. Second, the nanoscale resonators can be manufactured using standard deposition-lithography and etching processes, which are already widely used in industry.The reflective properties of the resonators emerge because they behave, in some respects, like artificial atoms, absorbing and then reemitting photons. Atoms naturally do this by absorbing photons with their outer electrons and then reemitting the photons in random directions. This is how molecules in the atmosphere scatter specific wavelengths of light, causing the sky to appear blue during the day and red at sunrise and sunset.The metamaterials in the resonators achieve a similar effect, but absorb and reemit photons without reversing their electric fields.Confirming that the team’s design was actually behaving like a magnetic mirror required exquisite measurements of how the light waves overlap as they pass each other coming in and reflecting off of the mirror surface. Since normal mirrors reverse the phase of light upon reflection, evidence that the phase signature of the wave was not reversed would be the “smoking gun” that the sample was behaving as a true magnetic mirror.To make this detection, the Sandia team used a technique called time-domain spectroscopy, which has been widely used to measure phase at longer terahertz wavelengths. According to the researchers, only a few groups in the world have demonstrated this technique at shorter wavelengths (less than 10 microns). The power of this technique is that it can map both the amplitude and phase information of light’s electric field.“Our results clearly indicated that there was no phase reversal of the light,” remarked Sheng Liu, Sandia postdoctoral associate and lead author on the Optica paper. “This was the ultimate demonstration that this patterned surface behaves like an optical magnetic mirror.”Looking to the future, the researchers will investigate other materials to demonstrate magnetic mirror behavior at even shorter, optical wavelengths, where extremely broad applications can be found. “If efficient magnetic mirrors could be scaled to even shorter wavelengths, then they could enable smaller photodetectors, solar cells, and possibly lasers,” Liu concluded.Paper: S. Liu, M. B. Sinclair, T. S. Mahony, Y. C. Jun, S. Campione, J. Ginn, D. Bender, J. R. Wendt, J.F. Ihlefeld, P. G. Clem, J. B. Wright, I. Brener, “ Optical Magnetic Mirrors without Metals,” Optica, 247-253 (2014).EDITOR’S NOTE: An image and advanced copy of the Optica paper are available to members of the media upon request. Contact Jake Lynn at [email protected] or 202.296.2002.Optica is an open-access, online-only journal dedicated to the rapid dissemination of high-impact peer-reviewed research across the entire spectrum of optics and photonics. Published monthly by The Optical Society ( OSA ), Optica provides a forum for pioneering research to be swiftly accessed by the international community, whether that research is theoretical or experimental, fundamental or applied. Optica maintains a distinguished editorial board of more than 20 associate editors from around the world and is overseen by Editor-in-Chief Alex Gaeta of Cornell University. For more information, visit http://optica.osa.org Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and entrepreneurs who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. OSA is a founding partner of the National Photonics Initiative and the 2015 International Year of Light. For more information, visit www.osa.orgBy the truckload: Galle's ground staff uses heavy tyres to keep the covers from flying off © Sharda Ugra/ ESPNcricinfo
At one point after the 15th over on the first day of the third Test, the groundsmen on either side of the SSC square moved in. There was no rain, but they knew. In the media box with its views of the city, the construction cranes, scattered multi-storey towers, the white cupola of the town hall, and the slowly rising Lotus Tower were being obliterated by a curtain of grey.
The groundskeeping team was on standby five minutes before they made their first move. By the time the rain came, in slanting silver, the men had the pitch and the square covered. With the rain beating down fiercely, they next covered the bowlers' run-ups. In under nine minutes 80% of the field was under the large covers. The groundsmen, divided into four crews, dragging out waterproof sheets 100 feet square, were perfectly synchronised in their movements, much like an F1 pit crew. The cricket crew works over a much larger tract of land but their operation also requires speed of a relatively different scale and a sequential order of its own.
This high-speed ground-covering is a specialty of Sri Lankan cricket - brought about as a solution to having to play most of their home international cricket in what is traditionally the country's off season, when it rains - not in buckets but intermittently, like it threatened to during the Galle Test and at the P Sara, and like it eventually did after an hour on day one at the SSC. Sri Lanka play their home Tests in two batches - one lot in March and then between June and September.
The SSC ground staff get their splash on, 2004 © Getty Images
Anurudda Polonowita, a former national curator and head priest of Sri Lankan cricket groundsmanship, says a skewed season led to finding an innovative answer to keep the game moving. Sri Lanka shares its home season (December to March), according to Polonowita, with India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh. "No one is going to leave their home country because of TV [rights] and money. That's why they are coming to our country in their off season, in our rainy season. We have to play during that time, otherwise we won't get a fixture. We have to adjust ourselves to play these matches or you won't get the full play. So we started covering the whole pitch. We are the only country that do it."
For the last ten years or so, this logistical exercise has taken place before every big match in Sri Lanka. A few days before a game, close to 100 men are signed on as casual labour to add to the official ground-staff strength of around 15. They are then divided into four groups, each with a leader, usually an experienced groundsman. The groups undergo a simulated, timed exercise of pulling on the covers. The following morning the covers are pulled off to the count of a stopwatch. Every ground has around 10 to 15 giant rubberised canvas sheets, imported from India, each costing about LKR 800,000 (nearly US$6000). Since the 2011 World Cup, each ground in the country has its own set.
Forty shades of grey? Time for the covers © PA Photos
Jayananda Warnaweera, the Southern Province cricket association secretary, general boss, curator and caretaker of the Galle International Stadium, says Sri Lankan groundskeeping drills are "unlike any other in the world". Galle's groundskeepers need the extra assistance of used truck tyres to hold down the covers when strong winds come in from the sea next door.
When asked what the tyres weigh, Chamara and Sampath look at each other. They are part of the casual labour for the first Test, earning LKR 1000 ($7.44) a day. One is a tuk-tuk driver and the other a mobile phone repairman. With a straight face comes the reply, "Thirty kilos." Whatever the weight, these are substantial tyres, well over car size. Maybe 15-20kg minimum each then?
Before the 2011 World Cup new grounds were built in Pallekele and Hambantota, with improved drainage and sprinkler systems. The country's flagship ground, the R Premadasa Stadium in Khettarama, Colombo, was raised by 3.5ft. At the ICC World T20 in 2012, ten minutes was set as the benchmark for bringing in the covers.
Before every big match in Sri Lanka, close to 100 men are signed on as casual labour to help with the covers © Sharda Ugra/ ESPNcricinfo
This is a transformation from the early '90s, Polonowita remembers, when grounds in Sri Lanka had no rollers, and in some places the groundsmen would use lawnmowers on pitches. A former player, Polonowita is regarded as professor emeritus of Sri Lankan groundskeeping. He has a curatorship degree from the MCG and was involved in the construction of the Khettarama Stadium. In 2000, he signed on with Sri Lanka Cricket as national curator in charge of the country's grounds, and before his retirement he trained seven graduates fresh from agricultural university to work in curatorship roles at the major grounds.
"Our curators," Polonowita says of his younger successors, "do a great job because we take over the grounds only two months before a big match." The cricket grounds in Sri Lanka are used all year round for all kinds of matches - by schools, clubs, companies. P Sara, for example, he says, hosts ten to 12 matches every year, including on its prized centre pitches.
Getting a ground ready in time for a big match is "about practical experience," he says. That practical experience, along with a sense of innovation, has turned Sri Lanka's off season into its international season.
Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Posted by Markus Clermont, Test Engineering Manager, Zurich
In the last couple of years the practice of testing has undergone more than superficial changes. We have turned our art into engineering, introduced process-models, come up with best-practices, and developed tools to support our daily work and make each test engineer more productive. Some tools target test execution. They aim to automate the repetitive steps that a tester would take to exercise functions through the user interface of a system in order to verify its functionality. I am sure you have all seen tools like Selenium, WebDriver, Eggplant or other proprietary solutions, and that you learned to love them.
On the downside, we observe problems when we employ these tools:
Scripting your manual tests this way takes far longer than just executing them manually.
The UI is one of the least stable interfaces of any system, so we can start automating quite late in the development phase.
Maintenance of the tests takes a significant amount of time.
Execution is slow, and sometimes cumbersome.
Tests become flaky.
Tests break for the wrong reasons.
Of course, we can argue that none of these problems is particularly bad, and the advantages of automation still outweigh the cost. This might well be true. We learned to accept some of these problems as 'the price of automation', whereas others are met by some common-sense workarounds:
It takes long to automate a test—Well, let's automate only tests that are important, and will be executed again and again in regression testing.
Execution might be slow, but it is still faster than manual testing.
Tests cannot break for the wrong reason—When they break we found a bug.
In the rest of this post I'd like to summarize some experiences I had when I tried to overcome these problems, not by working around them, but by eliminating their causes.
Most of these problems are rooted in the fact that we are just automating manual tests. By doing so we are not taking into account whether the added computational power, access to different interfaces, and faster execution speed should make us change the way we test systems.
Considering the fact that a system exposes different interfaces to the environment—e.g., the user-interface, an interface between front-end and back-end, an interface to a data-store, and interfaces to other systems—it is obvious that we need to look at each and every interface and test it. More than that we should not only take each interface into account but also avoid testing the functionality in too many different places.
Let me introduce the example of a store-administration system which allows you to add items to the store, see the current inventory, and remove items. One straightforward manual test case for adding an item would be to go to the 'Add' dialogue, enter a new item with quantity 1, and then go to the 'Display' dialogue to check that it is there. To automate this test case you would instrument exactly all the steps through the user-interface.
Probably most of the problems I listed above will apply. One way to avoid them in the first place would have been to figure out how this system looks inside.
Is there a database? If so, the verification should probably not be performed against the UI but against the database.
Do we need to interface with a supplier? If so, how should this interaction look?
Is the same functionality available via an API? If so, it should be tested through the API, and the UI should just be checked to interact with the API correctly.
This will probably yield a higher number of tests, some of them being much'smaller' in their resource requirements and executing far faster than the full end-to-end tests. Applying these simple questions will allow us to:
write many more tests through the API, e.g., to cover many boundary conditions,
execute multiple threads of tests on the same machine, giving us a chance to spot race-conditions,
start earlier with testing the system, as we can test each interface when it becomes 'quasi-stable',
makes maintenance of tests and debugging easier, as the tests break closer to the source of the problem,
require fewer machine resources, and still execute in reasonable time.
I am not advocating the total absence of UI tests here. The user interface is just another interface, and so it deserves attention too. However I do think that we are currently focusing most of our testing-efforts on the UI. The common attitude, that the UI deserves most attention because it is what the user sees, is flawed. Even a perfect UI will not satisfy a user if the underlying functionality is corrupt.
Neither should we abandon our end-to-end tests. They are valuable and no system can be considered tested without them. Again, the question we need to ask ourselves is the ratio between full end-to-end tests and smaller integration tests.
Unfortunately, there is no free lunch. In order to change the style of test-automation we will also need to change our approach to testing. Successful test-automation needs to:
start early in the development cycle,
take the internal structure of the system into account,
have a feedback loop to developers to influence the system-design.
Some of these points require quite a change in the way we approach testing. They are only achievable if we work as a single team with our developers. It is crucial that there is an absolute free flow of information between the different roles in this team.
In previous projects we were able to achieve this by
removing any spatial separation between the test engineers and the development engineers. Sitting on the next desk is probably the best way to promote information exchange,
using the same tools and methods as the developers,
getting involved into daily stand-ups and design-discussions.
This helps not only in getting involved really early (there are projects where test development starts at the same time as development), but it is also a great way to give continuous feedback. Some of the items in the list call for very development-oriented test engineers, as it is easier for them to be recognized as a peer by the development teams.
To summarize, I figured out that a successful automation project needs:The bold changes – including a new front wing, bargeboards, floor and brake ducts – had been expected to deliver a decent step forward in downforce to help the team overcome a growing power deficit to its rivals.
But although the figures from the wind tunnel and CFD were promising, for some reason the progress was not being translated onto the track, and the team was struggling to see any differences in downforce or laptime.
Amid a conviction that there had to be explanation for what was happening, Toro Rosso elected to take the bold step of running its cars with split configurations at Monza and Singapore.
Daniil Kvyat ran with the old package and Carlos Sainz was given the new one throughout both weekends in the hope that finally some answers would emerge.
And although nothing obvious came to light – with the data still needing to be looked through this week – Singapore may have delivered a first answer: that the extra downforce has resulted in a lot of extra drag.
For despite there being little to choose in lap time between the two packages, speed trap figures showed that Sainz's B-spec version was much slower in a straight line.
In the official qualifying speed trap, Sainz was actually the slowest overall – his 300.1 km/h being a full 4.3 km/h slower than Kvyat. At the head of the field, Lewis Hamilton and Pascal Wehrlein were fastest overall at 315.4 km/h.
It was a similar story everywhere else the speed was measured. Sainz was slowest overall in a straight line in the intermediate sectors one and two, and comfortably down on Kvyat everywhere.
Here are the comparisons
Sector 1 Sector 2 Sector 3 Kvyat 315.7 km/h 273.2 km/h 254.7 km/h Sainz 310.9 km/h 271.5 km/h 252.5 km/h
Note: The speed trap is not located at the fastest part of the track
But despite the straight-line speed deficit, the Toro Rossos both got through in to Q3 and actually emerged as best of the rest behind Mercedes, Red Bull and the single Ferrari, which is a pretty amazing feat.
For Sainz, who has spent a great deal of time going over the data with the engineers, Singapore proved that Toro Rosso has brought plenty more downforce, but the extra drag that has come with it has not allowed it to show on track.
"I think the downforce is good, but we pay a penalty for that amount of downforce," explained the Spaniard. "But what we have on the car is perfect for this kind of track.
"It is pure downforce, not worrying too much about the drag and top speed. I am the slowest in the speed traps, I am the slowest everywhere, except for the corners, so it shows that in the corners the car is performing really well and we can be really pleased with that."
If Toro Rosso's package has indeed been hurting in terms of drag, then that would explain why the team suffered so much at tracks with long straights like Hockenheim, Spa and Monza.
Sainz added: "There could be something on the drag side that at places like Spa or Monza, it was not helping, but we need to check."
The final answers are likely to come at Toro Rosso's Faenza factory this week, as the team hopes that it can unlock the downforce benefits without being held back too much on the straights, especially with tracks like Sepang and Suzuka coming up.Despite past claims that he has “very little time” for watching television, President Donald Trump’s well-documented cable-news crapulence is a frequent catalyst for spur-of-the-moment tweetstorms—typically heavy in self-praise and heavier in schoolyard taunts.
On Friday evening, however, the president took a break from backdoor bragging to promote the important work being done by another American: a virulently anti-Catholic pastor who said something nice about him on television.
In a tweet, Trump lauded A Place Called Heaven: 10 Surprising Truths About Your Eternal Home, the newest book by evangelical megapastor Dr. Robert Jeffress, roughly one hour after Jeffress appeared on Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs Tonight to defend the president’s feud with Rep. Frederica Wilson.
“What President Trump said to this widow was absolutely appropriate,” said Jeffress, who serves as pastor of the 12,000-parishioner First Baptist Church in Dallas.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for this whacko rhinestone-cowboy congresswoman to accuse the president of insensitivity when, in fact, she’s the one who is exploiting the widow’s pain for her own partisan gain,” Jeffress said of Wilson, a Florida Democrat who has criticized Trump for telling the widow of a soldier killed in action that her late husband “knew what he signed up for.”
Later in the telecast, Jeffress declared that “the tide is turning” toward Trump on everything from the economy to the investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
The pastor’s unqualified praise was rewarded with the kind of blurb an author dreams of, with the president calling A Place Called Heaven “great” and Jeffress himself “a wonderful man”:
In the metric most cherished by the president—loyalty to the Trump White House—Jeffress is, indeed, wonderful. But among Catholics, Mormons, gays, Tim Tebow, and people who don’t think that access to abortion caused 9/11, Jeffress isn’t so universally beloved.
As Southern Baptist pastors go, Jeffress’ stances on homosexuality and transgender people are relatively mainstream—he once theorized that anal intercourse might make a person explode—but his views on other Christian faiths have engendered controversy even among religious conservatives. Most famously, Jeffress called Mormonism a “cult” after introducing Rick Perry at the Value Voters Summit in 2011, apparently in a bid to undercut evangelical support for Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
The pastor’s views on Roman Catholicism are equally extreme. In 2010, Jeffress declared that the Catholic Church was a “counterfeit” religion that had its origins in a Babylonian “pagan religion,” making Catholicism the “Whore of Babylon” foretold in the Book of Revelation.
“Isn’t that the genius of Satan?” Jeffress said on his radio show, Path to Victory. “If you want to counterfeit a dollar bill, you don’t do it with purple paper and red ink, you’re not going to fool anybody with that. But if you want to counterfeit money, what you do is make it look closely related to the real thing as possible.”
Contrary to olive branches extended between the two movements—evangelical Mike Huckabee told a conservative gathering in 2012 that “we’re all Catholics now,” while Vice President Mike Pence describes himself as an “evangelical Catholic”—the current detente between evangelical and Catholic faiths is relatively new. Similar to evangelical Christian devotion to the State of Israel as a means to an end, the uneasy truce is largely rooted in the partnership of expediency formed in the 1970s to champion “traditional family values” by waging war on abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Historically, the relationship between evangelical Protestant churches and Roman Catholics is much more fractious, with Baptist fundamentalists like Carey Pointer and Jerry Falwell once preaching that Catholics were heathen because of their extravagant and unintelligible liturgies, and many Catholics viewing evangelicals as snake-handlers and swindlers.
But such views have largely been banished from the evangelical movement—if only in public. Jeffress’ statements were extreme enough to prompt hunky Christian quarterback-turned-minor league baseball player Tim Tebow to cancel an appearance at his Dallas megachurch, derided in local media as the “Baptist Bellagio.”
To Trump, however, Jeffress’ comments on Mormonism and the Catholic Church apparently take a backseat to his comments on Trump. In January 2016, Jeffress encouraged evangelicals to be open-minded about the tycoon-turned-candidate, telling the Christian Post that “I don’t believe a Christian has to sell his soul to the devil to vote for Donald Trump.”
The White House did not return a request for comment on when the president read A Place Called Heaven, which markets itself as detailing what a person might expect when they arrive in the afterlife, or who had recommended the book. Trump once predicted that the only way he would get into Heaven would be if he won the presidency.MetroPCS, the nation's fifth largest mobile carrier, announced earlier this week it was offering new pay-as-you-go mobile data plans for its 4G network that would block online video streaming – except for YouTube – for its lowest level plan, and block the use of internet phone-calling apps for all plans.
While the company says the plans are intended to give customers the choice of levels of service, the plans seem to be in conflict with the FCC's new net neutrality rules. Those controversial rules, passed just before Christmas, prohibit mobile carriers from blocking access to websites or "blocking applications that compete with the provider's voice or video telephony services, subject to reasonable network management."
It's not clear what services MetroPCS will allow or block on each plan. But blocking any online video site arbitrarily seems to be a clear violation of the new net neutrality rules.MetroPCS' announcement comes just weeks after the FCC issued new rules that would require cable and DSL companies to allow customers to use the applications, devices and services of their choice without the companies creating fast and slow lanes of traffic. However, the FCC is applying only a subset of those rules to mobile wireless companies. Nearly all the rules for all carriers include an exception for "reasonable" network management.
That phrase, critics say, leaves a gaping loophole, and MetroPCS seems to be trying to use it.
"The FCC rules are so vague and vaporous that it's unclear," said Art Brodsky, the communications chief for the pro-net neutrality group Public Knowledge. "Under normal conditions, we'd start screaming this is a violation of net neutrality."
For instance, VoIP calls are explicitly blocked in MetroPCS' terms of service as an application that causes too much stress on its network. The terms of service also seem to make it possible for MetroPCS to block other online services that one might consider "web browsing," such as the online personalized radio station Pandora.
The company claims the right to block users from dialing certain phone numbers, at their discretion, even though common carrier rules, the cousin of net neutrality rules that apply to the phone system, require phone companies to connect all calls.
Continue reading...
MetroPCS is offering three monthly plans for its 4G service: a $40, $50 and $60 plan. Parsing them is quite a challenge.
The $40 plan offers "unlimited talk, text, 4G web browsing with unlimited YouTube access." Evidently, visiting other video sites is not included in unlimited web browsing. And unlimited browsing appears to have a limit of 1-GB per month, though it's all very vague.
For $10 more, you get international text messaging, "mobile instant messaging, corporate e-mail and 1 GB of additional data access, with premium features available through MetroSTUDIO™ when connected via Wi-Fi, including audio capabilities to listen and download music and access to preview and trial video content."
The $60 a month plan adds "unlimited data access and MetroSTUDIO premium content such as 18 video-on-demand channels and audio downloads."
It's not clear what services MetroPCS will allow or block on each plan. But blocking any online video site arbitrarily looks to be a clear violation of the new net neutrality rules.
Or, as the FCC wrote in its 180-page order: "End users expect to be able to access any lawful website through their broadband service, whether fixed or mobile. Web browsing continues to generate the largest amount of mobile data traffic, and applications and services are increasingly being provisioned and used entirely through the web, without requiring a standalone application to be downloaded to a device. Given that the mobile web is well-developed relative to other mobile applications and services, and enjoys similar expectations of openness that characterize web use through fixed broadband, we find it appropriate to act here."
But MetroPCS seems to be saying that it's going the cable-menu route, allowing users to get basic, limited web browsing for a lower rate and the full net at a premium:
"Our 4G LTE network can deliver unlimited voice and mobile broadband data services and, with these new service plans, consumers are in the driver's seat on how much additional data access and real-time entertainment content they want to pay for on a monthly basis," said Roger D. Linquist, president, CEO and chairman of MetroPCS in a press release.
A company representative did not return a call seeking comment.
But their terms of service make clear that the company has the right to look deeply at what you are doing, throttle data usage, and even block websites, even though the new FCC rules prohibit the latter (subject to reasonable network management).
You acknowledge and agree and authorize MetroPCS to alter for you, as your agent, such Data Content and to restrict or deny access to certain sites or Internet addresses for any reason. You acknowledge and agree that such alteration that MetroPCS may or will perform on your behalf as your agent may include our use of Data Content traffic management or shaping techniques such as, but not limited to delaying or controlling the speeds at which Data Content is delivered, reformatting the Data Content, compressing the Data Content, prioritizing traffic on MetroPCS’ network, and placing restrictions on the amount of Data Content made available based on the Agreement. You further acknowledge that MetroPCS may not be able to alter such Data Content for you merely by reference to the Internet address and therefore acknowledge and agree that MetroPCS may examine, including, but not limited to Shallow (or Stateful) Packet Inspection and Deep Packet Inspection, the Data Content requested by you while using the MetroWEB Service to determine how best to alter such Data Content prior to providing it to you.
Explicitly blocked are using your phone camera to continually broadcast video or using VOIP services such as Skype.
However, the FCC rule states that mobile carriers cannot "block applications that compete with the provider's voice or video telephony services, subject to reasonable network management."
The FCC says it will enforce the rules on a case-by-case basis and for mobile operators will have to look into issues of efficient network usage.
An FCC representative did not respond to a request for comment.
Or as the order says: "Thus, in determining whether a network management practice is reasonable, the Commission will consider technical, operational, and other differences between wireless and other broadband Internet access platforms, including differences relating to efficient use of spectrum. We anticipate that conditions in mobile broadband networks may necessitate network management practices that would not be necessary in most fixed networks, but conclude that our definition of reasonable network management is flexible enough to accommodate such differences."
Which is to say, MetroPCS seems to be in violation of these rules, but it's not clear if the FCC would actually rule that to be the case.
Or as the old journalistic saw goes, only time will tell (subject to reasonable network management).
Photo via Majiscup
See Also:I've been meaning to try out SLIME for a long time, and finally got around to it a couple of months ago. Let me say that I'm very, very impressed with the rich development environment Common Lisp people have made for themselves. The python environment I use at work (Emacs for editing, ipython for experimenting, occasional usage of grep) pales in comparison.
I told myself then that I'd have to write down what it is that makes SLIME so great, but that got put aside in the runup to GStreamer 0.10. Now with a bit more time on my hands I've taken another look at it. It's still impressive.
Implementation notes
I have to touch on the implementation first, because otherwise the rest won't make sense. Most emacs and vi users are accustomed to specialized editor modes for different languages: one for python to help in indentation, one for C, etc. These modes rely on textual, syntactic analysis of the source code file to try to anticipate what you want the editor to do. However it's never perfect; local variables that have the same name as builtin functions in python still get highlighted as if they were builtins, some macros might upset the indenter in C, etc.
SLIME takes a different approach to "editor modes". It's a client-server architecture; the Emacs part of SLIME connects to an external Lisp process, which is running a SLIME server. The two sides communicate via a special RPC protocol.
If SLIME existed for Python, it would not highlight builtins based on their name. Instead it would have an inferior python interpreter running the whole time, and when the user types in map, it would ask the python interpreter what map is. Based on that answer it would then choose how to highlight the word, and maybe even tell the programmer what the arguments to map are.
The server is written in mostly-portable Common Lisp, so that it runs on something like 9 implementation of the language. Because the protocol is the same, SLIME can interact with all implementations in the same way. This is of great interest to CL programmers, but even Python has a couple of other slightly incompatible implementations, so the idea of communicating via sockets with an external server is still a good one.
I'm going to artificially divide up SLIME's feature set into a few categories: writing new code, changing existing |
to officials, the White House views the carriage procession as an important part of Trump's itinerary for his visit scheduled for the second week in October.
UK security sources have warned that it poses a "monster" security operation, according to a Times report, leading to a lockdown of areas in central London.
The Metropolitan Police are preparing for one of the largest public order operations in years, as hundreds of thousands of people are expected to come to Westminster to protest at Trump's state visit, which was postponed from earlier this year.
In 2011, Barack Obama arrived at Buckingham Palace, travelling in an armoured motorcade, protected in a bullet and bomb-proof car.
"The vehicle which carries the president of the United States is a spectacular vehicle. It is designed to withstand a massive attack, like a low-level rocket grenade," a source told the Times.
"If he's in that vehicle he is incredibly well protected and on top of that it can travel at enormous speed. If he is in a golden coach being dragged up the Mall by a couple of horses, the risk factor is dramatically increased.
"There may well be protections in that coach such as bulletproof glass, but they are limited. In particular, it is very flimsy.
"It would not be able to put up much resistance in the face of a rocket propelled grenade or high-powered ammunition. Armour-piercing rounds would make a very bad show of things."
If the Diamond Jubilee State Coach is used, it has bullet-proof windows, covered with gold leaf, with door handles inlaid with 24 diamonds and 130 sapphires, according to the Daily Mail.
Hundreds of armed US Secret Service personnel will also be protecting the American president.
An itinerary that Trump is said to be keen on includes golf at Balmoral, tea with Kate Middleton, Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, as well as a visit to the Churchill War Rooms.Investment analysts have speculated for years that Mr. Shaich, 63, has been looking for a way to reduce his role at the company after spending more than two decades building it up from a tiny 400-square foot cookie store in Boston.
Mr. Shaich, however, said that he planned to continue to lead Panera. “Nothing will change,” he said. “The management team and I will remain.”
With the acquisition of Panera, JAB will have spent more than $40 billion in what appears to be a big bet that it can muscle in on a market dominated by Starbucks and Nestlé.
Starbucks has just undergone a major management change, with its longtime chief executive, Howard Schultz, stepping aside to focus on developing its emerging high-end coffee business. Kevin Johnson, the new chief executive, served on the Starbucks board but made his career in technology.
In many ways, Mr. Schultz was the personification of the company, and under his leadership, Starbucks routinely posted record earnings and stellar growth, but it has run into some glitches recently. Investment analysts were spooked after the company reported first-quarter earnings in January that reflected slower sales in its vast fleet of American stores and problems with its mobile order system, which apparently could not keep up with demand.
One quarter does not, of course, a history make, and JAB also faces challenges.
It takes on Panera at a time when it has two large turnarounds on its hands, Krispy Kreme and Keurig Green Mountain. The doughnut chain was a phenomenon several years ago, then fell on hard times and has never fully recovered.
Keurig, which dominates the single-serve coffee market, has struggled as competition cut into its profitability. Then it made a big bet that fell flat on a single-serve machine to make cold drinks, and JAB stepped in.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comments from Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump that Medicare could reap huge savings by negotiating with drugmakers raise new risks for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, whose shares have been pressured by criticism from Democrats.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts. SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.
Trump told a New Hampshire crowd on Monday night that “$300 billion could be saved” by such negotiations.
“We don’t do it. Why?” Trump said. “Because of the drug companies.” Trump leads in opinion polls among Republicans vying for their party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
The Nasdaq Biotechnology index.NBI was off 0.7 percent in Tuesday afternoon trading, underperforming solid gains for the major U.S. stock indexes.
Democrats and other critics have hammered away at drug costs in recent months, raising investor concerns that future price cuts could hurt pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Biotech stocks tumbled last September after Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton tweeted her intent to tackle high prices.
“I think that Republican folks are going to have to respond, and that perpetuates the discussion,” said Les Funtleyder, healthcare portfolio manager at E Squared Asset Management in New York. “If this message resonates on the Republican side, then biopharma will have both sides shooting at it, which is not optimal for investors.”
The potential for the huge U.S. Medicare program for the elderly to use its leverage to negotiate prices has long been a proposal backed by some Democrats, and was part of Clinton’s plan to rein in drug costs unveiled last September. Medicare by law cannot directly negotiate drug prices.
Medicare’s enrollment is expected to swell to 75 million beneficiaries in 2026 from 55 million last year, the Congressional Budget Office projected on Monday.
In response to Trump’s comments, the main trade group for the pharmaceutical industry said on Tuesday that significant price negotiation already occurred with the Medicare program.
“Proposals to fundamentally alter the structure of the program could jeopardize seniors’ and people living with disabilities’ access to affordable prescription drug coverage, driving up premiums, reducing choice and restricting coverage,” said Allyson Funk, senior director of communications for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
David Heupel, a healthcare analyst with Thrivent Investment Management in Minneapolis, said he doubted the proposal would be broadly adopted by Republicans.
But should the Republicans start taking up the issue more significantly, Heupel said, it would be a “step in the wrong direction for sentiment for the group.”
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Additional reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York and Alana Wise in Farmington, N.H.; Editing by Peter Cooney)
SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.Prom is the new wedding, and spending on the springtime high school dance is climbing within reach of celebrations of holy matrimony.
Mary Stirsman says she couldn't imagine buying her 17-year-old daughter Madison the $500 dress she found at an Indianapolis boutique on one recent shopping trip, because Stirsman only spent $800 on her own wedding dress. But a higher price tag is the new norm for an increasingly lavish event for which teens and their families are dropping loads of cash on one-of-a-kind dresses and tuxes, limos or party buses, hair, makeup, jewelry, flowers, dinner and dance tickets.
This year, families with teens are expected to spend an average of $1,078 on prom, up from $807 last year, according to data from a survey released today by Visa that includes results based on a thousand telephone interviews conducted at the end of last month.
"This is social-arms-race spending. It's extreme," says Jason Alderman, director of Visa's financial education programs.
Spending has been driven to never-before-seen levels as teens are influenced by everything from celebrities and reality TV to the prevalence of social media, experts say.
Linda Korman, advertising director for Seventeen Prom and Teen Prom, says teen girls view prom as their "red-carpet moment" and are "heavily influenced" by celebrities who walk actual red carpets in designer gowns.
"It's a rite of passage, and there's a legacy of how you look at your prom," she says. "Girls want to dress to impress."
Maria Sanchez-Ferry of Las Vegas spent $400 on a sequined teal dress from a bridal store for her 17-year-old daughter, Reyna Sanchez, and another $120 on alterations. The prom is at the end of the month, and while she says the event is turning into the most costly of all the high school dances Reyna, a senior, has attended, she doesn't mind spending more.
"This is her senior prom, and I wanted it to be special," Sanchez-Ferry says.
A coming-of-age event
With more adults marrying later, in many ways, prom has replaced weddings, debutante balls and coming-out parties as the formal occasion of a young adult's life, says Kit Yarrow, a marketing and psychology professor who co-authored Gen BuY, a book on Gen Y buying behavior.
This is especially evident in the Northeast and South, which have a tradition of formal coming-of-age parties. Average spending by families with teens attending prom is considerably higher than in other parts of the country, with families in the South expected to spend about $1,047, while Northeastern families will spend an average of almost $2,000, according to the Visa survey. In the West and Midwest, families will spend an average of $744 and $696, respectively, the survey found.
The disparity in spending across the country, as well as the increase in overall spending, might be due, in part, to the degree to which parents are involved in their kids' social lives, Yarrow says.
"Especially in really affluent households, the parents, in a way, use their kids to proclaim their stature to other parents," she says. "They use their kids to communicate to the community who they are."
Making an impression
But kids themselves are also concerned with the impression they're communicating, and for teens who have grown up sharing their lives on Facebook and other social-media platforms, appearances have become even more important, say Yarrow and Alison Jatlow Levy, a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon.
Girls' sources of style and inspiration have evolved with greater access to information through fashion blogs and other websites that put an emphasis on individuality, Levy says. "There's a general sense of people wanting to be differentiated," she says. "Going to a national chain and getting the same dress that 18 other girls have is not a chance for me to differentiate myself or express my individuality, which is such an important part of my social experience today."
Splurging on an expensive dress or getting your hair and nails done isn't just about personal expression; it's about getting attention, Yarrow says.
"The bar is higher for what it takes to get attention, and therefore, (teens) really need to have something exclusive, original, unique to them in order to get attention to from other people," Yarrow says, and that often comes with a higher price tag.
The "peer pressure to one up each other over and over," as Alderman says, seems to be affecting less affluent families the most. Parents in one of the lowest income brackets from the Visa survey reported planning to spend the most on prom. Those who make between $20,000 and $29,999 a year will spend more than $2,600, twice the national average, while families in high income brackets plan to spend between $700 and $1,000.
"Appearance is everything, and for prom, appearance really matters," Levy says. "You'll probably see people spending a little beyond their means to make the right impression. It's like your Cinderella night, so you pull out all the stops."A mixed martial arts fighter named War Machine began physically abusing his porn star girlfriend just months after meeting her on an adult film shoot — and that escalated until prosecutors say he told her: “This is it. I’ve got to kill you now.”
Prosecutors on Monday began their case against Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver, who legally changed his name during his 19-fight MMA career, with opening statements of his trial on 34 counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. The charges stem from an early-morning attack on Aug. 8, 2014, when he found Christine Mackinday asleep with her then-boyfriend in her bedroom, the Las Vegas-Review Journal reports.
Roughly an hour earlier, Koppenhaver and Mackinday — known by her stage name, Christy Mack — had exchanged “I love you” text messages, according to Koppenhaver’s defense attorney, Jay Leiderman.
“And then it all breaks loose,” Leiderman told jurors.
Mack’s boyfriend at the time, Corey Thomas, testified that Koppenhaver attacked him first, biting his face and right arm while throwing non-stop punches. Mackinday, meanwhile, jumped out of bed and called 911.
“Jon, stop,” Mackinday was heard screaming on the call played in court. “You’re going to kill him.”
Koppenhaver continued attacking Thomas until Thomas told the professional fighter: “You gotta kill me, or you gotta let me go.”
Thomas said the fight lasted about 12 agonizing minutes before Koppenhaver asked him if he’d “snitch” if he let him go, News3LV.com reports.
“I’m looking up at the ceiling thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to die in Christy’s bathroom,’” Thomas told the jury of six men and six women. “That’s not how I’m going out.”
Thomas told jurors he suffered a broken nose, dislocated shoulder and other injuries in the attack, which occurred roughly two months after he started dating Mackinday. Koppenhaver let him leave the house after threatening to get his Navy SEAL and Hells Angels biker friends to hurt Thomas if he went to police, the Associated Press reports.
Koppenhaver then allegedly attacked Mackinday after Thomas left the home, leaving her with a fractured left eye socket, two missing teeth, a lacerated liver, broken ribs and other injuries.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth told jurors that Koppenhaver had abused Mackinday during previous incidents, at first striking her in the head and face with an open hand, and slamming her head into a dashboard in another incident.
Leiderman described Mackinday and Koppenhaver as “two damaged people” who had frequent discussions about sex and rape during their relationship.
“Ultimately, the two of them were swallowed up by the personas they had created for themselves,” Leiderman said.
Koppenhaver, 35, who has pleaded not guilty, could face up to life in prison if convicted. He was arrested outside Los Angeles a week after the alleged attack in Las Vegas.
Testimony from Thomas is expected to resume early Tuesday.Many people experience severe anxiety in mundane social situations, such as group introductions or paying bills. Why does this happen? And is there any useful purpose to it?
One of the weirder traits humans have is the ability to be deeply unnerved by situations or contexts that many others would find utterly mundane. There are many examples of this. Here’s one from my own life: I don’t like using the phone. Never have.
As a child, I would do anything other than use the cursed device. I’d walk to someone’s house rather than call them. Admittedly I lived in a small Welsh valley where nobody was more than 5 minutes away, but still.
I’m glad this happened before mobile phones, or I’d have been like an arachnophobe in a world where pet tarantulas were mandatory.
I’ve managed to get over it somewhat as an adult after working in a medical dissection theatre where part of my job was calling the recently bereaved and explaining what was happening to their deceased loved one’s remains.
In this scenario, you either develop an acceptable phone manner or you don’t keep the job for very long (not that I especially wanted a job where I kept company with cadavers, but I still had rent to pay).
But to this day, I’m loth to use the phone. Call me and you’ll likely get monosyllabic grunting, as if the phone’s been answered by a passing gorilla with a hangover. But it hasn’t. I just don’t like talking on the phone.
It’s partly the total lack of body language and facial expression. These things are very important in human communication, and I like to have as much info as possible when talking in real-time, so without it I feel nervous.
But I also don’t like bothering people, and if I call someone I can’t shake the feeling I’m interrupting something incredibly important, like performing CPR on an asthmatic child. So yes, I don’t like the phone.
Some people may be baffled by this; how can something so mundane and commonplace be so unnerving? Well, I’m not alone.
And it’s not just the phone; there are countless mundane or everyday situations or actions that cause people to get cripplingly anxious.
Ordering food at a busy counter, job interviews, eating with people, group introductions, using lifts (I once absent-mindedly ate an apple while in a full lift, and the reaction I got meant I may as well have just urinated in the corner). Even very successful people have weird paranoias about certain situations.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest For some, using the phone is stressful enough, without a child laughing at you. Photograph: Chris Rout/Alamy
One thing that all these things seemingly have in common is that they embody a fear or worry about the potential reaction of others. Other people are the key factor, hence the label “social anxiety”.
While any who experience this tend to consider themselves weird or unusual for it, this is far from the case. Some people have it so bad that it crosses the line into “social phobia” and can be quite debilitating, so much so it has its own dedicated NHS page.
So social anxiety is commonplace, we’ve established that. But WHY is this the case? Why would our brains suddenly decide that an ordinary social occurrence is something akin to facing down a predator?
A surprising amount of research has gone into this. One main theory is that it stems from an intrinsic motivation to make a good impression on an audience (be the audience members real or imagined).
Humans tend to care greatly about their status within a group, even if it is on a subconscious level, so in any scenario where they believe they will be evaluated or judged (rightly or wrongly), they’re going to be motivated to do well. And here’s where performance anxiety can kick in.
One thing the human brain is annoyingly good at is imagining a worst-case scenario.
There’s a phenomenon known as counterfactual thinking. This is where we dwell on possible outcomes of actions we didn’t actually take. What if I’d given a different answer to that interview question? What if I’d put 7 instead of 19 on my lottery ticket? What if I’d sweetly kissed my date goodnight rather than thrown up on her shoes?
Our brains typically spend copious amounts of time dwelling on and worrying over things that DID NOT and CANNOT HAPPEN! It may well be a means of more thoroughly/effectively learning from past behaviours, but it’s still annoying.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest After interviews, our brains tend to dwell on what we didn’t say as much as what we did say, so you may as well say what you like. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/REX
But if the brain is so obsessed with negative outcomes that didn’t happen, how much worse will it be over things that could happen?
And people experiencing social anxiety know this feeling. The creeping dread of doing something that will end up earning the disdain, contempt or, potentially worse, pity of those around us can lead to the intense anxiety we feel.
This isn’t to belittle or undermine those who experience genuine chronic anxiety, that’s a whole different matter. But this more widespread social anxiety keeps occurring, and what’s causing it?
Some point to factors occurring in our development, or a sort of feedback-loop of triggers and avoidant behaviours, and there’s even the possibility that it might be helpful.
Yes, helpful. Sometimes, stress and pressure can increase performance.
This is actually a reliable occurrence, and gave rise to the Yerkes-Dodson law. This law can be represented by a simple curve, and basically shows that as nervousness and stress increase, performance increases.
You’ve heard people say they work better when a deadline is imminent? This is probably true. And maybe the brain is piling the pressure on in social situations where you want to impress – to increase your performance, upping the odds of you doing so?
But this increase in performance only occurs up to a point. And that point is all important: too much stress or pressure and your performance declines to nothing. People can’t function properly when they’re incredibly stressed, and it shows.
Perhaps this explains everything about social anxiety. We want people to be impressed with us (or at least approve of us) so our brains increase stress by making us worry over the possible negative outcomes.
But clearly, the line between increased and decreased performance is crossed all too often, and we end up in a gibbering, hyperventilating mess. Or close to that.
This doesn’t apply to everyone of course. There are people in this world who are so confident that they can’t even comprehend the possibility that others might consider their appearance/actions/statements utterly ludicrous.
On an entirely unrelated note, have you been watching The Apprentice? It’s back on again.
Dean Burnett wrote this article in response to a conversation with @girlonthenet and @orbette. He’s on Twitter too (duh) as @garwboyIn February, 2001, I penned a piece for Moment Magazine that caused quite a ruckus.
I had titled it “Time to Come Home,” and it was addressed to Jews who belonged to Conservative Jewish congregations. I made the case that the Conservative movement’s claim of fealty to halacha was hollow and that the movement essentially took its cues from whatever non-Jewish society felt was acceptable or proper.
The issue of same-sex relationships, I contended, would prove my point. At the time, the movement hadn’t yet rejected the Torah’s clear prohibitions in that area. I predicted that, as the larger societal milieu was coming to embrace such relationships as morally acceptable, the Conservative movement would follow suit in due time.
(It did, of course, rather quickly. In 2006, the movement’s “Committee on Jewish Law and Standards” endorsed a position permitting “commitment ceremonies” between people of the same gender and the ordination as Conservative rabbis of people living openly homosexual lives. But the accuracy of my prediction is not my topic here.)
I pleaded that Conservative Jews who truly respected the concept of halacha should join their Orthodox brothers and sisters, and “come home,” as per the piece’s title.
It was most upsetting to me to see the final proofs of the article. The editing and pull-quotes were great, but the piece had been retitled (with the artwork reflecting the renaming) “The Conservative Lie” – in large, bold letters. I protested mightily but the magazine was adamant about its right to title the piece as it wished. A newcomer to its pages (and having worked for many weeks on the piece), I relented.
I had expected a torrent of righteous indignation from Conservative leaders for daring to call their dedication to halacha into question. And it came; the truth hurt. I also heard from many thoughtful Conservative and ex-Conservative Jews who affirmed my thesis.
But I lament to this day the fact that the harsh title likely prevented many readers from actually weighing what I wrote, that it biased them from the start to regard the writer of the piece as a rude name-caller and to read my words (if they even bothered to) through the lens of that bias.
The experience returned to my consciousness not long ago when I saw the title the Forward placed on a piece I had written, this one about haredi women in the Israeli workplace.
The point of my piece was a simple one. In much of the multitudinous reportage about high haredi poverty and unemployment rates in Israel, one interesting factor seems to have gone missing: the upsurge in employment of haredi women, trained and placed in a variety of professions by various private groups.
I noted the irony of that ignoring, since women’s economic empowerment has traditionally been celebrated by liberal-minded folks. And I noted further that while haredi society embraces distinct male and female roles, it seems to have no objection to couples who decide that the husband’s full-time Torah-study is worth the wife’s becoming the family breadwinner.
The title the Forward placed on the piece: “How Ultra-Orthodoxy Is Most Feminist Faith.”
Not only was that not my thesis, but the word “feminism” didn’t even appear among the nearly 800 I had employed.
The bloggerai, predictably, went bonkers. Various armchair commentators seemed to not realize that headlines and titles are the choice of the medium, not the writer. Some knee-jerk pundits seemed to have read little beyond the title itself; others read the piece and were outraged that it didn’t fulfill the promise of the title; others still ignored the point of the piece altogether and just took the opportunity to vent spleen over the fact that I had dared address an interesting aspect of the haredi economic situation rather than condemning haredim for their choices. And some, it seemed, just saw the word haredi and, reflexively, saw red.
A friend of mine, a non-observant Jew, recently sent me some unsolicited comments. While he is puzzled in some ways by haredim, he noted how, deep into middle age, he has discovered how important it is to “understand that the other person has a point of view, that one should not judge a specific situation without knowing the specifics.” As he grows older, my friend continued, “I increasingly appreciate, on a deep emotional level, the virtues of genuine tolerance and a certain degree of humility” when looking at seemingly disturbing things.
My recent re-titling experience, and my friend’s words, hold some lessons for us all:
Don’t pay attention to headlines or titles. Rather, read what a writer has actually written.
And don’t make an automatic target of people who have made choices different from your own. Sure, criticize, if you think it’s warranted. But do so thoughtfully. In your zeal, don’t jettison menschlichkeit.Image copyright AP Image caption Islam Gawish was arrested in Cairo during a raid on the offices of the Egypt News Network
An Egyptian cartoonist known for his satirical slant on political issues was briefly arrested accused of "running a website without a license".
Islam Gawish was released on Monday reportedly without charge, a day after his arrest in Cairo.
Opposition parties and activists had said his arrest targeted freedom of opinion and expression.
There are growing concerns about human rights in Egypt as officials increasingly cut down on dissent.
Gawish was arrested during a police raid on the headquarters of the Egypt News Network website, where he worked.
He was accused of running a website without a permit and using pirated computer software, the interior ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It was not clear which website the ministry was referring to.
The state-run website Al-Ahram reported that he was released without charge.
A popular cartoonist, Gawish has published his work on a Facebook page that has more than 1.6 million followers. He has satirised government figures, including President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and aspects of daily life.
The faces of Egypt's revolution - where are they now?
The perils of reporting in Sisi's Egypt
Spotlight on human rights in Egypt
His arrested was widely criticised on social media and by opposition parties and activists. In a statement posted on Facebook, a group of eight political parties and around 50 activists accused the government of "restricting freedom of opinion and expression".
It said: "This approach is totally unacceptable and there has to be an end for targeting people with free opinions, who wish for nothing but living in a country that respects freedom of opinion and expression, according to the constitution."
Human rights groups have criticised the Egyptian government for its campaign against activists and journalists. Amnesty International has warned that Egypt is now "mired in a human rights crisis of huge proportions", as the country "reverts back to a police state".
Image copyright EPA Image caption Egypt has intensified a crackdown on dissent including a ban on public demonstrations
In January, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, several people were arrested, including two activists accused of running dozens of Facebook pages supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and calling for protests.
Recent raids have also targeted sites popular with activists, which have been shut down.
As former armed forces chief, Mr Sisi led the army's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, an ex-Muslim Brotherhood official, in 2013 following mass protests.
Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed and 40,000 are believed to have been jailed. Most of them have been supporters of the Brotherhood, which was banned in 2013, but secular and liberal activists have also been prosecuted for breaking a 2013 anti-protest law.Image copyright Alamy Image caption There are thousands of insurance claims each year over human pyramid-related injuries
Authorities in Japan are drawing up new guidelines for schools in an attempt to cut the number of accidents involving human pyramids.
The new regulations are intended to prevent serious injuries - and the subsequent insurance payouts - resulting from what's known as kumitaiso, the building of human pyramids in gymnastic displays, the Kyodo news agency reports. Education Minister Hiroshi Hase told reporters that new rules on the activity, which is a popular feature of school sports days, would be in place by the end of March. Mr Hase, a former professional wrestler, said: "It involves the lives of children, and some of the casualties reported have led to serious injuries."
Kumitaiso involves students kneeling on each other's backs, with the person at the top standing, and formations can be several storeys high. Even junior members of the Japanese royal family have been known to take part in the practice, with 11-year-old Princess Aiko photographed on the bottom row of a pyramid at a school gymnastics display in 2013.
According to the Japan Sports Council, insurance payments for injuries relating to human pyramids have been made in more than 8,000 cases per year since 2011. One case in Osaka prefecture in September 2015 left a student with broken bones after a ten-storey pyramid collapsed. That incident prompted the local board of education to limit human pyramids to five tiers and standing human towers to three.
Next story: Health and safety catches up with German public fridges
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.Iranians pray in Tehran during a 2013 Arbaeen observance marking the end of the 40-day mourning period commemorating the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammad’s grandson. (Vahid Salemi/AP)
Millions of Shiite Muslims traveled from across the Muslim world to walk in procession to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq, today for the world’s largest, yet largely unknown, annual pilgrimage. This ziyara, or visit, to the shrine in southern Iraq is known as the Arbaeen. It marks the end of 40 days of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a central moment in Shiite tradition. More than 10 times the size of the hajj — because Iraq does not limit the number of pilgrims — it was restricted for years during the rule of Saddam Hussein because of its potential for sectarian collective action.
Last November, we used this pilgrimage as an opportunity to survey religious Shiites from Iran and Iraq, an important but largely understudied population. Using both traditional survey instruments and experimental methods, the survey covered a wide range of issues, including religion and politics, democracy, women’s rights, regional conflict and Iran’s nuclear agreement. In a recent article, we reported key findings from this survey, including the broad support among respondents for Iranian regional policy and for the nuclear agreement with the West.
Why it’s hard to survey religious Shiites
The survey demonstrates a novel approach to research on the views of religious Shiites in Iran and Iraq. Regime restrictions in countries such as Iran limit both the ability to conduct surveys and the permissible questions within them; conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Syria make carrying out nationally representative surveys nearly impossible.
Conducting a survey of religious Shiites is an even greater challenge than surveying Shiite populations as a whole. Western interventions often assume that these devout individuals make up the support base for their governments. Yet little data exists on their prevalence, geographic distribution, or religious practice and beliefs. Clustered sampling at places of worship is one potential corrective to this knowledge gap, but national data on mosques are not readily available. This would also under-sample important groups like women and dissenting individuals who choose to worship from home.
However, the Arbaeen pilgrimage provides a unique opportunity to sample religious Shiites from across Iran and Iraq, as the visit to Imam Hussein’s shrine is considered an ultimate expression of one’s piety and devotion. We focused on securing a regionally representative sample based on Shiite distribution in each country, rather than pursuing a representative sample of all the pilgrims.
This was also a unique opportunity to sample practicing religious women outside their homes, as religious women are active participants in the procession.
Why we survey pilgrims
The pilgrimage’s unique processional nature facilitated this regional targeting during the survey process. Able-bodied Iraqi pilgrims walk from their homes across Iraq to Karbala, with some traveling as far as about 300 miles from Basra in the south. Iranians usually travel via bus to the city of Najaf, 50 miles south of Karbala, then walk from there. During the procession, tents, or mawakib, stationed beside the path provide rest and refreshment for pilgrims. For Iraqis, these mawakib are unofficially organized by region. Iranian mawakib are less specifically targeted but still often have broader regional trends. By visiting different tents, we were able to gain a geographically representative sample.
Because our survey asked about sensitive topics, we used experimental methods to try to measure latent perspectives on sectarian tensions, Iran’s nuclear program, and attitudes toward the West, China and Russia. In addition to conjoint analysis, endorsement primes and memory primes, we also examined non-response as a way to understand topic sensitivity and knowledge.
When no response can be an important response
On the issue of sectarianism, respondents were quick to give inclusive answers to direct survey questions. About 90 percent stated they supported Sunni-Shiite dialogue to mitigate conflict and would support Sunnis and Shiites praying together in the same mosque. Yet when given choices between hypothetical neighbors and spouses in a conjoint experiment, sect was more important than religiosity, race and even prior marital status. Only alcoholism was viewed less favorably than Sunni neighbors or spouses.
Participation in the survey hovered at about 85 percent, with the primary reason for declining being that individuals were traveling with a group and did not have time. Though the median rate for question-level non-response was in the single digits, it jumped as high as 50 percent for some questions.
This variation in non-response creates an alternative method of measuring sensitivity to certain topics. The highest non-response rate was for a question asking whether Sunnis and Shiites had similar interpretations of the role of violence in Islam, to which nearly half of Iranians and Iraqis did not respond. Other topics with high non-response rates included democracy and the relationship between government and religion, as well as regional politics and Iran’s foreign policy.
While women were more likely, on average, to have higher non-response rates than men, women were relatively more likely to speak up on issues of gender. Contrary to what Western news and analysis often suggests, this trend highlights religious women’s role in supporting gender norms, rather than merely blindly following male dogma.
Religious Shiites are not monolithic. This is important.
We find that even these devout individuals express surprisingly diverse views on the proper relationship between religion and the state and are nearly divided on the perceived costs and benefits of democratic regimes.
Despite strong perceptions of U.S. bias in favor of Sunni countries, the majority of respondents favored continued engagement with the United States on topics of mutual interest but oppose U.S. military intervention. Most support the Iranian nuclear agreement and share relatively liberal views on women’s rights in government and the workplace, but less so within the family. Although overwhelmingly supportive of both Iran’s interventions and Shiite causes throughout the Middle East, we also found that many respondents were optimistic about democracy and did not necessarily see theocracy or religious political parties as the ideal political system.
The full results of the survey, as well as a detailed background on the pilgrimage and further discussion of the sampling can be found here. This approach presents a unique template for surveying hard-to-reach populations in an increasingly mobile world. The gaps between our findings from direct questions and experimental survey methods, along with the observed patterns of non-response, highlight the importance of the continued use of creative tools to gauge latent beliefs on sensitive topics.
Fotini Christia is an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She carried out this research while an inaugural Andrew Carnegie fellow. Elizabeth Dekeyser and Dean Knox are PhD candidates in political science at MIT.Afghan security forces, pictured in April 2017, in the Dihadi district of Balkh (AFP Photo/FARSHAD USYAN)
The Taliban have killed 13 pro-government fighters in northern Afghanistan, ambushing them as they were on their way to take part in an operation against the insurgency, officials said Sunday.
The attack on the fighters, part of a local militia working with the government, took place Saturday afternoon in the volatile Chimtal district of northern Balkh province, some 40 kilometres from the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif.
It underscored rising insecurity in the war-torn country as the resurgent Taliban step up their assaults, with government forces struggling to contain them.
"13 local militia forces have been shot dead by Taliban insurgents as they were heading for an operation against the militants in Chimtal," Munir Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor of Balkh told AFP.
"All of them were killed... They were young forces," Farhad said, adding they were investigating the cause of the attack.
Sarwar Hussaini, police spokesman for northern Afghanistan confirmed the ambush and the death toll.
The Taliban, who have intensified their attacks on pro-government forces since launching their annual so-called "spring offensive", claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack.
Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and non-existent "ghost soldiers" on the payroll, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.
In April, northern Balkh province witnessed one of the deadliest attacks in Afghan history on a military base near Mazar-i-Sharif, where gunmen and suicide bombers killed around 150 soldiers.
Local militias have been formed |
the stronger teams will be better if we try to build our play with more offensive players. If we decided to go the other way, we just wouldn't be as good and the players would be unhappy.
But even though we use many offensive-minded players, solid defence is the foundation of our play. You can never score as many goals as you can concede if your defence is porous. You know, for a long time the people have been saying that strikers are the first line of defence, but that was just a phrase intended to motivate the team. However, today the strikers have the obligation to fulfil their defensive assignments, and that especially goes to my boys. We're more dangerous when we play with two strikers, but then those two really have to work hard defensively – just like Olic and Mandzukic did in the qualification play-offs against Turkey.
Is there room in such a system for Nikica Jelavic, who was in exceptional form this season for Rangers and Everton, but is a robust centre-forward playing with his back to the goal? There have been suggestions that you need to adapt your play to make use of his characteristics...
I don't think we need to adapt our play to Jelavic – not more than to any other player in the team, anyway. He's fantastic, a modern version of the classic 'No9' who needs very little space to convert a chance. Playing like he does is the hardest thing for a striker today. People ask how is it possible that he can score twice against Manchester United, but not once against Georgia in the qualifiers, and blame that on our system. Well, it's because against United he can use his skills to find the space between three world-class opposing players in the box – he's that good. But Georgia had eight players in the box whenever we tried to attack and no system would make it easier for a striker in those circumstances.
Besides, I think Jelavic will get more useful balls from our players than he receives at Everton. There he works very well with Tony Hibbert, who was a youth player when I played for the Toffees and I'm really glad he has had such an accomplished career with the club. But I hope I won't offend Hibbie if I say that Darijo Srna crosses the ball better and more often than he does. I also have to say that Jelavic's contribution cannot be measured by goals alone. The opponents know just how dangerous he can be and have to work hard to cover him, which enables us to move our line to 20 metres from their goal and press them.
You follow global trends in football and you have proved to be flexible when it comes to formations. How likely is it that you will prepare some kind of tactical surprise at the Euros?
It is possible, although our style of play is more or less known. Maybe we won't go so far and play with three in the back line, although we have tried that before in certain phases of our matches. But football has changed so much in the last few years and it's extremely important to keep pace with that development. Especially now, when we have enough time to prepare.
What has changed the most in your opinion?
It used to be quite a different game tactically – think those Chelsea v Liverpool clashes in the Champions League, those were chess games between Mourinho and Benítez. The goal justified the means. But then Pep Guardiola was crucial in changing that with his Barcelona team, so I have nothing but respect for him. He initiated a revolution in the way coaches look at football. It's true that Barcelona played attractive, attacking football before, and that tiki-taka comes from Cruyff and Rexach, but never before they played the way they did under Guardiola. And that has had a profound influence on other coaches, because everyone wants to emulate the best: most teams today try to play football, they strive to creation, not destruction. Even the Italians took part in that – both the national team and their clubs, with the exception of Inter and a few minor clubs in Serie A. That was unheard of before Guardiola.
Now almost everyone realises that apart from getting a result, it's very important how you play. The fans will accept almost anything as long as there's success, but in the long run, people want to be entertained, they want to enjoy themselves at matches and this is why football needs to be attractive and fun. At Croatia, we have always tried to play and we always look better when our opponents play positive football. Because of the way we play, it's much easier for us when the game is a two-way street.
The team went through a rough patch during the qualifiers and the fans do not seem to be very optimistic...
The overall atmosphere around football in Croatia is not good, with the turmoil in the FA and numerous scandals in the national league, but that's not necessarily a disadvantage. The Italians had a similar situation in 2006, and they won the World Cup. A lot of negative energy was directed at us through the media – the critics were sometimes well-deserved, and sometimes completely unfounded. But that has only brought us closer together, and I nevertheless expect full support from the fans come the Euro.
How crucial is that Luka Modric is at his best?
All players have to give top performances if we want success, but obviously everyone expects the most from Luka. He dictates our play and makes others better with his rhythm and passes. He does the same at Spurs – if he plays well, the team plays well. Luka knows just how crucial his performances are going to be and he's ready to handle the pressure.
We all know who the favourites are, but which team do you think could surprise everyone at the Euros?
Any of the 16. Some will need more luck than others, but any team can be a surprise package. Take Poland, for example – they're hosts, they can compete with all three teams in their group and they will be hard to stop if they get going. The same goes for Ukraine. I wouldn't dare betting against the really well-organised Sweden, either – if their strikers are in top form, I don't think anyone can count on beating them.
What do you think of England's chances?
There's definitely some'meat' in that team and they could go far. I don't agree with those who say their problem is that players get exhausted after a long season, but something hasn't been right with England for a long time now. They talk of unity, the Three Lions and all that stuff, but they have huge problems with personal relationships within the team. If they didn't, they would surely have had some international success because they're too good to keep underachieving all the time. But England could do 'a Chelsea' at this tournament: they've changed their manager and people may not expect much of them anymore, but it's the last shot at something big for several of their players. They should draw on that for motivation.
You play your first game against Ireland. What kind of match do you expect?
It will be a tricky match, I can tell you that. A bloody hard match. I've studied all of their games and their defensive discipline is amazing. You dominate the play, you have the ball in possession and you attack, but they just don't give you too many chances to score. We will have to run harder than them, stay compact, fight for each rebound and be really patient. We can't afford to lose our nerve, because Ireland can easily hurt you with a single counter-attack through Duff, McGeady, Long or Keane. How you start is always key to your confidence and self-esteem and Ireland is our big chance, but I'm sure they're saying the same about us.
What did you learn, as a coach, from your years of playing in England?
There was one thing that impressed me the most, and that was a fantastic balance between pressure and freedom. Pressure is important for every job – a journalist will generally write a better article if he's under pressure or if he writes for a better newspaper. But the key is to channel that pressure into positive energy: you want it to be a drive, not burden. And that's what the English do best.
Sometimes huge investments depend on a result of a single Premier League match, the pressure is huge, but you don't feel burdened by it in a negative way. Regardless of the press which can be really cruel – after all, the English invented that kind of journalism. In the Premier League you learn how to overcome fear and negative emotions, how not to dread what might happen but stay motivated and fight the best you can for your team. And that can often be a decisive factor when two even teams meet.
Who were your biggest influences as a coach and what did you learn from them?
It was never my plan to become a coach. But then my club Hajduk Split called and I had to answer, so I caught the coaching virus. Later, I stayed with two of the best managers at the time – Arsène Wenger at Arsenal and Marcello Lippi at Juve, studying their methods and approach. They only confirmed what I always felt was right, but what stood in stark contrast with the old-school dogmas in former Yugoslavia: you don't have to be a tyrant to earn the respect of your players. The only authority you need is the authority of knowledge. I also realised that as a player in Germany with Winfried Schäfer and in England with Harry Redknapp and Walter Smith – all great coaches, as is Miroslav Blazevic of the Croatia national team in the 1990s.
You leave your post as Croatia manager after the Euros [Bilic has agreed to coach Lokomotiv Moscow]. How will this affect the team?
Right now, I'm completely focused on the Euros and I don't think about anything else. I'm really proud of this job: to manage your country's national team is the highest point in a manager's career and I don't think any job in the future will mean this much to me, although I'm going to dedicate myself to each one of them 100%. I take great pride in my decision not to give up after the first, second or the fifth time we failed at something and they said I should go. I didn't want to go as loser. But I have always seen myself as more of a club coach. I've never concealed those ambitions and I was glad when clubs first started to express their interest four or five years ago.
A lot of people thought you would end up in England after the Croatia job. Do you think you still could one day?
I admit to being an Anglophile, but I had my chances to go to England. I have had offers from big clubs and chose to stay. I would love to work in England, because of the language and the unique football culture, which is different to anywhere else. But I'm not afraid of the challenge – when I [was] choosing my next job, the potential of the club was more important to me than the country and the league.
Are you ready to handle the everyday pressure which comes with coaching a big club?
Every job brings specific problems and demands adapting, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that nothing can compare to the pressure I have experienced in six years on the job as Croatia manager. That's something else. You know, my mother is watching this. My children, too. Their neighbours, the kids at school or just about anyone they know feel it's their place to comment on the decisions I have to make.Partake Brewing opens Kickstarter for alcohol-free craft beer
Toronto – Partake Brewing, created by Ted Fleming – founder of PremiumNearBeer.com, has announced the launch of its Kickstarter crowd funding campaign with a funding goal of $10,000 – nearly reached just hours after launch.
“We will be focused on crafting and brewing great tasting non-alcoholic beers in a variety of styles starting with our recently developed non-alcoholic IPA. Our IPA features three varieties of hops and six malts,” says Fleming. “And if that weren’t enough at only 10 calories, 2g of carbohydrate and 0g of fat this could well be the world’s healthiest beer.”
Partake Brewing’s flagship non-alcoholic beer is an IPA brewed with Cascade, Amarillo and Citra hops at 49 IBUs.
“This beer balances the citrusy hops with a sweet malt backbone. Its light and bubbly body and dry finish make it an all-day sipper that packs a lot more flavour than most non-alcoholic beers on the market,” add Fleming.
The beer will be brewed on contract. No details regarding the process were immediately available.
Availability is set for July 2017.
View the Kickstarter campaign here.Osaka is preparing a bid to host the 2025 World Exposition, a spokesman from the central government said Thursday.
“The government will properly consider (the bid) having heard a basic concept plan to be drawn up as soon as this fall,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told a news conference in Tokyo.
“The government will be open to hearing the prefecture’s proposals,” he added.
The central government is thought to support the bid due to the potential economic windfall it would enjoy from hosting such an event soon after the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. This would repeat the sequence involving the 1964 Tokyo Games and the 1970 Expo, which was also held in Osaka.
If the government officially decides to back the bid, it is expected to be declared at a meeting of the Bureau International des Expositions, the expo’s governing body, next spring.
Osaka’s top rival would likely be Paris, which is home to BIE headquarters and is said to be preparing its own bid.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a Diet session the same day that the government will make thorough inquiries about the substance of the bid proposal.
“The country will be reviewed (as part of the bidding process), so the contents must be able to compete with other countries,” Abe said.
In August, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui asked trade minister Hiroshige Seko for assistance with the bid, and Seko responded by requesting that a plan to be compiled by this fall.
Panels formed by the Osaka Prefectural Government have since been racing to flesh out the plans.
According to sources close to the matter, Osaka’s proposal is to hold the expo on the artificial island of Yumeshima and base it on the theme of the health of humanity and the challenge of longevity. The prefecture aims to welcome some 30 million people to the site.
The prefecture is said to have estimated that between ¥120 billion and ¥130 billion would be required to build the expo facilities and that between ¥69 billion and ¥74 billion will be needed to run them.
It has also estimated that a further ¥78 billion would be needed to expand the Osaka subway, widen roads and bridges, and reclaim land needed for the facilities.
The prefecture has forecast that the indirect boost to the economy could top ¥4 trillion.
The 1970 expo was held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. A large retail and entertainment complex opened on the former site in November last year.
Aichi Prefecture hosted the 2005 expo in the city of Nagakute.To become a great player, talent is not enough most of the time. You also need a good coach to achieve that. In this translated article, originally appearing on the official KHL website, Kirill Kaprizov’s first coach, Andrei Luchansky, recalls when a young Kirill decided to move from the country to the city to pursue a sports career. He was a second-grade kid at the time. Most of the things happening in this article were before the Minnesota Wild drafted him in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL
* You can enjoy the original article by Sergei Vinogradov and several pictures of a young Kaprizov here *
Kaprizov’s First Steps In Hockey
“I was ending my cycle with 1987-born guys when I started recruiting guys for the 1997 team,” Luchansky said. “We had a group of kids of different ages. Some of the guys were already practicing three times a week and some of them could already skate very well. Someone else just started. My task was to watch the guys and form the foundation of the 1997 team, and then let life do its job.”
http://gty.im/637881510
According to Luchansky, Kaprizov distinguished himself not only with his skating and puck control but also with his great character. “He was already very focused on his tasks when he was a kid, and growing up it just developed further,” Luchansky recalls. “He was like an adult in his responsibility towards the team and the result. I can always trust Kirill. He hated losing and had no patience. I was living in the same block as he was, and I remember watching him and his brother play soccer with older guys. Kirill was giving all of himself in these yard battles and was never conceding anything. He doesn’t know how to play differently.”
Kirill was gifted with a rare ability to leapfrog stages. He was always playing against older guys. He started playing in the MHL at 15, started playing in the KHL at 17 and he was the best scorer for Team Russia in his first senior international tournament in February. Many noticed that Kirill showed no fear in front of authority.
“He was like that when he was younger too. For Kirill, just like other young players, it was very important to feel the trust from his coaches. He has this trust now, and it shows. Hopefully, it will be the same in the future. Trust applies to errors too. As the saying goes, the only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
Maybe, if Kirill was benched after his first mistake, like too many times it happens with young players, then today we wouldn’t have such a great future. We need to thank his coaches for that. You can see yourselves how many players get lost passing from junior to senior hockey. That’s a key moment.”
According to Luchansky, this trust was the key component for the development of the other great Novokuznetsk-trained players Sergei Bobrovski, Dmitri Orlov and Ilya Sorokin, among others. “In Novokuznetsk, there is a great organization. Metallurg for many years had a goal to reach the playoffs, but they could not reach the postseason. This, of course, gives young players a chance to show what they are worth. Especially at the end of the season, many guys start playing great and it works.”
Kaprizov’s Strong Points
Luchansky admittedly used Kaprizov’s strong character, resilience, and passion for hockey to his team’s advantage. He was quickly told that he should play in any position, and play his best both on the powerplay and penalty killing units. Kirill was also iced as a defenseman because of his backward skating skills. This actually helped him in becoming a better forward. “In different tournaments, I had a need to play him as a defenseman, and he always played great. It happened not only in youth hockey but also when he was a bit older.”
Kaprizov was a starlet at ten years old. “We didn’t play in tournaments until kids were third-graders. I needed to teach them something, and only then compete with others. In our very first tournament, which we played in a city located 120 kilometres from Novokuznetsk, Kirill got the attention of everyone. If I recall correctly, in each tournament we played – and we played many – Kirill always won some individual award, as “Tournament top scorer” or “Tournament top forward”.
He scored many, many times tournament-clinching goals. I remember that once he scored a game-winner at about one second before the horn. He would always fight until the final horn.” Kaprizov’s team never finished any worse than second. “We were always competing tightly with Sibir Novosibirsk. Sometimes they would win, and some other times it was our turn.”
Kirill Kaprizov scored the youngest Russian national team hat trick at the Euro Hockey Tour! All match facts: https://t.co/WHfRDFp4Ce pic.twitter.com/sA5EVtwK83 — Russia Hockey (@russiahockey_en) February 12, 2017
Luchansky’s guys always had good results both on the ice and at school. The players would attend a school next to the ice arena. “I always had good ties with teachers. Kirill was a good student. He loved hockey, but this didn’t prevent him from studying.” His great character helped him in achieving great things in hockey. He was always a great teammate and always loved to spend times with the guys after the practice. “Even when, in Novokuznetsk, he was iced on a line with foreign players, he found a common language with them right away, even without knowing a single word in English. This truly helps him on the ice.”
Today Luchansky coaches kids in Ekaterinburg, and he rarely meets his players from Novokuznetsk. “I usually talk with his father, and I get from him all the news regarding Kirill. But last summer I had a chance to meet him, we talked about his move to Salavat Yulaev, about practices and coaches. He is the same kid he was, didn’t change at all.”
This is what Kirill Kaprizov said about his first coach:
“I can say only good things about my first coach. Andrei Removich raised me since my childhood and played a huge role in helping me becoming the player I am now. I want to really thank him for that. I worked with him from my childhood until I was 16 and he gave me a lot.
He knew how to be strict when it was needed, or good-hearted when it was needed too. He knew when it was the right moment to raise his voice. He always told me the right things, trying to improve my game. Of course, it was not only about me, he invested a lot of time on our team and he always tried to get the best out of us.
He often said that it’s easy to lose yourself after a game and that then rebounding back would have been hard. He was always telling me, ‘Kirill, keep your feet moving and all will be great with you.’ Now we don’t talk all that often. He mostly talks with my father. What do they say when they speak? I don’t know.” (laughs)1. Performance
2. Video Camera
3. Siri
4. AirPlay Mirroring
5. Improved Antenna
6. Battery Life
7. Design
8. Satisfaction
9. Apps
10. Camera
Sporting exactly the same A5, dual-core processor located in Apple’s latest tablet, the iPhone 4S is 2x quicker than its predecessor. And its graphics processor obtained an upgrade also. The new GPU is 7x a lot quicker as opposed to chip identified within the iPhone four. These enhancements might be most visible in resource-intensive applications, and especially in games. Glimpse for builders to start out making use of the A5 to provide video games with much much better graphics and sharper details.Even though the preceding iPhone was able of capturing High definition video clip, it had been minimal to only 720 lines of resolution. The online video camera also involves pro characteristics like temporal sounds reduction, which allows you report movie in lowlight cases, and image stabilization to compensate for your shakiness that typically happens each time a camera is not mounted on a tripod.The iPhone 4S will occur pre-installed with Siri, your very possess electronic personalized assistant. The responding-voice recognition technique utilizes synthetic intelligence and seemingly almost endless expertise to solution your issues and aid you with multitask. Siri can answer trivial problems, pull up dining places and movie theaters, and also scribe e-mails and text messages for you. The technique stands out amid other voice command technologies, because it understands basic language and it has entry to this kind of a substantial database of informationThis feature is geared toward individuals who definitely individual an Apple Television, but it is a single from the coolest additions in the new iPhone. With Air Play mirroring, almost everything you do on your iPhone is usually mirrored with your Television set through an Apple Tv. That means you are able to search the web, variety an email, and perhaps engage in online games to the significant display screen - and it is all wireless. Game developers arealready using benefit of the new characteristic, producing multiplayer racing game titles which you could enjoy on your own Tv set, while using your iPhone because the controller. AirPlay mirroring is barely out there on the iPad two plus the iPhone 4S.Apple caught lots of high temperature around the iPhone fours antenna woes. The debacle finished up costing the corporate loads of bad publicity and millions of dollars in cost-free instances. But this time around, Apple did its homework. The iPhone 4S touts a clean dual-antenna fashion and style for enhanced reception, and residences a brand new aspect that switches involving the two for greater contact excellent. And when your carrier comes about to help HSDPA+, your iPhone 4S are going to be effective at downloading info at 14.4Mbps. That is 2 times as rapid as being the iPhone four and on par with other “4G” handsets.Even along with the iPhone 4S’ new A5 twin core processor, 8MP digital camera, as well as the always-ready Siri assistant, the handset nonetheless manages to carry on to its predecessor’s remarkable battery everyday living. With Apple’s new handset you are able to converse up to 8 several hours on 3G (fourteen hours on 2G), it is possible to browse the world wide web for as much as 6 hrs (nine several hours on Wi-Fi), you are able to view as much as 10 several hours of movie, and listen to songs for your staggering 40 several hours straight. And if you are not a major person, the iPhone 4S incorporates a standby time of approximately 200 hours.However a lot of individuals ended up anticipating a redesigned smartphone, the iPhone 4S remains a amazing engineering feat. A year following its introduction, the product continues to get one particular in the slimmest (otherwise the slimmest) handsets out there - even with all of its hardware enhancements. The exceptional iPhone four was heralded as “beautiful” and “striking,” in addition because the iPhone 4S carries on that trend. Although its 3.5? screen may possibly sense small from the corporation of other 4?+ products, it may help keep the new iPhone transportable adequate to suit comfortably as part of your pocket.Apple’s solutions are synonymous while using phrase “it just will work,” and also the iPhone is not any exception. It is trusted, hardly ever (if ever before) freezes or crashes, and doesn’t experience the fragmentation difficulties that plague other cell platforms. Apple makes the components, and creates the software program, and both equally get the job done superbly collectively to provide a pain-free smart phone working experience. The numbers communicate for by themselves. A number of new reports have identified that through 90% of iPhone entrepreneurs are probably to obtain their following handset from Apple. Anticipate the iPhone 4S to continue the custom.The App Retail store doesn’t actually need an introduction. Apple was initial to strike it major from the cellular apps industry, and it’s compensated off for the business in dividends. The iOS platform is way in advance on the opposition during the third party apps race. Not merely regarding amount, but quality too. Apple’s stringent app-approval practice retains out malicious computer software, and guarantees (in most cases) that only high quality software makes it into its ecosystem. The iPhone 4S is going to be able to run all the App Store’s 500,000+ titles, as well as any new ones that arrive out that demand Apple’s A5 processor.The iPhone 4S houses a state-of-the artwork 8MP digital camera, capable of using 3264 x 2448 photos. That’s 60% far more pixels than the iPhone four?s digicam, and it lets you print out crystal very clear 8×10 pics. Other new functions consist of an enhanced illumination sensor, which can develop low light photos, and an infrared filter to supply a lot more exact colors. And with Apple’s new custom-made ISP (Photograph Sign Processor), you are able to go from your house screen to getting an image, in one.1 seconds. Given that is swift.Despite Kenny Dalglish telling press yesterday not to expect any transfer deadline day action involving the club, there is growing speculation suggesting Jermaine Defoe is on his way to Merseyside to negotiate personal terms on a deal.
With Tottenham expected to sign Emmanuel Adebayor on a permanent deal, Defoe’s days at White Hart Lane could be numbered and the 29-year-old could be what Liverpool are looking for to bolster attacking options.
Meanwhile, Man City boss Roberto Mancini has denied the specualtion that Liverpool attempted to sign Carlos Tevez in a player-swap deal for Andy Carroll.
Mancini went on to back under-fire Carroll. He said, “Carroll is a good player. He is young. He is strong.”
As ever, all transfer rumours – especially today – need to be taken with a pinch of salt as Twitter goes bazzurk from sightings of players.
Has Lionel Messi been drinking fat frogs in the Raz? Will today see the long awaited return to Anfield of Erik Meijer? Is a Liverpool midfielder on his way to East London in a helicopter?
Stay tuned to This Is Anfield throughout the day for more from transfer deadline day. Follow our Twitter @thisisanfield for the latest as it happens.Robots is a platform video game released in 2005 by Eurocom to coincide with the film of the same name.
Summary [ edit ]
A robot named Rodney Copperbottom decides to leave his home at Rivet Town and head to Robot City to realize his dream of working for his childhood hero, Bigweld. He makes a flying robot called Wonderbot out of scrap before he leaves. At the city, he goes to Bigweld's factory, but realizes that Bigweld is mysteriously absent, and finds out that the factory is currently being run by a robot by the name of Phineas T. Ratchet, who hatches an evil plan to create more futuristic robots like himself and destroying old robots made out of scrap. Rodney also meets a gang of colorful outmodes called the Rusties, who are also affected from the change Ratchet has made. A robot named Jack Hammer tells Rodney that there are many scrap parts in the sewers of Robot City and that Rodney can go collect the scrap in order to keep the Rusties alive. After doing so, Rodney and the Rusties go to Bigweld's Mansion to find Bigweld. Bigweld agrees to help Rodney and the Rusties, and sets off with Rodney to stop Ratchet and save all robot-kind.
Voice cast [ edit ]
Critical reception [ edit ]
Like the film, the game received generally mixed reviews, with a score of 53 on Metacritic.[citation needed]
Gameplay [ edit ]
This game features Rodney Copperbottom as the playable main character. The player can also play as the Wonderbot in certain areas, and Bigweld in the chase scene.
Rodney can invent different devices by collecting a certain amount of blueprints scattered throughout the environment. In the beginning of the game, he repairs his Wonderbot, his personal companion. He also obtains the Scrap Launcher from Herb Copperbottom, a weapon which uses Scrap as ammo which is found in the worlds of the game, and a wrench which is used as a melee weapon. More weapons are acquired throughout the course of the game. Scrap is also used to purchase items at vendors, including the Maxi-Scrap 500 and Maxi-Scrap 1000 which upgrades his Scrap capacity from 200 to 500 and 1000 respectively, the Refine-O-Max which doubles the value of Scrap, and four mutually exclusive upgrades to his Scrap Launcher which can be replaced at any time. Later while in Robot City he obtains the Magnabeam from Jack Hammer, which uses energy which must be refilled by going on recharge circles, and can also be used as a weapon.
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Hundreds of farmers across Britain are coming together in a concerted effort to show politicians and the public why glyphosate is so critical to agriculture and the environment.
Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used herbicide and has long been the focus of an aggressive campaign from pressure groups, which want the broad-spectrum herbicide banned, mainly over fears it causes cancer.
In response, a petition against a glyphosate ban was launched this week by Lincolnshire-based agronomist Sean Sparling, and received more than 1,580 signatures within the first 24 hours.
See also: Farmers ‘must add voices’ to glyphosate debate
Stating his case for continued use of the weed-killer, Mr Sparling of SAS Agronomy argued “whole areas of the east of England will become overrun by weeds” if glyphosate was unavailable to farmers.
He criticised those campaigning for a ban and urged farmers to push back against “false knowledge and pseudoscience”.
“Glyphosate is keeping Britain farming – it’s as simple as that. And despite what those misinformed activists who are demonising it are saying, 80% or more of the glyphosate that’s applied in the UK never actually touches or comes into contact with the growing crop.”
Environmental benefits
Farmers are also posting detailed and emotive letters online and on social media, spelling out to the public what it would mean to lose glyphosate.
Essex grower George Young has written a blog post explaining what he uses the chemical for and why he feels it is needed to help farm ecosystems and wildlife flourish.
“I practice a type of farming known as zero tillage. The results of this have been tremendous for the natural habitat on the farm,” he wrote.
“Some people are trying to ban this chemical due to potential carcinogenic risks. However, it has been scientifically proven that this risk is lower than that of coffee or bacon.
“The ability to use this one chemical enables me to use significantly less pesticides, and consequently be a much better guardian of the land.”
See also: Opinion: Glyphosate critics don’t used diesel, presumably?
Nuffield scholar and Gloucestershire farmer Jake Freestone has also penned a blog post rejecting the argument that ploughing can be used to control weeds as a more environmentally friendly alternative if glyphosate was outlawed.
“From the environment’s point of view, cultivations are not a good idea,” he wrote. “The most significant reason is that we are adding air to the soil, which reacts with the carbon locked in the soil, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – a significant ingredient in global warming.
“The tractors we use release nitrous oxide as they burn the diesel (just like diesel cars) and ploughing uses a lot of diesel.”
Last June the European Commission renewed the licence for glyphosate for 18 months to allow more time for the European Agency for Chemical Products to reassess the safety of the product.
The study is due out this summer with an all-important vote on the longer-term approval of glyphosate scheduled for the end of 2017.
The NFU is urging farmers everywhere to write to their MPs and MEPs on the issue, and to invite them on to their farms to explain how glyphosate helps them operate in a more environmentally sensitive way.
#glyphosateisvital
On Twitter, the hashtag #glyphosateisvital has been trending as farmers seek to broadcast their messages to the general public and take on misinformation, while others are writing letters to their local politicians.
Just because we use #glyphosate and other pesticides on the farm doesn't mean to say we can't have plentiful wildlife pic.twitter.com/6P26fJU7M1 — Andy Roberts (@handles4forks) February 26, 2017
Write to your MP, let's get this issue up the agenda, no winners if glyphosate goes. My MP has even replied! #glyphosateisvital https://t.co/wejsEKuBEn — Nick Hood (@Steakrareplease) February 24, 2017
Letter sent to local MP/MEP re. Glyphosate. Really gets you thinking how negative an impact a ban would have #glyphosateisvital — Joe Fisher (@JJ_Fishy) February 24, 2017
Using #glyphosate today will hugely reduce need to use herbicides on S barley to be planted here. #glyphosateisvital pic.twitter.com/eO8W6A0mzb — James Richard Cox (@JamesRCox69) February 17, 2017
@MaddeverAndrew This is my piece to local village free mag, it takes 10 minutes. Please support #glyphosateisvital pic.twitter.com/D3MomOoLbE — David White (@RTKfarmer) February 16, 2017
Blackgrass receiving it's #glyphosate today. CO2 emissions down increased earthworms and soil OM #glyphosateisvital pic.twitter.com/Go22kbNWAT — James Richard Cox (@JamesRCox69) February 17, 2017L
I hadn’t taken a vacation in years. I had no expectations for one anytime soon, either. I think that wasn’t helping—not having a clear idea of the future or a goal other than “paying my bills.” So much of my life felt out of my control.
Something I’ve been considering is writing a book about how to fail at running a photography business. It started out as a joke, but I think my story is neglected by every super positive motivational workshopper or idealized lifestyle photographer. It’s always pawned off as someone having a bad attitude about succeeding or not being true to themselves.
Back to my main point, stepping away from the photography “business” allowed me to just enjoy shooting again. I actually think I’m shooting better than I was before I started our business. I can actually be happy for my friends who are doing really well and blossoming professionally and artistically. Being able to genuinely want to support people is a great feeling to get back.
T
The photos below have three distinctions: The orange trees, Lake Eustis, and the windmill.
One of my favorite little groves still had their trees full. I’m not really sure why they hadn’t been picked at this point. Many oranges had begun to fall and move back to the earth. I was tempted to pick a few but I couldn’t do it. Normally, a lot of the little groves on this road will set out stands where you can buy bags pretty cheap.
The orange blossoms are just beginning to bloom. Bees flew about the flowers, something that’s always nice to see especially without any apiaries nearby this field.
Despite sunset being more than an hour or so away, the clouds over Lake Eustis turned it into dusk well ahead of time. I pulled into |
introductory offers. (Getty Images)
Some of the links on this site contain offers from our partners. The offers in this article may be expired or currently unavailable.
About three-quarters of Americans have at least one credit card, according to a 2016 Gallup poll. In fact, the average person has 3.4 cards. But whether you have a wallet full of plastic or have never charged a purchase in your life, you should know how to apply for a credit card the right way when the time comes.
Step 1: Determine What Type of Card You Need
“The most important thing is to apply for the right card,” says Alex Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Birch Finance, an online platform that helps people earn more credit card points.
For instance, if you’re the head of finances for your family and find yourself spending hundreds of dollars on groceries, gas and other living expenses, you may want to look for rewards cards that offer cash back on these spending categories. Similarly, if you travel often, you could benefit from a travel rewards card that lets you earn miles or points to use toward hotels and airfare. And if you’re just getting started using credit, you might need to give a secured card a shot until you’ve built up a solid credit history.
Think about your goals for getting a credit card: Do you want to earn rewards on spending or simply have a low-cost card available in case of a financial emergency? Do you want to build your credit from scratch or take advantage of a long, solid credit history? Asking yourself these types of questions can help point you in the right direction as to the type of card you need.
Step 2: Understand Your Credit Situation
Successfully getting a credit card starts well before you fill out your application. Being denied isn’t the end of the world, but there’s plenty you can do ahead of time to increase your chances of approval. The first step is taking stock of your credit situation.
It’s important to check that your credit score is high enough for the card you want. “If you're going for the top-tier rewards cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred [Credit Card], the Capital One Venture [Rewards Credit Card] or the Chase Freedom Unlimited [Credit Card], then your scores need to be above or near 700,” says J.R. Duren, a personal finance reporter for consumer-focused website HighYa. He explains that one of the best ways you can ensure you're approved is to know which credit scores the company is looking for and then verify that you are within that range.
There are a few ways you can see your credit score, including via paid services. However, several banks allow you to see your FICO score – the credit score used by most lenders – for free through their online banking platform. You can also use a free site such as Credit Karma, though you will not see your FICO credit score. Instead, you will be able to check your VantageScore, which is not the same as your FICO score but will give you a rough estimate of where you stand.
It’s also important to check your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus. Your credit reports can help you identify items that might be bringing down your score, such as an account in collections or even an error on your report. Again, you can do this for free. The website federally authorized to provide free credit reports is AnnualCreditReport.com, where you can pull your credit report from each bureau at no cost once per year.
Step 3: Get Your Finances in Shape
Once you know where you stand creditwise, you might find that your score is not quite where you need it to be. Fortunately, improving your credit score doesn’t have to take much time, and there are a couple of things you can do to raise it right away:
Pay down your debt. One of the best ways to improve your credit score and increase the chances of being approved for a card is to “pay off as much outstanding [debt] as possible before applying for a new card,” says Cohen. That’s because this immediately lowers your credit utilization – the amount of credit you’re using in comparison to the total credit you have available – which makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. If you pay off a significant portion of your outstanding debt, you should see a change to your credit score within about 30 days.
One of the best ways to improve your credit score and increase the chances of being approved for a card is to “pay off as much outstanding [debt] as possible before applying for a new card,” says Cohen. That’s because this immediately lowers your credit utilization – the amount of credit you’re using in comparison to the total credit you have available – which makes up 30 percent of your FICO credit score. If you pay off a significant portion of your outstanding debt, you should see a change to your credit score within about 30 days. Fix credit report errors. If you happen to find an error when reviewing your credit reports, be sure to dispute it right away. Even something seemingly insignificant could have major consequences. For example, if the report misspells your name, it might also contain someone else’s account information. To fix errors on your credit report, send a letter to each credit bureau via certified mail with return receipt requested explaining the error and how it should be corrected.
Step 4: Shop Around for the Best Deal
Once you know what type of card you want and your credit and finances are in good shape, it’s time to start shopping around for the best deal. There are a few factors you should evaluate when comparing credit card offers:
Interest rate: Ideally, you would pay off the balance on your credit card every month, in which case the interest rate wouldn’t matter. But money matters rarely work out exactly as expected, and sometimes, you need to carry a balance month to month. The average credit card annual percentage rate is 16.15 percent, according to CreditCards.com, though exact rates you’re offered will depend on your credit and other personal financial details.
Introductory offers: As a way to entice new applicants, some card issuers will offer an introductory zero percent APR that lasts about 12 to 18 months. This can be especially beneficial if you’re looking to consolidate credit card debt and pay it off – just keep in mind that it's common to pay a balance transfer fee of about 3 percent. Be sure to make all your payments on time and pay off the balance in full before the introductory period is over.
Annual fee: With so many cards on the market, it’s rare that paying an annual fee is worth it. A 2015 study by NerdWallet found the average rewards credit card annual fee is $58, which means you’d need to spend $2,000 every year with a cash back rate of 3 percent to break even. However, some credit cards can offer such lucrative rewards that the fee to own the card is a drop in the bucket. It all depends on the reasons you apply for a particular card. If you simply want a traditional credit card for one-off purchases, look for a fee-free card. If you are looking to strategically earn rewards points or cash back on everyday spending, be sure that if it requires an annual fee, you understand the rewards structure and how to make that extra expense worth it.
Rewards and perks: In addition to low rates and fees, look for cards that offer rewards that match up with your personal spending habits. It’s not hard to find an inexpensive card that also offers rewards, whether you’re a starving student or a savvy traveler. And don’t let them go to waste – 31 percent of U.S. cardholders don’t even bother to redeem their rewards, according to a 2017 Bankrate survey.
Step 5: Submit Your Application
Once you’ve nailed down your decision, it’s time to officially submit an application. The easiest way to apply for a credit card is online. To do so, you’ll need to provide a few key pieces of information, according to Credit.com:
Full legal name
Address
Birth date
Social Security number, or individual taxpayer identification number in some cases
Annual income – include all sources of income, such as from a side hustle or Social Security benefits. If you’re 21 or older, you’re not required to have an independent income and may report your household’s income instead, as long as you have access to it.
In many cases, you will be approved or denied within seconds of submitting. Sometimes, however, your application will need to undergo a manual review, which can take several days.
How to Maintain Good Credit While Using Your Card
Getting your hands on a credit card might be as easy as spending 15 minutes filling out an online application and then waiting for it to arrive in the mail, but owning a credit card is a big responsibility. Once you apply for a credit card, it’s crucial to understand how it will affect your credit and avoid any mistakes that could result in a lower score.
Keep your credit utilization low. If you already have one or more credit cards with outstanding balances, adding a new card to your wallet can actually help your credit score increase. As mentioned above, the amounts you owe compared with the credit extended to you – your credit utilization ratio – accounts for 30 percent of your FICO score. So by adding an additional line of credit, you decrease your ratio immediately. Keep your balances low to avoid increasing your credit utilization. “Once you pass 30 percent, scores will drop significantly,” notes Duren.
Pay your bills on time. After you’ve worked to improve your credit score, be sure not to miss any payments on your bills, which can reverse your progress. At 35 percent of your total FICO credit score, payment history is the most important factor. “Avoid making payments that are at least 30 days late,” says Duren. Just one late or missed payment can knock your score by 90 points or more, according to credit bureau Equifax.
Avoid applying for too many cards. Finally, don’t go on a credit card application spree. You’ll want to be calculated in your approach and only apply for cards you know you have a good chance of qualifying for. Otherwise, you will rack up several hard credit inquiries over a short period of time, which can temporarily bump down your score. Credit inquiries make up 10 percent of your credit score – not as impactful as factors such as payment history or credit utilization, but still significant.
According to Cohen, however, you don’t have to worry too much about an inquiry here and there, as long as you don’t go overboard. “Applicants will most likely only see a 2-to-4-point drop in their credit [score], unless they go over eight to 10 cards within two years.”
Duren also notes that if you’re applying for a Chase credit card, specifically, “know that they'll automatically deny you if you've signed up for five credit cards in the past 24 months, including cards on which you're an authorized user.”
What if You’re Denied?
Speaking of getting denied, what do you do if that happens? First, you should stop applying for cards and find out why you were denied in the first place.
Any time you’re denied a credit card due to information contained in your credit reports, the creditor is required to send you an adverse action letter explaining why. Usually, you’ll receive this electronically soon after your application goes through, but sometimes it will be sent in the mail within seven to 10 days.
Some of the reasons your application could be rejected include a low credit score, limited credit history or low income. Read this letter to get a better idea of why yours was denied and see what you can do to improve your chances of getting approved down the road.
If you disagree with the decision, you can call the card issuer and ask it to reconsider. There’s no guarantee it will, but a calm demeanor and strong negotiating skills can help.Hi there, today we introduce the second batch of Necromancer units, that we are currently developing for the upcoming expansion.
Up first is the Deathbringer, this unit was designed to be able transform enemy units into ghouls during battle. Although this is a strategically interesting and powerful ability, some of you pointed out issues around dealing with infected units in your ranks, such as how easily they could be cured and how much of a burden it would be for non-necromancer players to have undead-ified units under their control. To try address these we’ve changed the design so that the Deathbringer can curse units during combat. If the cursed unit is then killed, it will come back as a Ghoul under the Necromancer player’s command after combat, if that player is victorious. If the other side wins, the corpses are considered to have been burned. There is no infection through mere damage (this would be OP and bring about the Ghoul apocalypse a little too easily J ). This way it is a reverse style of resurgence with no post battle healing frustration for victorious players facing Deathbringers.
The Deathbringer, isn’t she stylish?
Although not the hardest hitting melee unit in terms of physical strength, the Deathbringer has a phase like ability and backstab, making her a very dangerous opponent. When you are fighting a battle and about to lose, keep your more powerful units away from her or you might encounter them as Ghouls during a later encounter.
With the visual design we aim to move away from the standard vampire type. She is hardened for battle looks menacing, spiky, her rapier made for the final piercing strike bringing unlife.
The second unit for today is the Bone Collector, a massive tank unit that feeds on – and gets buffed by corpses.
Bone Horror Concept. Note the dragon head pincer and the little skeleton as its wiggling “mouth” tentacles
The bone collector is constructed from of a giant pile of bones of various creatures. When moving it resembles a giant crab; using a dragon’s skull as a giant pincer melee weapon. It has the ability to collect the bones of dead units, and add them to itself, which heals damage it has sustained, and also provides it with a small buff to attack and defense, making the unit more powerful for each body it eats for the duration of the battle. To top it all off, this unit has wall crushing and undying, meaning the unit reassembles itself after death if the enemy takes too long winning the battle.
The Bone Collector looking for more Bones
We plan these two as city production units for the Necro, with the Deathbringer likely having racial (ghoul) variants. Let us know what you think of this units and stay tuned for more Necro and of course many of the other features we are working on for the coming expansion!I’m no stranger to strict dress codes; I grew up in a small Alabama town and went to a small religious school, where girls were not allowed to wear shorts, tank tops, or anything other than a dress on Wednesdays. It seemed normal at the time and the school has long since abandoned its “girls can’t wear shorts” rule—but the point is: they recognized the archaic dress code as being unnecessary, sexist, and impractical.
Unfortunately, not everyone has followed suit. Schools all over the country still sporadically make the news when they ban girls from wearing perfectly reasonable clothing to school functions. Their rationalization is always the same: it might cause boys to think “impure thoughts.” Seriously. That bums us out.
Last weekend, Utah high school student Gabi Finlayson was asked during a school dance to wear a coat over her dress—for the entire duration of the dance. Why? Her dress was showing too much shoulder, according to reports. “Somehow my shoulders are sexualized,” Finlayson told KUTV News, “like it’s my responsibility to make sure the boys’ thoughts are not unclean.”
Finlayson was excited about the dress she bought for the dance, and found it while on a trip to Paris. She loved it because it reminded her of the classic, elegant style of her idol, Audrey Hepburn.
There’s nothing offensive about this dress—and Finlayson says there’s no way it breaks the the school’s dress code, which states, “formals, backless dresses and/or tops may not extend beyond the bottom of the shoulder blades. Girls’ dresses and tops must have a 2″ minimum strap on each shoulder. Shawls, boleros and other shrugs are acceptable if worn over the dress at all times. Cleavage covered.”
Finlayson says that there were definitely people testing the dress code at the dance, and “were a lot of dresses that were very short, very tight, a lot more exposing or revealing than mine,” she told the news station. Her mom is livid with the school saying, “the message that sends to girls is really troubling and damaging and they’ve already got so many other damaging messages that are being sent to them…how have we gotten to the point that we look at shoulders as if they’re somehow pornographic? As if they are this shameful thing.”
Despite the fact that we’re making progress with gender equality, many schools still maintain a shaming stance when it comes to young women and their clothing, ultimately teaching girls to be ashamed of their bodies and blaming them for other people’s reactions. It’s still happening all over. Girls are shut out from prom because of the length of their dresses, others have had to “parade” around male administrators who decide whether their dresses fit properly. At one school, a female student was punished and forced to wear a “shame shirt” for breaking the dress code.
The solution here is a simple one, and no one sums it up better than Finalyson herself, saying, “maybe instead of teaching girls that they should cover themselves up, we should be teaching boys that we’re not sex objects that they can look at.”
[Images via, via]CRYSTAL CITY — Packs of dogs roam the streets in this small town about 120 miles outside of San Antonio, and dozens of vacant homes and businesses have their windows barred or boarded. The city council, which is supposed to run the government, has only one member not facing federal criminal charges, and the city manager, also charged, has been suspended. In recent weeks, the water from some residents’ faucets gushed out black. “It’s, like, this poor town,” said Tomasa Salas, 55, as she waited in front of city hall to pick up plastic jugs of water. “There is good here, too. You just got to dig really deep to find it.” The confluence of poverty and suspected political corruption have made Crystal City a national emblem of a small town gone bad, a place where nepotism festered for so long that the FBI had to bring in nearly 100 agents to clean it up. “If this is a wake-up call for all other towns and cities and other municipal areas, thank God,” said Councilman Joel Barajas, the only council member not to face a federal charge. The FBI has long waged a war against corruption in small towns across the country, but the problem seems to have grown particularly acute in the southern and western parts of Texas. In recent years, the feds have charged county officials involved in bid-rigging and kickback schemes, law enforcement officers who sold drugs they seized to other traffickers and even a state judge who took bribes for favorable rulings. The FBI’s San Antonio Division launched 23 public corruption investigations in 2012, 51 in 2013 and 64 in 2014, authorities said. [Emphases added]
In Crystal City, federal prosecutors alleged in early February that the majority of the council members were engaged in a conspiracy to help one another take bribes from those wanting to do business with the government, and one had an illicit side project: transporting illegal immigrants. Rob Saale, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI’s San Antonio Division, said authorities in southern Texas are battling a “perfect storm” of factors that contribute to government malfeasance. The small cities are close to the border - where Mexican drug traffickers will pay officials to facilitate their trade - and the residents are generally poor. The median household income in Crystal City, according to the most recent census data, is $24,503. When money flows in from traffickers, state grants or other sources, Saale said, elected leaders, who are unpaid for their duties, are tempted to take a cut. “When they are offered a $500, $1,000 bribe, that’s a very large sum of money for them,” Saale said.[More]
Many residents, who are predominantly Hispanic, work in the oil fields, the Del Monte plant or the school system. Corruption, of course, exists in big cities across the country, too, and Richard Durbin, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said the dollar amounts involved in Texas cases are often minuscule by comparison. But Durbin said his office prosecutes even small-town officials because, unchecked, their misconduct can become “pervasive” and have real-life impacts on the people who elect them. “It undermines the fabric of what we all believe good government is, and that’s what’s so frustrating about it,” he said.
The headline of this Dallas Morning News story is This Texas town might be the most corrupt little town in America. [March 5, 2016] It's Crystal City, Texas, which I covered in an earlier blog item titled Mexican Corruption In Texas–With Almost The Entire Crystal City Council Arrested. Are we starting to see a pattern here? There's a large, notoriously corrupt, country just south of the border, it's called Mexico. It's corrupt because that's the custom of the people there. And many of those same people are now north of the border. The judge who took bribes is not Hispanic, by the way, his name is McGinty. However, the man who bribed him is San Antonio lawyer Alberto Acevedo, Jr. [ FBI Press Release. Sure, but you don't get this happening a lot in Vermont.Of course, it would be nothing unusual in Mexico, which is my point, a point that is, of course, overlooked by Durbin himself, and the media in general. It's something to consider when proposing to Elect a New People, or adding new Hispanic overlords to the GOP.With in few hours NASA refute the finding and released the photo with an official explanation saying "No bones about it! Seen by Mars rover Curiosity using its MastCam, this Mars rock may look like a femur thigh bone.
Later we reported rover curiosity photographed Water Trail but NASA never responded.
Now, last week in an interview to British News Channel itv NASA chief Charles Bolden told the channel:
“People always ask the question ‘Why Mars?’ Several reasons: One, Mars is very Earth-like, or least used to be Earth-like. It is a planet, a sister planet to Earth. It is the most likely planet in our solar system, um, that had life at one time… may have life now, and we feel can definitely sustain life.”
Image Credit: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg In down video NASA head’s body language shows that he was a bit ahead of himself in revealing the part about life possibly still existing on Mars. We can see a slight hesitation from Bolden when explaining the state of the mission.
He hesitated when he began saying the part, ‘…may have life now.’ He even squinted his eyes and cringed (right side) as if it hurt him to say it. Deep down inside he was dying to tell the world and finally allowed himself to slip it out to the public.Sexist Terms - and alternatives This list of sexist terms shows not only what may be avoided but also how they may be avoided. It has been noted that the pronoun "he" is used far more in literature than "she". There are many cultural reasons for this, and it's worth observing that JRR Tolkein uses "she" only once in his story The Hobbit (about Bilbo Baggins' mother) andin an extensive survey Jane Austen was the only writer to always use "she" more than "he". If in the company of people who are made uncomfortable by sexist terms, there is a polite and linguistically acceptable alternative in most cases. The often quoted "person aperture cover" for "man hole" is both a hoax and a parody of the intention of the language. The following are becoming increasingly accepted and mostly are no longer an issue of contention. The following checklist of alternatives to sexist language was produced by a publisher giving advice to authors.
1. Do you agree with the premise that the "words to be avoided" are in fact sexist?
2. Do you agree that the "words to be preferred" are suitable?
3. Explain your decisions and suggest better alternatives where possible. To be avoided To be preferred mankind humanity, human beings, human race, people, humans man's achievements human achievements, our achievements If a man drove 50 miles at 60 mph... If a person / driver drove 50 miles at 60 mph... the best man for the job the best person or candidate for the job man-made artificial, synthetic, manufactured, constructed, of human origin, processed (ie a natural material transformed by human intervention) manpower workers. workforce, staff, labour, staffing, human resources man people, humankind, men and women, women and men, individuals, human beings, person, the individual man the desk staff the desk, be at the desk manpower planning labour market planning, workforce planning, staff planning, workload planning chairman chairperson, chair, convener (don't use non-parallel terms such as 'chairman' for men and 'chairperson' or 'person chairing' for women) headmaster headteacher, head, Principal policeman, fireman police officer, fire fighter
If the gender of the person being discussed is unknown or could be either female or male, there are several alternatives. One is to use 'She or he should show his/her tickets', or even "S/he should show..." (only common on forms and questionnaires). Another is to use the plural "Customers should show their tickets" or to use the second person pronoun instead - "Please show your ticket." Use of the passive is an alternative though it may lead to less clarity - "Tickets should be shown." The Female Leader In March 2012 Dr Clare Gerada, chairwoman [sic] of the Royal College of General Practitioners, spoke out against male NHS executives for their use of sexist language and of portraying her approach to negotiations as "emotional" and "naive" because she was a woman. Gerada said that if she had been a male leader she would have been referred to as "strong willed" or "open minded" but instead was described as "naive." In an interview with the Sunday Times (accompanied by a rather unsympathetic and harshly lit portrait of her) she said, "... the language used is slightly pejorative. So I have been, for example, "passionate" and "naive" or "emotional". I have never heard a man called "emotional" or "naive". I would not use these words in a professional context." Can we be neutral? Many attempts have been made to devise new and neutral pronouns, though none has become common. S/he is possibly the nearest to popularity. Consider rephrasing to use plural pronouns which are non sex specific ("they" instead of "he" and "she"). Transgender Sensitivity In 2016 UK Education Secretary Nicky Morgan introduced equalities legislation on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Subsequently the Girls' Schools Association (GSA) advised school heads to use gender neutral words such as "pupils", "people" or "students" instead of "girls," "young women" or "young ladies." They should not use the word "girls" in case it upsets and discriminates against pupils who question their gender identity. According to a report in The Sunday Times, 19th June 2016, "The advice on stamping out discriminatory language also applies to single-sex schools for boys such as Eton College." "Jay Stewart, chairman of Gendered Intelligence, said about 1% of the population were transgender and could start to feel they were the wrong sex from as young as four." Many teachers in mixed sex schools, which comprise the vast majority of UK schools, have always used inclusive terms such as "boys and girls", or even "folks" and referred generically to them as "youngsters", "students" or "pupils" or "class" as in "right class, let's settle down" or "come on now, year 10". Spivak gender
The idea behind Spivak gender is to replace our current set of gendered pronouns with a genderless set. This provides a degree of vagueness about identity and sexual orientation conducive to more adventurous e-mail postings. A proposed set of "Spivak gender" pronouns includes "e, em, eir, eirs, eirself, sie." In Spivak-speak, "She talks to herself,' would become "Sie talks to eirself," "sie" being a substitute for both "he" and "she." In a survey of 100 authors by Ben Blatt, male authors were seen to write "she screamed" more often than female writers and "she kissed" more often than "he kissed." He also found a greater probability in classic fiction that female chaaracters "shivered, wept, murmured, screamed and married" whereas male characters "muttered, grinned, shouted, chuckled and killed." Generally useful advice Do not assume that the male should always come first, so alternate she and he, hers and his, wives and husbands.
Neutral'spouse' or 'partner' may be preferable in some cases to 'husband' or 'wife', and 'partner' may be the only suitable term for same-sex couples or for unmarried couples for whom "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" has been outgrown.
Neutral'sibling' may be preferable in some cases to sister and brother.
Aim to use equivalent terms for both genders: boy/girl ; man/woman; lady/gentleman. see also women's language.Ramen fans will rejoice to hear that international noodle sensation Ippudo is planning to open at 757 Market St. near Third Street, in same building as the Four Seasons Hotel. The new location was confirmed by a spokesperson with Havas Formula public relations, who said more details will be forthcoming.
The ramen chain is also coming to Berkeley (2011 Shattuck Ave.), as Berkeleyside reported back in January. The expansion is part of Ippudo’s recent partnership with Panda Express, which is aiming to "develop and expand the brand in the US."
The Market Street Ippudo will have a full liquor license, which it's taking over from Lark Creek Steak, which closed in the nearby Westfield San Francisco Centre in January.
Ippudo, which got its start in Japan in 1985, is incredibly popular in the Big Apple, with fans from all over Yelping its praises and enduring nearly interminable lines to slurp the silky soup. The restaurant also has locations in London, Paris, Sydney and throughout Asia.
Though we were sure ramen was passing the baton to poke as the "it" food of the mid-2010s, this might fuel a new ramen revolution. We'll give you more details as we get them from the PR firm.
Update, 6/13: Havas Formula emailed us with information from a representative from Panda Express, who says Ippudo is leasing space from a different landlord than that of the Four Seasons, and it is not affiliated with the hotel. The estimated opening date is March 2017.
The representative also provided the following details: This location will serve lunch and dinner, and "The menu will have traditional and signature items that we traditionally serve at the original Ippudo restaurants in Japan. It will also have additional regional and local dishes to reflect and showcase the taste and ingredients of our local community.” The concept will be similar to the Ippudo slated for Berkeley, "but will have some features unique to the space available."CALGARY, ALBERTA AND PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, Jan 02, 2015 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Vogogo Inc. ("Vogogo" or the "Corporation") (VGO) is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Vanado, Inc., a specialized consulting and payment services company based out of Denver, Colorado, for an aggregate deemed purchase price of approximately $610,000, comprised of the issuance of 227,273 common shares in the capital of the Corporation ("Common Shares") pursuant to a share purchase agreement (the "Agreement"). The Agreement also provides for certain post-closing payments of up to $1,000,000 which shall be payable in Common Shares upon the Corporation achieving certain performance thresholds set out in the Agreement.
The acquisition of Vanado effectively expands Vogogo's US operational presence in support of servicing the US market.Vogogo CEO Geoff Gordon said of the announcement, "In addition to bringing several key resources into the Vogogo team, this acquisition expands our US operational presence allowing us to better support the US market."
About Vogogo
Vogogo is a TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") publicly traded payment services company with integrated risk management and compliance. Founded in 2008, Vogogo designed, built and launched its web-based payment processing technology while growing its expertise in software development, payments, risk management, compliance and related financial services. Vogogo is now executing on its plan to serve global markets. The plan focuses on market opportunities where Vogogo believes it has a competitive advantage due to its positioning and technology.
For further company information please view the Vogogo Media Kit.
READER ADVISORY
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
None of the information contained on, or connected to, Vogogo's website is incorporated by reference herein.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release may contain forward-looking information. The words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by Vogogo. Readers are cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Vogogo. Vogogo does not have any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as expressly required by applicable securities laws.
Contacts: Vogogo Inc. Geoff Gordon Chief Executive Officer 403-648-9292 Vogogo Inc. Rodney Thompson Chief Relationship Officer 403-648-9292
SOURCE: Vogogo Inc.
(C) 2015 Marketwire L.P. All rights reserved.Median # of tweets = 1 June 3, 2009
Posted by jeremyliew in retention
Fascinating study in the Harvard Business Review about twitter. It looks at 300,000 users and covers differences in behavior between men and women, # of followers and # following. But most interestingly, it looks at usage:
Twitter’s usage patterns are also very different from a typical on-line social network. A typical Twitter user contributes very rarely. Among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days. At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production… This implies that Twitter’s resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.
The fact that half of twitterers have tweeted once or less, and that 75% of twitterers have tweeted four times or less is quite astonishing. It is consistent with Nielsen’s finding that 60% of Twitter users don’t come back the next month.
With Facebook apps we have sometimes seen amazing growth driven by virality, followed by a dip towards a more sustainable level of usage. When you are viral, a good portion of unique users are going to the site to sign up for the first time. But if they don’t stick, then you can see a “shark fin” shaped curve, as Andrew Chen has posted about in the past.
Twitter is not just another Facebook app. Unlike many of the “flash in the pan” apps, Twitter is a verb, and has entered the popular consciousness. The very high usage of the top users (90% of tweets from 10% of users) also suggests a different model. But it will be interesting to see how twitter usage continues to grow over the next few monthsNEW ORLEANS -- One of Florida's biggest assets is its ability to shoot the 3. The Gators are learning how to win when they've lost their touch.
Bradley Beal scored 16 and Florida (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) beat Alabama 66-63 in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals on Friday despite a rough performance from outside.
"This has kind of been a trend for us these last couple games of not making shots," Beal said. "So we really had to bear down on defense and guard guys."
Erik Murphy had 15 points and Kenny Boynton scored 14 for the Gators, who shot just 38.5 percent (20 of 52) from the field, including 33.3 percent (10 of 30) from 3-point range.
The Gators had a 45-33 lead with 12:50 remaining after Murphy hit a pair of free throws, but Alabama responded with a 16-4 run to tie it at 49 on JaMychal Green's three-point play with 6:52 to go.
Alabama had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but Trevor Lacey's 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim.
Though the game was usually tight, the Crimson Tide never led.
"I think this time of year, you've got to find ways to advance and move on and we did," Florida coach Billy Donovan said.
Florida (23-9) will face top-ranked Kentucky on Saturday in the semifinals. The Gators lost to the Wildcats twice this season, but hope their postseason-tested team will be up for the challenge. Much of Florida's roster was around last season, when the Gators advanced to the Elite Eight.
"Our team, we're mature," said senior guard Kenny Boynton, who hit two late free throws to seal the victory. "We've been through everything, played the best teams throughout this year |
been contacted about the incident.
Anyone with information about the vandalism or the suspects is asked to call police at 240-773-6084.
»Photos of graffiti, courtesy of Montgomery County PoliceSpiders are not insects, as most of us think so, and we try to imitate their silk, which has amazing properties. It is five times more powerful than steel and extremely elastic, stretching by 30% more than nylon (2-4 times before breaking off). Still, it does not vibrate like an elastic web for circus jumps, as it would throw away the spider's food, and it does not get soaked during a rainfall. A fishing web made of spider silk, with fibers having the thickness of a pencil, would stop a passenger plane. There are spider species that can produce even 7 types of silk!
But, many spiders are far away from the image we all have about spiders, and some have really amazing properties.
1. Scuba diving has been invented by a spider! The diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica), 9-15 mm long, has the body covered by very fine and dense small hairs and lives in vegetated, fresh, not running water. But, it cannot breathe like fish through gills and must get oxygen from the atmosphere. This means it has to continuously go to the surface, interrupting its lurk and drawing the attention of its prey. That's why the spider has invented "scuba diving" to solve the issue.
Argyroneta uses its silk fibers to make a sack for collecting air, while underwater! The spider binds a few stems of aquatic plants, and weaves its small bell mouth downward, giving it the form and the size of a thimble, made of fine, resistant fibers, well entangled amongst them, so that it can not be crossed by water.
When the sack is ready, the spider goes to the surface. With the belly upside down, it crosses its last pair of feet, catching a few air bubbles between them and the very fine hair from the top of the abdomen. The spider goes to the sack with the air bubbles and, at the top of the bell, it detaches the bubbles. After many such kind of movements, the bell is full of air. As the bell is very light now, it can detach, gushing to the surface, so the spider attaches it with numerous threads to the surrounding plants, like the aerostasts, fixed by strong ropes not to take flight.
When the oxygen in the air of the bell has been depleted, the spider tears the balloon. The air goes to the surface and, patiently, the spider darns the bell and again fills it with fresh air. With the air reserves ‘at hand’, the spider starts lurking, while his breathing organs, located in the abdomen, are inserted inside the bell, its prey being made of insect larvae, water fleas and cyclops.
From the bell there start various alarm fibers. The spiders stay with their feet leaned on these fibers and detect if an animal has touched one fiber, gushing rapidly, catching and paralyzing it with its toxic saliva. The paralyzed prey will be brought into the bell and consumed there, with the spider in an upside down position.
For laying eggs, the female makes a special bell, split in two chambers: in the upper one, with the tip outside the water are laid the eggs, while in the lower chamber lives the mother guarding the eggs. At 5 days old, offspring can make the bells by themselves. During the winter, the spider closes the bell completely, wintering inside its submarine. Some hide into the empty snail shells and cover them with a water-proof silk tap. This spider has quite a painful bite.
2. There are... flying spiders! What they do is actually... ballooning! They fabric from silk their... aircrafts!
Thousands of flying money spiders from the Linyphiidae family can flood a terrain on the right days, using their "dragline" silk thread to take on the air. Their ballooning is influenced by wind speed and sunshine. The silk thread is carried by the wind, while the owners clang to the lower extremity. The wind pushes on the thread while the sun heat forms updrafts for the take-off.
3. All spiders have a venomous bite. The effect of this venom varies from totally inoffensive for humans to nasty, painful, and even deadly, in the case of the black widows.
But, the powerful venom of the Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventer) does more than sending you to a hospital: it induces hours-long erection. The toxins induce general pain and higher blood pressure, but also this uncomfortable erection. The active compound is a peptide (short protein) named Tx2-6.
When injected in rats, the animals experienced a significant raise in penis blood pressure and nitric oxide levels within corpora cavernosa, the two cylinders made of spongy tissues running along the penis. The nitric oxide controls the neuronal pathway of an erection. The cGMP enzyme makes the smooth muscles of the penis, corpora cavernosa, relax, so that the blood fills up this tissue, expanding it (till about 10 times more in humans).
But, the PDE-5 breaks down the cGMP, putting an end to the fiesta: the smooth muscles contract and the blood goes out of the penis, which turns back to its limp state. Viagra, Cialis and Levtra act exactly against PDE-5. Tx2-6 works differently: by raising the nitric oxide levels.
4. Promiscuity is widespread amongst spiders, and the question is: if your girl cheats on you, would you break off your penis to impede her? Spiders do it, in the so-called sex war and sperm competition.
In the wasp spiders, the males simply place a chastity belt on their partner while copulating: the tip of their genital breaks off during sexual contact, plugging the sexual orifice of the female. The male wasp spider is much smaller than the female, and after starting the intercourse, few seconds later the female attacks her partner, and if it does not manage a quick escape, it will die. In fact, this is common amongst spiders: the (sometimes much) larger female eats the male. (In order not to fall victims to their sweeties, in many species, the males deliver to their partners a large fly, which will keep them occupied).
In over 80 % of cases, the tip of the penis breaks off, remaining in the sexual orifice of the female like a cork, blocking it. This mechanism ensures that paternity is maintained, preventing or impeding further copulation by the female, acting like a chastity belt. The first male ensures this way that all the egg cells will be fertilized by it. When the female genitalia is plugged, the male copulates only for 8 seconds; otherwise it takes twice longer.
The dwarf spider secrets a viscous stuff in its genital, which it ejects after ejaculation, to make a cork impeding further copulations.
When these two mechanisms of stopping sperm competition are present, the females lay eggs through a separate aperture. Spider species, with only one aperture for copulation and oviposition, do not have such contraceptive strategies.
5. Some spiders have an innate artistic sense, like the St. Andrew's cross spiders (Argiope spiders), which have beautifully adorned webs with zigzag and spiral patterns.
The meaning of the patterned web of Argiope has been a puzzle till recent researches proved that adorned webs caught 60% more insects, but also attracted more spider predators: 70 % more parasitic wasps.
6. Ultraviolet light may harm organisms if it is in excess, but spiders can be turned on by it.
People and mammals, in general, can't detect ultraviolet light, but for jumping spiders it is essential for their mating. These spiders do not weave a web.
Both male and female jumping spiders have markings on their faces and legs that glow in ultraviolet light, males being generally more colorful than females. Tests made with full sun-light spectrum, which compasses UV, triggered in males and females the courtship behaviors (which included bent legs and hunched or flexed abdomens).
Visual spectrum missing UV light left both females and males indifferent to each other. Placing just males in UV light triggered the females' courtship ritual, but 16 of 20 males ignored the females, who could not reflect UV light. Placing just females in UV light produced the opposite: the males started the mating behavior to the glowing females, but 10 of the 12 females remained indifferent.
7. You may have heard about ghost fishes or ghost crabs, but there are also ghost spiders, too. The ghost spider (Anyphaena californica) lives in southern US and gets its name from the translucent look of its body.
8. The spiders of the genus Myrmecium, encountered only in South America, mimic the ants so well, that most people cannot make the difference. This way, these spiders are gaining protection from predators, through their resemblance to aggressive or unpalatable ants.
9. The weirdest looking spiders are the spiny orb-weavers (genus Gasteracantha). Females are measured in centimeters, while the males in millimeters (but this is common amongst spiders). These spider females are really heavy, having the most varied and weirdest pattern of prominent spines and largely varying in shape abdomen. From spike to spike, they can measure 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter.
A very similar look have the Australian spiders of the genus Austracantha, only that these species are smaller, having less than 1 cm (0.4 in).
10. You know that spiders are solitary creatures. But, some spiders can have a complicated social life, forming colonies made of males and females. The colonies weave common webs, which can have 7 m (23 ft) in diameter, like spiders from Uloboridae family. Such a colony harbors thousands of spiders. In the case of these spiders, each individual has its own hunting net.
But, spiders of the genus Theridion (family Theridiidae) act like a team. The colony members wait for passing prey concealed under the edge of a leaf or stick with threads trailing down beneath them. If an insect gets stuck into the web, the spiders respond en masse, overwhelming it as a team. They can even pull large victims back to their lair.
11. The Australian spiders of the genus Phonognatha use silk in order to weave themselves a shelter from a leaf. The leaf is rolled in spiral and secured with silk fibers, so that it does not unroll. The shelter can also be made of paper, in urban areas, or even of snail shells. The shelter is inserted on the spider's web. During the day, the spider rests inside the leaf, and during the night, when there are more insects, it stalks at the entrance of the shelter.
12.The males of the Australian Peacock spiders (Maratus species) have red, blue and black colored flap-like extensions of the abdomen with white hairs that can be folded down, employed for display during mating: the male expands and raises the flaps so that the abdomen gets a white circular fringe. This is very similar to what peacocks do.Girls Preview: Episode 7 - Welcome To Bushwick A.K.A. The Crackcident By Kelly West Random Article Blend Things took a turn for the uncomfortable during last night's episode of HBO's Girls, and for a series that sort of exists in its own world of awkward and uncomfortable situations, that's really saying something. From the promo for "Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident," it looks like next Sunday's episode takes us back to New York where someone maybe accidentally smokes some crack.
On the subject of domestic horrors, I'd say having to help your naked father out of the bathroom after he's suffered a shower-sex-related back injury ranks pretty high up there. This is one of the things Hannah can lament in her journal. Never mind the fact that this incident transpired while Hannah was busy having a far less eventful sexual encounter with a pharmacist-in-training. They say you can't go home again, but maybe in Hannah's case, she's better off not trying. I'm thinking that for her, home is a strange place where no amount of refrigerator binging could make up for a major T.M.I moment with Mom and Dad.
Among my favorite moments in the episode was listening to Hannah scoff at the idea that her old friend was thinking of going off to Los Angeles to pursue her dancing dreams, when she did something similar in going to New York expecting to be able to make a living off her talent as a writer, despite minimal connections. Her refusal to take her mother up on her offer for financial assistance has me thinking maybe Hannah realized she and her friend aren't all that different. Being proud doesn't pay the rent, but she gets credit for her determination.
Next week puts Hannah back in the city where she gets to see Adam out of his natural habitat (and in a shirt!) and Shoshanna accidentally does crack…
I love the fact that Shoshanna's reaction to finding out she smoked crack is that her parents might find out. It sort of puts into perspective her mindset on her life. Never mind the fact that she may have just done an illegal, dangerous and addictive narcotic. She just doesn't want to get in trouble over it. It also looks like Charlie's moved on. Either that, or he's found someone to flaunt at Marnie and make her jealous.
Girls airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on HBO. 5 Game of Thrones Night King Theories You Need to Know Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topGood news for Daft Punk fans -- the electronic duo is set to release its first studio album in eight years this May.
Daft Punk's fourth studio album, "Random Access Memories," will be released on May 21. The 13-track album reportedly includes collaborations with Giorgio Moroder, Gonzales, and Animal Collective’s Panda Bear. The album's artwork (shown below) and release date were made public Saturday.
The duo last released an album in 2005. "Human After All" was nominated for the Grammy award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Daft Punk's debut studio album, 1997's "Homework," also earned the French group two Grammy nominations.
UPDATE:
A representative for Daft Punk announced Saturday that "Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is available early at itunes.com/daftpunk. CD and Vinyl on randomaccessmemories.com." The iTunes pre-order lists the expected release date as May 21.The Internet is amazing in many ways, but its glory often requires sacrifices. When a college athlete has a horrifying injury on national television, Twitter can provide a window to a world full of supportive, considerate people. But that directness can also expose college athletes to the worst side of the Internet, a stream of hatred and vitriol available in your pocket 24 hours a day. It makes it possible for grown adults who would take the time out of their day to write something hateful on the Internet to do so constantly with almost zero effort.
In other words, it can't be fun to be a struggling player at a school with an obsessed fan base. There were always news clippings and then talk radio and intense fans. But those annoyances have nothing on the ever-present pinging of venomous Twitter replies. People forget themselves. They troll. Things get ugly.
Russell Byrd knows this. The Michigan State shooting guard was the No. 20-ranked player at his position and the No. 61-ranked overall prospect in the class of 2010. He turned down offers from Kentucky, Michigan, Louisville, Indiana and Ohio State. He was going to be a sweet-shooting star. It never happened. Instead, Byrd had one injury after the other. When he has played he's been, well, rough. He would probably admit it. He had a 78.0 offensive rating on 18.1 usage in limited run, a bloated assist-to-turnover ratio, and a 7-for-41 mark from the 3-point line. You can't look back on the redshirt sophomore year Byrd just had and not realize he's having a tough time.
Of course, even if Byrd was blissfully unaware, there are those in the Michigan State fan base always ready to remind him. Even reasonable supporters took to loud groans. Byrd even received death threats; this is from an MLive.com story from January 30:
"One guy said he wanted to bury me at the bottom of the Red Cedar River,'' Byrd said. "That's laughable, you can't get caught up in stuff like that.''
He handled that better than most of us would, I'd say.
Which may be among the reasons why, despite the struggles, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo refuses to give up on Byrd. In fact, on Monday he went so far as to openly appeal for Michigan State fans to leave the kid alone. All Izzo is saying is give Byrd a chance. (That sentence is better if you imagine Izzo singing it to the Plastic Ono Band tune. Just a tip.) From MLive.com's Diamond Leung:
"I guess it doesn't bother me if anybody believes in him, but give him a chance because this will be the first true summer where he is going to be 99 percent healthy," Izzo said. "There's no question that kid can still help us because we need a shooter. "He lives, eats and sleeps the game, and then I have to listen to him talking to me about Twitter and how people are just ripping him on this and that -- people who have no clue and no understanding. Am I disappointed in Russell Byrd? Two hundred percent. I'm disappointed because I had a guy who was a gym rat, who loves the game, who is a good kid and was dealt a bad set of cards."
Maybe Byrd's injuries -- three foot surgeries already in his career -- have rendered him a shell of the player that made him a star on the prep circuit. Or maybe it's all mental, a loss of confidence in a sport (and at a position, specifically) that requires it to be unwavering at all times. Whatever the case, Izzo thinks it's still in there. If his endorsement can't chill the insane wing of the Michigan State fan base*, nothing will.
*Oh, and before anyone pipes in with a crack about Michigan State fans, let the first fan base that doesn't include insane grown men and women writing dumb things on Twitter throw the first digital stone. Thought so.MONTHLY REPORT – JUNE 2014
BITCOIN
The Bitcoin Network
Ahead of yet another 12-14% difficulty increase coming in the next 15 hours, the Bitcoin network has reached nearly 100 petahashes of processing power, less than 8 piddling months after hitting 1 petahash.
Let that sink in.
It’s insane. It’s beautiful. It’s utterly mesmerizing. – Peter Dushenski
Catalysts Coming
210 days since last #bitcoin peak…about same amount of time it took to reclaim $266 peak in 2013. Catalysts coming… – TwoBitIdiot
Real Institutional Investment Coming
* Singapore sovereign wealth fund experiments with Bitcoin. Temasek Holdings has a $172bn portfolio and had a net income of $12.1bn in 2013.
Several elements within other large banks and financial institutions are known to be interested in cryptocurrency and keen to invest in bitcoin companies, but none have admitted it openly and most still balk at any mention of their name in the same sentence as ‘bitcoin’ – Jon Southurst
* On the Wall Street front, I can’t tell you how many days a week I’m doing speaking and meetups with global banks. It is going to happen. We’re at an inflection point where we’re going to see some real institutional money move into this space – Barry Silbert
* What we’re hearing is that some of the big broker dealers on Wall Street are setting up small trading desks just to get exposure to the asset and understand it. That’s the approach now as opposed to a year ago when people thought governments would never allow it, and banks just wanted it to go away. All of the major banks now have teams trying to make sense of bitcoin.
A year ago, most governments and big banks frankly just wanted bitcoin to go away. They were like: ‘this is a joke, I want this to go away. I’m just going to ignore it.’ It’s not going to go away. So now people are saying: ‘it’s not going away and there’s big money coming into this, this is a real innovation, we need to get our heads wrapped around it, and we need to figure out whatever rules we’re going to wrap around it – Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle
ALTCOINS
Ethereum
The idea of a generalized blockchain platform with Turing complete language that can enable a myriad of applications to be custom written for that language.
I think that is a tremendous innovation, and I’m not saying Ethereum will be it but what Ethereum does will happen one way or another, perhaps by Ethereum, perhaps by a clone of Ethereum or perhaps by something that comes even later, but it gives you a glimpse into just what is possible.
The design pattern of a Turing complete platform based on the blockchain for negotiating contracts is brilliant and genius on a level almost equivalent to Satoshi in terms of taking existing technologies and just pushing them to a whole other level. I think Vitalik is one of the most brilliant people ever for building and designing it and coming up with the idea – Andreas Antonopoulos
MINING
Mining Rig Obsolescence
The overall network hash rate has been doubling every 3-4 weeks, and therefore, mining equipment has been losing half its production capability within the same time frame.
After 21-28 weeks (7 halvings), mining rigs lose 99.3% of their value. So there is very high equipment turnover in the mining industry – Ittay Eyal & Emin Gun Sirer
EQUITIES
BitFury
BitFury Group Ltd. last week secured one of the largest rounds of funding in the bitcoin sector, bringing in $20 million.
It is already one of the world’s largest bitcoin mining companies, which use semiconductors and servers to produce fresh bitcoin.
BitFury hopes next year to become the first bitcoin company to go public.
BitFury is slated to open the world’s largest data center aimed at producing bitcoin near Tbilisi. It will have electric power capacity of 20 megawatts
Bitfury – 2013
Revenue $30mill
Bitfury – 2014 Forecast
Expected Revenue $210mill
Expected EBITDA $120mill
– Yuliya Chernova
S&P500
S&P500 is now at all time high on the news of an economy that collapsed 2.9%. Rigged markets? Nothing to see here, move along peasants – Andreas Antonopoulos
COMPANIES
Soylent
A liquid food product designed to be nutritionally complete. It’s a food, not a supplement. It has everything the body needs to be healthy, you can live on this entirely. It’s been 90% of my diet for the last year and a half – Rob Reinhart, Soylent
Uber
How’s this for “holy shit” perspective: uber only investment to grow faster & larger than bitcoin in any 5yr period ever – TwoBitIdiot
The Uber network valued at $17bn is worth 2x the Bitcoin network – Jackcliu
I don’t think people know exactly how much Bitcoin needs to appreciate for various use cases –Romanizer
Uber & Lyft Ignore Cease and Desist from the State
Uber and Lyft car services have said they will continue to operate in Virginia, despite a cease-and-desist letter from the state saying the service is illegal because it hasn’t received authorization from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Uber sent an email to all registered customers Friday, saying:
“You may have heard that Uber received a cease and desist letter from the Virginia DMV yesterday. We wanted to write to let you know that Uber will operate as usual, and we plan to continue full-speed ahead with our commitment to providing Virginians access to safe, affordable and reliable rides.”
In a response to the company’s email to customers, the National Taxicab Association issued a statement saying Uber had “declared war on the rule of law.”
NTA said Uber was “facing lawsuits, cease and desist orders, and warnings over its lax insurance and background checks across the nation” and that the “company’s arrogance is staggering.” – Scott Neuman
Interesting that a $17 billion company has chosen to defy the state. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come – Lee Banfield
PRIVACY
On 6/5, 65 Things We Know About NSA Surveillance That We Didn’t Know a Year Ago – from EFF – Glenn Greenwald
My top 10 From the EFF Report
1) The XKEYSCORE program analyzes emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals anywhere in the world.
2) The NSA has plans to infect potentially millions of computers with malware implants as part of its Tailored Access Operations.
3) The NSA tracked access to porn and gathered other sexually explicit information “as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches.”
4) The Guardian reported: “In one six-month period in 2008 alone, [GCHQ] collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8-million Yahoo user accounts globally.”
5) The NSA’s Dishfire operation has collected 200 million text messages daily from users around the globe, which can be used to extract valuable information such as location data, contact retrievals, credit card details, missed call alerts, roaming alerts (which indicate border crossings), electronic business cards, credit card payment notifications, travel itinerary alerts, and meeting information.
6) The fruits of NSA surveillance routinely end up in the hands of the IRS. Like the DEA, the IRS uses parallel construction to cloak the source of the tip.
7) The NSA had a secret $10 million contract with security firm RSA to create a “back door” in the company’s widely used encryption products.
8) NSA undermines the encryption tools relied upon by ordinary users, companies, financial institutions, targets, and non-targets as part of BULLRUN, an unparalleled effort to weaken the security of all Internet users, including you.
9) Microsoft, like other companies, has cooperated closely with the FBI to allow the NSA to “circumvent its encryption and gain access to users’ data.”
10) The NSA program MUSCULAR infiltrates links between the global data centers of technology companies such as Google and Yahoo. Many companies have responded to MUSCULAR by encrypting traffic over their internal networks.
– Lee Banfield
PLACES
What Defines your Nationality?
Language? Currency? Where you live+work?
Now Bitcoin, Google translate, telecommuting changes everything – Peter Diamandis, Co-founder of Singularity University
If Telepresence keeps improving exponentially it will change everything within a decade. See “Telepresence / Snowdenbot” comments in the Singularity section below – Lee Banfield
New Hampshire: The Free State Project
A Libertarian testing ground for Bitcoin, 3d Printers, and Drones.
Everyone I met in the Project owned Bitcoin and was willing to accept it for goods and services.
Erik Voorhees, a Bitcoin entrepreneur moved to New Hampshire in May 2011 to join the Free State Project. It was there that he first heard about Bitcoin after someone posted about it in the Free State Facebook group. “Very few Free Staters knew about about it at that point. They don’t like using government money, but they were more into gold and silver than virtual currency,” he says. “I went down the rabbit hole and couldn’t stop talking about it, and then warmed other Free Staters up to it.”
Voorhees notes that Roger Ver, a Bitcoin entrepreneur who lives in Tokyo, was also an early signer of the Free State petition, and bought Bitcoin ads on Free Talk Live, a libertarian radio station associated with the project
Most people in the Free State Project are technology-oriented, and many come from a programming or computer background. The libertarian way of thinking is pretty common among technologists,” says Lamassu’s Zach Harvey, 35. “They want to teach themselves as much as they can in order to be free, and you have to use technology these days to be free. Bitcoin is the perfect fit for this group, a government-free currency with freedom programmed in.
Cody Wilson compares the Free State Project in New Hampshire with Silicon Valley; both places have libertarian-leaning techies trying to make disruptive technologies popular. “Silicon Valley is more capitalized and less about practical liberty than the Free State community, which has a better stake in the freedom at the heart of these technologies,” he says. “It’s the hotbed of libertarian activism in the country – Kashmir Hill
THE SINGULARITY
Computer Program Passes the Turing Test?
I think this is premature. I am disappointed that Professor Warwick, with whom I agree on many things, would make this statement.
In my 2004 book The Singularity Is Near, I anticipated that there would be premature announcements of this kind.
I chatted with the chatbot Eugene Goostman, and was not impressed. Eugene does not keep track of the conversation, repeats himself word for word, and often responds with typical chatbot non sequiturs.
In my 1989 book The Age of Intelligent Machines, I predicted that the milestone of a computer passing the Turing test would occur in the first half of the 21st century. I specified the 2029 date in my 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines. After that book was published, we had a conference at Stanford University and the consensus of AI experts at that time was that it would happen in hundreds of years, if ever.
In 2006 we had a conference called “AI at 50” at Dartmouth College, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Dartmouth conference that gave artificial intelligence its name. We had instant polling devices and the consensus at that time, among AI experts, was 25 to 50 years. Today, my prediction appears to be median view. So, I am gratified that a growing group of people now think that I am being too conservative – Ray Kurzweil
Voice Recognition
Tim Tuttle, CEO and founder of Expect Labs, said in the last 18 months, voice recognition accuracy improved 30%—a bigger gain than the entire decade previous. A third of searches are now being done using voice commands.
Voice recognition uses machine learning algorithms that depend on people actually using them to get better. Tuttle believes we’re at the beginning of a virtuous cycle wherein wider adoption is yielding more data; more data translates into better performance; better performance results in wider adoption, more data, and so on – Jason Dorrier
Telepresence / Snowdenbot
The futility of geographic occupancy limitations in a telepresence world? http://www.wired.com/2014/06/inside-edward-snowdens-life-as-a-robot/
What will be the purpose & justification for immigration restrictions in a world with ubiquitous, ultra-hi-def, free telepresence? – Marc Andreessen, Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz
For at least the past three months, Snowden and his supporters have been experimenting with a Beam Pro remote presence system, a Wi-Fi-connected screen and camera on wheels that Snowden can use to communicate with the staffers in the New York office of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to his ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner.
From a computer in Moscow, Snowden can turn on the video bot and wheel around the ACLU’s office on a whim.
“He’s used it to roll out into the hallway and generously interact with large numbers of ACLU staff,” says Wizner. “I think it can be a profound response to exile.”
Once, the non-profit’s executive director Anthony Romero gave the Snowden-possessed machine a walking tour of the building. Another time, Wizner had to jump on a phone call during a meeting with his whistleblower client. When he got off the phone, he found that Snowden had rolled the bot into civil liberties lawyer Jameel Jaffer’s office and was discussing the 702 provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “It was kind of cool,” Wizner says.
Trevor Timm, the director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation where Snowden sits on the board, says Snowden had been interested in trying the telepresence bot even before his TED talk.
“He was telling people for a while that it could be this game-changing technology,” says Timm. “I don’t think anyone quite believed him until we saw it in action…All he needs is arms to open doors, and he can go wherever he wants.”
Glenn Greenwald wrote that he’d like to see the robot unleashed in the NSA parking lot
– Andy Greenberg
1Jwh6nZiASJf4d3hNytjxqiimWBmEJvJ4S
AdvertisementsANALYSIS/OPINION:
The Associated Press is the primary source of news for most of America’s 1,300 daily newspapers and for thousands of radio and television broadcasters. This is impressive and frightening.
The AP has won 52 Pulitzer prizes for journalism since the prize was established in 1917. This is way impressive.
How Americans and the rest of the world see our president and our people is in large part the province of our news media, particularly our biggest news service. So it’s a very big deal that the AP’s range and influence are beyond enormous. Big deal but not good deal.
“Our teams in over 100 countries tell the world’s stories, from breaking news to investigative reporting,” according to the AP, which boasts that “more than half the world’s population sees our content every day.”
The news service’s distinctly liberal bias alone doesn’t seem sufficient to explain the extent of its relentlessly harsh criticism of President Trump. The AP has been gut-punching him since he declared for the Republican presidential nomination way back on June 16, 2015, in New York City.
So it wasn’t exactly a big surprise on Tuesday to see an AP story, datelined Flagstaff, Arizona, that began with this journalistic kick in the president’s privates:
“Families of Navajo war veterans who were honored at the White House say they were dumbfounded that President Donald Trump used the event to take a political jab at a Massachusetts senator, demeaning their work with an unbreakable code that helped the U.S. win World War II.”
This lead sentence, like the rest of the “news” story, reads like a press release from the Democratic National Committee. A news story it wasn’t.
Neither the AP nor any other news-gatherer reported any criticism of Mr. Trump’s remark by the any of the three Navajo code talkers, all in their 90s, being honored by the president.
Nor did the AP story quote any relatives of the Navajo code talkers who were in the Oval Office with the president on Monday. Here’s what Mr. Trump did say to the native American code talkers:
“I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people,” he said. “You were here long before any of us were here — although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
The slap at Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was unpresidential (at least pre-Trump and maybe post-Trump). It certainly was uncalled for, except by a neuron that fired somewhere in the president’s brain. His Warren dig was also typical of Mr. Trump’s irreverence — his utter inability to go for extended periods, like minutes on end, without slapping political correctness in the face and making friend and foe alike wince.
But some wincers follow up with a smile — in their minds if not always on their faces. The smilers, feeling a bit guilty for thinking anything that could be construed as excusing what Mr. Trump said, nonetheless think he wasn’t being mean. He certainly wasn’t being racist. The internal smilers think he thought he was being funny. Good naturedly so. Maybe like Clint Eastwood in his movie “Gran Torino.” His character was Walt Kowalski, a Vietnam War veteran of Polish descent who exchanges mock ethnic insults with his hair-cutter friend, who is of Italian extraction.
The solemn White House ceremony honoring Native American war veterans is not remotely like a barbershop insult-fest between two old friends. Mr. Trump should have known that. Five will get you 10 he did know that. Anyone would know that. He’s not anyone.
A replay of the televised Oval Office ceremony shows the obviously proud and happy code talkers continuing to beam at Mr. Trump as he makes his Pocahontas crack. No stunned silence after. No outward sign of shock or tension or crushed sensitivities. Yet The New York Times’ version of the event claims that when the president made the Pocahontas remark, the code talkers “stood stone-faced.”
In a lead sentence that was even nastier than the AP’s, The New York Times managed to drag, for the umpteenth time, race into its habitual disparagement of Mr. Trump.
“President Trump on Monday transformed a White House ceremony to honor Navajo veterans of World War II into a racially charged controversy, using the event as a platform to deride Senator Elizabeth Warren as ‘Pocahontas,’” the paper wrote.
The New York Times reaches the capitals of the world. The AP reaches the world.
For this story, the AP was no slouch either in scouring the countryside for relatives of code talkers who weren’t at the ceremony but would damn the president. It came up with Michael Smith, a Marine whose father was a code talker. Mr. Smith, according to the AP, “said most of the code talkers would be skeptical about going to the White House because it could be construed to mean they support a political cause.” Maybe most would, maybe not. Bet Mr. Smith didn’t vote for Mr. Trump.
The AP found another Trump slammer in the person of Helena Begaii who “said her 94-year-old Navajo code talker father, Samuel T. Holiday, declined an invitation to the White House on Monday. She said he would have a better feel for what happened once he reads the newspaper.”
Not if the newspaper carried the AP or New York Times account. (There were no other accounts.)
The AP (in its rewrite of a DNC release?) also quoted Democratic New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall as saying, “Donald Trump’s latest racist joke — during Native American Heritage Month, no less — demeaned the contributions that the code talkers and countless other native American patriots and citizens have made to our great country.”
Here’s the world-informing wire service quoting |
a-Mill's are not only sriously believed by tens of millions of people but also have such disproportionate impact on foreign policy. As you pointed out, many Christians (many of them Orthodox whose families have lived in the Holy Land for as long as the Jews have), were forcibly dispossessed in 1948 (artillery attacks on villages, etc.). I know some of these people personally. The Israeli Army was not a Boy Scout troop, but our media has an unwritten rule about such things. I am currently reading a book [From the Holy Mountain / A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, by William Dalrymple] on the persecution the Christians in the Middle East and northern Africa are undergoing (the Muslims having the full support of the US government, which cares only about the oil supply from the Muslim countries). Soon, there may be no Christians left in many areas, after a continuous presence of 2,000 years. The same way that the British Empire went out of its way to help prop up the murderous Muslim Turkish Empire for 200 years, the American government is helping prop up murderous Muslim regimes now -- as long as they do Washington's bidding, just as Saddam Hussein was the US's favored client until the day he invaded Kuwait. To: wildandcrazyrussian As you pointed out, many Christians (many of them Orthodox whose families have lived in the Holy Land for as long as the Jews have), were forcibly dispossessed in 1948 (artillery attacks on villages, etc.). I know some of these people personally. The Israeli Army was not a Boy Scout troop, but our media has an unwritten rule about such things. No, the Israelis were no Boy Scout troop, but what do you want when you're fighting for your existence while the world sits back and yawns? I realize this may disturb your version of history, but who started the conflict in 1948? Who tried to drive the Jews into the sea? Who just couldn't live in peace with the Jews? And who fled, at the prompting of the Arab armies (who promised to destroy the Jewish state in a matter of days so that the fleeing Arabs could return and help themselves to the property and possessions of the Jews), while the socialist Jews begged them to stay? Your Arab refugees, including the Christian Arabs. Another FYI - if you think the Christian Arabs "suffered" while under the control of the Jews (in my opinion, they were treated better than they deserve), you should see what they say about how their Muslim "brothers" are treating them now. Arafat is not exactly Santa Claus, despite the fact that "our media has an unwritten rule about such things", i.e., telling the truth about this mass murderer. To: Stefan Stackhouse But claiming that Israel's record of treatment of its Palestinian Christian minority is merely less bad than that of Sudan or China is faint praise indeed. How does it compare with Christianity's treatment of the Jews over the last 2000 years? Is it favorable compared to that? Arabs, ALL Arabs, have basic human rights in Israel. They can vote, earn a living, serve in the government (while being exempt from mandatory army service), and enjoy many of the benefits available to the Jews. Moreover, under "Israel's record of treatment", the standard of living has increased, the life expectancy has increased, the standard of medical care has increased, and the infant mortality rate has decreased. It has not been perfect. But Arabs in Israel have it a damn sight better than Jews in Arab countries and most of the Arabs in Arab countries. That you refuse to recognize it speaks more about your perception of how things are than reality. To: The Sword For the record, I am against the persecution of ANY religious group - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, whatever -- by any government or other religious group, any time, any place, any circumstances. I do not condone the persecution of Jews by so-called "Christians" ("so-called" because any REAL Christian would be an obedient follower of the Jew called Yeshua, and any such persecution activity would totally disobey His teachings), any more than I condone the persecution of Jews by Moslems, Communists, or National Socialists. Within that context of general opposition to religious persecution of any type, however, I must also state that I am a Christian, and I thus have a special obligation to be concerned for those of my fellow Christians who are undergoing persecution. I suspect that Jewish people would have a similar special concern for their fellow Jews who may be suffering persecution, so there should be nothing particularly exceptional about that. To: Miss Antiwar I grew up in this tradition and can say that the author misses the point. It is far less complicated. The "unnanounced" reason behind fundamentalism's support for Israel is that most fundamentalist churches teach that Israel is the land of God's beloved chosen people. I heard it my whole childhood. Support for Israel in the tradition I was raised is simply support for the people of God. I was warned many, many times as a child — in Sunday school classes and from the pulpit — that God will severely judge any nation that turns against Israel.
To: Miss Antiwar, Thinkin' Gal, incindiary, AnnaZ, Darth Sidious In order for most of today’s Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the central motivation in the movement’s support for Israel. It should be clear why they believe that Israel must be defended at all costs by the West. If Israel were militarily removed from history prior to the Rapture, then the strongest case for Christians’ imminent escape from death would have to be abandoned. This would mean the indefinite delay of the Rapture. The fundamentalist movement thrives on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not the indefinitely postponed Rapture. Gary North is a well-known postmillennialist and adherent to the Reconstructionist idea of the end-times, which namely states that the Jews no longer are the chosen people of God or heirs to the promises He made to them (that honor was given to the Christians, thus making a liar out of God), and that the Kingdom of Christ must be brought about after the tribulation by the efforts of Christians to impose a theological form of government upon the world. Then and only then can Jesus return to claim His kingdom. Therefore, for Mr. North to offer the disdainful opinion that pretribulation/premillennial ("pessimillennialists", he has termed them) Christians work towards peace for Israel due to an anti-Jewish "escape hatch mentality" when his own counter-Scriptural beliefs arrogantly asserts his own and Dominion Christians' efforts superior to God's promises to the Jews of redemption and a nation and His assurance that His wrath will not fall upon those who believe in His Son is not only sublimely insulting, but spiritually sinister as well. America should always be Israel's ally, but we should definitely NOT be supporting Israel when she is ready to jettison God's warnings of relinquishing the land He gave them to His (and their) enemies...the land to which Gary North believes the Jews no longer have title or right. To: The Sword Buy you sure have studied your mythology. The Arab Christians who were dispossssed from their homes by the Israeli armies were not doing anything at all except living there in Jerusalem, Ramallah, etc. as their families had for centuries. The great myth that they left their homes voluntarily so that the massive Arab armies could swoop in and massacre the Jewish people is really wierd. They left because they didn't want to get killed by the artillery shelling. Another item to note is that up until 1948, Baghdad Iraq was the region's great center for Jewish culture, with 175,000 Jewish people. That fact should indicate that there was NOT an anti-Jewish jihad until after Israel had been created by force of arms, after which a million Jews were pushed out of the surrounding countries. Makes you wonder what the Middle East would be like if Israel hadn't been started the way it was. Over the centuries, the Jewish officials who were pretty high up in the Muslim empire did pretty well. I believe that there is ample historical evidence that the Jews could have continued moving in peacefully over the decades and would by now be a much more secure position. That doesn't answer teh question about where to put the millions of Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany's death camps, but it was still too abrupt. All I know is that the Arab Christians (Eastern Orthodox or Maronite or Melkie or Coptic) see that they are suffering for the sins of Western Christians. To: Mercuria Mr. North also ignores the fact that there have always been divisions within the pre-millenial camp about the timing of the Rapture. As an adherant of the pre-wrath view, I expect to be persecuted alongside Israel during the Great Tribulation, and then be Raptured before the wrath of God, aka the Day of the Lord, begins. Classical post-tribbers expect the same. The unannounced reason behind this article is the fact that Israel's existence is a HUGE embarrassment to post- and amillenialists. For 1900 years they were able to laugh off the "absurdity" of a literal Israel, and therefore of a literal Antichrist, Seventieth Week, Great Tribulation, Rapture, and Day of the Lord. And in 1948 they were suddenly faced with the literal fulfillment of an eschatological promise to Israel, that she would be re-established in her ancient land in the last days, and rather than admit that they were wrong on this issue, they would rather see Israel destroyed by the Muslims. Frankly, Israel doesn't need our support to survive. She has already driven off the Muslims twice despite overwhelming odds. She will continue to do so until the day her leaders make a covenant with Death. Time, times, and half a time after that, she will again suffer attack, and many of her people will be driven from the land, but not far and not for long. The Lord Himself will fight for Israel, and "the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. On that day [the Lord] will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem" (Zech. 12:8-9). The real and announced reason why we "fundies" defend Israel (though we don't necessarily support every decision) is that we see in her the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to a people who rejected Him. And if God will hold to His promises to a people who rejected His First Coming, then we needn't fear that He will keep His to us at His Second. I wish that every Jew would accept their Messiah. The fact that I recognize from prophecy that they will not do so as a nation (though many may, and have, as individuals) until after a time of intense persecution in no way changes that. Yours in Truth, To: Buggman The state of 'Israel's' existence is not an embarassment to a & post mills. Far from it. There are currently books on the market, written by 'Jews' which reveal that the folks who bear the label Jew today do not have as their ancestor Abraham or Moses. They are Khazars --- not Hebrews. The vast majority of the people in Israel (and elsewhere) who call themselves Jews are not semitic in origin, but are near-asiatic. Secondly, even were a Temple to be rebuilt, the priesthood as it existed in AD 70 at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem is forever abolished - spiritually and temporally. There is no way to trace back the genealogical record and find authentic Levitical priests --- whatever zionist or dispensational delusions assert to the contrary. And, even were so-called "Jews" to offer animal sacrifices in a rebuilt 'Temple' in Jerusalem, as a Christian I believe in the final sacrifice of Jesus, the final and perfect High Priest who forever abolished animal sacrifice. I look to the Temple, which is Christ, and not to an earthly Jerusalem built of brick and mortar, but to a heavenly promised land, better promises and a New Jerusalem. Dispensationalists would do well to stop reading the 'Left Behind' series, the latest revision of the false prophet Hal Lindsey's book and read Galatians, read HEBREWS which puts the lie to the dispensationalist hermeneutic. www.preteristarchive.com/www.bibleprophecy.com /www.avision1.com. Blessings. To: wildandcrazyrussian Buy you sure have studied your mythology. No, I have studied history. Your "version" is a revision of history. The Arab Christians who were dispossssed from their homes by the Israeli armies were not doing anything at all except living there in Jerusalem, Ramallah, etc. as their families had for centuries. The great myth that they left their homes voluntarily so that the massive Arab armies could swoop in and massacre the Jewish people is really wierd. Again, you are mistaken. They were not there for centuries. Check Mark Twain's description of the land in the mid 1800's. There was a massive Arab immigration in response to the Zionist immigration in the late 1800's. This was because the Arabs were looking for jobs and the Jews paid them and treated them better than did their Arab brothers. They left because they didn't want to get killed by the artillery shelling. Strange, isn't it, that their Arab brothers who stayed and became citizens of Israel with full voting rights didn't suffer the same fate. I wonder why? Your version is partially correct. They didn't want to get shelled, BUT they thought the Arab armies would be victorious and they could return and take the property of the Jews. Another item to note is that up until 1948, Baghdad Iraq was the region's great center for Jewish culture, with 175,000 Jewish people. That fact should indicate that there was NOT an anti-Jewish jihad until after Israel had been created by force of arms, after which a million Jews were pushed out of the surrounding countries. You admit that the Jews were pushed out while the Arabs left of their own accord. That speaks volumes about the mentality of the Arabs and the Jews. Also note, the Jews who were pushed out were accepted by their brothers. The Arabs were not. Do you blame Israel for that also? Makes you wonder what the Middle East would be like if Israel hadn't been started the way it was. And how should it have been created? The Arabs massacred Jews in 1929 and 1936-39 - well before the State of Israel. The Arabs were supportive of Hitler. The Arabs could have chosen to accept the Jews and not fight. There would be no refugee problem and the Arabs would still control most of the land. But, tell me how you think it should have been created? Over the centuries, the Jewish officials who were pretty high up in the Muslim empire did pretty well. I believe that there is ample historical evidence that the Jews could have continued moving in peacefully over the decades and would by now be a much more secure position. As second-class citizens (dhimi) subject to butchering whenever the Arabs decided to. No Arab country is known for it's adherence to democratic principles or human rights. I assume you'll forgive the Jews for not wanting to live under those conditions. That doesn't answer teh question about where to put the millions of Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany's death camps, but it was still too abrupt. Perhaps the Jews and their descendents should still be in the Displaced Person(s) camps. How long should the Jews have to wait to have their own land where they will not be subject to Christian "love" or Muslim "justice"? All I know is that the Arab Christians (Eastern Orthodox or Maronite or Melkie or Coptic) see that they are suffering for the sins of Western Christians. Actually, they're suffering for their own sins and the sins of their brother Arabs. Had they chosen to "love their neighbor" even though that neighbor was Jewish, they wouldn't be suffering today. To: Stefan Stackhouse Within that context of general opposition to religious persecution of any type, however, I must also state that I am a Christian, and I thus have a special obligation to be concerned for those of my fellow Christians who are undergoing persecution. I suspect that Jewish people would have a similar special concern for their fellow Jews who may be suffering persecution, so there should be nothing particularly exceptional about that. As long as you place the blame for the persecution where it belongs - on the Arabs - I have no problem. Are the Jews perfect - of course not. But, your desire to resolve the humanitarian problems of these Arabs, Christian and Muslim, does not justify distorting either history or reality. To: Mercuria Thank you for your balanced insight. RE: Gary North's philosophical religious fiction: correction: KING-MESSIAH-JESUS returns to absolutely guarantee ETERNAL SAFETY to the promised "REMNANT of ISRAEL". Until "THAT TIME", keep your powder dry. Yet, always remember that, Israel..."WALKED OUT of EGYPT"...!!! m To: PresbyRev There are currently books on the market, written by 'Jews' which reveal that the folks who bear the label Jew today do not have as their ancestor Abraham or Moses. They are Khazars --- not Hebrews. The vast majority of the people in Israel (and elsewhere) who call themselves Jews are not semitic in origin, but are near-asiatic. There was a book published (in the 1970s, IIRC) called The Thirteenth Tribe, which made this argument. It has since been thoroughly refuted by, among other things, DNA evidence showing that Jews of today --whether of Eastern European, Iberian or Middle Eastern ancestry-- all share common ancestry. It is true that there has been interbreeding (voluntary and otherwise) between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors over the centuries (which is why Ethiopian Jews are black-skinned and Scandinavian Jews are often blonde), but the genetic markers show a core of common Jewish ancestry in almost all contemporary Jews. The Khazars did nominally convert to Judaism at one point, mostly for political reasons (they were surrounded by larger and more powerful Christian and Moslem kingdoms and were trying to preserve their independence), but that didn't last long; most of the people either never really accepted Judaism or abandoned it as soon as the political pressure eased up. To: M. Thatcher, Buggman, maestro, Lurking Libertarian BUMPING youse!! To: PresbyRev Since Lurking Libertarian has already refuted your first point, I'll move on to the others after pointing out that not only has DNA testing proven that the Jews in Israel aren't just a bunch of wannabes, but that it has also allowed the rabbis to figure out which ones belong to Aaron's line. Secondly, even were a Temple to be rebuilt, the priesthood as it existed in AD 70 at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem is forever abolished - spiritually and temporally. Ezekiel 40-48 disagrees with you. That's not to say that the sacrifices will be redemptive, but that just as the pre-Christ sacrifices looked prophetically forward to His final sacrifice on the Cross, the sacrifices in the Temple described by Ezekiel will look backwards in history and be a memorial to that event. In any case, right or wrong, the Orthodox rabbis are planning to reinstate the sacrifices, which would be a prophetic landmark that would pave the way for Daniel's 70th Week. At least two cattle farmers are attempting to breed a red heifer, and are very close to success (and I seem to remember that one had succeeded already, but I can't find the reference at the moment). At least two families of Aaron's line have agreed to dedicate their firstborn sons to the priesthood. In addition, one Dr. Vendel Jones believes he knows the approximate location of the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. In thirteen years at the most, Israel will likely have a functioning, ritually pure priesthood. I look to the Temple, which is Christ, and not to an earthly Jerusalem built of brick and mortar, but to a heavenly promised land, better promises and a New Jerusalem. Actually, according to both First and Second Corinthians, we are the temple of God. That means, among other things, that the structure of the Temple built by Solomon gives us a number of clues about the structure of our innermost selves. It's a fascinating study, and one I recommend to you. However, the fact that the Temple was built to reflect the human soul in no way means that there was not also a literal Temple built according to those specifications, correct? And the Tabernacle was built to reflect Heaven, but it was also a literal structure. Therefore, the future Temple prophesyed by Ezekiel is also literal, though built to reflect spiritual realities. Likewise the New Jerusalem. Likewise, the temple that will be built by Israel and defiled by Antichrist in the days before Christ's Second Coming will be literal, and by all indications will be built soon. Dispensationalists would do well to stop reading the 'Left Behind' series, the latest revision of the false prophet Hal Lindsey's book Hal Lindsey is a scholar and teacher, not a prophet. There is a huge diffrence between the two; a teacher may be honestly mistaken, while a prophet may not. I happen to think that both LaHaye and Lindsey are wrong on several issues, but that they are right on others. One place that both are definitely right on is that they take God at His word, and don't try to allegorize every promise made away. and read Galatians, read HEBREWS which puts the lie to the dispensationalist hermeneutic. First of all, your assertion that I have not is insulting. Secondly, if by Galatians you are referring to 3:15-25, you might want to look again. Not all the promises in the OT were given to Abraham. Many were given through Moses and the other prophets. For example, Ezekiel 37:15-28 is given to the house of Judah (the southern kingdom) and Ephraim (the northern kingdom, before the Assyrian captivity), not just to "Israel" genericly, so that we could not pretend that this is a veiled promise to the Church. Read the prophet carefully. Verse 25 says specifically that they will return to the land of Israel and never again be forced from it. Does that mean that the Israel we see today is the fulfillment of that promise? No, they have not yet entered into the everlasting covenant spoken of in v. 26. However, it does affirm that the land of Israel is forever promised to Abraham's natural descendants, not to the Gentile portion of the Church. As for Hebrews, I am curious about how you think it debunks dispensationalism--which, by the way, is a school of thought within pre-millennialism, not pre-millennialism in full. I am a pre-millennialist, but not particularly dispensationalist in my view of Scripture. Conversely, Romans 11 destroys any theology that holds that Israel is forever rejected or destroyed. First of all, together with Ephesians 3:6, it establishes it is the Gentile Christian who has been grafted in with Israel as a joint-heir, not as a replacement. Secondly, Paul states in vv. 25-29: I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins. As far as the Gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the Patriarchs, for God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. Tell me, do you not agree that Jesus fulfilled every Messianic prophecy of His First Coming literally? Was He not born of a virgin? Did He not speak in parables? Wasn't the road made clear for Him by another crying out in the desert? Was He not punished for our sins? Were not His hands and feet pierced? Why then do you have such a hard time with expecting the prophecies of His Second Coming to occur just as literally: The Man of Sin proclaiming himself to be God in God's (literal, earthly) Temple. Antichrist's reign for 3 1/2 years. The Great Tribulation. The image and mark of the Beast. Christ coming on the clouds of the sky. His being seen by everyone, even those who pierced Him. The Rapture. The Day of the Lord. The reconcilliation of all of Israel. The binding of the Dragon in the Abyss. The Millennial rule over the earth. The glorious eternity beyond. I'm sorry, but if Christ's Coming was fulfilled in 70 AD, I want my money back. In Matthew 16:3, Jesus berated the Pharisees for not recognizing the signs of the times. Why? Because God had plainly given them through the prophets everything they needed to know about the Messiah, even when He would come (Dan. 9:24-26), and they ignored it. I believe God holds us accountable for watching the signs of the Son's Second Coming as well. The signs are all there, including the very literal and very real rebirth of Israel. As a pastor (or so I assume by your screename) you know that you will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). At this point you are probably shaking your head or sighing in exasperation. Well then, above this is my post debunking the a-mil/post-mil assumption that Matt. 24 (and by extention, Dan. 9:27 and Revelation) is all about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. I invite you to take a stab at it. I also invite you to do a serious study of the OT prophets, and the promises to Israel, and then, once you have familiarized yourself with them in the context of Romans 11, to do a study of their relationship with the book of Revelation. Within Revelation's 404 verses there are an estimated 800+ allusions to the Old Testament, especially the prophets (Daniel and Isaiah in particular). Since Revelation is the only book in the Bible with a special blessing promised for the one who reads it (1:3), you should find the exercise fruitful if you are willing to let the text speak for itself, take it at its word, and let the Holy Spirit guide you. Yours in Truth, To: Lurking Libertarian Good catch, for a libertarian. (Just kidding, of course. :^) Yours in Truth, To: PresbyRev Oops, I lost track of which thread I was on. The refutataion of preterism that I was referring to was posted on this thread. Feel free to respond on either one. Yours in Truth, sometimes I wonder if Luther wasn't right about Revelation… To: Miss Antiwar Silly Prot nonsense! To: Buggman Gag!!! Scholars??? Hal Lindsay is a salesman -- plain and simple! To: M. Thatcher Correct. You've got this right, and those arguing this or that school of theology make things far more complicated than they need to be, and pretend to know things they don't really know. Anyone who doesn't get it is invited to read Romans 11. What do YOU think?
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wHY DO YOU PRETERIST ASK FOR OPINIONS? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU POSTED ONE ON THE RAPTURE. I HAVE TAKEN WILSON'S $10,000 CHALLENGE AND DISPROVED HIM WRONG BUT YOU WON'T EVEN POST MY PROOF THAT THE RAPTURE IS REAL.
I EMAIL TODD DENNIS TO COMPLIAN ABOUT THE INTEGRITY AND HONESTY OF WILSON'S OFFER AND SENT IN THAT EMAIL PROOF THAT NOTHING IS HID AND THIS EVENT IS REPRESENTED IN REV. 3:10-13. THE REASON YOU WON'T POST IT IS BECAUSE OF PRIDE FOR IT BLOWS PRETERIST DOCTRINES TO BITS. YOU ALL ARE FAKES AND PRETERIST SO CALLED SCHOLARS ARE JUST EDUCATED FOOLS BECAUSE PROOF OF THE RAPTURE SHOWS THAT YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THE ECONOMY OF GOD.
MORE SINCERE THAN YOU, D.A.LEFLORE [email protected] AND [email protected] is musical hallucination?
Musical hallucination (MH) is the experience of hearing music when none is being played. Hearing sound that no-one else can hear is quite common, but the experience is normally of a simple sound such as a buzzing, ringing, or sizzling: this is known as tinnitus. In a small number of people however, these experiences can be more complex and emotive, and music can be heard.
What is musical hallucination like?
Musical hallucinations have a compelling sense of reality and are often mistaken for real music until it becomes clear that none is being played. This is especially true when MH are experienced for the first time. The sounds are typically heard as short fragments of simple melodies - often from music heard regularly and familiar from youth and especially from hymns and carols. Individuals with hearing loss sometimes notice that the music in these hallucinations sounds as it did when it was first heard and not how it would with their current level of hearing problems than the sound of tinnitus.
Who gets musical hallucination?
Although anyone can experience MH, it is more common in women than in men, as well as in those over 60 years of age. Individuals who live alone, and those with hearing loss are also more likely to experience MH.
What causes musical hallucination?
In most individuals with MH there is no underlying cause found.
Very rarely, MH can be caused by serious conditions, for example by problems with the blood vessels in the brain or by brain tumours. In these conditions there are likely to be other symptoms, but your doctor might choose to perform some investigations to rule them out.
MH is also more common in individuals who have epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease. It is therefore very important to mention to your doctor if you have MH and experience changes in your vision, dizziness, severe headaches, problems with your speech or difficulties with movements.
Is it caused by my medications?
Like tinnitus, quite a number of medications have been accused of causing or contributing to MH. These associations are not thought to be strong, and in most individuals who experience MH they are not due to medication. The only exception to this are medications based on opium, such as tramadol, morphine sulphate and oxycodone, which have been shown to cause MH in rare cases.
If you believe that your MH might be caused by one of these or another medication, it is important that you do not stop taking it or adjust the dosage without first discussing this with your general practitioner or the doctor who prescribed the medication.
Is musical hallucination a psychiatric problem?
Some people with MH are worried that it might represent a mental health condition, such as schizophrenia. Although in schizophrenia it is common to hear voices, it is in fact very rare to experience MH and there is thought to be no connection between the two conditions.
The majority of individuals with MH do not have any psychiatric disturbance, although MH is quite common in individuals who have a condition known as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), in which they experience repetitive, intrusive and distressing thoughts and feel strong urges to repeatedly perform actions such as hand washing.
Although it is estimated that around 4 in 10 individuals with OCD will experience MH at some time in their life, it is a rare condition and it is important to note that the majority of individuals with MH do not have OCD.
Can musical hallucination be treated?
If MH has an underlying cause, addressing the cause can often also relieve MH. The most common and easily treatable cause is hearing loss, so your doctor is likely to request that you undergo some tests of your hearing and, based on the results of this, may prescribe a hearing aid.
Many people find that MH becomes less intrusive once the condition has been explained to them and they have been reassured that there is no serious underlying cause. If MH continues to be troublesome despite this, it can be managed with the techniques used to treat other forms of tinnitus. It might be appropriate to use medication to treat the underlying condition contributing to the MH and your doctor will be happy to discuss this with you.
Download your leaflet here:<p>It’s become a must-attend event for BMW motorbike fans. Set amidst the stunning mountains of Germany’s Zugspitze, more than 35,000 visitors came from all over the world to celebrate their common passion for motorised two-wheelers. This year’s highlights included break-neck performances by Busty Wolter and his freestyle motocrossers, as well as breath-taking shows by stunt riders Mattie Griffin and Dirk Manderbach, who got the audience cheering in astonishment. The wooden “cauldron” of the Motodrom was all about four roaring BMW R 25s, while tyres smoked and screeched at the drift show in the event arena. Another must-see was the presentation of the new series colours and special paint finishes – thanks to the design range “Option 719”, colourful new combinations spruced up the atmosphere of the exhibition tent. The excitement didn’t die out in the evening either: bands and DJs did their part to keep spirits high well into the night. The event was an all round success, entertaining from the start and ending on Sunday with typical German “Gemütlichkeit” (a cosy, relaxing feeling). Even as everyone started packing up to return to every corner of the world, plans are already in the works for the 19th BMW Motorrad Days, from 5-7 July 2019. Mark your calendars today! We look forward to seeing you. </p>
Learn moreA severe dust storm arrived Tuesday in Israel, covering parts of the country in a heavy haze that could pose a health risk to some, the environmental protection ministry said.
The sandstorm also swept across other parts of the Middle East, killing two people and hospitalizing hundreds in Lebanon, and killing six and disrupting air strikes in neighboring Syria. It also covered parts of Jordan and Cyprus where aircraft were diverted as visibility fell to 500 meters.
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The muggy weather was said to be the result of a sandstorm originating in Syria and Iraq now passing over Israel, and is expected to continue throughout the day, even extending into Wednesday, accented by a possible heat wave, the Meteo-Tech meteorological service said.
The ministry issued a warning in wake of the storm, saying the massive concentration of dust particles could penetrate into the respiratory system, posing a potential threat to seniors, young children and pregnant woman, as well as those suffering from heart or lung issues.
Pedestrians walk near the Tower of David in Jerusalem's Old City during a sandstorm September 8, 2015. Reuters
Especially large levels of dust were registered in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Judea region in the West Bank, and the ministry recommended avoiding strenuous activities and spending prolonged periods of time outdoors.
Ziv Medical Center in Safed treated thirty asthmatic patients, including children, suffering from respiratory problems due to the haze.
Flights to and from Eilat on Arkia and Israir have been canceled for the rest of the day. The two airlines have both offered to pay the passengers for bus transportation and refund their airline ticket, if they choose this option, airline representatives said.
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Lethal storm
A man drives with his face covered during a sandstorm in Jerusalem September 8, 2015. Reuters
Lebanon's Health Ministry said two people had died as a result of the storm and 750 people had been hospitalized with breathing problems.
According to reports, six have also been killed in Syria, including two children.
The Red Cross in Lebanon said 130 people had been taken to hospital complaining of breathing problems in the eastern Bekaa Valley and northern district of Akkar on Monday and Tuesday.
Lebanon's weather department in the civil aviation authority said the storm would continue into Wednesday with humidity between 65-85 percent, state news agency NNA reported.
The dust would begin to dissipate late on Wednesday, it added.
Heavy haze over Tel Aviv caused by dust storm. September 8, 2015. Haaretz
Sand storm hits Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon. September 7, 2015. AFP
There were fewer air strikes in Syria on Monday as the storm engulfed the sky, said Rami Abdulrahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
Israel to grow hotter
In terms of the forecast, Tuesday will be partly cloudy to clear with a rise in the temperature to unseasonable levels, with sharav conditions in the hills and inland, and muggy on the coast. The Galilee and Golan may see some light local showers in the afternoon. The heat wave will continue Wednesday and Thursday. Friday will cool down, although it will still be warmer than usual for this time of year and muggy along the coast.This article provides a step by step guide to create, configure and start the first profiling session for a project with the new NetBeans profiler 8.1. See profiler documentation for details on configuring and running the profiler.
1. Get The Profiler:
Download the NetBeans IDE 8.1 distribution of your choice (Java SE technology is a requirement to get the profiler) and install or unzip it to your system. Create a sample Java application Anagram Game using File | New Project... | Samples | Java.
2. Open Profiler Window:
Select the AnagramGame project node in Projects window and create a profiling session for this project by invoking the Profile Project (AnagramGame) action either in the main IDE menu or the IDE toolbar. The action can also be invoked using the Ctrl+F2 shortcut. Profiler window representing new profiling session opens in the editor area.
3. Configure Profiling Session:
Click the Configure Session button in the Profiler window toolbar and select the profiler mode of your choice (for example Methods). The Profiler window displays a hint for each profiling mode to help you select the right one |
. No-one, politician or otherwise, should have to face threats of violence.While U.S. president-elect Donald Trump this week said he's keeping "an open mind" on climate change, despite earlier having called the notion a "hoax," Canada is forging ahead with its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon.
In an interview with CBC's The House, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna downplayed concerns that a Trump presidency will negatively impact Canada-U.S. co-operation on the environment.
Speaking to the New York Times earlier this week, Trump said he would "keep an open mind" about the Paris accord, which he has repeatedly said he planned to either renegotiate or cancel if elected. It's a significant shift from Trump's past statements that climate change is a "hoax" perpetrated by the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing less competitive
"You saw positive comments from Donald Trump," McKenna told host Chris Hall.
"He said he just wanted to make sure that policies were competitive, didn't impact on the U.S. competitiveness — I think about that all the time with the policies that we are looking at," she said.
"It's about competitiveness. It's about creating jobs. It's about making investments to grow the economy... I know those are what the next administration is looking for."
'Moving forward' on emissions
McKenna's statements come just days after 60 leading business, labour and environmental groups urged the federal government to hold the course in its fight against climate change — and the minister appears to be doing just that.
After announcing plans earlier this week to accelerate the phase-out of coal-fired electricity across Canada, McKenna said the federal government will also work with provinces and territories to develop a clean fuel standard.
While the details still need to be ironed out, McKenna said it's just one way the federal government is taking action to reduce emissions.
"We're not lurching," she said. "We're moving forward."
Doing nothing is 'not viable'
In order to meet the goals of the Paris climate change agreement, Canada must cut its emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
"There will always be people that think that we're moving too slowly, that we should get out of fossil fuels overnight, which is just not possible. We need to turn the lights on," McKenna told host Hall. "And there are people who want to do nothing and just think we'll be on fossil fuels forever. And that's clearly also not viable."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to meet with the provincial and territorial premiers in Ottawa in early December to finalize plans to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. - It's been a fixture in Dearborn Heights since the 1920s, but Wayne County wants to sell the Warren Valley Public Golf Course to a developer.
Hundreds of residents packed the clubhouse Monday night to shout down the Wayne County staff members who came to detail the plan for the sale.
The crowd heckled and booed the team from Wayne County as it presented its reasons for a proposed sale of the Warren Valley golf course. The main reason was that the county runs the course at a debt.
But that reasoning fell on deaf ears. A developer, Delta Management, wants to mow down the golf course and turn the property into a gated community with 100 to 200 homes.
Furious residents at the clubhouse spent hours Monday night eviscerating the idea.
"I think it's a huge mistake," Sue Kaminski said.
"It's a green area and it needs to stay a green area," Joe Mitchell said.
Dearborn Heights' mayor and City Council president said it's clear that residents have spoken. Now, they want the county to listen.
"Hopefully there won't be eight votes for this to pass," Mayor Dan Paletko said, referencing the Wayne County Commission, which would vote on whether to sell.
The Commission hasn't seen an analysis of the project yet.
"I've been living in the city for 50 years, and this is a jewel of the city," City Councilwoman Marge Horvath said.
Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.UPDATE: The filibuster ended just shy of 7:00 PM ET, after 8 hours and 37 minutes of speaking.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading a stalling session resembling a filibuster against Obama's tax proposal on the Senate floor Friday, after earlier promising "to take as long as I can to explain to the American people the fact that we have got to do a lot better than this agreement provides."
As First Read notes, however, the event is not an actual filibuster under the traditional definition: "If it were a true filibuster, he would be blocking Republicans from conducting business or speaking."
The near-filibuster, which began at 10:25 AM, became so popular that it temporarily shut down the Senate video server.
Sanders kicked off the debate on the bill with a two-hour stand in opposition to the tax cut deal before handing over the lectern to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and then Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
"How can I get by on one house?" Sanders said. "I need five houses, ten houses! I need three jet planes to take me all over the world! Sorry, American people. We've got the money, we've got the power, we've got the lobbyists here and on Wall Street. Tough luck. That's the world, get used to it. Rich get richer. Middle class shrinks."
In discussing the cost of Obama's plan, Sanders castigated Republicans for "hypocrisy" in their concern over the debt and deficit, saying that if they voted on the package, there should be "no more lectures" from GOP senators about spending.
But Sanders said the issue wasn't only about the price of the two-year extension of the tax cuts, it was about the precedent that was being set by the deal.
"If [Obama] caves in now, who's going to believe that he's not going to do the same thing in two years," Sanders said, expressing his belief that a vote in the future would produce a further and perhaps permanent extension of the cuts.
UPDATE: A Sanders spokesman told HuffPost's Arthur Delaney that Sanders will talk "as long as he can" and that the 69-year-old senator has not taken a break since morning or had anything but water. The spokesman could not predict when the speechifying would stop. "He doesn't have an end time."In the 2015 documentary "Requiem for the American Dream," MIT linguist Noam Chomsky admitted that in one respect he agrees with Sarah Palin — coincidentally a member of President-elect Donald Trump's short list of potential cabinet appointees.
"Right after the election, President Obama won an award from the advertising industry for the best marketing campaign and the International Business Press executives were euphoric," Chomsky says. "They said, We’ve been marketing candidates like toothpaste since Reagan. This is the greatest achievement we have."
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"I don’t usually agree with Sarah Palin," he added, "but when she mocks the 'hope-y, change-y stuff,' she’s right."
According to WikiLeaked emails from campaign chair John Podesta, Clinton colluded with the DNC to run a negative ad campaign against her opponent, in turn limiting her own exposure and feeding Trump's already loud hype machine:
In The New Republic, David Dayen noted:
Democrats comforted themselves with the emergence of a new majority of women, Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, gays and lesbians, immigrants, and Muslims. It was an inspiring reflection of the ideal of the melting pot. And it looks to have been a bit too soon, if not a mirage.
Democratic clustering didn't start in 2016, but it lost Hillary Clinton the Electoral College because she thought it would energize her base if she put half the country in a "basket of deplorables."
"You cannot write off half the country," Dayen wrote, "much less spend an election cycle deriding it, and expect success."
What Clinton needed — and failed to offer — was a cogent platform and a "change"-based slogan. Trump won the presidency with only the latter.
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In short, it's hard to read a room you're not even in.
Clinton twice took Michigan for granted — in the primaries and the general — and twice lost in what were later called upsets. Had she even bothered to visit Wisconsin during the general, she might not have been so dead sure the state was a lock.
Even in Democratic-heavy cities like Detroit and Milwaukee, she trailed President Obama's 2012 numbers by 50,000 and 27,000, respectively.
Beyond the Obama coalition, Clinton — whose tangential relation to NAFTA and flip-flopping on TPP Trump reiterated in near-daily rallies across the country — made no attempt to reconcile with labor union members. And, according to exit polling, paid for it.
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Hillary Clinton ultimately lost because she didn't market herself where it mattered. What she called a platform was a steaming pile of pathos that played well on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts but drowned in the Great Lakes.Combatants in the age-old battle of nature versus nurture may finally be able to lay down their arms. On average, both nature and nurture contribute roughly equally to determining human traits.
Researchers compiled data from half a century’s worth of studies on more than 14 million pairs of twins. The researchers measured heritability — the amount of variation in a characteristic that can be attributed to genes — for a wide variety of human traits including blood pressure, the structure of the eyeball and mental or behavioral disorders.
All traits are heritable to some degree, the researchers report May 18 in Nature Genetics. Traits overall had an average heritability of 49 percent, meaning it’s a draw between genes and environment. Individual traits can be more strongly influenced by one or the other.Character designer and animator Nobuteru Yuki reported on Wednesday that veteran Bandai Visual anime producer Minoru Takanashi passed away.
Takanashi developed content at Bandai Visual for nearly three decades. He served on most Macross projects, including Macross II, Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero, and the proposed but unproduced live-action Macross movie. He was also Bandai Visual's producer or project planner behind such popular anime as Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Gunbuster, Giant Robo, The Vision of Escaflowne television anime and Escaflowne anime movie, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade, Wolf's Rain, and Arjuna. As such, he was a frequent industry guest of Anime Expo and other overseas conventions.
According to Yuki, Escaflowne would not have been made without Takanashi's "project-planning powers." More recently, Takanashi worked on the Concrete Revolutio anime and product development for Space Battleship Yamato 2199.
Before he joined the anime industry, Takanashi and fellow anime fan Masahiro Chiba were part of Macross Attack Team, a group that created the influential set of Sky Angels dōjinshi (self-published works). Similar to how several Gundam dōjinshi creators eventually became the main staff of the first Macross or how several dōjin filmmakers eventually formed the anime studio Gainax, Takanashi and the other M.A.T. members would eventually parlay their fan efforts into official anime projects.Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Cardinals Department of Communications.
If you ever find yourself craving a ballpark hot dog or "Cardinals Nation Nachos," you no longer have to buy a ticket or even wait until game day to get your favorite baseball fare.That's because the team is rolling out the new Cardinals Nation food truck, which will serve Cardinals Nation Restaurant items and new creations outside the stadium on game days, at special events and at various lunchtime locations around the city.Favorites such as "Four Cheese Mac and Cheese" and those "Cardinals Nation Nachos" are two of the ten entrees listed on the menu. New items include selections such as the "Twisted Cheddar Brat" and "Bacon Ribs."Nate Green, Cardinals Nation Director of Operations, stated in a press release than many local products are being used to put the menu together.“Products like G&W sausages and hot dogs, Companion Bread Co., and a Different Twist Pretzel Company really help make these fun menu choices a reality," he said.The Cardinals Nation Food Truck has been in the works since last year. What began as a 20-foot diesel truck from Degel Truck Center in Hazelwood went on to Schantz Manufacturing in Highland, Illinois, to get a custom box kitchen build.Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III sees the food truck as an opportunity to add to the game day experience around Busch Stadium.“It also allows us to take Cardinals Nation Restaurant on the road and bring the ballpark atmosphere to our fans around the region," DeWitt said in a press release.The food truck is expected to make its first appearance for service early next week, and it will be located at 8th and Walnut streets on game days. For updates and lunch service locations, fans can follow the Cardinals Nation food truck on Twitter Facebook and the Cardinals website. To book the food truck for your corporate or social event, call 314-345-9880. You can check out the complete menu hereThe subject of this article is from the Pathfinder update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 10 August, 2017.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 10 August, 2017.
HUB-V(AS)-7A Nerevkarovgra Region Renbellanj Expanse Galaxy Euclid Spectral class B8pf (Blue) Distance to center 166511.0 light-years Planet(s) 6 Moon(s) 0 Faction Vy'keen Discovered by COMANDeR_GAN0N Platform PS4 Release Pathfinder
HUB-V(AS)-7A Nerevkarovgra Region Renbellanj Expanse Galaxy Euclid Spectral class B8pf (Blue) Distance to center 166511.0 light-years Planet(s) 6 Moon(s) 0 Faction Vy'keen Platform PS4 Release Pathfinder
[HUB-V(AS)-7A] Nerevkarovgra is a star system.
The Nerevkarovgra Atlas Station, image by zerovalence.
[HUB-V(AS)-7A] Nerevkarovgra is a star system in the universe of No Man's Sky.
While its main attraction for most travelers is probably the ~6m diplos which inhabit this system's radioactive planet, it boasts a wide variety of other exotic fauna as well (detailed under the "Planets & Moons" section below). It also has a variety of uncommon resources, including Coryzagen, Candensium, Fervidium, Rigogen, and Gravitino Balls. The starships available here may interest travelers of all ship-class preferences.
Those who have not completed the Atlas Path will see an Atlas Station in this system, rather unusual considering it's a Blue-colored star.
This system can be located using the HMS. The main image for this system shows its position relative to the Renbellanj Expanse's Black Hole.
"Line up TopOfTheTree (PC: Jeroh) with center, Nerevkarovgra is marked (faintly) in yellow" - zerovalence (picture credit also zerovalence)
Alias names [ edit | edit source ]
PS4 Original: Nerevkarovgra
Planets & Moons [ edit | edit source ]
This star system contains 6 planets:
Vy'keen
Urihonma S27
Tenridie S97
Anzaifug S26
Obaraoul S63
Ukarakat S41
Ingurgato S46
Amuroish S70
Wariasakur S33
Chiyosho S98
Standard starred items (there are no non-standard starred items at this station):
High-profit items:
0469 : 0081 : 0D6C : 007A
Hub Management System Info [ edit | edit source ]
(Already inputted into HMS)
Galactic Hub Project subreddit
PilgrimStarPath
Galactic Hub Interloper HandbookA hospital isolation room. Photo: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER
A 45-year-old woman with a suspected Ebola infection has been admitted to hospital in Vienna.
The Nigerian woman was suffering a high fever and headache and had recently returned to Austria from a trip to Nigeria.
She is currently being treated and tested in isolation. Blood samples have been sent to the Bernhard-Nocht Institute in Hamburg for diagnosis. Results should be available within the next 48 hours.
Symptoms for suspected Ebola cases are non-specific and could also be symptomatic of many other tropical diseases, such as typhoid or malaria. They include fever, aches and diarrhoea.
Austria doesn’t have its own dedicated bio-secure lab, and the Freedom Party’s spokesman for science recently warned that the country is unprepared in the event that cases of the virus are confirmed.
In August suspected cases of Ebola in Tyrol and Upper Austria proved to be false alarms.
The Nigerian woman is being treated in the Kaiser-Franz-Josef hospital in Vienna’s Favoriten district.
The hospital has a new infection department which will be used for anyone suffering Ebola-like symptoms. Six rooms can be isolated, and doctors and nurses wear full protective body suits.
Experts say that while sporadic cases of Ebola are possible outside Africa, the risk of broader contagion is low because higher standards of healthcare and hygiene would make it easier to contain.
Some 1,500 people have died so far in Africa, out of more than 3,000 cases, since the disease was first identified in Guinea in February before spreading to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.Image copyright Getty Images
Saudi Arabia's stock market has fallen sharply after it announced public spending cuts and rises in tax, fuel and energy prices in 2016.
The country's main stock index fell 3% in the opening 15 minutes of trade with petrochemical firms worst hit.
Saudi Basic Industries, the biggest petrochemical producer, tumbled 8.3% while Saudi Kayan lost 4.8%.
Saudi Arabia's budget deficit soared to $98bn (£65.7bn) this year on the back of falling crude prices.
In the first budget under King Salman, the kingdom said revenues reached 608bn riyals (£108.7bn; $162bn), down 15% on official expectations.
Spending for the year hit 975bn riyals, some 13% more than forecast.
To help make up the shortfall, the country's finance ministry said it would cut subsidies for fuel.
Petrol prices could in some cases increase by as much as 50%, authorities said, although they will remain low by international standards.
Diesel, electricity and water prices will also increase.
King Salman said the budget came "in light of the decrease in oil prices, the economic and regional and international financial challenges - where global economic growth has declined from its previous level - and the lack of stability in some of the neighbouring states."
Oil revenue
Oil prices have plunged from a five-year high of $125 a barrel in March 2012 to just $37.18 now.
Saudi Arabia said that oil revenues, which make up 77% of the total revenue figure for 2015, are down 23% compared to last year.
It is the largest member of the Opec oil-producing cartel and has refused to cut output in order to raise prices in an attempt to put other producers - mainly US shale oil companies - out of business.
Saudi thinks it can withstand low oil prices for longer than US producers, many of which are small, heavily-indebted firms.
Spending on military and security projects reached 20bn riyals in 2015, Saudi Arabia said, following its intervention in Yemen as well as action against militant group Islamic State.
The majority of the increase in overall spending was on salaries to civil and military Saudi employees.Denis Smirnov was on his way to Penn State last Saturday for summer classes when he got the call that would change the course of his career.
At first, he didn’t believe the news that he had been drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the sixth round of the NHL Draft.
After all, it didn't come from general manager and Hall-of-Famer Joe Sakic, or another member of Colorado’s front office.
“One of my best friends from Russia called me and FaceTimed (me),” Smirnov told NHL.com on June 26. “He told me I got drafted, I thought he was kidding at first because he could do that. But I found out it was a real thing.”
Instead of returning to Hockey Valley, the rising sophomore winger made the 1,588-mile trip to Denver for development camp.
Even after leading all freshmen with 47 points last season, Smirnov said he wasn’t sure what his chances were of getting drafted.
Though he's a shifty skater, at 5-foot-8, Smirnov's size likely scared away many teams.
Only a select few players that size have made it to the big leagues and have had success doing so.
Two-time Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup champion Connor Sheary is also 5-foot-8. And despite his prowess at the NHL level, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst alum went undrafted.
“Obviously the previous two years I didn’t get drafted so you never know,” he said.
Last season, head coach Guy Gadowsky said he was shocked that Smirnov had went undrafted during his first two years of eligibility.
“I think he’s answering all the questions that NHL teams might have had,” Gadowsky said in December. “I think all of us coaches would have a lot more time in the day if Denis wasn’t on our team right now because we answer the phone all day long about him, so I think a lot of NHL teams are taking notice if they haven’t already.”
Smirnov has at least one tie to the Avalanche organization — back in Moscow, Russia, he grew up with the son of former NHLer Andrei Nikolishin, who played with the franchise for one season in the 2003-2004 season.
Smirnov, along with incoming freshmen forward Evan Barratt (Chicago Blackhawks) and defensemen Cole Hults (Los Angeles Kings) will join fellow forwards Nikita Pavlychev and Brett Murray as the NHL draftees on Penn State’s 2017-18 roster.US announces plan to ration health care under Medicare
By Kate Randall
28 January 2015
The Obama administration has announced a major shift in the way Medicare will pay hospitals and doctors. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced the initiative Monday following a closed-door meeting with representatives of the insurance industry, large employers and doctors’ professional organizations.
The shift moves the health care counterrevolution embodied in the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into high gear. Over the next three years, payments to hospitals and doctors for a large percentage of health care provided under Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for the elderly, will be shifted from the traditional “fee-for-service” model to alternative methods in which health care providers are rewarded for cutting costs and rationing care.
The radical revamping of Medicare will slash costs borne by the government, insurance firms and hospital chains by denying Medicare patients what is presently considered to be normal access to medical procedures, drugs and hospital care. The realignment of Medicare more directly with the profit dictates of the market will become the model for the American health care system as a whole.
Burwell told the media following the meeting, “Today’s announcement is about improving the quality of care we receive when we are sick, while at the same time spending our health care dollars more wisely.” The official line about improving the quality of health care, repeated by Burwell, is a cynical lie.
Medicare provides health insurance for 50 million elderly and disabled Americans at an estimated government cost of $600 billion a year. It is the largest single buyer of health care services in the US. It has for decades been a prime target of corporate interests and politicians seeking to roll back the social reforms of the 1930s and 1960s, who have always encountered massive popular opposition.
The program, notwithstanding the limitations, distortions and cutbacks inevitable within the framework of for-profit medicine, has played a major role in reducing the poverty rate of retirees in the US and extending life expectancy. It has taken a Democratic president, overseeing a conspiracy of the corporations and the state against the people disguised as a “progressive reform,” to initiate in earnest the drive to gut Medicare. The calculated aim is to throw millions of retirees into poverty and slash medical costs by shortening their life spans.
According to the time-table announced Monday, by next year Medicare will make 30 percent of its direct payments to doctors, hospitals and other providers in accordance with “alternative payment models.” Half of Medicare’s direct payments to providers are to be made in line with such models by 2018.
These new models build on experiments begun under the ACA, particularly through the use of so-called “accountable care organizations,” or ACOs. Providers will be given a lump-sum payment for treating a patient throughout a specific episode of care, such as knee replacement surgery, instead of being reimbursed for the individual medical components of that care.
HHS has also set a goal of tying 85 percent of all payments under traditional Medicare to measures of “quality” or “value” by the end of 2016, when Obama leaves office, rising to 90 percent by the end of 2018. How will this operate in practice? Hospitals with high rates of patients readmitted within a month of being sent home will face financial penalties, while those spending less on supposedly unnecessary treatments and tests will be rewarded.
HHS is creating an agency with the Orwellian title “Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network” to enforce these changes. This panel presumably will be tasked with targeting “frivolous” procedures and screenings for elimination in the interest of restoring “value” to the health care system.
HHS Secretary Burwell is ideally suited for leading this attack on Medicare. She is a veteran of the Clinton administration and the Treasury Department. She served as an aid to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, as president of the Walmart Foundation, and as a member of the Metlife insurance company board.
Serving under Obama as budget director from 2013 to 2014, when social spending was slashed by tens of billions, she was tapped by the president to succeed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last June following the disastrous roll-out of Obamacare’s HealthCare.gov web site. Obama praised her at the time as a “proven manager,” who, as budget director, had overseen a more than $400 billion decline in the federal deficit. She was confirmed as HHS secretary with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Under Obamacare’s individual mandate, individuals and families without insurance through their employers or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid are required to purchase coverage from private insurers on the ACA’s health care exchanges or face a tax penalty.
The Obamacare ACOs are modeled on those already in existence in the private sector. These are growing in popularity among large employers. Justine Handelman, vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which represents insurance companies, told Bloomberg, “Medicare is aligning with what is already working in the private sector to move away from fee-for-service. The private sector is further ahead than Medicare right now.”
Burwell has stated that phasing out fee-for-service payments will be a major priority of her tenure as HHS secretary. In addition to expanding ACO’s to Medicare, administration officials said Monday they plan to increase coordination of similar programs with state governments that insure millions of their poorest residents through the Medicaid program.
Seated next to Burwell at Monday’s meeting was Karen Ignagni, chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry’s main lobby group. “Health plans have been in the forefront of implementing payment reforms in Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Managed Care, and in the commercial marketplace,” Ignagni said in a statement. “We are excited to bring these experiences and innovations to this new collaboration.”
This glowing tribute from the CEO of AHIP is further confirmation of the thoroughly right-wing character of Obamacare, which has nothing in common with a true reform of the health care system in the interest of providing universal, quality care. From its inception some five years ago, Obamacare has been aimed at enriching the insurance industry and health industry at the expense of vitally needed health care services for the vast majority of Americans.
It has been designed from top to bottom in the closest consultation with corporate lobbyists and lawyers, with no input from working people.
The sacrifices now being demanded of Medicare recipients in the interest of “quality” and “value” will translate into the withholding of medical treatments and procedures that will undoubtedly result in suffering and untimely deaths for American seniors.
The gutting of Medicare is one prong of an assault on health care that affects the entire working class and considerable sections of the middle class. A second major area of attack under Obamacare is the dismantling of employer-provided health care for active workers and retirees, the system that for nearly 70 years secured health coverage for most US workers.
Obamacare is designed to encourage employers to ditch their health insurance programs and force their workers onto the ACA’s health care exchanges. There, workers are forced, as individuals, to deal with gigantic insurance companies that offer high-priced plans providing sub-standard benefits.
The rich and the super-rich will, of course, continue to receive the best care money can buy.
Opponents of the predominantly fee-for-service system in Medicare bemoan the fact that the $2.9 trillion-a-year US health care system does not result in a healthier population than in those countries that spend far less per capita. It goes unmentioned that the obscene profit-gouging of private insurers, drug companies and hospital groups are responsible for this state of affairs.
The only solution to the health care crisis lies in taking the profit out of medicine, putting an end to privately owned health care corporations, and guaranteeing free, high-quality health care for all through the establishment of a democratically run, publicly owned socialized health care system.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (; 22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent films, where he was one of the best-paid stars of Ufa, he and his new Jewish wife Ilona Prager were forced to leave Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. They settled in Britain, where he participated in a number of films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which led to him having the role of Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942).
Early life [ edit ]
Veidt was born in a bourgeois district of Berlin, in what was then the German Empire, to Amalie Marie (née Gohtz) and Phillip Heinrich Veidt.[1] (Some biographies wrongly state that he was born in Potsdam, probably on the basis of an early claim on his part.) His family was Lutheran.[1]
In 1914, Veidt met actress Lucie Mannheim, with whom he began a relationship. Later in the year Veidt was conscripted into the German Army during World War I. In 1915, he was sent to the Eastern Front as a non-commissioned officer and took part in the Battle of Warsaw. He contracted jaundice and pneumonia, and had to be evacuated to a hospital on the Baltic Sea. While recuperating, he received a letter from Mannheim telling him that she had found work at a theatre in Libau. Intrigued, Veidt applied for the theatre as well. As his condition had not improved, the army allowed him to join the theatre so that he could entertain the troops. While performing at the theatre, he ended his relationship with Mannheim. In late 1916, he was re-examined by the Army and deemed unfit for service; he was given a full discharge in January 1917. Veidt returned to Berlin to pursue his acting career.[2][3][4]
Career [ edit ]
Veidt, ca. 1920
From 1916 until his death, Veidt appeared in more than 100 films. One of his earliest performances was as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a classic of German Expressionist cinema, with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. His starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), as a disfigured circus performer whose face is cut into a permanent grin, provided the (visual) inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker, created in 1940 by Bill Finger. Veidt also starred in other silent horror films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924), another film directed by Robert Wiene, The Student of Prague (1926) and Waxworks (1924) in which he played Ivan the Terrible.
Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919), one of the earliest films to sympathetically portray homosexuality, although the characters in it do not end up happily.[5] He had a leading role in Germany's first talking picture, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women, 1929).
He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a few films, but the advent of talking pictures and his difficulty with speaking English led him to return to Germany.[6] During this period, he lent his expertise to tutoring aspiring performers, one of whom was the later American character actress Lisa Golm.
Emigration [ edit ]
Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime and donated a major portion of his personal fortune to Britain to assist in the war effort. Soon after the Nazi Party took power in Germany, by March 1933, Joseph Goebbels was purging the film industry of anti-Nazi sympathizers and Jews, and so in 1933, a week after Veidt's marriage to Ilona Prager, a Jewish woman, the couple emigrated to Britain before any action could be taken against either of them.
Goebbels had imposed a "racial questionnaire" in which everyone employed in the German film industry had to declare their "race" to continue to work. When Veidt was filling in the questionnaire, he answered the question about what his Rasse (race) was by writing that he was a Jude (Jew).[7] Veidt was not Jewish, but his wife was Jewish, and Veidt would not renounce the woman he loved.[7] Additionally, Veidt, who was opposed to anti-Semitism, wanted to show solidarity with the German Jewish community, who were rapidly being stripped of their rights as German citizens in the spring of 1933. As one of Germany's most popular actors, Veidt had already been informed that if he was prepared to divorce his wife and declare his support for the new regime, he could continue to act in Germany. Several other leading actors who had been opposed to the Nazis before 1933 switched allegiances. In answering the questionnaire by stating he was a Jew, Veidt rendered himself unemployable in Germany, but stated this sacrifice was worth it as there was nothing in the world that would compel him to break with his wife.[7] Upon hearing about what Veidt had done, Goebbels remarked that he would never act in Germany again.
After arriving in Britain, he perfected his English and starred in the title role of the original anti-Nazi version of Lion Feuchtwanger's novel, Jew Süss (1934) directed by German-born US director Lothar Mendes and produced by Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British. He became a British citizen by 1938. By this point multi-lingual, Veidt made films in both French with expatriate French directors and in English, including three of his best-known roles for British director Michael Powell in The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940).
Later career in the US [ edit ]
By 1941, he and Ilona had moved to Hollywood to assist in the British effort in making American films that might persuade the then-neutral and still isolationist US to join the war against the Nazis, who had conquered all of continental Europe and were bombing the United Kingdom at the time. Before leaving the United Kingdom, Veidt gave his life savings to the British government to help finance the war effort.[5] Realizing that Hollywood would most likely typecast him in Nazi roles, he had his contract mandate that they must always be villains.[5]
He starred in a few films, such as George Cukor's A Woman's Face (1941) where he received billing just under Joan Crawford's and Nazi Agent (1942), in which he had a dual role as both an aristocratic German Nazi spy and as the man's twin brother, an anti-Nazi American. His best-known Hollywood role was as the sinister Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (1942), a film which was written and began pre-production before the United States entered World War II.
Personal life [ edit ]
Conrad Veidt married three times: he first married Augusta Holl, a cabaret entertainer known as "Gussy", on 18 June 1918. They divorced four years later. Gussy later married German actor Emil Jannings. Veidt's second wife Felicitas Radke was from an aristocratic German family; they married in 1923. Their daughter, Vera Viola Maria, called Viola, was born on 10 August 1925. He last married Ilona Prager, a Hungarian Jew called Lily, in 1933; they were together until his death.[citation needed]
Death [ edit ]
Conrad Veidt died on 3 April 1943 of a massive heart attack while playing golf at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles with singer Arthur Fields and his personal physician, Dr. Bergman, who pronounced him dead on the scene.[5][8] Veidt was 50 years old. In 1998, his ashes were placed in a niche of the columbarium at the Golders Green Crematorium in north London.[9] [10]
Complete filmography [ edit ]How well do you understand climate change? A new Yale University survey finds that 63% of U.S. adults believe global warming is occurring, but many |
another email, another White House press officer wrote: "We've demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude Fox News from significant interviews …"
Proof of an anti-Fox agenda in the Oval Office? Judicial Watch thinks so.
"These documents show there is a pervasive anti-Fox bias in the Obama White House," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton in a statement. "The juvenile Mafioso-talk in these emails has no place in any White House. For the Obama administration to purposely exclude a major news organization from access to information has troubling First Amendment implications."
But current White House press secretary Jay Carney pushed back on the revelation during a briefing Thursday.
"It is well known that at the time there was a dispute between Fox News and its coverage and the White House and its feelings about the coverage," he said, according to CBS News. "I mean, that was then, and we obviously deal with Fox News regularly.... We regularly engage with every network and every news organization here, including Fox, and give interviews to Fox, and respect the reporters at Fox who are reporters and do their job."Search Gallery Kuroshitsuji Book of Circus Icon Folder Ver.3 DaianaFrasson 1 Kuroshitsuji Book of Circus Icon Folder Ver.2 DaianaFrasson 1 Advertisement Advertisement Kuroshitsuji Book of Circus icon folder DaianaFrasson 1 Lemon Icon Folder Version 2 - More Hot DaianaFrasson 0 Lemon Icon Folder Version 1 DaianaFrasson 2 Yaoi Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 10 General ShounenAi Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 8 Sekaiichi Hatsukoi Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai V2 DaianaFrasson 2 Sekaiichi Hatsukoi Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai Icon DaianaFrasson 0 Sekaiichi Season 2 Onodera Takano V2 Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 5 Sekaiichi Season 2 Onodera Takano Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 7 Sekaiichi Season 2 Kisa Yukina Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 1 Sekaiichi Season 2 Hatori Yoshino Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 2 Sekaiichi Season1 Onodera Takano V2 Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 4 Sekaiichi Season 1 Onodera Takano Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 5 Sekaiichi Season 1 Kisa Yukina V2 Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 4 Sekaiichi Season 1 Kisa Yukina Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 3 Sekaiichi Season1 Hatori Yoshino Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 1 Junjou Season 3 Romantica Version 2 Icon folder DaianaFrasson 4 Junjou Season 3 Romantica Version Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 2 Junjou Season 3 Terrorist Version 2 Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 0 Junjou Season 3 Terrorist Version Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 3 Junjou Season 3 Egoist Version Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 3 Junjou Season 2 Terrorist Version 2 Icon Folder DaianaFrasson 1LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A statue of Christopher Columbus was covered up Monday just as the first Indigenous Peoples Day in Los Angeles got underway.
That statue is located in downtown Los Angeles’ Grand Park, in front of an entrance to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse off Hill Street. A white cover was placed over the sculpture of Christopher Columbus and the block it stands on, and a chain-link fence erected around it.
City officials did not say they were going to cover up the statue, but Christopher Columbus monuments in other cities like New York have been defaced.
The cover was removed later Monday morning, but the chain-link fence remained.
The Los Angeles City Council voted in August to rename Columbus Day – a federal holiday for more than 80 years – to Indigenous Peoples Day, but it has until 2019 to officially create the new holiday while it drafts and creates a new ordinance.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week to eliminate all references to Columbus Day as a county holiday, designating Oct. 12 as Italian American Heritage Day and creating a new Indigenous Peoples Day.
Indigenous Peoples Day will fall on the second Monday of October in Los Angeles County, beginning no later than 2019.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell will celebrate the new holiday with students at the Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts and at an event at UCLA’s Fowler Museum.
The event in Los Feliz is not open to the public. The event at UCLA — which is open to the public and scheduled to begin at 5 p.m — is where O’Farrell plans to present official certificates of appreciation to members of the L.A. City-County Native American Commission.
O’Farrell, who is a member of the Wyandotte Native American Tribe, led the drive on the City Council to replace Columbus Day and successfully argued that the explorer’s connection to brutality and slavery makes him unworthy of celebration.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)Department of Justice antitrust investigators may just as well start leasing space at Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters. The Wall Street Journal reports that the search giant is pondering a bid for Yahoo, reaching out to a pair of private equity firms about assisting with financing.
Google obviously doesn't need help in search, but Yahoo has put itself up for sale and the company brings some things to the table that Google would find useful. First and foremost is an audience of around 700 million unique visitors every month that could theoretically become users of Google+ and other services. The Journal's usual "people familiar with the matter" also say that Google would love to extend its advertising reach across Yahoo.
If the report is accurate, there is one massive hurdle facing any attempt by Google to buy Yahoo—antitrust. Back in 2008, the two 'Net titans inked an ad-test pact. Three percent of Yahoo searches would have been given Google results, with the possibility of that percentage increasing, depending on performance. Of course, not only did the percentage not increase, but the deal never went down. The US Department of Justice quickly began investigating the transaction, as did EU regulators. Those antitrust concerns ultimately scuttled the deal, and it's not clear why Google believes the outcome would be any different this time around. Google's share of both the search and online advertising market have done nothing but grow since the last time it dallied with Yahoo, so the antitrust scrutiny would be even greater.
There may be method to Google's madness, however. Reports emerged a couple of weeks ago that Microsoft was contemplating another bid for Yahoo, and Google may be trying to get Microsoft into a bidding war. Remember: Redmond famously made a massive bid for Yahoo in early 2008, one that Yahoo wasn't terribly interested in. Microsoft spent a few months trying to convince Yahoo's leadership that an acquisition was in the company's best interests, but eventually gave up, a decision Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes was the right one in retrospect. The two companies did a search partnership that made Bing the default search engine for Yahoo.
We don't think a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo makes sense in the current market. Although Yahoo's margins are up, sales are shrinking, its core business is ailing, and much of its talent has left. There's not a lot of value there for Microsoft. And although Google would love to get Yahoo's 700 million visitors using Google services, it's difficult to imagine antitrust regulators approving an acquisition.We’re a week into 2017, but after much deliberating, I finally narrowed down the list of my favorite shows to my 25 favorite concerts of 2016 for this Best of Music 2016 feature. Including music festivals, I saw 166 shows in 2016, so it took quite a bit of thought to come up with a Top 25.
What I love about local promotional juggernaut Goldenvoice is that for their two biggest festivals (Coachella and FYF Fest), they put together sideshows so people that can’t afford a high-priced festival ticket can still have a chance to see the acts they want to see. Father John Misty wasn’t initially part of the FYF After Dark schedule, but his intimate gig at the El Rey was added just a few days before it took place. Thanks to a friend in a high place I was able to snag a ticket and I got to see Josh Tillman do his thing in front of a packed house. It was a fun show, and seeing his latest song “Real Love Baby” performed live for the first time was a real treat.
One of my favorite discoveries of 2016 was Oakland lo-fi act Day Wave. I caught him as the first set of Shaky Knees in Atlanta this year and came away really impressed. After another early-day set at Treasure Island, I finally got to see his own headlining gig at the intimate Troubadour space. His two EPs Headcase and Hard to Read were tremendous from top to bottom and he played all the songs from those two, plus a few new songs and a killer cover of New Order’s “Ceremony.” I think he has a ton of potential and he’s got a similar vibe to Canadian lo-fi power pop act Alvvays, who have really taken off the last few years. This show convinced me to see him anytime he’s playing a town near me. FULL REVIEW
I saw Savages nearly a half-dozen times this year thanks to their frequent placement on festival bills in 2016. They didn’t really fit at Coachella so much, but still delivered a memorable set. At Shaky Knees and Sasquatch! however, they connected with the crowd in ways that gave me goosebumps. It was seeing them at their own Localchella gig, however, that I really finally experienced their magic up close. Lead singer Jehnny Beth is one of the best frontwomen in all of music — a certified bad ass who has this aura about her. You feel like she’s looking into your soul when she’s delivering her powerful words. The rest of the band are somehow able to match that intensity and they might be the most talented live rock group still playing the theater circuit. Watching Beth climb into the crowd onto the hands of people to crowd surf was one of the most intense moments of live music for me. FULL REVIEW
22. The Roots, The Internet and special guests at The Novo, June 25
The Roots have never failed in delivering a high-energy show whenever I’ve seen them. This gig was one of the first I saw after slipping into a reprieve from live music following a six festivals in six weeks marathon from May to June. Taking place during the BET Experience week, their show was chock full of special guests. T.I. came out and performed “Whatever You Like,” Syd tha Kyd and her group The Internet came out, and even cooler — Chicago hip-hop legend Common graced the stage, which included a performance of “The Light” — the song that first made me a fan. The Roots are so versatile and so fun that my expectations were so high and yet I knew they’d be met. This show also featured a brief but killer set from The Internet.
Performing his latest album Everything in its entirety, there are few electronic producers as gifted as this Norwegian. As part of the always epic Red Bull #30DaysInLA concert series, you knew he was going to bring his A-game. The show came just a few days after the terrible results of the presidential election that sent shockwaves across our country, and Lido took some time before jumping into his set to acknowledge it. “If you want to meditate, if you want to jump around, if you want to cry, I don’t care – it’s our place tonight,” Lido said before getting down to brass tacks. Watching him jump from piano to drums to rapping and singing, it was an impressive showcase of all of his many skills. Jaden Smith even showed up for their song “Only One” together. The visuals of the show were impeccable, no doubt helped by the beautiful space that the Theatre at the Ace is. FULL REVIEW
I’m all about seeing my favorite bands in tiny spaces. The Welsh rockers had two nights at the cozy Roxy just a few days after the release of their album Hitch. They started things off on a high, performing “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade,” the familiar ringing of the beep-boop-boop sound igniting the crowd from the get-go. The band was clearly enjoying themselves on stage, engaging in cheeky banter between themselves and the crowd. Vocalist Rhiannon Bryan has a similar sound to that of The Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, with Bryan’s voice as powerful as the heavy guitar riffs of her guitarist Rhydian Dafydd. An acoustic performance of “The Brook” took place in the actual crowd, something you don’t see every day. During the tail end of the show, I watched a girl make out with a guy that was a complete stranger — as in, they hadn’t interacted in any single way before it happened. It was one of the most surprising things I saw at a show all year. FULL REVIEW
19. Nas and Wild Belle at Annenberg Space for Photography, July 23
Free shows are always a welcome thing in LA, even better when you get to see a iconic rapper and an up-and-coming act on the same bill. The KCRW Sound in Focus series that happens in the summer is probably the best free-with-RSVP series that takes place every year in LA. This year, they brought out the big guns with a rare Los Angeles gig from Nas, coupled with an opening set from psych pop act Wild Belle. I wasn’t too familiar with the latter but was really impressed by their show — one of my favorite discoveries at a gig in 2016. Nas brought the heat during his set, which I took in from the middle of the crowd on a beautiful night weather-wise. Few things are as uplifting as seeing “The World Is Yours” performed live.
British rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen are on their way to becoming stadium rockers, with a sound that is The Killers meets Kings of Leon meets The Strokes. It made seeing them in the tiny confines of the Masonic Lodge on the grounds of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was an especially special treat. It was one of a limited run of shows that took place in small venues in the States before their second full-length record The Ride dropped later in the month. The crowd got a preview of the record via a handful of songs played, and it was amazing to see how a large portion of the crowd already knew every word. They are one of the biggest sing-along rock acts currently out there, and you could tell vocalist Van McCann and his band could barely contain their excitement at what they were seeing from the crowd all night. One of the highlights of 2016 was seeing McCann transition the breakdown of “Cocoon” into a snippet of Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.” These guys are going to be mega stars and I have a feeling I’ll be telling people about this show for years to come.
As is the case with a lot of these gigs that made the list, this was an opportunity to see a fan-favorite in a venue much smaller than they can sell. Hell, only a few years ago, Portugal. The Man was playing a co-headline show with GROUPLOVE at the Greek Theatre. They wanted to give fans a chance to see them in a smaller space, and the energy of the crowd was one of the highest I witnessed all year. Every song is an anthem, and their music really connects to their mostly-young core fans. One of my favorite things about seeing them live is how they medley songs together, and they closed their set with a transition of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” into their own song “Purple Yellow Red and Blue,” as well as an earlier medley of “Evil Friends” into the song “Day Man” from the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Their two-song encore of “Atomic Man” and “Modern Jesus” ended things on a high note, while earlier they also previewed their new song “Noise Pollution.” FULL REVIEW
The last few years, G-Eazy has made a habit of delivering incredible shows during GRAMMY Week in Los Angeles. 2016 was the year he officially crossed over into the mainstream for good on the shoulders of the inescapable radio hit “Me, Myself & I.” Clearly he was going to make the most of his two shows at The Shrine, which was a major step up in venue size from The Wiltern the previous year. His stage production was stepped up tremendously, and so were his surprise guest appearances. During his sold-out lengthy show, he brought out the likes of Diddy, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, YG, A$AP Ferg, Ty Dolla $ign, Marc E. Bassy, and of course, Bebe Rexha. It was one of the highest energy rap sets all year and proof that he isn’t some gimmick. FULL REVIEW
I attended Governors Ball for the first time in 2016, and the third day was cancelled due to issues that stemmed from a crazy amount of rain the day before. Artists that were set to perform on the final day of the festival scrambled to set up shows around town, and indie darling Courtney Barnett was one of them. Her show ended up being booked in the hipster haven of Williamsburg at Rough Trade Records. After a little finagling, I got myself on the list for the show. It was an intriguing performance. As I watched, I got the feeling I was watching with a lot of long-time fans that were almost afraid of losing Barnett to the mainstream masses as her profile had grown considerably off the success of her record Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Barnett seemed to cater to the crowd, playing some more obscure songs from her latest record like “Scotty Says” and “Kim’s Caravan” to go with her hits like “Pedestrian at Best” and “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party,” my personal favorite. Her encore included her playing snippets of cover songs, which included a singalong of Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me” — what better way for the grungy Barnett to close her touring of the U.S. in 2016? It was especially great because it was my 10th time seeing Barnett live. FULL REVIEW
Australian producer Flume had one of the biggest 2016s of anyone. I had only seen him at festivals, and his four-night sold-out run at The Shrine was proof of it. I didn’t buy tickets to this one but won them from FYF Fest by entering a contest. I e-mailed them a picture of me and a picture of Flume side-by-side, telling them that my roommates think I look like his doppelganger. His show was exuberant, and his production built upon what he had brought to Coachella earlier in the year. The theatrics of his show were top-notch. I made some quick friends around me and enjoyed jamming to “On Top,” “Say It” and his remix of Lorde’s “Tennis Court” the most. FULL REVIEW
Gary Clark Jr. is my favorite active guitarist now that John Frusciante has slipped into obscurity. Seeing him headline the Greek — one of my favorite venues in LA — he’s got the kind of sound that’s worthy of the beautiful outdoor space. He wasted no time, kicking off his set with favorite “Bright Lights.” Watching him deliver crushing solo after crushing solo, I had trouble locating my face at the end of the night because it had melted all of the way off. Shakey Graves as an opening act is a true steal as well.
It’s not often you go to a show and see people crying due to the power of the music being performed. I was in the front row for this killer triple bill, and headliner Julien Baker had many around me bawling their eyes out with her affecting set. I first caught a glimpse of her live at SXSW in a church — perhaps the perfect way to see her show — but was blown away even moreso by how she had the El Rey in stunned silence. Baker was very moved by the crowd’s appreciation of her music, many of whom sang along with the heartwrenching lyrics. Phoebe Bridgers and Julia Jacklin served as perfect complements to Baker as opening acts with similar vibes. It was a show that reminded you what live music is capable of making you feel when it’s at its best. FULL REVIEW
In between Coachella dates, The Kills took to the tiny stage of Apogee Studios in Santa Monica for a memorable KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic performance. I was still recovering from weekend 1 in the desert, and with another weekend at the Polo Grounds in my sights, the smart move would have been to stay home during the week. But when a band like The Kills plays a 150-cap invite-only show and you get that RSVP e-mail, you don’t sit on your ass. Seeing Alison Mosshart that up close was an awesome opportunity I would have been stupid to pass up. The duo of Mosshart and Jamie Hince also did an interview segment with Jason Bentley that was intriguing, giving insight into what went into recording 2016’s Ash & Ice — one of my 25 Favorite Albums of 2016. The album was still a month from being released, and they shared five songs from the record that were all pretty spectacular. FULL REVIEW
While January can often be a ghost town when it comes to LA’s concert schedule, it also means random pop-up sets from the industry’s heavy hitters. This was a show that was part of Bardot’s free-with-RSVP series School Night, and for over a month they teased a surprise headliner. That ended up being alt-R&B favorite Miguel, who a week later would host some sort of art-motel. Though his set was brief, he kicked things off with a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in memory of the late singer, before transitioning it into his own hit “waves.” The Bowie cover was one of those you-had-to-be-there moments that you can take for granted in LA because they happen more than anywhere else. I was very impressed by his interpretation of Bowie considering they’re from different genres — it was a moving tribute to a singer everybody was still grieving over the loss of. Rising act HAELOS (who had one of 2016’s best albums) served as a nice appetizer as well. Chance the Rapper and actress Chloe Grace Moretz took in the show from the front. FULL REVIEW
I saw HAIM three times in four weeks on my music festival trip this spring/summer, but seeing them headline their own show from right near the front was special. This was part of Red Bull’s #30DaysInLA and was probably the most sought-after show, selling out in minutes. They only ended up playing 10 songs, but it was clear they relished playing in front of a hometown crowd — with Este mentioning how she remembered all the shows they used to see at the venue, including a Rilo Kiley show where she realized Jenny Lewis is a goddess (she is). Their cover of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” was excellent, and the two new songs they’ve been playing, particularly “Nothing’s Wrong,” sounded fantastic. With a new album finally coming in 2017, it was a nice chance to see them before the setlist gets an overhaul. FULL REVIEW
The Hollywood Cemetery grounds is one of the best places you can take in a show in LA. Getting to see CHVRCHES and Best Coast there was a rare treat, and CHVRCHES’ show in particular lent itself to the venue. It was my 10th time seeing CHVRCHES overall, and seventh in 2016 alone, and it was the best of the bunch. Their production has really stepped up a notch touring behind their second full-length album Every Open Eye — and Lauren Mayberry has grown as a performer with every show. It can be difficult for a synthpop band’s sound to match their growing venues, but CHVRCHES is a well-traveled festival act that has tuned their sound to large outdoor venues. By the time they played the cemetery, they’d hit the festival circuit hard in 2016 and were on point. Their 18-song marathon set was one of the best top-to-bottom I saw in 2016. FULL REVIEW
This frenetic female four-piece is one of my favorite live acts around. With their third full-length album Heads Up in tow, and having just witnessed their first show since the release at Music Tastes Good in Long Beach — I had very high expectations from the LA act. What I love most about the band is how they transform songs from how they appear on their records to how they sound live. I’m sure the way song of the songs from their new record will sound different when they hit the festival circuit hard in 2017, so having this reference point so early in the album’s life was awesome. They played all my favorites from the new record, “Heads Up,” “Whiteout,” “The Stall,” “New Song” and “So Good” — leaving tons of room for old favorites like “Elephants” and “Love is to Die” as well. This would’ve snuck into my top five if it weren’t for a fight that broke out in the crowd that messed with the vibe a bit. I am praying for sunset sets at all the festivals from them this year — the pairing is just too perfect.
I had never shot photos at a concert in my life, and this blog was barely a few weeks old when Ben Harper performed with the LA Philharmonic at the Bowl. Luckily I had a great relationship with the PR person handling the show, who passed along this long-form piece I wrote on Harper’s iconic Live at the Hollywood Bowl show from 2003 to Ben’s team, who liked it enough to add me to their list. It was an awesome opportunity to get another perspective on a live show, shooting the first few songs from the soundboard before grabbing a seat for the rest. Seeing Ben with the LA Phil was also a special treat. The inclusion of the orchestra setup took some of Ben’s best songs to even greater heights. Favorites of mine like “Amen Omen” and “When She Believes” sounded transcendent. I’ve had a ton of Ben Harper related moments that I’ll hold dear, and this one will be hard to top as well. FULL REVIEW
Few had as meteoric of a rise in 2016 as SoCal kid Anderson Paak. From his second album Malibu dropping in January to Coachella appearances that featured drop-ins from Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, T.I. and Gary Clark Jr. — Paak made fans everywhere he went. What better way to close out his banner year than with a sold-out show at the Palladium, which was a major step-up in terms of size of any show he’d previously played near his home base. Paak didn’t want to trot out the same show he did months earlier at the Theatre at the Ace (which was also epic). He brought a new stage setup that featured a motel front — complete with a guy that sat on the top level reading a newspaper during the nearly two-hour set. Paak took a risk in kicking things off with his mega hit “Come Down,” which featured a drop-in from T.I. again. Later in the night, he brought out Busta Rhymes, which had the two performing the old classic “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” and later, Stevie Wonder stopping in to say hello. Paak is one of hip-hop and soul’s brightest young talents and seeing him bring everything full circle was pretty incredible. The energy of the show was as good as any I saw all year.
Chance the Rapper had a massive 2016. It culminated in his Magnificent Coloring World Tour in support of his GRAMMY nominated mixtape. What a weird but awesome show it was. He’s got one of the best live bands in hip-hop, and brought some weird puppets onto stage with him. The crowd was hyped right from the start, and one highlight was the live debut of my favorite track from his latest release, “Same Drugs” — which featured one of the puppets sitting near him on the piano as he played. He’s got so many epic features on other people’s tracks, like Action Bronson’s “Baby Blue” and Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam” and it was great to see him give such a big platform to tourmate Francis and the Lights — who he brought out to do Francis’ song “Friends” at the end. Francis’ own set was fun as he played his album Farewell, Starlite! front to back. Both Chance and Francis’ records made my 25 Favorite Albums of 2016 list, so it was clearly a special show seeing them both on the same bill.
Before 2016, I had never seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers live — one of my favorite bands of all-time. Somehow, I came upon the link to tickets to this Feel the Bern benefit a few minutes before everybody else and was able to snag eight tickets for $40 a pop. Instead of re-selling them at massive profits and accruing bad ticket karma, I sold them to my roommates and various friends at face value. This included two people who drove down from the Bay Area. We had a massive crew out for the show and it was an awesome hour-long set that featured songs from eight different albums as well as a cover of David Bowie’s “Cracked Actor.” It was well worth the constant badgering my e-mail inbox would receive from Bernie Sanders for the next several months to see the band in such a small venue, and their first show of 2016. I can’t wait until the Bonnaroo headline set that is sure to come this year.
There’s no question that I am one of Jenny Lewis’ biggest fans. I’ve seen her perform in some capacity almost two dozen times. When she announced a 10th anniversary tour in support of her first solo record Rabbit Fur Coat, it quickly became circled on my calendar as something I had to see. The show couldn’t have found a better venue to host it — the church in Koreatown I once saw Damien Rice perform. There was a gallery of photos taken of Lewis around the time of the album and a playbill that made the event feel extra special. M. Ward opened up the show and would later lend his guitar to some of the songs from the album. Jenny and The Watson Twins played the record front-to-back, and songs that once weren’t my favorites attained special meaning under the stained glass. Take “Born Secular” for instance — I never fully digested the song as someone without a faith, but in that venue I felt much differently. Lewis and Co. followed the album up with a set break before performing songs from her back catalog, including a handful of songs she rarely has played like Rilo Kiley favorite “I Never” and Acid Tongue cut “See Fernando.” FULL REVIEW
I won’t pretend I was some sort of LCD Soundsystem superfan before they broke up five years ago. I wasn’t very familiar but had heard incredible things about their live show from people who were hardcore about them. That’s why when a warm-up gig before their two Coachella performances was announced in Pomona at the Fox Theater, I waited outside Amoeba Records in Hollywood from around 7 AM to get two tickets. It was a rare opportunity to see a famed band in a small space. I went with a roommate and a friend and quickly realized why this group was so sorely missed. An overhead shot of the stage graced the screen to show you just how much is happening with this large band. It only took two songs to jump into their hit “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” followed by the sentimental “I Can Change.” They had me hook, line and sinker from that point on. I felt all of the feels when they played “Someone Great,” a feeling that would soon be eclipsed by “Dance Yrself Clean” and the set-closing “All My Friends.” I ended up seeing LCD Soundsystem six times in 2016 thanks to their exposure at festivals, but I’ll always hold this show dearest to my heart. FULL REVIEW
2016, you set the bar high. Let’s see if I can match some of these memories in 2017.NEW ORLEANS (CN) – In a groundbreaking ruling for immigrants who say a Louisiana law denies them the right to marry, a federal judge Tuesday granted a Vietnamese man’s petition to marry his fiancée without first showing his birth certificate.
Act 436, signed into law in July 2015 and in effect since January 2016, “is an unlawful state attempt to usurp federal immigration law,” Viet “Victor” Anh Vo said in his October 2016 lawsuit.
Vo was born in an Indonesian refugee camp after his parents fled Vietnam. He is a U.S. citizen now and has been since childhood, but Act 436 has kept him and his girlfriend, and many other foreign-born citizens, from marrying in Louisiana.
The law places additional burdens on foreign-born applicants and their spouses, making it difficult if not impossible to obtain marriage certificates, Vo said in his complaint.
Though he is a U.S. citizen he has no birth certificate, as he was not issued one in the refugee camp and was not given one upon entering the United States either.
Vo, 32, has lived in Louisiana since he was 3 months old and became a U.S. citizen when he was 8.
In 2016, when Vo and his girlfriend decided to marry, they went to several Louisiana parish clerks and were denied a marriage license in all of them because Vo does not have a valid birth certificate, a valid and unexpired passport, or an unexpired visa: the documents required under Act 436.
Under Act 436, U.S. citizens who were born in the United States and do not have birth certificates may file paperwork exempting them from the birth certificate component of the marriage license, but foreign-born citizens cannot.
U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle, a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled Tuesday that Act 436 is unconstitutionally discriminatory.
“The State of Louisiana fails to demonstrate in their opposition that this classification based on national origin furthers a compelling governmental interest that justifies treating this plaintiff and other similarly situated U.S. citizens differently from U.S. born citizens merely because of where they were born,” Lemelle wrote. “Based on the undisputed facts and controlling case law it is clear that these classifications are unconstitutional.”
Lemelle found the act also violated Vo’s fundamental right to marry.
“The current birth certificate provisions completely bar the plaintiff from obtaining a marriage license,” Lemelle wrote.
The state sought a declaration that Lemelle’s ruling would apply exclusively to Vo.
Lemelle refused.
“It is ordered that defendants and their officers, agents, servants and employees are permanently enjoined and restrained from enforcing Act 436 insofar as it unconstitutionally deprives U.S. citizens like plaintiff and similarly situated U.S. citizens the right to marry based on national origin,” the ruling states.
Former Louisiana Gov. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, who was born in Louisiana to an immigrant Indian-national father, signed Act 436 in July 2015. Before Act 436 took effect, the rules for obtaining a marriage license were less stringent.
To obtain a marriage license before Act 436 in, for instance, Orleans Parish, the application could be filled out by either party wanting to marry, and only one of them needed to be present at the courthouse to show documentation for both parties.
The only documentation required before Act 436 was a valid driver’s license, current state ID or a passport, and a birth certificate or a birth card. If for any reason the parties did not have a birth certificate or a birth card, they could apply to have the requirements waived.
In July 2015, before Act 436 took effect, state Sen. Conrad Appel, a Republican, warned that it would be unnecessarily burdensome, and that it would be a “mistake” to use marriage to regulate immigration, according to a statement released by the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, which filed Vo’s lawsuit.
Vo was represented by the National Immigration Law Center, the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom.
Mary Yanik, an attorney with the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice said in a statement that the “law came from politics of hatred and discrimination, and that’s not what Louisiana stands for.” She continued: “The decision today reflects Louisiana’s proudest legacy, as the birthplace of movements for human and civil rights.”
Skadden Arps attorney Marley Ann Brumme added: “We are thrilled with the court’s decision to permanently extend the protections provided by its earlier ruling. Mr. Vo can finally marry his partner in their home state of Louisiana without the burden of unconstitutional requirements imposed solely because of the place of his birth, and we are happy to have had the opportunity to help Mr. Vo in vindicating his rights and those of other Louisianans similarly situated.”
The ruling comes a half century after Loving v. Virginia, which upheld the rights of people to marry regardless of ethnicity or race.
Like this: Like Loading...Description: Hitlers party members reveal the full details of the Ursula HD and KA3 banner.
Square has finally released 3 dot premiums.
In one EMC banner.
Usula HD
and Key Art 3 too with Epic medals to go with it.
They will be useful in this weeks High Score Challenge.
10 pulls and a guilted
premium medal? Time to spend my jewels.
It doesnt
have
It doesn't have any mercy pull at all.
So no guaranteed premiums.
Those that don't like swearing. Leave now.
Fucking Square!
Those greedy fucking Square Enix fucks!
Thursday night there was joy and happiness all over!
We were becoming more like Japan.
But they are greedy shits!
Even Key Art 3 is 14% in the High Score Challenge!
You need at least 2 Ursulas to guilt
a piece of shit tier 3.
But it ignores the targets attributes.
Who gives a fuck!? I already have WOFF medals!
So then you can save jewels.
But now there are no mercy pulls!
What about iKairi2?
Will I get it anymore
with even 30,000 saved jewels?
And with HSC only having EMC as the booster
will I ever be able to guilt any of these medals
considering how high the scores are now
to even guilt the piece of shit tier 3.
Now the only medals I can get are |
can choose which Add-Ons you want. The survey does the extra math and you will pay for the Add-Ons via credit card.
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$2 One Fear Agent™ Wild Die. See Dice above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply to U.S. backers (International folks get a break!)
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$10 Heath miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
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$10 Male Fear Agent miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$10 Female Fear Agent miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$10 Zerin Raider miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$10 Dressite Soldier miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$15 Tetaldian Invader miniature. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$60 Set of Fear Agent™ miniatures. See Miniatures above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
$10 Savage Worlds Core Rules: One Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition in print + PDF. Can't wait until November to get it? Order it today at www.peginc.com!
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$10 Fear Agent™ RPG Dice Set. See Dice above. Additional shipping and handling charges may apply.
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$30 Fear Agent™ RPG in softcover + PDF.
$20 Fear Agent™ GM Screen with Feeding Time adventure in print + PDFs (2).
$40 Fear Agent™ RPG in Limited Edition hardcover + PDF.
$25 Savage Worlds Action/Adventure Deck: The Action Deck is a custom 54-card poker deck especially for Savage Worlds initiative. Its larger index numbers and clear faces make cross-table reading a breeze, red and black jokers are clearly distinct, and the full-art face cards really put the mood on the table! The Adventure Deck puts a degree of story control in the hands of the players and lots of spice into the action. Add twists like romantic interests, enemies, and larger-than-life opponents at the drop of a hat. This is a bundle of two poker-sized (2.5″ x 3.5″) 54-card, full-color decks for use with Savage Worlds.Liverpool, June 11th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Over 20,000 urban land titles have been granted to citizens in the Eastern city of Guayana since 2002, revealed the President of the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG), Rafael Gil Barrios, last Sunday.
The CVG president made the figures public from a community event in Guayana city, where another 255 land titles were handed over to community based “urban land committees” (CTUs) in the area. Over 600 families will benefit from this latest round of land titles.
“We are grateful that they are granting the first land titles to our community, which is 32 years old and has 1,255 inhabitants. Now social justice is being done because they (the government) have concerned themselves with giving a solution to us, the people” said a CTU spokesperson.
Urban land committees sprang into life in 2002 following a presidential decree which paved the way for citizens to gain the legal deeds to their homes in the country’s shantytowns. Springing up in the 1950s and 1960s on a wave of industrialisation and urbanisation, it is estimated that 50% of Venezuela’s urban population lives in the self-constructed shantytowns on the outskirts of the country’s cities. Despite the vast amounts of the population who live in them, the settlements were technically illegal until the 2002 decree.
According to CTU spokespeople in the area, this latest granting of land titles is the culmination of a 9 year long struggle, with families having occupied the land for several years.
“This is in line with a national policy of justice geared towards housing which is being led by President Chavez. In just 10 years, CVG has handed over 20,800 land titles, benefiting over 105,000 people,” stated the CVG president.
Present at the ceremony were various CVG representatives and the Mayor of Caroni, one of Guyana City’s municipalities. Officials highlighted that the corporation and local government were constantly working alongside the community in order to solve the problem of housing in the area.
“No family should be dealing with third parties who offer to resolve the problem of their land deeds, because we are permanently with communities, attending to the CTUs and the inhabitants of the city,” added Barrios.
The CVG is a state corporation that brings together all of Venezuela’s basic industries located in Bolivar state, including aluminium factory CVG Alcasa and iron ore mining company, CVG Ferrominera. The corporation is crucial to implementing the government’s “Socialist Guyana Plan,” a project aimed at integrating communities and workers and changing capitalist modes of production to socialist ones.As of Tuesday, California law requires drivers to give cyclists 36 inches of elbow room or face citation. But Sacramento area law enforcement officials said they don’t expect the new statute to produce a bout of ticket writing.
Sacramento police and local California Highway Patrol representatives said they plan a case-by-case approach in deciding whether a driver is giving a cyclist a fair path down the street.
“If a driver is not giving due regard, and had the opportunity to give 3 feet, but just brushed by him, that driver can get cited,” CHP North Sacramento spokesman Chad Hertzell said. “But if they are making a good faith effort, they are not going to have any problem from us.”
The base fine for breaking the new law is $35, but that is not the amount a cited driver must pay. Additional fees and court costs make the payment for a violation $238, Sacramento court officials said. If a driver violates the law and it results in a cyclist being injured, the fine will be $982.
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Critics have complained the law could put drivers at risk of getting a ticket if they are unable to determine, on the fly, whether or not they are a full 3 feet away from a moving cyclist. Hertzell of the CHP said officers will be looking for safe and courteous driving when the street is tight, and not necessarily pulling out the yardstick.
“We’re telling people, if you cannot give them 36 inches, you need to slow down to a prudent speed. What is that? There isn’t anything specifically that says it’s 25 miles per hour or 15. We are asking people to use common sense, ‘Can I pass this person safely at less than 3 feet? You have to take into consideration road conditions, your vehicle size, traffic, weather – all those play a role.”
Sacramento city police said Tuesday their priority early on will be making drivers aware of the new law.
“I can see an officer issuing a ticket, but our main objective is to educate the public on increased safety awareness,” police spokesman Justin Brown said. “If we observe a motorist, and see the distance is not correct, we may stop and educate the motorist about the law.”
The law, AB 1371, was authored by Assemblyman Steven Bradford, D-Gardena. The new vehicle code section 21760 states: “A driver of a motor vehicle shall not overtake or pass a bicycle proceeding in the same direction on a highway (street) at a distance of less than three feet between any part of the motor vehicle and any part of the bicycle or its operator.”
If it is impossible to pass a cyclist at 3 or more feet distance, the law says drivers “shall slow to a speed that is reasonable and prudent, and may pass only when doing so would not endanger the safety of the operator of the bicycle.”
California joins 22 other states that already have similar laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Jim Brown, executive director of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, said the law should make drivers more cognizant of sharing the road with cyclists, and allow more people who are interested in cycling to feel confident it is safe enough to give it a try.
“This law reminds drivers that bicyclists need more space to feel safe than you might think,” he said. “Bicyclists encounter things on the road that require lateral movements – debris, broken pavement, car doors.”For many months, if not years, we have been beating the drum on what we believe is the most hushed, but significant story in the metamorphosis of the US labor pool under the New Normal, one which has nothing to with quantity considerations, which can easily be fudged using seasonal and birth death adjustments, and other statistical "smoothing" but with quality of jobs: namely America's transformation to a part-time worker society. Today, one of the very few economists we respect, David Rosenberg, pick up on this theme when he says in his daily letter that "the use of temps is outpacing outright new hirings by a 10-to-1 ratio." And unlike in the old normal, or even as recently as 2011, temp hires are no longer a full-time gateway position: "Moreover, according to a Manpower survey, 30% of temporary staffing this year has led to permanent jobs, down from 45% in 2011.... In today's world, the reliance on temp agencies is akin to "just in time" employment strategies." Everyone's skillset is now a la carte in the form of self-employed mini S-Corps, for reason that Charles Hugh Smith explained perfectly well in "Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can't Hire You." Sadly, that statistic summarizes about everything there is to know about the three years of "recovery" since the recession "ended" some time in 2009.
From Gluskin Sheff
More on that Payroll Report
The more we sift through it, the more we didn't like it. Even with the bump in June hours worked and average weekly earnings, the reality is that the Q2 results for both slowed markedly. The economy has hit stall speed yet again — the third time in the past three years.
On top of that, some other details in the data were disturbing. The ranks of the unemployed rose 29k on top of a 220k surge in May. Those who were unemployed and just completed temporary work soared 218k after a 137k increase in May to stand at the highest level since November 2010 (right when QE2 began!). The total pool of available labour jumped 258k to 19.3 million which means that there is now but one job opening for every six people out there who are either actively or passively looking for work. No wonder wage pressures are fading fast.
There are some pundits who believe that the +25k pickup in temp agency employment is a good sign since in the past this sector acted as a leading indicator for job creation... if only we can bring back those old days. In today's world, the reliance on temp agencies is akin to "just in time" employment strategies — the use of temps is outpacing outright new hirings by a 10-to-1 ratio. The reality is that few businesses want to commit and this shows through in the Household Survey as well with part-time employment in an uptrend and full-time in a downtrend. Moreover, according to a Manpower survey, 30% of temporary staffing this year has led to permanent jobs, down from 45% in 2011.
As this all relates to the upcoming U.S. election, there are some more interesting tidbits to chew on. Looking at the social groupings in the data, we see that since President °barna moved into the White House in January 2009, the unemployment rate for African Americans has climbed to 14.4% from 12.7%, the unemployment rate for Hispanics has risen to 11% from 10%, the unemployment rate for women has risen to 8% from 7%, and the unemployment rate for youth (20 to 24 years old) has jumped from 12.4% to 13.7%. By and large, these were the segments of the popu}ation that helped President Obama win in that historic election in November 2008. The Reaganesque' question that must be posed is: Are these folks better off than they were four years ago?With each passing week the level of homelessness in New York City continues to surge to new record highs. In fact, the number of homeless people checking into NYC shelters each night is up 85% just since 2010 and currently stands at the highest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Ironically, the increase in homelessness experienced during the "great recession" of 08/09 was just a blip on the radar compared to the past five years as residential rental rates in NYC have soared.
As CBS points out, while some on the city council of New York City have called for more government support to curb homelessness, efforts taken by Mayor Bill de Blaso have been largely ineffective so far.
The number of homeless people living in New York City has reached a record-high. “It’s definitely something that we cannot stand for as a city,” NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito said. In an interview with CBS2, Viverito offered a number of suggestions, including the expansion of the “Living In Communities” (LINC) voucher program that provides money to move families out of a shelter and into permanent housing. But, she said there’s a hitch. “I think the challenge that we’ve seen with the current voucher program, subsidy program, the LINC program, is for a very short period of time, there may be some hesitancy by landlords to engage with the city on it,” she said. The week before, former NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who now runs a well-respected homeless program called “WIN,” called for appointing a czar to oversee the creation of permanent housing options. Viverito said there is no need to create a new position. “I think we have to not keep adding layers of bureaucracy here,” she said. “I think we have to look at what we have in place.”
As the Coalition for the Homeless points out, while the number of sheltered individuals in NYC is at it's highest levels since the 1930s, there are 1,000s of "unsheltered" homeless that are also sleeping in public spaces each night making it impossible to tally exactly how many New Yorkers are actually homeless.
In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions. Each night thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces. There is no accurate measurement of New York City’s unsheltered homeless population, and recent City surveys significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers. African-American and Latino New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity.
Meanwhile the number of homeless families has also nearly doubled since 2006...
...and includes over 24,000 children sleeping in shelters each night.
Finally, just illustrate the dire consequences of New York's skyrocketing rents we offer up the following statistics from Mayor Bill De Blasio's Fiscal 2016 "Mayor's Management Report" highlighting a 42% increase in applications for "Emergency Rent Assistance" from New York City families at risk of losing their housing.
If this is what a "recovery" looks like to Obama we would certainly like to better understand how he would define a recession.In 1867, an archaeologist and diplomat named Ephraim George Squier sought out the help of Paul Pierre Broca, the esteemed anatomist and surgeon. He was trying to solve a mystery about an ancient Incan skull that had been given to him by a wealthy artifact collector in Peru. In addition to its age, the Neolithic skull had a unique feature: on the top of the cranium a rectangular piece of bone had been removed. The presence of several cross-cuts surrounding the hole suggested that it was not a simple battle wound, but instead the result of a surgical procedure known as trepanation.
This alone would have made the skull an interesting relic, but what really sparked a scientific controversy about the skull was that many who examined it believed the surgery had been performed some time before the individual's death, as the bone seemed to show evidence of healing after the cuts had been made. While it was conceivable that Neolithic Peruvians could have performed such an operation as part of some after-death ritual, it was hard for many in Squier's time to believe these ancient peoples possessed the surgical acumen necessary to excise part of the skull of a living patient without causing death in the process. After all, the survival rate for surgical trepanation in the 1800s seldom reached 10% in the best hospitals of the day. Being unable to elicit a consensus view on the timing of the surgery from the members of the New York Academy of Medicine, Squier sent the skull to France to get an opinion from Broca, who was a distinguished expert in the study of the human skull.
At the time, Broca had already made the key discovery that would cause him to be a household name among psychologists and neuroscientists: that there was a region of the frontal lobe (now known as Broca's area) that seemed to be involved specifically in the production of language. He was still in the midst of vigorously defending this hypothesis (as he would continue to do for years to come), but he immediately developed a great interest in the skull Squier sent to him.
After examining the skull, Broca also was convinced that the opening was evidence of a surgical procedure done while the patient was still alive; Broca believed the patient survived for up to two weeks after trepanation. Doubts among the rest of the scientific community remained, however, until a collection of skulls was unearthed from a Neolithic grave site in central France several years later; a number of the skulls also had holes in them and the healing observable on these skulls made a more convincing argument for the idea that the holes were made well before death. In many cases, in fact, it seemed years may have passed between surgery and death.
Why trepanation?
The discovery of the French skulls helped to convince many of Broca's contemporaries that Neolithic peoples had the ability to perform trepanation on the living in such a way that the patient could often survive, but major questions remained as to how and why they did it. After Broca's interest had been piqued by Squier's skull he pursued answers to these other questions with characteristic determination. In fact, Broca ended up writing more papers on the reasons for prehistoric trepanation than he did on Broca's area and language.
To answer the question about how trepanation was done, Broca tried using simple tools that were available to Stone Age peoples (like flint) to scrape holes in the crania of recently-deceased individuals. He found that, although it took him 50 minutes to scrape through an adult skull (counting time spent taking breaks to rest his tired hand), it could be accomplished with these crude instruments. Now we know that this scraping method was only one of several different primitive approaches to trepanation. Others included making intersecting cuts in the skull and then removing a rectangular portion of the bone (this was what was seen in Squier's skull), or making a circular cut and then removing a disc of skull.
It's unclear if anesthesia was used during the operation when conducted in ancient times. Some have suggested Peruvians may have used coca (the plant cocaine would later be isolated from), as it can act as a local anesthetic. Others have hypothesized ancient peoples used substances like alcohol or opium to reduce pain associated with the procedure. It's also very possible, however, that no anesthesia was used; studies of Oceanic and African cultures that still practiced trepanation in the 20th century found that many of them did so without any type of anesthesia.
But the biggest mystery about trepanation is why the procedure was done. Broca thought and wrote extensively about this subject, eventually coming to favor a hypothesis that the practice was rooted in superstition. According to his view, Stone Age peoples did not understand the physiological basis of disorders like epilepsy, and thus were inclined to believe they were due to mystical events like demonic possession. Trepanation, Broca thought, may have been a way of treating these intractable mental disorders by creating a hole in the head through which demonic spirits could escape.
Although there are some aspects of Broca's original hypothesis that have become discredited (such as his belief---formed due to how long it took him to scrape through an adult skull---that the procedure was conducted only on children), it is still considered by many to be a valid explanation for why trepanation was done in the ancient world. Others, however, like Broca's colleague P. Barthelemy Prunieres, argued that trepanation had a more practical justification. Prunieres reasoned that the procedure grew out of the attempted treatment of cranial fractures, which would likely have involved efforts to remove pieces of fractured bone from the site of the injury. In some cases, head injuries can cause the accumulation of blood within the cranium, which may lead to a potentially life-threatening increase in intracranial pressure; this pressure can sometimes be partially relieved by trepanation. Thus, the primitive surgery may have produced a real benefit for some patients. If trepanation appeared to lead to an improvement in the condition of some patients, this may have caused the procedure to be utilized more frequently even if the true reasons for the improvements were not fully understood.
The perspectives of Broca and Prunieres represent two general views of ancient trepanation that each continue to receive support today: one that contends trepanation was done due to the influences of mysticism, another that argues it was a prehistoric attempt at rational surgery. It is likely, however, that different groups in different geographical areas had different reasons for performing the procedure, as trepanation was not a practice confined to one region or culture. Indeed, studies of 20th-century African tribes who still use the procedure found that reasons for trepanning varied among tribes, with some using it to treat cranial injuries and others using it to expel evil spirits.
Trepanation beyond the Stone Age
Trepanation did not begin and end with ancient Stone Age peoples. It was advocated by the famous Greek physician Hippocrates to allow for the drainage of blood after a cranial injury. Galen, the preeminent surgeon of the Roman Empire, also promoted the use of the procedure for blood drainage, but added to his recommendations a discussion of its beneficial effects on intracranial pressure. In the process, Galen provided an explanation of the potential palliative effects of trepanation that crudely resembles a contemporary understanding of them. The ancient Greeks and Romans also began developing more modern tools to use in trepanation; in the 1600s a three-pronged device for drilling through the skull was invented; it was called a tre fines, from the Latin for three ends. This led to the term trephination becoming a synonym for trepanation.
Trepanation continued to be used up through the 1800s for the treatment of head injuries as well as for epilepsy and other mental illnesses. Gradually, however, the practice fell out of favor in the 19th century. The mortality rates for trepanation at the time were very high, and it came to be recognized that any benefits it might offer were significantly outweighed by the risk of death associated with the surgery. Today similar procedures like craniectomy, which also involves removing part of the skull, are sometimes used to treat instances of increased intracranial pressure caused by major head trauma.
We will likely never be certain of the reasons Neolithic peoples practiced trepanation. Perhaps it was due to primitive beliefs in demonic possession, or maybe it was an attempt to protect the brain from the pressure created by intracranial bleeding. Then again, it may be that both of these explanations are erroneous. We can, however, feel fairly confident that trepanation was one of the first common surgical procedures and likely the first attempt at any intervention that could be considered remotely neurosurgical. And it likely will forever remain one of the longest-standing mysteries of neuroscience, due both to its origins in ancient human prehistory as well as to the improbability of its mystery ever being fully solved.An assassin using a Soviet-era Makarov type gun shot IRA commander Gerard “Jock” Davison dead, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said on Tuesday.
The PSNI said the weapon and bullets used to shoot the 47-year-old former IRA gunman were of east European origin.
Det Supt Kevin Geddes, the senior investigating officer in the case, told BBC1’s Crimewatch the gun was “unusual” in the context of weapons normally used for close-range killings in Northern Ireland.
Mystery surrounds the killing of Davison in the Market area of central Belfast earlier this month. Within hours, the PSNI ruled out any republican dissident or Ulster loyalist involvement. Dissident republican prisoners held in the top-security Maghaberry jail outside Belfast even sent sympathy notices to a local paper.
Davison is believed to have either been personally responsible or ordered the deaths of up to 15 men from the early 1990s onwards. He is also accused of giving the order to attack Belfast man Robert McCartney that resulted in the Short Strand man’s death outside a city centre bar a decade ago.
Geddes told the Crimewatch programme: “The weapon and bullets used were an eastern European type called Makarov. These 9mm bullets are unusual in as much as they will not work in most types of western handgun. They are a slightly different size and can only be fired using a Makarov type gun.
“This type of weapon and ammunition are extremely rare in Northern Ireland. We have a photo of a Makarov type 9mm handgun which we are issuing. Someone knows about this weapon and its ammunition. We need people with information to come forward on the non-emergency police number 101.”
Geddes said: “The gunman is described by witnesses as being about 5ft 6in tall and was wearing a dark, hooded rain jacket. He made his escape from the scene up an alleyway towards Stanfield Place. We need to know where he went next. We are also issuing a photo of a similar type of jacket in the hope this may jog someone’s memory.
“We also believe the gunman may have been in the area some time before the shooting. A man fitting a similar description was seen standing at the junction of Welsh Street and McAuley Street at around 8.40am. A similar man was also seen with a red and white carrier bag, holding it with two hands on Welsh Street. They may be different people and they may be innocent members of the public. Either way, we need them to come forward so that they can be ruled out of our inquiries.”John Mac Master met NDP Leader Tom Mulcair when they were 14 years old and attending junior high school in Laval, Que. The two became fast friends, but there was one particular moment that sealed their bond.
Their school wanted to get rid of a recess.
"We were in high dudgeon about this. The way only adolescent males can get," said Mac Master.
Indignant, the two teenage boys decided they had to take action. So they organized a protest.
I don't know how it came to happen, but we organized a sit-in. We marched out of class, went down to a common area and sat on the floor and refused to go back to class until they gave us back our recess. - John Mac Master
Their act of civil disobedience lasted approximately one hour. The teachers, impressed by Mulcair and Mac Master's teenaged revolt, caved. Recess was restored.
"I went in to union negotiation later in life and I think that was one of the reasons why," laughed Mac Master.
Father Alan Cox, school chaplain and one of Tom Mulcair's early mentors. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook / Father Alan Cox 1935-2013) But Mulcair's relationship with his teachers wasn't always as antagonistic as it was during his recess rebellion. According to Mac Master, there was one particular mentor that took Mulcair under his wing - Father Alan Cox, the chaplain for Laval Catholic High School.
Cox spent years tending to the spiritual lives of Catholic high school students, but Mac Master said he didn't pull any punches.
"He was in our face," recalled Mac Master, who said Father Cox would ask questions like: "What are you here for? What's the meaning of your life? Are you just here to get a girl in to bed [..] or does your life have more meaning than that?'"
A grown-up Mulcair at Laval Catholic High School, where he met John Mac Master and Father Alan Cox. (Photo Courtesy: Laval Catholic High School) Father Cox passed away in 2013, but remained friends with Mulcair long after graduation.
"Father Cox treated him almost like a son," said Mac Master. "He became quite a mentor to him all the way through his life."
DNTO's episode about the personal stories behind our party leaders airs Saturday, September 26th at 3 p.m. on CBC Radio One.To study the microscopic structures of the brain researchers have typically had to dissect the organ into amazingly thin slices that can then be viewed on a microscope. Without doing this, any structures more than a couple millimeters deep would be impossible to see. But besides being a pain-staking process, slicing the brain into thin slices can mess with the structure and make it difficult to follow the long paths of axons from one slice to the next.
Now, researchers at Stanford University have developed a chemical process to strip away the fats from a (dead) brain, leaving only transparent tissue that still retains its three-dimensional structure. The process, dubbed CLARITY, was developed in the lab of Karl Deisseroth, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist well known as one of the co-inventors of optogenetics (see “Light Switches for Neurons”). Deisseorth and colleagues describe the new method today in the journal Nature.
The CLARITY chemical treatment transforms brain tissue into a hydrogel-hybrid that includes the proteins, nucleic acids and small molcules of the organ but excludes the fats, which block both light and chemical dyes. Once the hydrogel-structure is formed, the fats can be dissolved away in an electric field.
The process leaves researchers with a transparent brain that can be studied directly. The study’s authors demonstrate the feat with the brain of a mouse that had been genetically engineered to carry a flourescent protein in its neurons:
Brains treated with CLARITY can also be stained with dyes that bind to proteins in neurons, providing researchers another way to examine the tissue:
And, perhaps most impressively, CLARITY-treated brains can be rinsed of any dyes and examined over and over again.
The technique could help researchers trying to map the intricate architecture of the brain’s cells and boost their understanding of the wiring-problems associated with some brain diseases (see “Connectomics”). Nature News reports that Deisseroth’s group is already working on making an entire human brain transparent (they reported on using the techqniue to examine small sections of a human brain in the paper).
“CLARITY has the potential to unmask fine details of brains from people with brain disorders without losing larger-scale circuit perspective,” said National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, in a released statement.
If you want to take a fascinating tour through a mouse’s brain and learn more about the CLARITY process, watch the video below, produced by Nature:
Image Credits: Kwanghun Chung and Karl Deisseroth, Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Stanford UniversityCalifornia Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee who has been vigilant in pursuit of the truth about Russian election meddling, appeared on The Daily Show to spell out exactly why all Americans should care about Russian interference in democracies.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, recently spoke with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show to explain the stakes involved in investigating Russian interference in not only the 2016 presidential election, but in democracies around the world.
While the full six-minute clip is worth watching, below is a selection during which Schiff presents the sobering assessment:
NOAH: You traveled recently into Europe. I think it was with John McCain, actually. And you got a chance to speak to European leaders. What is their view? What are their concerns? What are their ideas about what America now means to the rest of the world? SCHIFF: Well, this is a key point, because one of the things I try to always discuss in the context of the Russian investigation is why people should care about this. This is not about re-litigating the election. This is about a new struggle that we’re in, a global struggle of ideas. It’s not communism versus capitalism anymore, but it is autocracy and authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government. Throughout the world, but particularly in Europe, there are enormous concerns about whether we will stand up to this kind of Russian aggression in the war of ideas, whether we will defend liberal democracy. It’s this idea of America that is so much at risk right now with this presidency. The people around the world look at us and they wonder,”‘Is that the same America?” Those young people that gathered in Tahrir Square [in Egypt] before their revolution was hijacked by the Islamists — many of whom are in jail now or threatened with jail — they look at America and they wonder, “Does America still speak for me?” And that idea is at risk. We need to understand that. And I think a real core part of our investigation is to understand how Russians are challenging that idea and what we need to do to fight back. NOAH: Wow, you need to get back to the bunker. [Applause and cheers from the audience.]
Schiff’s comments perfectly represent the mission of resistance in the Trump era. As I have previously written, “The resistance is about fighting the ascendance of the regressive, destructive, and dangerous ideology of white nationalism that has raised its ugly and pathetic head once more in human affairs.”
The fight to find the truth about Donald Trump and his possible collusion with Russia to undermine our democratic process is not about “red” or “blue” politics. It is, as Schiff noted, about the threat to the very idea of America, both at home and abroad. We resist because we love ideals of this country and are committed to its survival and continuing “more perfect” realization. And that is why we must keep fighting to protect it.Travelers push their luggage on trolleys while walking through Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: CFP
ID card blues
Unwelcoming and exclusive
The bright side
"It's like no matter how long we stay and how hard we try, we will never be able to fully integrate into this society," says Joy, a young professional from the Chinese mainland who has stayed in Hong Kong for almost five years.Joy is one of the many so-called Hong Kong drifters, or young, educated mainlanders studying or working in Hong Kong.Joy went to Hong Kong in 2010 to further her studies with a master's degree. She landed a job at a public relations firm in the city the following year. Like many other people in her shoes, she has grown disappointed about the once-promising dream of Hong Kong life and feels displaced in a city that is economically lagging behind its mainland competitors and politically growing more hostile toward mainlanders."Many of my friends have already returned to the mainland. I am struggling to figure out where I really want to be whenever I'm asked about when I will go back to the mainland," she told the Global Times.Such discussions went viral after a widely-circulated article by a Hong Kong drifter called Zhang Heng who decided to leave Hong Kong for Shenzhen in Guangdong Province after living there for seven years.In the article, Zhang argued that Hong Kong society is no longer as vibrant and progressive as it once was. Soaring property prices, stalling economic development and restricted business environment have made the Pearl of the Orient less appealing to him, and the expat community.This is the reason why he decided to forgo Hong Kong residency, even though he is already eligible for the much-coveted card (HKID) that will lead to a passport with much greater visa-free access to countries and regions across the world than a Chinese mainland passport.Joy feels a similar sentiment. "I decided to start my career in Hong Kong because I thought that it had a more maturely developed public relations industry so I can learn more as a beginner," she said. "But international labels like some of our clients have shifted their focus to the mainland. The gap between Hong Kong and the mainland is closing and the city is loosing its advantage."Caught between both worlds, Joy feels a strong sense of displacement by not completely belonging to either side. "I was assigned to work with mainland companies because of my advantage in speaking fluent Putonghua and having more understanding of the mainland. But now that I have lived in Hong Kong for so many years, my boss said I now act and think more like a Hongkonger," she said.Despite her growing familiarity with the city, Joy said she can clearly feel the estrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland, in particular in the past two or three years.The influx of mainland tourists in recent years has caused growing frustration and even hatred among some Hongkongers, who describe shoppers from the mainland as "locusts" for taking away their much-treasured space and resources, and pushing up the already sky-high property prices."I can speak pretty good Cantonese but you can hear from the accent that I am not a local. It is fine when I am with my local friends. But a change in attitude toward |
powers.
But Queensland Law Society president Christine Smyth said the powers to stop, detain and search people without the test of "reasonable suspicion" was concerning. "Without this, the powers are unreasonably intrusive," Ms Smyth said. Ms Smyth said the exemption from recording searches in a register was also problematic. "Without that, there are no checks and balances against which people in power must monitor their own conduct," she said. QLS past president Bill Potts recommended body cameras be worn to assist in recording searches.
"We live in dangerous times, dangerous times require substantial measures but where that balance lies is going to be something which is the subject of proper debate," he said. Mr Potts said it would be of great "distaste" if people were being targeted for searches on the basis of the colour of their skin or their perceived religion. "We want to make sure that if there is suspicion it is based on reason," he said. Crime and Corruption Commission policy and research director Rebecca Denning said recording searches ensured transparency and accountability. "The concern of the CCC is that in exempting police from recording enforcement acts in a register, such act may not be recorded, leaving the QPS less able to demonstrate that a power was used appropriately," she said.
"I would be looking for us to be investing in... technology and new ways and innovative ways of being able to speed process but not removing that obligation to record what are significant powers." Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said he was concerned certain ethnic or age groups may feel they were targeted by police for searches. "The exercise of police powers should be informed by evidence, rather than personal biases held by police," he said in a submission. But Mr Martin said police would not search people based on appearance, race, ethnicity, gender or age, and instead it would be based on behaviour. Mr Cope also argued police should record all instances of the exercise of police powers to ensure officers remain accountable and people unhappy with their treatment have a chance to have their concerns heard.
"The use of a simplified form would be ideal," he said. The committee is due to report by April 28.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
The horror stories are many. The pensioner physically dragged, crying, off a crowded train by two "revenue protection" goons because she had forgotten her senior citizens railcard. The passengers stung for £20 because there was a queue at the ticket office and they had to hop on without paying or miss the train. The people bullied into paying unfair penalties by empty threats of prosecution and a criminal record. Today, however, the Standard tells you how you may never have to pay another railway penalty fare again.
Penalty fares - 20 years old this month - began life under British Rail as a reasonable deterrent to fare-dodging. But for some of the privatised rail companies, these £20 fines for not having a ticket have become nice little earners in their own right. One operator made £32 million from them last year alone. Another, Stagecoach's South West Trains, sparked outrage when it started judging its guards' job performance by the number of penalty fare warnings they issued.
Many passengers complain of a "take-no-prisoners" attitude, even where travellers have good reasons for not buying a ticket and every intention of paying. They say they are being penalised for train companies' failure to provide adequate station ticket offices, with staff and opening hours cut even as passenger numbers have risen.
But what most people do not know - and what the train companies are understandably reluctant for us to find out - is that more than a few demands for penalty fares are arguably illegal. The railways' new, hard-line approach is essentially a gigantic bluff, relying on our ignorance of our rights and our unwillingness to make a fuss when collared.
Because you do, in fact, have quite extensive rights not to be charged penalty fares, many of them set out in law. Rights designed, in the words of the Government, to "make sure that the interests of honest passengers are protected".
The chances are that if you have a reasonable excuse not to pay a penalty fare, you do not have to pay it - whatever a train company's staff may claim. If you are prepared to quote your rights and call their bluff, you will usually prevail.
Provided always that you do pay the normal single fare, the chances are that any threats made against you, particularly of criminal prosecution, are hollow.
Richard Colbey, a barrister at Lamb Chambers, told the Standard: "The policy is legally dubious. Penalty fares are not enforceable unless a court orders it - and a court would be unlikely to do so with someone prepared to make a fuss. There has been no reported case of a train company suing in this way - the last thing the rail industry would want is a pronouncement by a judge on its levying of penalty fares."
Another leading rail industry lawyer told the Standard that he had himself been threatened with prosecution for not paying a penalty fare. "I wrote them a very polite letter explaining why I had not got a ticket," he said. "I told them to have a go if they felt like it and heard nothing more."
I, too, have several times successfully refused to pay penalty fares demanded of me in circumstances which were unreasonable. So here is the Standard's summary of your rights - and our advice on avoiding unfair penalty fares.
OUR 10 RULES FOR BEATING THE TICKET INSPECTOR
This advice is for National Rail services only. TfL has different rules with fewer safeguards. No legal liability is accepted.
1 Make a reasonable effort to buy a ticket before you get on.
It will weaken your case if you start from a station where there is a functioning ticket office or machine but make no attempt to use them. This does not, however, mean that you have to wait in a long queue and miss your train. See Rule Eight for the Government's guidance on what constitutes a reasonable waiting time.
2 If asked for a penalty fare, check that you actually have to pay one.
There are several non-penalty fare locations in London and the South- East - most importantly, Stansted airport. If your journey started at one of these locations, you cannot be charged a penalty fare. This probably applies even if you changed trains on to a penalty-fare service en route (see other box for full details).
There are other lines on which one operator has penalty fares and another does not (see box). If, for instance, you are asked for a penalty fare at the excess fares office at Euston and you have arrived on a train run by Virgin, not London Midland, you do not have to pay the penalty.
If you forget your season ticket, you do not have to pay a penalty fare. You may be issued with a "nil fare" penalty notice and asked to send in a photocopy of your season, or asked to buy a normal single ticket (which you can then get refunded at a ticket office on production of your season). You can only do this twice a year.
If you have a ticket between two places with multiple rail routes (eg London-Southend) but it is not valid for the route you are using, you cannot be charged a penalty fare - only the difference in price between the routes.
If you have a ticket for the right journey but it is not valid on the particular train you are using, this is a grey area. The Department for Transport's "Penalty Fares Policy" (clause 4.29) says you should not be charged a penalty fare, just the difference in price. But the National Rail conditions of carriage say holders of "some types of discounted tickets" can be charged a penalty. It is definitely worth arguing the point.
3 Check that the person asking for a penalty fare is an "authorised collector".
Under the Penalty Fares Rules 2002, sections 5 (2) and (3), only an "authorised collector...individually authorised by or on behalf of the operator of that train" is allowed to collect penalty fares. Not all train guards and excess ticket office staff are authorised collectors. You have the right to ask them to produce the special identification document which proves that they are. (This also helps to return a measure of the "embarrassment factor", which some collectors use to get travellers to pay up.)
Check also whether the person asking you for a penalty has been authorised by the operator whose train you travelled on. At stations served by more than one train company, even where they both have penalty fares schemes, it may be that the people on the ticket barrier are authorised by one operator but not by the operator you used.
4 Even if they pass these tests, politely refuse to pay the penalty and simply pay the full single fare.
On the train or at the station, you have the absolute right to make only "a minimum payment that is equal to the full single fare which [you] would have had to pay for [your] journey if penalty fares had not applied." This is section 8 (2) of the Penalty Fares Rules 2002 - quote it if anyone tries to tell you different. (The full single fare means the fare without any railcard discounts, cheap offers etc.) Ignore any threats that may be made at this point if you refuse to pay the full sum - these are phoney and have no legal basis.
5 Never pay the penalty in the belief that you can recover it on appeal.
You are allowed to appeal against a penalty fare to one of two supposedly "independent" bodies. Most operators use the Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service (IPFAS), others the Independent Appeals Service (IAS). But IPFAS is in fact owned by Southeastern Trains, is based at Southeastern's head office and all its staff are Southeastern employees. IAS was also until recently based in railway offices and its company secretary is a director of the company which runs the railways' ticketing system. In short, the appeal process is not independent of the rail operators, is not operated in your interests and is most unlikely to recover your money.
6 Give your correct name, address and journey details.
Once you have paid the single fare, the collector will then ask for your name and address so that they can send a demand for the rest to be paid within 21 days. They can check names and addresses while you wait with the electoral roll database. The only criminal offence in the whole penalty fares legislation is refusing to give a name and address, or giving a false one. So give the right details.
7 Once you have paid the minimum, they will hand you a form.
Check this carefully. It must show the authorised collector's name and identity, your correct details, the details of the journey you have taken and how much you have paid. Collectors are often careless. If any of these details are omitted or are wrong, and you can prove it, it is game over.
8 When the letter demanding the rest arrives, write back politely, again refusing to pay, and explaining why you were unable to buy a ticket before travelling.
This is where the most useful part of the Penalty Fares Rules comes in - Rule 7 (4), which states that a penalty fare must not be charged "if... there were no facilities available for selling the appropriate ticket or other authority for the journey the person wanted to make".
The Rules themselves do not define what "no facilities available" means. But in separate guidance on penalty fares ("Penalty Fares Policy") issued by the Department for Transport, it is made quite clear, in clauses 4.2 and 4.11, that passengers must be given "sufficent opportunity" to buy a ticket and that regular queues over three minutes (off-peak) and five minutes (peak) breach the definition of what is "sufficient".
It is not clear whether this definition has any legal force - but if you quote it in your letter back to the train company, you are unlikely to be bothered again.
The Penalty Fares Policy also tells companies to "use discretion" towards the elderly, pregnant women, people who have enough money to buy a ticket "but not in the form needed to use the [ticket] machine" and "all passengers when the train service is severely disrupted". Once again, if you can truthfully quote any of these, you are unlikely to be bothered.
9 Remember: penalty fares are a civil, not a criminal-matter.
Train companies often scare people into paying up by threatening prosecution and a criminal record. However, the legislation establishing penalty fares, the Railways Act 1993, section 130, states that apart from failing to give your right name and address, "nothing in this section creates, or authorises the creation of any [criminal] offence". The Penalty Fares Regulations 1994 state that "the recovery of a penalty fare is a civil debt". So even if after reading your letter the company still decides it wants the money, it has to sue you - probably not worthwhile for such a small sum.
Railway companies sometimes threaten people with the main criminal law against fare-dodgers, the Regulation of Railways Act1889. But this says there has to be "intent to avoid payment". You could argue that you haven't intended to avoid payment because you have, in fact, paid the full single fare.
10 But don't abuse the system.
The safeguards provided in the law and the regulations are intended for people who want to pay the proper fare but occasionally fall foul of inadequate facilities. If you constantly board trains without buying a ticket, or if you lie to train company staff, this could be construed as intent to avoid payment and the chances of criminal prosecution will rise.New York Jets linebacker Jermaine Cunningham, who spent the season on injured reserve, was arrested Dec. 29 in Summit, New Jersey, on charges that included a gun offense and spreading sexual images, according to the Union County prosecutor's office.
At 4:19 p.m. that day, Summit police responded to a domestic dispute at Cunningham's home. After an investigation, he was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, third-degree invasion of privacy, and fourth-degree unlawful weapon transport. He was processed and released without bail. A court date will be scheduled.
Police didn't provide details on the privacy charge, but New Jersey's criminal code defines a third-degree charge when a person without consent discloses sexual images of another person via a photograph, film, videotape, recording or any other reproduction.
Cunningham lived with a woman at the home until recently, according to the prosecutor's office. He also was charged with damaging or destroying clothing that belonged to the woman, which accounts for the criminal mischief charge.
In addition, police confiscated a loaded.380-caliber handgun that was found in the glove compartment of Cunningham's Audi. He consented to the search of the car, according to police.
A Jets team spokesman released the following statement: "We are aware of the situation. This is a pending legal matter and we will have no comment."
Cunningham, 26, blew out his Achilles' tendon in training camp and was placed on injured reserve. He still pocketed $398,000 from the Jets. Cunningham played two games for the Jets in 2013. The former Florida standout was a second-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2010. He played three seasons with the Patriots before being released in the 2013 training camp.
He will be an unrestricted free agent in March.Father indicted in death of drunk driver Moments after his 2 sons were killed by the driver, the drunk was fatally shot
David Barajas Sr. and his young sons were pushing their disabled truck on the night of Dec. 7 when an inebriated Jose Inez Banda slammed into the truck, killing David Jr., 12, and Caleb, 11. Shortly after the accident, Barajas told relatives he couldn't recall anything beyond rushing to the aid of his sons. less David Barajas Sr. and his young sons were pushing their disabled truck on the night of Dec. 7 when an inebriated Jose Inez Banda slammed into the truck, killing David Jr., 12, and Caleb, 11. Shortly after the... more Photo: BCSO Photo: BCSO Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Father indicted in death of drunk driver 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
An Alvin father remained in the Brazoria County Jail Monday, charged with murder in the alleged revenge killing of a drunk driver who plowed into his truck, killing his two young sons last December.
David Barajas Sr., 31, a construction worker, is being held in lieu of $450,000 bail in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Jose Inez Banda minutes after the Dec. 7 crash that claimed the lives of Barajas' 11- and 12-year-old sons.
"The whole incident is extremely tragic," said Brazoria County sheriff's lead investigator, Dominick Sanders. "The grand jury reviewed it and has indicted him for murder."
Tests showed Banda's blood alcohol was twice the legal limit when his Chevrolet Malibu rear-ended the Barajas' family's Ford 250 truck that had run out of gas on an unlit county road near Alvin, investigators said. The inebriated driver failed to swerve or even apply his brakes before plowing into the truck and crushing Barajas' sons, David Jr., 12, and Caleb, 11.
The boys had been helping their father push their disabled truck and were less than 150 yards from their driveway when they were hit. Caleb was pronounced dead at the scene, and David Jr. died shortly after arrival at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Their father escaped serious injury.
Barajas' wife, Cindy, and their 8-year-old daughter and 3-month-old son, had remained seated inside the truck and were not hurt.
Several minutes after the crash, 911 operators began receiving phone calls about the accident and recorded a sound of gunfire. Investigators arrived at the scene to find Banda slumped in the front seat of his car with a bullet wound to his head. He never regained consciousness.
The weapon used in the shooting has not been found, said Brazoria County Sheriff's investigator Dominick Sanders.
An empty holster
During a two-month investigation, authorities located a witness who reported seeing David Barajas walk from the crash scene to his nearby home and return to Banda's car, after which the witness heard gunshots.
The witness was not close enough to see if Barajas had a weapon in his hand, Sanders said.
Investigators later searched Barajas' home, where they found an empty holster and some unused ammunition but no gun, Sanders said.
Both Barajas' and Banda's hands were checked for gun residue, but tests have not yet been completed.
DNA testing also remains underway on blood samples taken from Banda's vehicle.
A Brazoria County grand jury reviewed the evidence and heard testimony from Barajas before indicting him Friday for murder.
"His testimony is sealed and no statement about it can be released at this time," said Sanders.
Shortly after the accident, Barajas told relatives that he could not recall anything beyond rushing to the aid of his sons.
"It was worse than any movie scene because it was real," Barajas' brother, Gabriel, said. "The next thing my brother remembered was waking up in a hospital naked" after his clothing, drenched in his sons' blood, had been removed.
On Monday, Gabriel Barajas was shocked to learn his brother was in jail.
"I just knew he had been working to move forward in his life and take care of his two other children," he said.
Other Barajas family members could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Banda's family has kept vigil, waiting for answers, by posting remembrances on a "rest in peace" Facebook page.
Felicia, Banda's wife, now raising their infant daughter alone, posted several comments just before the murder indictment was announced.
She wrote about missing Banda more than ever since his death two months earlier and told how she still proudly wears his picture on the back of her shirts and sweaters to remember him, "Because you still mean the world to me."
2 wooden crosses
The Facebook page earlier had been a battleground, with angry postings by supporters of Banda, who complained of a vigilante killing, and supporters of Barajas, who described the boys' deaths as murders.
Sanders said grand jurors rejected a "crime of passion" defense because Barajas had time to reflect about what he was planning to do when investigators contend he went home to get a gun.
Barajas' neighbors say the family has moved from the house where they lived when the accident occurred.
"There's still two wooden crosses on the roadside where their boys died," said neighbor Michelle Tombs. "I bought some more permanent ceramic crosses to replace them. It's very sad. Their grandparents, who live across the street, hardly come outside much any more."After a five year hiatus, Civilization is heading back to mobile. While the series is rocketing into the stars later this year with the ambitious sci-fi strategy game Civilization: Beyond Earth, next month will see the launch of Civilization Revolution 2, the first game in the series designed specifically for mobile devices. The original Civilization Revolution launched on consoles in 2008 as a more streamlined take on the strategy series, and in 2009 it was ported to iOS for an experience that stripped things down even more.
The sequel will follow the traditional series format of letting you build an empire starting from the beginning of human civilization up until the present day. Publisher 2K Games hasn't provided much else in the way of details, but Civilization Revolution 2 will include 16 familiar historical leaders — including Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi — along with an interface and controls that are designed from the ground up for touchscreens. It's due to launch on iOS devices on July 2nd, with an Android version to follow soon after, and 2K says that it will be a "premium title" so you won't have to worry about any free-to-play concessions. With Beyond Earth not launching until sometime this fall, Revolution 2 should be a great way to get your Civilization fix in the meantime.A poster in Warsaw's Krasinski Square depicts President Trump on July 3. (Marcin Kmiecinski/European Pressphoto Agency)
If there is one place in Europe that President Trump might want to visit, it's Poland. And Poland is reportedly rolling out the AstroTurf for his visit, aiming to inflate Trump's popularity as he drops in for a brief visit.
Both the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Trump has been promised a positive reception, with the Polish government and its allies facilitating an effort to bus in supporters to give Trump a warm welcome.
Here's the Journal:
In lobbying for Mr. Trump’s visit in recent months, Polish officials made a promise of a positive reception for the president part of their pitch. Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said in an interview Wednesday with The Wall Street Journal that he told Mr. Trump, on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels in May: “Please visit us, your soldiers are already here, you can follow, and you can visit a country which is friendly.” Mr. Trump responded, according to Mr. Waszczykowski, that “Polish Americans helped him win” the presidential election. “I said, ‘Well, we can help you once again... if you visit us and cooperate with us,’” Mr. Waszczykowski recalled.
In case there was any doubt that Trump is hugely susceptible to appeals to his vanity, there it is. And kudos to Waszczykowski for a candid acknowledgment of his overtures to Trump.
Trump does have reason to be optimistic that his reception in Poland will be better than other places. A recent Pew survey of 38 leading countries showed it was among the most positive toward the United States, with 73 percent of Poles having favorable views and 15 percent having unfavorable ones.
Poland is also on the more nationalistic side of the debate over refugees and immigrants, making the country a natural fit for Trump. And lots of Polish American voters happen to be in key 2020 states along the Rust Belt like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All of these states have hundreds of thousands of Polish Americans and proved vital to Trump's election. Wisconsin is about one-10th Polish American.
Indeed, this isn't the first time a politician's visit to Poland was seen as politically expedient. President Barack Obama visited just a few months before his 2012 reelection bid, with those same states seen as possibly vulnerable to native Michigander Mitt Romney.
Organizers quoted by the Journal are practically giddy about Trump's visit and the looming spectacle.
“It’s going to be huge — absolutely huge,” said pro-government Polish politician Dominik Tarczynski, who is organizing a busload of Trump supporters. “They just love him, the people in Poland — they just really love him.”
But that's just not true. And should Trump be greeted with an overwhelmingly positive reception, it will be deceptive. That same Pew study that showed Poland was uniquely pro-U.S. also showed that doesn't translate to Trump personally. Fully 57 percent of Poles said they don't have confidence in Trump to do the right thing on the world stage, while just 23 percent said they do.
Of course, these details are likely to be lost in Trump's and the White House's accounting of his visit. We don't need to remind you of how they handled his inauguration crowd being smaller than Obama's. And then there was Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, where Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pointed to the lack of protests against Trump as a sign of a successful trip — ignoring the fact that the kingdom generally doesn't tolerate dissent.
The Poland visit seems likely to be a similarly misleading spectacle, but at least it'll be a spectacle.Share
When VR experiences display the user’s surrounding via the display in their headset, the effect can be very convincing — but reaching out with your hand and finding nothing there can quickly break this sense of immersion. A team working under Dr. Patrick Baudisch is attempting to improve upon this situation by implementing haptic feedback.
The project uses electrical muscle stimulation to force the user’s muscles to respond as if a heavy object were there, according to a blog post published on the HPI website. The two examples given are a large box that can be carried, and a wall situated in the environment.
The system that the team has created is capable of stimulating up to four different muscle groups. It works by activating the opposition muscles for the desired movement, which simulates how the user’s body would respond to the weight or resistance of an object.
The entire hardware setup can be housed with a small backpack, with sensors attached to various positions on the wearer’s arms. The potential of the technology seems to far outweigh the mild inconvenience of having to wear a backpack as well as a headset.
The team at HPI has already carried out two user studies to field test its implementation of this technology. There’s no guarantee that their work will become a consumer product — but it wouldn’t be surprising to see one of the major players in the VR industry pursue this concept further.
Many would argue that VR is already prohibitively expensive, and additional hardware isn’t going to help matters. However, it’s been proven that there’s a market for high-quality VR experiences, no matter the cost, and this technology seems well placed to serve that crowd.“Full Circle” is an adventure of the eighteenth season, the first of the mini-arc known by the global title “The E-Space Trilogy”, which aired in 1980. It’s a four parts adventure written by Andrew Smith and directed by Peter Grimwade.
The story
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is bringing Romana II (Lalla Ward) back to Gallifrey when the Tardis encounters a space-time anomaly. The consequence is that the two end up in E-space, a universe separate from their one.
After landing on a planet in E-space, the Doctor and Romana get involved in the attempt of the descendants of victims of a shipwreck to make their spaceship take off again while scary creatures come out of nearby swamps.
Extras
This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as BBC continuity, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by actor Matthew Waterhouse, author Andrew Smith and script editor Christopher H. Bidmeade.
All Aboard the Starliner. A documentary on the production of this adventure with interviews with cast and crew.
K-9 in E-Space. A look at the role of K-9 in the adventures in E-Space.
E-Space – Fact or Fiction? A look at the science behind the concept of Exo-Space.
Swap Shop. An interview with Matthew Waterhouse of the time with calls for him from the audience to ask him a few questions.
Isolated Score. The option to see this adventure with music by Paddy Kingsland in an isolated audio track.
Andrew Smith was only seventeen when he wrote the story that would become “Full Circle”. Producer John Nathan-Turner was making several changes to the series so he was happy to get new writers involved. Script editor Christopher H. Bidmeade found the story interesting and had Andrew Smith make some changes to satisfy the production needs.
Thus “Full Circle” was born, the adventure where the Doctor and Romana arrive in E-Space. The beginning is dedicated to the protagonists’ attempt to understand where they are giving us some clues about the universe they reached by accident while the Doctor was bringing Romana to Gallifrey. The Time Lady has changed a lot since she started traveling with the Doctor and after all the adventures she experienced she’s sad at the prospect of returning to her planet to remain there for the rest of her life.
“Full Circle” also marks Adric’s debut. He’s not exactly the most beloved companion in “Doctor Who” history and many blame Matthew Waterhouse for the failure of his character. It’s true that the actor was inexperienced at the time but honestly seeing the material he was given to impersonate Adric it would be difficult for anyone to pull off a character memorable in a positive way.
The biggest change made to the original story made “Full Circle” a story centered on evolution, both biological and social. In this adventure the planet Alzarius’s ecology is partially built and the Doctor must understand it to find out what’s the relationship between some of the planet’s creatures. Honestly if you analyze this part under a strictly scientific point of view there seem to be some logical holes but in the story’s context there’s a sense.
The story of the humans who try to leave with their ship is an example of social evolution gone wrong. Their attempt to repair the craft fallen on the planet leads in the long term to a fossilization of the mini-society that is created.
Over the generations the crew went ahead with the repairs of the ship becoming more and more reliant on manuals and reports written centuries before turning a blind eye on their inconsistencies. Humans have adapted so well to their circumstances that they go on with their work to survive on the planet and the ship’s maintainance that their departure has become almost a mirage.
It’s clearly ironic that the crew leaders are called Deciders when actually they decide nothing but merely continue a status quo that covers up the fact that even they don’t know how to leave the planet. The disparaging remarks by the Doctor when he realizes the situation are inevitable.
Thus in “Full Circle” there’s a solid story but there’s also a good visual quality considering the budget and the images of the creatures coming out of the marshes in the mist are memorable. It’s true that the spiders are far from convincing but it’s an unavoidable problem with “Doctor Who” special effects due to the low budget. For these reasons “Full Circle” is overall a really good start for the E-Space Trilogy.
Because this DVD is part of “The E-Space Trilogy” box set – available on Amazon UK, Amazon CA and Amazon USA – a global judgement must necessarily be given only at the end of the reviews of this mini-arc’s adventures.Publication
Matthew J. Renzelmann, Asim Kadav, and Michael M. Swift. SymDrive: Testing Drivers without Devices. In OSDI'12.
PDF: here.
Overview
Device-driver development and testing is a complex and error-prone undertaking. For example, a single driver may support dozens of devices, and a developer may not have access to any of them. As a result, many Linux driver patches include the comment "compile tested only." Furthermore, testing error-handling code is difficult, as it requires faulty inputs from the device.
SymDrive is a system for testing Linux and FreeBSD drivers without their devices. The system uses symbolic execution to remove the need for hardware, and provides three new features beyond prior symbolic-testing tools. First, SymDrive greatly reduces the effort of testing a new driver with a static-analysis and source-to-source transformation tool. Second, SymDrive allows checkers to be written as ordinary C and execute in the kernel, where they have full access to kernel and driver state. Finally, SymDrive provides an execution-tracing tool to identify how a patch changes I/O to the device and to compare device driver implementations. In applying SymDrive to 21 Linux drivers and 5 FreeBSD drivers, we found 39 bugs.
The figure below outlines the architecture of SymDrive.
More Information
If you'd like more information about SymDrive, please visit the links at the top of each page, or email us.
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation grants CNS-0745517 and CNS-0915363 and by a gift from Google.Even though Summer is in full swing, our family has still been enjoying a little bit of tv time now and then. We’ve had some really hot days lately and it’s just been miserable outside as the breeze is even super hot and doesn’t offer any relief. So instead, after lunch when the sun is the hottest, we’ll all head to the living room, turn down the AC, draw the curtains, and enjoy a movie. The kids love this special time as it gives them a chance to just wind down and cool off. Sometimes, they even doze off! Since our July NCircle Entertainment package just arrived, they’re super excited to have a couple of new DVDs to choose from too!
Kiwi: Season One
This collection of 26 episodes will have kids learning phonics skills with Twiki and Twini. Join these fun creatures on their educational adventures as they encounter different objects such as animals or trucks. As objects are presented, Twiki and Twini spell the word out phonetically in a fun way to really make an impact and keep kids engaged. Each separate adventure includes four to five words being spelled out in this unique way. The learning never ends and kids will experience and build words such as: cow, fruit, map, sheep, apple, blue, birthday, house, and more!
Mily Miss Questions Season One
Mily is an inquisitive 8 year old girl who takes kids on adventures to answer the questions she has about life, the world, and the people in it. This Season One collection features 24 exciting episodes with a run time of approximately 175 minutes. Join Mily and her friends as they experience situations worthy of examination as Mily is immediately on the case! Young viewers learn the art of questioning and engaging while further developing their inquisitive minds.
Buy It: Head over to NCircle Entertainment to see for yourself the great selection of products they offer.
Connect: Don’t forget to like NCircle Entertainment on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, and subscribe to their You Tube Channel for all the latest news and promotions.
Win It: NCircle Entertainment is generously offering one of our lucky readers a DVD prize pack consisting of the two titles above: Kiwi and Mily Miss Questions! This giveaway is open to the US and Canada and will end July 24th, 2017. For your chance to win, enter the Giveaway Tools below. Good luck!
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I’m a city girl turned country by my awesome husband and we have three busy boys and two darling daughters. I love spending time with my family, reading Karen Kingsbury novels, and catching up with friends while our kiddos have play dates. I’m blessed beyond measure and can’t wait to see what God has in store.
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Related posts we've written:“3D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension and Hollywood’s current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal,” says Roger Ebert. Despite the fact that 3D is in it’s third rendition of the “It” thing, studios, hardware producers, and domainers are still getting caught in the 3D trap.
I remember when I was younger I went to see the movie King Solomon’s Mines in 3D. A terrible movie that only had to be seen because it was in 3D. Was it cool? It was. It was fun to have a stick point out of the screen, I admit it. My Dad had the same feeling when he saw it as a kid for the first time. He said it was OK but he liked a good movie more than a movie driven by special effects. I told him “this is different, the technology has come a long way” Fast forward 25 years
Here we are again. 3D is all the rage. Every movie HAS to be delivered in 3D. Unfortunately 95% of the movies are re-created in 3D only to get the higher ticket price. It’s a financial move, not a technical move. Avatar was obviously the film that drove the craze. The difference is Avatar was created IN 3D FOR 3D and truly was a new technology. To replicate this takes hundreds of millions to do right. Studios have chosen to go the cheaper route and convert their movies. The process is expensive but quick. The resulting converted movies are of lesser quality and by the time the “shot in 3D” technology becomes cheaper, viewers may have gone away. Here are a few more reasons why 3D won’t become mainstream.
The Glasses. Nobody likes to wear special glasses. We’ll do it for a special occasion but we’re less likely to wear them every time we watch television. AND you can’t watch 3D without them. Nothing like a technology that needs a 99 cent add on to make work.
We want depth and clarity but it doesn’t have to be 3D. In my opinion 4K video is much more likely to be a part of everyone’s home than 3D. You hardly hear about it because there isn’t much hardware for it but if you’ve been to a trade show and seen it, it’s very nice and certainly an improvement.
The people that actually want 3D televisions is low. The market is much lower than the Internet lets on. I have no data to back this statement up but a 3D television in not anywhere near the top of my tech wants and that is the same for most of my tech loving friends. The rest of the world is just now transitioning the rest of the their big Tv’s over to flat |
proven to be Richard, to be buried in the city's cathedral.
As for the social workers, the academics said, it will be 'quite some time' before they get their car park back.
A lead window came (a section of leading that supports stained glass windows from the Grey Friars churchBig Dairy has agreed to pay a $52 million settlement following the slaughter of more than 500,000 young dairy cows in an attempt to artificially inflate the price of milk.
The class-action suit was filed in 2011 on behalf of individual consumers who purchased fresh milk products in 15 states. The suit came after lawyers with Compassion Over Killing, an animal rights group, stated that the industry policy of buying out smaller dairy farms' milk cows to process them for meat was carried out specifically for the purposes of inflating milk prices and went against federal antitrust laws.
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Umbrella group Cooperatives Working Together, a farmer-funded export assistance program, offered this buyout program, known as the CWT dairy herd retirement program, between 2003 and 2010, when the price of milk got too low, reports NPR. The program has since been terminated.
“The biggest dairy producers in the country, responsible for almost 70% of the nation’s milk supply, conspired together in a classic price-fixing scheme,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of the Hagens Berman law firm in San Francisco, which brought the suit for Compassion Over Killing.
An analysis by a University of Missouri dairy economist found that the program added an average of 59 cents per hundred pounds to the price of milk between 2004 and 2008, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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“Compassion Over Killing is proud to have spearheaded the research that led to this class action suit," said Cheryl Leahy, General Counsel for Compassion Over Killing. "Not only was the price of milk artificially inflated, but this scheme ultimately also cost 500,000 young cows their lives.”
The defendants made no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement, which releases them from the possibility of litigation. The settlement was the “most sensible” way to end the litigation said National Milk Producers Federation.
The suit was brought against several food companies and dairy producer groups including Dairy Farmers of America, Land O’ Lakes, Cooperatives Working Together, Dairylea Cooperative, and National Milk Producers Foundation.
Related on Organic Authority
New Grass-Fed Dairy Standard Introduced by American Grassfed Association
Organic Valley Just Became the Largest Grass-Fed Organic Dairy Producer in the U.S.
In California, Dairy Cows May Hold the Key to Reducing Greenhouse GasesWhile nobody knows exactly what causes the complex brain changes that lead to Alzheimer's disease, scientists suspect one of the drivers is the accumulation of plaques of a faulty protein called beta-amyloid. Now, a new study of mice shows how too much sugar in the blood can speed up the production of the protein.
The researchers suggest their findings will lead to new treatments that reduce the harmful effects of high blood sugar on the brain. The researchers suggest their findings will lead to new treatments that reduce the harmful effects of high blood sugar on the brain.
Earlier studies have pointed to diabetes - where the body fails to control high blood sugar naturally with insulin - as a possible contributor to Alzheimer's disease, but the new study links high blood sugar itself to beta-amyloid.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) report their findings in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Lead author and postdoctoral research scholar Dr. Shannon Macauley says:
"Our results suggest that diabetes, or other conditions that make it hard to control blood sugar levels, can have harmful effects on brain function and exacerbate neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease."
She and her colleagues suggest their finding could lead to new treatment targets to reduce the harmful effects of high blood sugar on the brain.
Doubling of blood glucose led to 20% higher levels of beta-amyloid
For their study, the team used mice bred to develop a condition that is like Alzheimer's in humans - as they age their brains accumulate amyloid plaques.
When they infused glucose into the bloodstream of young mice, they found their brains produced beta-amyloid faster. A doubling of blood glucose led to 20% higher levels of beta-amyloid compared with mice that had normal blood glucose levels.
When the team repeated the experiment in older mice that already had amyloid plaques in their brains, beta-amyloid levels rose by 40%.
Closer examination revealed that sudden elevation of blood sugar increased brain cell activity, which stimulates them to make more beta-amyloid.
The team found that openings called KATP channels were an important feature of increased beta-amyloid. These ATP-sensitive potassium channels sit on the surface of brain cells and close when glucose levels get too high. When the channels are closed, the neurons are more likely to fire.
Under normal conditions, neurons fire to encode and send information - a basic function essential for learning and memory. But too much firing in certain areas of the brain increases beta-amyloid, which makes it more likely that plaques will form and encourage the development of Alzheimer's, the authors suggest.
KATP channel 'directly links glucose, brain cell activity and beta-amyloid'
In a final set of experiments, the team injected diazoxide straight into the brains of mice (to bypass the blood brain barrier). Diazoxide is a glucose-elevating drug that is used to treat low blood sugar.
The drug forced the KATP channels to stay open as glucose levels rose. Under these conditions, the brain cells produced beta-amyloid at the normal rate - it did not speed up.
The team concludes this result shows that the KATP channel directly links glucose levels with brain cell activity and rate of beta-amyloid production.
The researchers are already exploring the link further using diabetes drugs in Alzheimer's-like mice.
KATP channels feature in all kinds of cells, not just brain cells. For example, they feature in the pancreatic cells that make insulin - the enzyme the body uses to control blood sugar.
Commenting on the contribution of their findings, Dr. Macauley says:
"This observation opens up a new avenue of exploration for how Alzheimer's disease develops in the brain as well as offers a new therapeutic target for the treatment of this devastating neurologic disorder."
She and her colleagues are also looking into how raised glucose levels may interfere with how different parts of the brain work together in cognitive functioning.
Funds for the study came from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the JPB Foundation.
Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned how scientists at Johns Hopkins University found a molecule that links high blood sugar to metabolic disease. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team says the discovery could lead to new ways to prevent and treat diabetes.Good morning, here we are on the eve of a new season and I don’t know about you but I’m excited. Genuinely.
I watched some Sky Sports News last night and they showed Robin van Persie arriving in Manchester, getting out of a car and looking happy. I mean, I can deal with him going there, I can deal with the fact that he’s a big old jazz-handed Quisling, but looking happy? No, that will not stand. Anyway, he’s going to do his medical then he’s going to fraternise with people like Rooney, Evra, Ferdinand and that curly Brazilian fella who reminds me of a teddy bear that came to life, for some reason. At the very least I thought he’d be more inclined to keep better company than that.
Arsene revealed yesterday that he would have much rather have sold his former captain abroad than to United, giving PSG as a possible, but the simple fact is that Juventus apart, not one of Europe’s top clubs showed the slightest bit of interest in him. Not one. Even though they all knew he was available. Whether that says more about van Persie’s financial demands than anything else I’ll leave it to you to decide. The bottom line is the only choice was United, for him and for us, and as much as we’d prefer not to do business with them we had no choice.
Do we keep a disgruntled player and write off £24m, or do we let a club with financial issues spend somewhere in the region of £70m on him over the course of his contract and look to reinvest his transfer fee back into our team? As long as that reinvestment happens it’s a no-brainer for me. While Thomas Vermaelen pretended to be shocked, and was probably a bit disappointed, Andre Santos summed it up:
Van Persie is a high quality player, a big idol of the fans and he had a great championship season in 2011/12, but I’m sure the team is much more mature. Today we have experienced players and also the arrival of some new players, like Santi Cazorla and Podolski, who are excellent. We are well focused. We’ve brought in some top quality players and I’m sure that Arsenal will have a great campaign in the English league.
I love that cuddly maverick. Anyway, we will move on without van Persie, as we always do when a player leaves. And it does look as if there’ll be another departure sooner rather than later as the talk is Alex Song to Barcelona is as good as done. The Catalan papers are talking numbers this morning. Barcelona don’t want to pay what Arsenal are asking – deja vu, anyone? – and the key to the deal could be the add-on clauses/appearance fees and such. Amusingly, El Mundo complain about how Arsenal are being difficult to deal with, ‘as usual’.
I’ll refrain from making further comment on this until it happens but there’s an element of ruthlessness here from the manager. If we sell it’s because he wants to, and if we sell it’s to refocus our efforts on the group rather than one or two individuals who think they’re more important than the team. Despite the fact that Nuri Sahin appeared to be on the brink of a loan move to Liverpool, the talk is that we’ve upped the ante a bit and he could opt for us instead. Champions League football might well be the key but as I’ve suggested all along the key to it happening in Song’s departure.
Whether that will affect our negotiations with Barcelona remains to be seen. If the decision to let him go has been made then it’s a matter of finding a suitable compromise in terms of the fee, perhaps we might get a million pounds every time he debuts another silly haircut, and if Sahin is a player the manager wants then there’s an element of needing to get things done quickly to avoid him going somewhere else.
Arsene’s very first press conference of the new season takes place this morning and no doubt Song’s future will be on the agenda, along with everything that’s happened with Robin van Persie. Of more importance, however, are the players who are with us now and for the season ahead and some updates regarding those carrying injuries will be more welcome than Arsene batting away questions and refusing to criticise players who have, essentially, let him down.
There are serious doubts over Laurent Koscielny (calf) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who picked up an ankle knock during the FC Koln game. The participation of new boys Cazorla and Giroud is an issue too. The former flew to Puerto Rico this week with Spain and we all ll know of Arsene’s reluctance to use players after transatlantic flights. The latter was described by the manager as ‘tired’ as he did midweek commentary for French TV, so I wonder if he’ll be fit to start.
Lukas Podolski was, kindly, left out of the Germany squad by Joachim Low and of the three summer signings I’d suggest he’s most likely to start tomorrow against Sunderland. The captaincy is likely an issue too, but it’s hard to see it going to anyone other than Thomas Vermaelen, I’d expect confirmation of that today too. Anyway, some, if not all, will be revealed when the boss meets the press this morning and you can keep up to date with the latest throughout the day over on Arseblog News.
Meanwhile, Kyle Bartley has left the club joining Swansea City in a deal worth around £1m. Although he was promoted to the first team squad earlier in the summer he always had a lot to do to force his way into the established ‘top four’, and I think Arsene prefers the young Spaniard Ignasi Miquel who can play at left back as well as centre-half. Good luck to him.
Right then, as it’s a new season it means the Arsecast returns from its summer hiatus and joining me this week to discuss van Persie, the summer signings and more, is Amy Lawrence. You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download this week’s Arsecast directly – click here (29mb MP3) or you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.
[audio:http://podcast.arseblog.com/arsecast/arsecast_episode244.mp3]
And that’s about that for now. As I said we’ll have news throughout the day and the traditional season preview post will be up here at around lunchtime. Here we go again folks!In a statement this evening People Before Profit announced that they will be taking part in the Abortion Pill Train to Belfast tomorrow.
A number of pro choice activists including Councillors and TD’s will be travelling to Belfast and will bring Abortion Pills back to Dublin with them.
Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Cllr Melisa Halpin (Dun Laoghaire) and Cllr Deirdre Wadding (Wexford) will be taking part in the action to highlight the lack of any real choice for pregnant women and girls in Ireland today.
In 1971 a number of activists took the famous “Contraception Train” to Belfast and returned with condoms which were then illegal in the Republic of Ireland. The action tomorrow will remember the women of 1971 and will show the hypocrisy of the Irish State, whose regime has seen over 150,000 women travel abroad for abortions in the last 30 years.
Cllr Melisa Halpin said: “Abortion is a lived reality for Irish women North and South. Women who have neither the means nor the ability to travel to England to have an abortion are increasingly turning to organisations like Women on Web to access safe abortion. Today’s action is about calling time on the Irish State’s hypocrisy on abortion and demanding access to free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland.”
Cllr Deirdre Wadding added: “I think it is essential that women have a choice and I am happy to be part of this action to highlight the fact that Irish women have no choice and that they have to travel to access options. Having been through the experience in 1981 of being a pregnant teenager sent to a mother and baby home, I believe none of us have the right to make choices for anyone else and every woman must have access to a full range of options.”
Richard Boyd Barrett TD added: “I am travelling to Belfast tomorrow as an act of solidarity with all the women who have had to travel to access their right to choose. In the last decades we have seen the horrendous cases of Ms X, A, B, C, D and the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, all because women in Ireland do not have the rights that their counterparts in the rest of Europe have. Most recently the case of Ms Y shows the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act to be a total travesty. If we are to get real rights for women in Ireland we will need to Repeal the 8th Amendment.”Facebook, the CIA, and the Clintons
by Jon Rappoport
June 19, 2017
This article recounts key events along a time line that stretches from 1986 to the present. Follow the bouncing ball.
Since Facebook went public with an IPO (Initial Public Offering) of stock in 2012, I’ve been following the trail of its stock price.
In 2012, I wrote:
“But now the Facebook stock has tanked. On Friday, August 17 [2012], it weighed in at half its initial IPO price. For the first time since the IPO, venture-capital backers were legally permitted to sell off their shares, and some did, at a loss.”
“Articles have begun appearing that question Zuckerberg’s ability to manage his company. ‘Experts’ are saying he should import a professional team to run the business side of things and step away.”
“This has the earmarks of classic shakeout and squeeze play… First, [insiders] drive down the price of the stock, then they trade it at low levels that discourage and demoralize public investors, who sell their shares…As the stock continues to tank, the insiders quietly buy up as much of it as they can. Finally, when the price hits a designated rock bottom, they shoot it up all the way to new highs and win big.”
In 2013, I followed up and wrote: “Facebook launched its IPO and went public on May 18, 2012. The opening stock price was 42 dollars a share.”
“In September 2012, the collapsing stock hit a low of 17.55.”
“On October 17, 2013, a year later, after a long climb, the stock reached an all-time high: 52.21.”
“So…Facebook, a company with CIA-front connections, a company that encourages people to offer up surveillance data on themselves [and censors politically incorrect news], goes through a financial transformation. Its IPO price collapses like ice in a heat wave. It keeps trading at its new low prices, scaring lots of investors.”
“They sell their shares. Insiders buy up those shares at delicious discounts.”
“Then, when the insiders have scooped up enough, they begin to move the price. Up. The long climb begins.”
Now, in June of 2017, it’s time to check in again. What’s happened to Facebook’s stock price since the high of $54 a share in 2013?
From October 2016 to December 2016, there was another shakeout that convinced many shareholders to dump their stocks—and of course, insiders gobbled up those shares for themselves. The shakeout took the stock price down from an all-time high of $127.88 a share to $115.05.
Then, once again, the relentless climb resumed. On June 2nd of this year, the stock reached a new all-time high of $153.61.
All in all, quite a ride. From the IPO price of $42, down to $17…and now $150.
Are some of the insiders who have been engineering Facebook’s long-term stock-rise front-men for the CIA?
I ask that question because of Facebook’s CIA connections:
The big infusion of cash that sent Mark Zuckerberg and his fledgling college enterprise on their way came from Accel Partners, in 2004.
Jim Breyer, head of Accel, attached a $13 million rocket to Facebook, and nothing has ever been the same.
Earlier that same year, a man named Gilman Louie joined the board of the National Venture Capital Association of America (NVCA). The chairman of NVCA? Jim Breyer. Gilman Louie happened to be the first CEO of the important CIA start-up, In-Q-Tel.
In-Q-Tel was founded in 1999, with the express purpose of funding companies that could develop technology the CIA would use to “gather data.”
That’s not the only connection between Facebook funder Jim Breyer and the CIA’s man, Gilman Louie. In 2004, Louie went to work for BBN Technologies, headed up by Breyer. Dr. Anita Jones also joined BBN at that time. Jones had worked for In-Q-Tel and was an adviser to DARPA, the Pentagon’s technology department that helped develop the Internet.
With these CIA/DARPA connections, it’s no surprise that Jim Breyer’s jackpot investment in Facebook is not part of the popular mythology of Mark Zuckerberg. Better to omit it. Who can fail to realize that Facebook, with its endless stream of personal data, and its tracking capability, is an ideal CIA asset?
From the time Mark Zuckerberg was a child and attended the summer camp for “exceptional children,” CTY (Center for Talented Youth), run by Johns Hopkins University, he, like other CTY students, Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google), and Lady Gaga, have been easy to track.
CTY and similar camps filter applications and pick the best and brightest for their accelerated learning programs. Tracing the later progress of these children in school and life would be a walk in the park for agencies like the CIA.
When Zuckerberg founded an interesting little social network at Harvard, and then sought to turn it into a business, the data-mining possibilities were obvious to CIA personnel. Through their cutouts, as described above, they stepped in and lent a helping hand.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Facebook/CIA presented an anti-Trump stance, which meant a pro-Hillary stance. Is that a pro-CIA stance? Let’s look at a fascinating piece of history involving the CIA and the other Clinton: Bill.
The source here is the explosive 1995 book, Compromised, by Terry Reed and John Cummings.
According to the authors, Bill Clinton, way back in the 1980s, was involved with the CIA in some very dirty dealings in Arkansas—and I’m not just talking about the cocaine flights landing at the Mena airport.
It seems Bill had agreed to set up CIA weapons-making factories in his home state, under the radar. But because Arkansas, when it comes to money, is all cronies all the time, everybody and his brother found out about the operation and wanted in. Also, Bill was looking for a bigger cut of the action.
This security breach infuriated the CIA, and a meeting was held to dress down Bill and make him see the error of his ways. His CIA handlers told him they were going to shut down the whole weapons operation, because Bill had screwed up royally. A screaming match ensued—but the CIA people backed off a bit and told Bill HE WAS STILL THEIR MAN FOR AN EVENTUAL RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
Of course, there are people who think Reed and Cumming’s book contains fiction, but John Cummings was a top-notch reporter for Newsday. He co-authored the 1990 book, Goombata, about the rise and fall of John Gotti. He exposed US operations to destroy Cuban agriculture with bio-weapons. It’s highly doubtful he would have put his name on Compromised without a deep conviction he was correctly adding up the facts.
Here, from Compromised, is an account of the extraordinary meeting, in Arkansas, between Bill Clinton and his CIA handlers, in March of 1986, six years before Clinton would run for the Presidency. Author Terry Reed, himself a CIA asset at the time, was there. So was Oliver North, and a man named “Robert Johnson,” who was representing CIA head Bill Casey.
Johnson said to Bill Clinton:
“Calm down and listen….We are all in this together. We all have our personal agendas…but let’s not forget, both the Vice President and Mr. Casey want this operation to be a success. We need to get these assets and resources in place and get them self-sustaining and prospering on their own while we have the chance. This is a golden opportunity. The timing is right. We have communists taking over a country in this hemisphere. We must all pull together and play as a team. This is no time for lone wolves…
“I’m not here to threaten you [Bill Clinton]. But there have been mistakes. The Mena operation survived undetected and unexposed only because Mr. [Barry] Seal carried with him a falsely created, high-level profile of a drug runner. All the cops in the country were trying to investigate a drug operation. That put the police in a position where we could control them. We fed them what we wanted to feed them, when we wanted to feed them; it was our restaurant and our menu…now we have to shut it down….
“Bill, you are Mr. Casey’s fair-haired boy. But you do have competition for the job you seek. We would never put all eggs in one basket. You and your state have been our greatest asset. The beauty of this, as you know, is that you’re a Democrat, and with our ability to influence both parties, this country can get beyond partisan gridlock. Mr. Casey wanted me to pass on to you that unless you fuck up and do something stupid, you’re No. 1 on the short list for a shot at the job you’ve always wanted.
“That’s pretty heady stuff, Bill. So why don’t you help us keep a lid on this and we’ll all be promoted together. You and guys like us are the fathers of the new government. Hell, we are the new covenant.”
By this account, Bill Clinton was the CIA’s boy back in 1986, long before he launched himself into his first 1992 Presidential campaign.
That speaks of major planning. In 1992, an obscure governor from a rather obscure state suddenly gains national prominence and vaults to the head of the line in the race for the White House.
Now, consider the role of the CIA-connected Facebook in the 2016 presidential election. Did Facebook’s strategy of cutting off pro-Trump postings/information and instead supporting ANOTHER CLINTON, HILLARY, signal the continuation of a long-running covert CIA op to put and keep the Clintons in power?
Since 1986, have the Clintons been a package deal for the CIA?
Was the most recent incarnation of that deal the Facebook op to put Hillary in the White House?
Most people have a problem looking at log-term ops. They conceive of covert actions taking place along severely limited time lines. That’s exactly what major operatives count on. They can plan in the dark for two or three decades ahead (or longer) and feel they’re in the clear.
And when a little social networking company comes along and needs an infusion of cash, they can step in, help, and, seeing the possibilities, they can help push the stock to new highs and accomplish elite surveillance and censor true information and support their favored presidential candidate—all during the same dozen years.
It’s an easy program.
All sorts of cards can be played from the bottom of the deck.
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.73 Prominent International Relations Scholars Say Iran Deal Will Help Stabilize Middle East
Washington, DC – 73 prominent International Relations and Middle East scholars have issued a letter in support of the Iran deal, arguing that it is a “strong and positive step toward stabilizing the Middle East,” and that a potential Congressional rejection of the agreement would further destabilize the region and “reignite Washington and Tehran’s gravitation towards a military confrontation.”
The letter’s signers include some of the most renowned thinkers in the fields of International Relations, political science, and Middle East studies including Professors Richard Bulliet, Noam Chomsky, Juan Cole, John Esposito, Fawaz Gerges, Robert Jervis, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt and Ehsan Yarshater.
The letter was organized by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
Scientists and other non-proliferation experts have hailed the agreement’s clear non-proliferation benefits, though the potential positive regional implications of the deal have received comparatively little scrutiny.
“In addition to advancing non-proliferation goals, this agreement could be the key that unlocks solutions to some of the most intractable conflicts in the Middle East,” Trita Parsi, President of NIAC, said. “The region suffers from a diplomacy deficit and the nuclear deal paves the way for an increase in dialogue and diplomacy on a whole set of issues – which is critical for stability in the Middle East.”
In the letter, the scholars argue that an important driver of instability in the region has been the dysfunctional relationship between the U.S. and Iran. Resolving the nuclear issue is a critical step towards taming the US-Iran rivalry and reducing its negative impact on the region.
“For the past 36 years, the US and Iran have been embroiled in a zero-sum geopolitical struggle,” the letter reads. “The arena for this contest has been the larger Middle East, where the two have sought to undermine each other at every given opportunity, at the expense of the stability of the region as a whole.”
“Many of the signers of the letter publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” Parsi added. “History proved them right. Clearly they know a thing or two about international relations, the Middle East and Iran.” See the letter online here.
***
The Nuclear Agreement with Iran:
A Plus for Regional Stability
Statement from Middle East and International Relations Scholars
The nuclear deal with Iran (The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPOA) is a strong and positive step towards stabilizing the Middle East, beyond its undeniable non-proliferation benefits.
The Middle East is in turmoil. It is suffering from a broad range of problems that all, one way or another, contribute to the instability plaguing the region. Increasingly, the instability is not in the form of inter-state violence, but rather intra-state bloodshed with the eventual collapse of the states themselves.
While the region’s problems have many sources, one critical driver of instability has been the dysfunctional relationship between the West and Iran in general, and US-Iran tensions in particular.
For the past 36 years, the US and Iran have been embroiled in a zero-sum geopolitical struggle. The arena for this contest has been the larger Middle East, where the two have sought to undermine each other at every given opportunity, at the expense of the stability of the region as a whole.
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, US-Iran competition significantly contributed to the destabilization of these two countries. In other countries, the two have funded and backed rivaling groups, adding fuel to an already destabilizing fire.
Even at moments where both sides desired an opportunity to tame their rivalry, the absence of a dialogue between the US and Iran closed off all paths towards de-escalation.
While the JCPOA is primarily a non-proliferation agreement that successfully closes off all weaponization pathways in the Iranian nuclear program, it carries with it significant peace dividends by making diplomacy and dialogue available for conflict resolution – a necessary step to tackle all of the region’s sources of tensions, be they terrorism, sectarianism, or unilateralism.
The region suffers from a diplomacy deficit and the mere fact that the US and Iran can talk to each other again is in and of itself a stabilizing factor for the Middle East and an encouragement for regional rivals to pursue dialogue instead of proxy fights.
Indeed, the carnage in Syria can not be ended in the absence of US-Iran diplomacy. Nor can the threat of the ISIS be neutralized without US-Iran dialogue and possibly cooperation. The plague of sectarianism will not be halted unless the US has the ability to engage with all sides of that divide. The deal can prod constructive diplomacy in ever wider circles across the region in part by providing a successful example of patient, win-win negotiations.
Clearly, the nuclear deal will not automatically or immediately bring stability to the region. But reactivating diplomatic channels between the United States and Iran is a necessary first step. Ultimately, a Middle East, where diplomacy is the norm rather than the exception, will enhance US national security and interests.
Conversely, a Congressional rejection of the deal will further destabilize the region. Such a move will isolate the United States while Iran will be freed from the nuclear constraints the deal would impose on it. Beyond the proliferation risk this would entail, US-Iran tensions will increase once more and reignite Washington and Tehran’s gravitation towards a military confrontation.
As such, we urge the members of the US Congress, as well as the leaders of the P5+1 states and Iran, to swiftly endorse the JCPOA and fully implement it. The historic agreement will prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and can prove that through creative diplomacy, the most complex conflicts can be resolved peacefully
Endorsed by:
1. Prof. Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York
2. Prof. Gordon Adams, Emeritus, American University
3. Prof. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, University of London
4. Prof. Robert Art, Brandeis University
5. Prof. Reza Aslan, University of California Riverside
6. Prof Guitty Azarpay, University of California Berkeley
7. Prof. Kathryn Babayan, University of Michigan
8. Prof. Shiva Balaghi, Brown University
9. Dr. Bahman Baktiari, Executive Director, International Foundation for Civil Society
10. Prof. Ali Banuazizi, Boston College
11. Prof. Asef Bayat, University of Illinois
12. Prof. William O. Beeman, University of Minnesota
13. Prof. Peter Beinart, City University of New York
14. Prof. Seyla Benhabib, Yale University
15. Prof. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Syracuse University
16. Prof. Richard Bulliet, Columbia University
17. Prof. Erica Chenoweth, University of Denver
18. Prof. Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
19. Prof. Juan Cole, University of Michigan
20. Prof. Dale Copeland, University of Virginia
21. Prof. Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
22. Prof. Dick Davis, Ohio State University
23. Prof. Michael C. Desch, University of Notre Dame
24. Prof. Carl W. Ernst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
25. Prof. Hadi S. Esfahani, University of Illinois
26. Prof. John Esposito, Georgetown University
27. Prof. Stephen W. Van Evera, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
28. Prof. Tom Farer, University of Denver
29. Prof. Farideh Farhi, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
30. Prof. Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University
31. Prof. Gene R. Garthwaite, Dartmouth College
32. Prof. Mark Gasiorowski, Tulane University
33. Prof. Fawaz A. Gerges, London School of Economics and Political Science
34. Prof. George C. Herring, University of Kentucky
35. Prof. Robert Jervis, Columbia University
36. Prof. Kevan Harris, University of California Los Angeles
37. Prof. Ross Harrison, Georgetown University
38. Prof. Nader Hashemi, University of Denver
39. Prof. Richard Herrmann, Ohio State University
40. Amb. Robert Hunter, Center for Transatlantic Relations.
41. Prof. Shireen Hunter, Georgetown University
42. Prof. Toby C. Jones, Rutgers University
43. Prof. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland
44. Prof. Arang Keshavarzian, New York University
45. Prof. Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
46. Prof. Rami Khouri, American University, Beirut
47. Prof. Elizabeth Kier, University of Washington
48. Prof. Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
49. Prof. Deborah Welch Larson, University of California Los Angeles
50. Dr. Judith A. Lerner, New York University
51. Prof. Peter Liberman, City University of New York
52. Prof. Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University
53. Prof. John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago
54. Prof. Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California
55. Prof. Mohsen Milani, University of South Florida
56. Prof. Stephen Miller, Harvard University
57. Prof. Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University
58. Prof. Mehdi Noorbaksh, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
59. Prof. Trita Parsi, National Iranian American Council / Georgetown University
60. Prof. Paul Pillar, Georgetown University
61. Prof. D. T. Potts, New York University
62. Prof. William B. Quandt, University of Virginia
63. Prof. R.K. Ramazani, University of Virginia
64. Prof. Brian Spooner, University of Pennsylvania
65. Prof. Tamara Sonn, Georgetown University
66. Prof. Ahmad Sadri, Lake Forest College
67. Prof. Mahmoud Sadri, Texas Woman’s University and the Federation of North Texas Area Universities
68. Prof. Muhammad Sahimi, University of Southern California
69. Prof. Emile Sahliyeh, University of North Texas
70. Prof. Randall Schweller, Ohio State University
71. Dr. John Tirman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
72. Prof. Stephen Walt, Harvard University
73. Prof. Ehsan Yarshater, Columbia University
Added Signatures:
74. Prof. Niloofar Haeri, Johns Hopkins University
75. Prof. Thomas Juneau, University of Ottawa
76. Dr. Abbas Kadhim, Johns Hopkins University
77. Prof. Mohsen Kadivar, Duke University
78. Prof. Philip Khoury, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
79. Prof. Peter Kuznick, American University
80. Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta
81. Prof. Augustus R. Norton, Boston University
82. Prof. Rouzbeh Parsi, Lund University
83. Prof. Omid Safi, Duke University
84. Prof. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Virginia Tech
###Ontario’s former ombudsman is suing for wrongful dismissal, alleging Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals “orchestrated” his removal from public office because he was so critical of them.
Andre Marin waged a Twitter campaign as his second term |
that sport's ever seen."
Sonnen speaks from experience because he practically wrote the book on how to stomach a spoonful of payback and keep a promotional stock booming. Over a four-year span, he did it time and time again. The Mouth from West Linn's run was supposedly done the night Anderson Silva exacted holy vengeance for years of insults and slights. Ditto after Jon Jones did the same in a swifter fashion. Yet there Sonnen was, headlining the launch of FOX Sports 1 and dipping back into the TUF reserves like nothing ever happened.
It is why when Sonnen hears fans -- and worst of all, his fellow fighters -- saying that McGregor got made into an example about writing checks his bravado couldn't cash, Sonnen can't help but shake his head, because all of those voices are missing the point to begin with.
"It's not real anyway. None of it is real," Sonnen says. "I hear fighters all the time. I heard Bryan Caraway the other day. I like Bryan Caraway a lot, I used to train with him, I consider him a friend. But he did an interview, he was talking about the people on Twitter. I've heard Chris Weidman, a world champion, do it. I heard Jon Jones do it today. ‘People on Twitter,' he goes. But that's not real. What do you mean these people on Twitter? I'm looking around going, what are you talking about? None of this is real. Go out and win the fights you can, then go home to your family and put the goddamn computer down and go be a normal person. It's the strangest thing in the world.
"The bottom line is, this is a business. You have to know what you're doing and guys simply don't. They get bad advice or they don't get any advice at all. I watch these mistakes being made left and right and it's just not true. Will Conor take a hit? Yeah, sure. Conor is an A+ right now if you want to put this in school terms. He's an A+. He might fall to an A, he might fall to an A-, but he's still going to be an A. He will be an A-level star and an A-level draw and it's going to do big numbers.
"That won't last forever, but nobody's career does," Sonnen continued. "Go back to the Mike Tyson example I just gave you. He could fight this weekend on HBO and it's not going to do great things. Everybody's got a window, but Conor is most definitely still within his window and he took on a task that was pretty insurmountable. It's never been attempted before, let alone done successfully... and he went out there, he fought well, he sold well, he worked his ass off, and he came in second. So what?"
So what, indeed. It is becoming increasingly likely that McGregor doubles down on the formula that made UFC 196 one of the most successful pay-per-views in UFC history, regardless of its outcome. A welterweight non-title rematch between the Irish champion and Diaz is in the works to headline UFC 200.
Belts be damned; this is about a paycheck. Losing streaks are nothing compared to life-changing cash. Besides, even if McGregor falters, Sonnen is confident the loquacious moneyweight will find a way to keep the train rolling, because that's simply what moneyweights do.
"I would like to think [McGregor] understands that his job is to go out there and entertain," Sonnen said. "His job is to work hard and fight as hard as he can, try to build some great memories, and maybe even put a few dollars away for his family. But that's where it ends. That's it. He doesn't owe anybody else anything. But it's a two-way street, the fans don't owe him anything either. Fighters get their feelings hurt because fans jump off (the bandwagon). The fan doesn't owe you any kind of loyalty. You don't owe the fan and the fan doesn't owe you. It's night by night. Go out and entertain them, give them their money's worth and go home, and that's it.
"I've had private conversations with Conor where he said stuff and I've walked away from the conversation thinking, there's a guy who gets it. There's a young man who's years ahead of his time and understands what this is all about. So I don't think Conor is going to fall off the deep end. Now, I don't like his spending habits, but he's a grown man and can do what he wants."Nigeria may soon purge its reputation as a center for Internet criminals and gain fame as an innovator of online businesses and tech start-ups.Since 2010, there have been more than 50 tech startups in the country. Although still in their infancy, many of them have shown great promise attracting investment from financial heavyweights like Google and JP Morgan.These young tech savvy entrepreneurs say they have been inspired by popular online platforms such as eBay, YouTube and Craigslist. They say they are fashioning their enterprises for tech-savvy Nigerians seeking a break from traditional ways of doing things. Jumia.com.ng provides online retail; Wakanow showcases travel deals; Ibakatv and Irokotv take movies and Afrobeat music online.Others are uniquely created as solutions for local problems. Pagatech offers mobile money transfers; Jobberman.com is a job search website; Co-Creation Hub Nigeria develops local software and mobile phone apps. CC-Hub, as it is also called, recently developed Wayopedia - a repository of scam keywords and phrases that intelligently identifies scam e-mail. They have also developed a mobile social quiz platform, based on the high school curriculum, designed to enhance learning through self-assessment and to fight the high rate of dropping out from high schools.With 45 million Internet users and 100 million mobile phones, Tayo Oviosu, the CEO of Pagatech says the potential for growth is huge.“I tell people who look at Africa, generally, the consumer opportunity of Africa is Nigeria. It is the largest market by far. I think the entire size of Kenya is [the size of] Lagos state," said Oviosu. "The engine of growth in any economy is really start-ups.”Oviosu says Nigeria is in the same position as China and India were 15 years ago. He says, in another 15 years, Nigerian startups could grow into global conglomerates like Tata.After only six months, one of the movies on Ibakatv, “Sexy Criminals”, a Nollywood flick about a female robbery gang, has attracted four million views.Irokotv already has a million subscribers.In just six months of business, Jumia.com.ng, a subsidiary of Rocket Internet, a Berlin-based incubator has already built a 12,000 square foot warehouse close to the Lagos airport. According to a website rating company, Alexa, it is the eighth most-visited local content website in Nigeria.Ayodeji Adewunmi, CEO of Jobberman.com, says his job platform has 500,000 users and 4,000 registered companies on its portal.Pagatech already has more than 300,000 users.Lagos Angel Network, a consortium of 15 technology investors, is already talking of the creation of a Silicon Lagoon modeled after Silicon Valley in California.But Femi Longe, Co-Founder at CC-Hub, says copying success stories elsewhere may not be the way to go in Nigeria.“We’re very obsessed with cloning successful technology products from different parts of the world and trying to force them to work here. Until we get to a stage we start looking at what is the reality and the need here in Nigeria and then creating technology solutions that can address those needs and doing it such a way that we can capture a huge chunk of the Nigerian market, which is sizeable on its own, and then capturing maybe West Africa, then Africa, until then we wouldn’t be able to create solutions that can conquer the world," Longe. "You cannot create a clone here in Nigeria and expect it to be among the top-valued technology brands in the world. Until we can get to that stage where we can look inward and from there look outward, I think the whole idea of Silicon Lagoon is a joke.”Perhaps the strongest sign of the viability of these startups is their ability to endear themselves to notable global investors, says Tayo Kehinde, the co-managing director of Jumia.com.ng “If you can get someone like JP Morgan to commit a significant amount to invest not just in Africa but in a Nigerian start-up, to me, that is to say Nigeria is open for business and in particular e-commerce in Nigeria is open for business and investment,” Kehinde.Global investment bank, JP Morgan, has invested in Jumia.com.ng. Irokotv got $10 million from American and Swedish investors. Pagatech has a string of foreign investors and Google is partnering with Ibakatv and CC-Hub.Although there is no clear policy thrust from government on how to support these tech startups, there are some signs that this might not be the case for long.The Lagos state government launched the Innovation Advisory Council in 2011 to help promote innovations in the state. Nigeria’s government says it has provided $3.5 million to build two tech incubation centers in Lagos and Calabar.Part of the reason that government involvement may be necessary is that doing business in Nigeria is very challenging. The World Bank ranks Nigeria at 131 out of 185 countries for the ease of doing business. This hostile business environment is even more suffocating for tech startups.After years of global notoriety as a center for Internet fraud, Ayodeji Adewunmi says correcting the negative perception is the biggest challenge the tech startups in Nigeria grapple with.There is also the challenge posed by decaying infrastructure. Tayo Kehinde says heavy traffic in places like Lagos severely hampers the delivery of items bought online.Erratic power supply is also exerting huge financial pressure on startups. Bosun Tijani, Co-Founder at CC-Hub, says the company spends more than $2,000 a month to power its own generators.Despite the obstacles, these young Nigerian tech entrepreneurs say they remain optimistic and still say a day is ahead when Nigeria will have its own Silicon Lagoon.Burg Eltz Castle (German: Burg Eltz) is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany.
It is still owned by a branch of the same family (the Eltz family) that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago.
Bürresheim Castle (Schloss Bürresheim), Burg Eltz Castle and Lissingen Castle are the only castles on the left bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate which has never been destroyed.
Location
The Burg Eltz Castle is surrounded on three sides by the Elzbach River, a tributary on the north side of the Moselle. It is on a 70-meter (230 ft) rock spur, on an important Roman trade route between rich farmlands and their markets.
The Eltz Forest has been declared a nature reserve by Flora-Fauna-Habitat and Natura 2000.
Description
The Burg Eltz Castle is a so-called Ganerbenburg, or castle belonging to a community of joint heirs.
This is a castle divided into several parts, which belong to different families or different branches of a family; this usually occurs when multiple owners of one or more territories jointly build a castle to house themselves.
Only a very rich medieval European lord could afford to build a castle on his land; many of them only owned one village, or even only a part of a village.
This was an insufficient base to afford a castle.
Such lords lived in a knight’s house, which was a simple house, scarcely bigger than those of his tenants.
In some parts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, inheritance law required that the estate is divided between all successors.
These successors, each of whose individual inheritance was too small to build a castle of his own, could build a castle together, where each owned one separate part for housing and all of them together with shared the defensive fortification.
In the case of Burg Eltz Castle, the family comprised three branches and the existing castle was enhanced with three separate complexes of buildings.
The main part of the castle consists of the family portions. At up to eight stories, these eight towers reach heights of between 30 and 40 meters (98 and 131 ft).
They are fortified with strong exterior walls; to the yard, they present a partial framework. About 100 members of the owners’ families lived in the over 100 rooms of the castle.
History
Platteltz, a Romanesque keep, is the oldest part of the castle, having begun in the 9th century as a simple manner with an earthen palisade.
By 1157 the fortress was an important part of the empire under Frederick Barbarossa, standing astride the trade route from the Moselle Valley and the Eifel region.
In 1472 the Rübenach house, built in the Late Gothic style, was completed. Remarkable are the Rübenach Lower Hall, a living room, and the Rübenach bedchamber with its opulently decorated walls.
Between 1490 and 1540, the Rodendorf house was constructed, also in Late Gothic style. It contains the vaulted “banner-room“.
The Kempenich houses were finished about 1530. Every room of this part of the castle could be heated; in contrast, other castles might only have one or two heated rooms.
Today
The Rübenach and Rodendorf families’ homes in the castle are open to the public, while the Kempenich branch of the family uses the other third of the castle.
The public is admitted seasonally, from April to October.
Visitors can view the treasury, with gold, silver and porcelain artifacts and the armory of weapons and suits of armor.All photos courtesy of Kris Wolf
As her name suggests, Kris Wolf is a wolf trapped in a human's body, and every night she roams the streets of Tokyo for meat. In a former life, she was in her mid-20s, engaged, and working as a freelance photographer in the Bay Area. But when her engagement fell apart, she accepted an invitation to live with a friend in Japan. Originally it was supposed to be a 20-day vacation, but after cycling the hinterlands and camping in the wilderness, the country became her new home.
Like many expats, Wolf took an unsatisfying job teaching English to stay in the country, but she kept her eyes open for something a little more physically stimulating. One day, a colleague mentioned that she had seen a women's pro wrestling match, and the transformation began.
Read more: The Women Who Get Paid to Beat Up Men and Choke Them Senseless
"My friend told me to check out this one company, and I watched a couple videos, and oh my God—it was all these cute little girls in shiny costumes flying around, throwing each other, kneeing each other in the face, and not dying," Wolf says. "You're an action star."
The company Wolf is signed to is called World Wonder Ring Stardom, one of the many women's wrestling promotions, or joshi puroresu, in the country, and the women on joshi rosters are responsible for some of the most brutal matches in all of pro wrestling. The outcomes are predetermined, and the performers/fighters do their best to keep each other safe, but scripted or not, getting kicked in the face is still getting kicked in the face.
"Joshi is even more hard-hitting than a lot of men's wrestling," says Enuhito, a Japanese reporter and blogger who's been covering the industry since 1998. "Being cute or beautiful is not as important as being strong. The women who compete are physically small, so they can receive violent moves with no severe damage. A lot of male wrestlers say, 'If we did they same thing, we'd be dead.'"
Over the past few years, America's WWE has worked hard to modernize and legitimize their women's division—the mud wrestling and bra-and-panties matches are relics of a distant era—but work in the ring is still handled carefully. If you tune into an episode of Monday Night Raw, you'll never see a female superstar take an unprotected roundhouse punch to the face, or get dumped on the back of their neck. The violent physical freedoms reserved for joshi are hard to find anywhere else in the world.
Kris Wolf's character is, literally, a wolf. She comes out to the ring in a tuft of gray fur, and recently cut a hilarious, surreal promo where she threatened to beat up a child. "I like delicious meat—are you delicious meat? Do you want to fight me? Please call me! Bye!" She didn't grow up watching wrestling, and this is all still pretty new for her, but you can tell she's having a great time.
"These things generally attract a male audience, but upon seeing [joshi] for the first time, I wanted to be involved because I wanted to pass it on to the young girls in the world," she tells me. "Because there are other weirdos like me that don't feel like they fit in."
Japan has become the vanguard for a generation of ultra-talented female athletes in the wrestling business. Some of WWE's top stars—Becky Lynch, Natalya Neidhart—cut their teeth overseas; current NXT Women's Champion Asuka is a direct import from joshi; and Sasha Banks, who might be the very best wrestler, regardless of gender, in the entire company, grew up watching the legendary (and currently defunct) All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. This is a very fertile ground, but it's so aggressive that it can still feel a little bit like contraband.
Read more: Meet the Cholita Wrestlers Beating Down the Patriarchy in Bolivia
I asked Wolf if she ever feels like joshi is fetishized by the men who come to the shows.
"I think about that a lot," she says. "I look at American pro wrestling, where the majority of the fans are men and that's not necessarily a fetishized thing. But I'm not trying to dismiss it either. Camera lenses do come out when you're in a short skirt and the booty is popping."
Joshi promotions, as a genre, have built a business model on being the only place where you can watch women tear each other up in the ring with a basically limitless amount of violence, cruelty, and ferocity, and it's part of a long history pro wrestling has with sexual borderlands. Valid or not, a room full of men paying money to watch a roster of women fight carries plenty of implications.
"I think I can say it is fetishistic, but specifically for men," says Enuhito. "Female fans see these wrestlers as'strong heroines' or Takarazuka [a Japanese theater troupe in which all the roles of both genders are played by women]. But for certain men, it does contain something fetishistic."
In other words, joshi is complicated: In some ways it's unfair to write off the one dominion in the industry that promotes apparently unbridled athletic liberation for women as just another vamp for horny dollars, but the male gaze can be difficult to shake. Kevin Wilson, an American who runs the joshi fan site Puroresu Central, is sensitive to those accusations, saying it's a stereotype that he'd like to uproot.
"I can honestly say I have never met a joshi fan that watches it because watching two women wrestle gets them excited—it's basically the same as the men's promotion in Japan, just with women instead," he says. "Aside from an occasional comedy match, the wrestlers don't play up their sexuality during the matches. So while I can't say that no one watches joshi for that reason, based on my personal interactions, it's a very small percentage. And they keep it to themselves."
For the most part, Wilson is right. The discourse surrounding joshi is almost always centered around the work in the ring, but it's impossible to say it never dips into lustful territory. Joshifans.com, one of the more active Western joshi communities, hosts a subforum called "Wrestler Love" that, among other things, serves as a place to post provocative photos of the talent. A retired wrestler and current referee, Mio Shirai is one of the most prominent figures in the scene, and she's also released softcore DVDs.
But that doesn't negate the fact that, on its best days, joshi is a place of freedom—one of the few spaces in pro wrestling where women can express themselves with the full extent of their athleticism without worrying about the manicured, reality-show demands of the WWE. But, like most things in the wrestling business, it can also be gendered, othered, and prurient. While Kris Wolf knows the idea that Japan is the Mecca for women in the wrestling business is reductive and dishonest, she still found empowerment in the purity of a stiff kick to the ribs. It hasn't always been easy, but she's found a home.
"I had a break due to injury, and I battled myself the entire time," Wolf tells me. "Why do I subject myself to this pain? What about this makes it worth it? That's the thing about getting what you want—you don't see the full picture at first. You're infatuated, and then you start to learn more. There are so many different layers and levels. Now I feel like [joshi and I are] an old couple who worked through their marriage issues—it makes you question, do I really want this? Maybe they haven't always loved each other, but they worked through it, because it's worth it."It’s no secret that Blizzard has ideated hundreds of heroes for Overwatch, far more than have ultimately made it into the game. But few of those characters left on the cutting room floor have been as compelling as the character known as “Jetpack Cat.”
Game director Jeff Kaplan revealed the existence of Jetpack Cat earlier this year in an interview with GameSpot. It was an early concept that was beloved internally, he said, but recognized as “too ridiculous for Overwatch.”
At BlizzCon today, Kaplan and lead character concept artist Arnold Tsang showed off some of the earliest ideas for Overwatch, which was born from the ashes of Blizzard’s canceled MMO, Titan. Jetpack Cat was created during that time of exploration, Kaplan said, but as amusing as the concept was, it “felt like we were slipping out of the universe” they were building.
There were at least two ideas for Jetpack Cat: one a puckish cartoon cat with a heroic streak and another (perhaps more accurate) lazy version who uses his jetpack as a mobile recliner of sorts.
As it turns out, Jetpack Cat wasn’t the only flying animal Blizzard dreamt up during Overwatch’s early days. Here are some other early hero ideas.
Yes, that is a flying alligator. That hero is joined by a few other wild ideas, including a free-flying monkey with a flamethrower, a gargoyle, a four-legged simian mech and “a creepy kid with a goatee” and a flaming head.
There may be hope for Jetpack Cat and Flying Alligator to return someday, however, as Kaplan noted “these might be ideas for another game, but not Overwatch.”
Kaplan has also talked about one of the other straight-up bizarre ideas, known only as the Hockey Hero (who kind of made it into the game as a skin for Lúcio). Here’s a peek at Hockey Hero, as well as an alien creature and a hero in a full bomb suit.
Finally, here’s a look at an idea board of heroes from Overwatch’s earliest days, when Blizzard staffers were playing with about 50 ideas for characters. Some of those concepts we’ve seen before. Some are very close to their final implementation in Overwatch. There are nascent versions of Mei (Frost), Reinhardt (when he was an African warrior known as Wildebeest), Mercy (Angelica), Pharah (then known as Mercy) and others. Perhaps the most interesting early idea is that Torbjorn (Ironclad) once attacked foes with... a bowling ball."EGOT" redirects here. For other uses, see EGOT (disambiguation)
Fifteen people[1][2] have won all four major annual American entertainment awards in a competitive, individual (non-group) category of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT) Awards. Respectively, these awards honor outstanding achievements in television, recording, film, and theater.[3] Winning all four awards has been referred to as winning the "grand slam" of American show business.[4][5]
The EGOT acronym was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas in late 1984, when his role on the new hit show Miami Vice brought instant fame, stating a desire to complete his own EGOT-winning collection.[6][7] When coining the acronym, Thomas stated that it also means "energy, growth, opportunity and talent".[8] However, he also intended that the "E" should only stand for the Primetime Emmy Award, and not a Daytime Emmy nor any of the awards presented at the other types of Emmy ceremonies.[9] Nevertheless, two of the 15 people listed as EGOT winners have won only the Daytime Emmy.
None of the 15 EGOT winners have actually won the awards in the acronym's order (first an Emmy, then a Grammy, then an Oscar, and finally a Tony), nor have they won each award to complete the EGOT before winning another (e.g. Audrey Hepburn, who won her awards in OTTETOG order). The closest person has been Robert Lopez, who won the "grand slam" in TEGO order.
Winners of all four awards
To date, fifteen individuals have won all four awards in competitive categories.
Name Completed
(year span) Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony Completion Year Age at time of completion Category(s) 17 1962 1960 1945 1950 1962 59.9 years Composer 45 1953 1977 1932 1947 1977 76.4 years Actress 16 1977 1972 1961 1975 1977 45.8 years Actress/Singer 30 1991 1979 1981 1961 1991 87.4 years Actor/Director 41 1993 1994 1953 1954 1994 63.7 years Actress 23 1995 1974 1973 1976 1995 51.3 years Composer 20 1982 1988 1977 1997 1997 59.1 years Composer/Conductor 34 1967 1998 1968 2001 2001 74.9 years Writer/Composer/Actor 40 2001 1961 1967 1964 2001 70 years Director/Comedian 17 2002 1986 1991 2002 2002 46.6 years Comedian/Actress/Host 28 1984 2012 2008 1994 2012 53.6 years Producer 10 2008 2012 2014 2004 2014 39 years Composer 12 2018 2006 2015 2017 2018 39.7 years Singer/Composer/Producer 38 2018 1980 1996 1980 2018 70.5 years Composer/Producer 38 2018 1980 1993 1980 2018 73.8 years Lyricist/Producer
Notes:
^1 The artist also subsequently won one or more additional competitive awards.
^2 The artist also received one or more honorary or non-competitive awards.
^3 The artist also earned the Triple Crown of Acting, with singular (non-group/ensemble/company) acting wins in the Emmy, Oscar and Tony awards.
^4 The artist has won a Daytime Emmy Award, not a Primetime Emmy Award.
^5 The artist was awarded posthumously.
^6 The artist has subsequently achieved multiple EGOTs.
^7 Legend, Lloyd Webber, and Rice achieved their EGOTs simultaneously with their shared Emmy Award for producing Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
Including non-competitive or special
Six other artists – Liza Minnelli, James Earl Jones, Barbra Streisand, Alan Menken, Harry Belafonte and Quincy Jones – have also received all four awards, but at least one of the awards was non-competitive, i.e. special or honorary in nature (Streisand's Tony, both Jones' Oscars, Minnelli's Grammy, Menken's Emmy, and Belafonte's Oscar).[3]
The following are the six artists who also have won the four major awards but not exclusively in the main competitive categories.
Qualifying awards summary (competitive only)
Richard Rodgers
In 1962, Richard Rodgers became the first person to win all four awards.
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), a composer, received his fourth distinct award in 1962. Between 1945 and 1979, Rodgers received a total of 13 awards.
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes became the second person and first woman to win all four awards in 1977.
Helen Hayes (1900–1993), an actress, received her fourth distinct award in 1977. Between 1932 and 1980, Hayes received a total of 7 awards. She was the first woman to win all four. Hayes was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting, with singular (non-group/ensemble/company) acting wins in each of the Emmy, Oscar and Tony awards, winning her third in 1953. Counting only the first award of each type, she also has the distinction of the longest timespan (45 years) between her first and fourth award of any showbiz Grand Slam winner.
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno became the third person and first Latino person to win all four awards in 1977.
Rita Moreno (born 1931), an actress, received her fourth distinct award in 1977. Between 1961 and 1978, Moreno received a total of five awards.[10] She is also the first Hispanic winner and the first winner to win a Grammy as their second award (both previous winners won Tonys as their second award). In addition, she became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2015.
John Gielgud
In 1991, John Gielgud became the fourth person and, at age 87, the oldest person to win all four awards.
John Gielgud (1904–2000), an actor, received his fourth distinct award in 1991. Between 1948 and 1991, Gielgud received a total of six awards. Gielgud was the first winner to win any award other than the Oscar as their first award (his first award was a Tony). At age 87 when he won his Emmy, he was also the oldest winner.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn became the fifth person to win all four awards, and the first to complete it posthumously.
Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), an actress, received her fourth distinct award posthumously in 1994. Between 1953 and 1994, Hepburn received a total of six awards. She was the fifth person to complete the feat and the first to do so posthumously. She was also the first winner to win two of their awards in consecutive awards shows (the 1994 Grammys were the first Grammys since her posthumous win at the 1993 Emmys). She is one of the only two EGOT winners (the other being Jonathan Tunick) to not win multiple awards in any of the four award fields.
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch (shown with his wife Terre Blair ) became the sixth person to win all four awards in 1995. He has the most Oscars of any EGOT winners.
Marvin Hamlisch (1944–2012), a composer, received his fourth distinct award in 1995. Between 1973 and 2001, Hamlisch received a total of 12 awards. Hamlisch has the most Oscars of any Grand Slam winners (three). In 1974 he became the first winner to have won a "General Field" Grammy – taking Song of the Year and Best New Artist. He was also the first Grand Slam winner to have won multiple legs of the feat for the same work – an Oscar and a Grammy for song "The Way We Were".
Jonathan Tunick
Jonathan Tunick (born 1938), a composer, conductor, and music arranger, received his fourth distinct award in 1997. Between 1977 and 1997, Tunick received a total of four awards. Tunick is the first Grand Slam winner to have won an Emmy as their second award as well as the first to win the Tony as their fourth award. He is also the second person (after Audrey Hepburn) to not win any multiple awards in any of the four award fields.
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks became the eighth person to win all four awards in 2001 as well as the first person to win the Emmy as the first of the four awards.
Mel Brooks (born 1926), a director, writer and actor, received his fourth distinct award in June 2001. Between 1968 and 2002, Brooks received a total of 11 awards.[11] Brooks was the first person to win the Emmy as the first award, and the first winner to have won his Oscar for screenwriting.
When he appeared on the January 30, 2015 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Brooks called himself an EGOTAK, noting that he had also received awards from the American Film Institute and Kennedy Center.
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols became the ninth person to win all four awards, and had the longest timespan - fifty-one years - of all the grand slam winners.
Mike Nichols (1931–2014), a director, actor and comedian, received his fourth distinct award in November 2001. Between 1961 and 2012, Nichols received a total of 15 awards. Nichols was the first slam winner to win the Grammy as their first award, the first winner to have won multiple awards (an Oscar, several Tonys, and two Emmys) for directing. When counting all awards won—not just the first of each type—Nichols has the longest timespan of awards among Grand Slam winners, at 51 years.
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg (born 1955), an actress, comedian and talk-show host, received her fourth distinct award in 2002. Between 1985 and 2009, Goldberg received a total of 6 awards.[12] Goldberg is the first African American winner, the first to win the Oscar as their second award, and the first to win two of their awards in the same year (she won both her first Daytime Emmy and her Tony in 2002).
Academy Awards: 1991: Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Ghost
Daytime Emmy Awards: 2002: Outstanding Special Class Special – Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (Host) 2009: Outstanding Talk Show Host – The View
Grammy Awards: 1986: Best Comedy Recording – Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording
Tony Awards: 2002: Best Musical – Thoroughly Modern Millie
Special Awards: 1997: Special Emmy Award, Governors Award, for the seven Comic Relief Benefit Specials
Notes: Although she has not won a competitive Primetime Emmy award, she has been nominated several times. The fact that she does not have a competitive Primetime Emmy Award has led to debate over her inclusion in the "official list." In the 30 Rock episode "Dealbreakers Talk Show*#0001", Goldberg (playing herself) addresses this when questioned by character Tracy Jordan about her Daytime Emmy: "It still counts! Girl's gotta eat!"
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin (born 1958) received his fourth distinct award in 2012. Between 1984 and 2017, Rudin received a total of 18 awards making him the record holder for most awards won among the people who have won all four awards in competitive categories. Rudin is the first winner who is primarily a producer.
Robert Lopez
Avenue Q partner Jeff Marx) became the twelfth person to win all four awards, the first Filipino and Asian and the youngest person to achieve this feat, the fastest to achieve the feat (10 years), and the only person to achieve multiple EGOTs. Robert Lopez (right, shown withpartner Jeff Marx) became the twelfth person to win all four awards, the first Filipino and Asian and the youngest person to achieve this feat, the fastest to achieve the feat (10 years), and the only person to achieve multiple EGOTs.
Robert Lopez (born 1975), a songwriter, received his fourth distinct award in 2014. Between 2004 and 2018, Lopez received a total of 10 awards. Like fellow EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, his Emmy awards are Daytime Emmys (although he has been nominated for three competitive Primetime Emmy awards). Lopez is the first Filipino and Asian to achieve this feat. He is also the youngest winner to receive all four awards in competitive categories, as well as the fastest to complete his qualifying run of EGOT award wins (10 years), and the first to complete any run of EGOT wins in under 4 years (3 years, 8 months).
He received his Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon in collaboration with fellow EGOT winner Scott Rudin (among others), making them the first pair of Grand Slam winners to have been co-winners of the same award. Lopez is also the first person to have won the Oscar last, which he won with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez.[13] He is also the first winner to also win the so-called "Double EGOT", winning each EGOT award twice.[14][15]
John Legend
[16] Legend is the first black male to reach EGOT status.
John Legend (born 1978), a musician and producer, received his fourth distinct award in 2018. Between 2006 and 2018, Legend received a total of 13 awards. Legend has won the most Grammy awards, 10, of any EGOT recipient, and is the second recipient, after Marvin Hamlisch, who is primarily a musician. In addition to being the first black man to achieve EGOT status,[17] Legend is the first person to receive the four awards |
51% of Protestants and 33% of all respondents felt "Not at all Irish", while 62% of Catholics and 28% of all respondents felt "Not at all British".[73][74][citation needed]
Recent history [ edit ]
Religions in Ireland [ edit ]
In the Republic of Ireland, as of 2011, 3,861,335 people or about 84.16% of the population are Roman Catholic.[75] In Northern Ireland about 41.6% of the population are Protestant (19.1% Presbyterian, 13.7% Church of Ireland, 3.0% Methodist, 5.8% Other Christian) whilst approximately 40.8% are Catholic as of 2011.
The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin in 1932, that year being the supposed 1,500th anniversary of Saint Patrick's arrival. Ireland was then home to 3,171,697 Catholics, about a third of whom attended the Congress.[76][77] It was noted in Time Magazine that the Congress' special theme would be "the Faith of the Irish".[76] The massive crowds were repeated at Pope John Paul II's Mass in Phoenix Park in 1979.[78] The idea of faith has affected the question of Irish identity even in relatively recent times, apparently more so for Catholics and Irish-Americans. Today the majority of Irish people in the Republic of Ireland identify as Catholic, although church attendance have significantly dropped in recent decades. In Northern Ireland, where almost 50% of the population is Protestant, there has also been a decline in attendances.
What defines an Irishman? His faith, his place of birth? What of the Irish-Americans? Are they Irish? Who is more Irish, a Catholic Irishman such as James Joyce who is trying to escape from his Catholicism and from his Irishness, or a Protestant Irishman like Oscar Wilde who is eventually becoming Catholic? Who is more Irish... someone like C.S. Lewis, an Ulster Protestant, who is walking towards it, even though he never ultimately crosses the threshold?[79]
This has been a matter of concern over the last century for the followers of nationalist ideologists such as DP Moran.
Irish identity [ edit ]
Thomas Davis, a prominent Protestant Irish nationalist who founded the Young Ireland movement, identified the Irish as a Celtic nation.[80] He estimated that ethnically, 5/6ths of the nation were either of Gaelic Irish-origin, descended from returned Scottish Gaels (including much of the Ulster Scots) and some Celtic Welsh (such as his own ancestors and those carrying surnames such as Walsh and Griffiths).[80] As part of this he was a staunch supporter of the Irish language as the "national language".[80] In regards to the Germanic minority in Ireland (of Norman and Anglo-Saxon origin) he believed that they could be assimilated into Irishness if they had a "willingness to be part of the Irish Nation".[81]
Europe [ edit ]
The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the European Community in 1973, and Irish citizens became additionally Citizens of the European Union with the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. This brought a further question for the future of Irish identity; whether Ireland was "closer to Boston than to Berlin:"
History and geography have placed Ireland in a very special location between America and Europe... As Irish people our relationships with the United States and the European Union are complex. Geographically we are closer to Berlin than Boston. Spiritually we are probably a lot closer to Boston than Berlin. – Mary Harney, Tánaiste, 2000[82]
Irish diaspora [ edit ]
The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and nations of the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados. These countries all have large minorities of Irish descent, who in addition form the core of the Catholic Church in those countries.
Many famous and influential figures have claimed Irish ancestry such as Che Guvara, Walt Disney, Barack Obama, JFK, Muhammad Ali and Maréchal The 1st Duke of Magenta, the second President of the Third Republic.
Many Irish people were also transported to the island of Montserrat, to work as indentured servants, exiled prisoners or slaves. Unlike African chattel slaves, the majority of Irish labourers who were sent to Montserrat did so by personal choice although they were tricked into doing so by the promise of payment and land of which they did not receive.[83] Some were exiled by the English Oliver Cromwell due to the large Irish population and their attempted rebellion on 17 March 1768. To this day, the Island celebrates St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday to commemorate the event.[84] People of Irish descent also feature strongly in Latin America, especially in Argentina and important minorities in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. In 1995, President Mary Robinson reached out to the "70 million people worldwide who can claim Irish descent".[85] Today the diaspora is believed to contain an estimated 80 million people.[86]
There are also large Irish communities in some mainland European countries, notably in Spain, France and Germany. Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish departed Ireland to serve in the wars on the Continent, in a constant emigration romantically styled the "Flight of the Wild Geese" and, before that, in the 'Flight of the Earls', just before the Plantation of Ulster.[87] In the early years of the English Civil War, a French traveller remarked that the Irish "are better soldiers abroad than at home".[88] Later, Irish brigades in France and Spain fought in the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars.[87] In the words of Field Marshal The 1st Duke of Wellington, the Irish-born 'Iron Duke', a notable representative of the Irish military diaspora, "Ireland was an inexhaustible nursery for the finest soldiers".[89]
The British Legion were units that fought under Simón Bolívar against Spain for the independence of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. Venezuelans called them the Albion Legion. They were composed of over seven thousand volunteers, mainly Napoleonic War veterans from Great Britain and Ireland. Volunteers in the British Legion were motivated by a combination of both genuine political and mercenary motives.[90] The most famous cause of emigration was the Great Famine of the late 1840s. A million are thought to have emigrated to Liverpool as a result of the famine.[91] For both the Irish in Ireland and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory[92] and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements.
John Carroll, first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States
People of Irish descent are the second largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States, after German Americans. Nine of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence were of Irish origin.[93] Among them was the sole Catholic signatory, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, whose family were the descendants of Ely O'Carroll, an Irish prince who had suffered under Cromwell.[94] At least twenty-five presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins, including George Washington.[95][96][97][98] Since John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, every American President (with the exception of Gerald Ford and Donald Trump) has had some Irish blood.[99][100][101] An Irish-American, James Hoban, was the designer of the White House. Commodore John Barry, who was born in County Wexford, was the father of the United States Navy.[102]
In the mid-19th century, large numbers of Irish immigrants were conscripted into Irish regiments of the United States Army at the time of the Mexican–American War. The vast majority of the 4,811 Irish-born soldiers served in the U.S. Army, but some defected to the Mexican Army, primarily to escape mistreatment by Anglo-Protestant officers and the strong anti-Catholic discrimination in America.[103] These were the San Patricios, or Saint Patrick's Battalion—a group of Irish led by Galway-born John O'Riley, with some German, Scottish and American Catholics.[103] They fought until their surrender at the decisive Battle of Churubusco, and were executed outside Mexico City by the American government on 13 September 1847.[103] The battalion is commemorated in Mexico each year on 12 September.[104]
During the 18th and 19th centuries, 300,000 free emigrants and 45,000 convicts left Ireland to settle in Australia.[105] Today, Australians of Irish descent are one of the largest self-reported ethnic groups in Australia, after English and Australian. In the 2006 Census, 1,803,741 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry.[106] However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as 'Australian' or other ancestries. The Australian embassy in Dublin states that up to 30 percent of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry.[107]
It is believed that as many as 30,000 Irish people emigrated to Argentina between the 1830s and the 1890s.[8] This was encouraged by the clergy, as they considered a Catholic country, Argentina, preferable to a Protestant United States. This flow of emigrants dropped sharply when assisted passage to Australia was introduced at which point the Argentine government responded with their own scheme and wrote to Irish bishops, seeking their support. However, there was little or no planning for the arrival of a large number of immigrants, no housing, no food.[108] Many died, others made their way to the United States and other destinations, some returned to Ireland, a few remained and prospered. Thomas Croke Archbishop of Cashel, said: "I most solemnly conjure my poorer countrymen, as they value their happiness hereafter, never to set foot on the Argentine Republic however tempted to do so they may be by offers of a passage or an assurance of comfortable homes."[109] Some famous Argentines of Irish descent include Che Guevara, former president Edelmiro Julián Farrell, and admiral William Brown. There are people of Irish descent all over South America, such as the Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins and the Peruvian photographer Mario Testino. Although some Irish retained their surnames intact, others were assimilated into the Spanish vernacular. The last name O'Brien, for example, became Obregón.
People of Irish descent are also one of the largest self-reported ethnic groups in Canada, after English, French and Scottish Canadians. As of 2006, Irish Canadians number around 4,354,155.[7]
References [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The DC Collectibles March 2014 Solicits have been released. These are the new product solicitations for products that are going to be shipping in June of 2014. Some of the products, like the Earth 2 action figures we have already seen, but most of the other products appear to be items that have never been seen before.
DC COMICS – The NEW 52 EARTH 2 BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, THE FLASH AND WONDER WOMAN ACTION FIGURES
Based on designs by EARTH 2 artist Nicola Scott, this is the latest action figure line from DC Collectibles, featuring four heroes who are familiar yet somehow different: Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman!
BATMAN – 6.75″
WONDER WOMAN – 6.75″
GREEN LANTERN – 6.75″
THE FLASH – 6.75″
EACH FIGURE SOLD SEPARATELY
* Action Figures * $24.95 US • On Sale June 2014
* Allocations May Occur
DC COMICS COVER GIRLS POISON IVY STATUE
DESIGNED BY STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU
SCULPTED BY JACK MATHEWS
The line of statues designed by artist Stanley “Artgerm” Lau featuring the fantastic female heroes and villains of DC Comics continues with this breathtaking figure of Arkham Asylum inmate Poison Ivy that’ll leave you itching for more.
Limited Edition of 5,200
Measures Approximately 9.7″ Tall
$99.95 US • On Sale June 2014 * Allocations May Occur
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL SUPERMAN STATUE
DESIGNED BY ED MCGUINNESS
SCULPTED BY JAMES SHOOP
Popular artist Ed McGuinness brings his unique artistic style to DC Collectibles with this stunning statue of the Man of Steel worthy of a place in the Fortress of Solitude’s trophy room.
Limited Edition of 5,200
Measures Approximately 7.5″ Tall
$79.95 US • On Sale June 2014
* Allocations May Occur
THE FLASH VS. GORILLA GRODD PATINA MINI STATUE
The Scarlet Speedster against the smartest simian in the world! The Flash takes on his archenemy Gorilla Grodd with this special resin statue.
Measures Approximately 6.75″ Tall
$124.95 US • On Sale June 2014
* Allocations May Occur
1:1 SCALE WHITE POWER BATTERY & RING PROP REPLICA
Bring the light of life into your home with this stunning replica White Lantern Power Battery and Ring.
Measures Approximately 11″ Tall
$199.95 US • On Sale June 2014
* Allocations May Occur
BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY RABBIT HOLE BATMAN ACTION FIGURE
From inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City comes Rabbit Hole Batman pulled from Mad Hatter’s twisted mission. Based on the blockbuster video game published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, developed by Rocksteady Studios and licensed by DC Entertainment.
$24.95 US • On Sale June 2014
Action Figure * Allocations May Occur
DC NATION: DEADMAN & CROW PLUSH FIGURE 2-PACK
Straight from DC Nation, it’s Deadman and his faithful friend Crow! This plush pair captures the creepy fun of this new DC Nation series!
DEADMAN – 6.75″
CROW – 6.75″
$39.95 US • On Sale June 2014
Allocations May OccurARLINGTON, TX - DECEMBER 29: Bryce Brown #34 of the Philadelphia Eagles scores a fourth quarter touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium on December 29, 2013 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Even the most devout fan would struggle to label the 2014 Dallas Cowboys as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
In fact, if the season were to be played 50,000 times, would the Cowboys win a single ring? According to PredictionMachine.com, the answer is no.
The site, which simulates each game and the season 50,000 times, forecasts the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl 0.0 percent of the time. The Cowboys are rated as the 26th best team in the NFL, and 4th best in the NFC East.
While the offense — led by Dez Bryant, DeMarco Murray and a young, athletic offensive line — is viewed as the league’s 6th best, the defense is once again considered the team’s Achilles’ heel. The prediction site forecasts that the Cowboys will have the 32nd-rated defense in the NFL. That’s dead last.
The New York Giants are forecasted to win the NFC East, with Philadelphia and Washington close behind.
Dallas has a 5.9-percent chance of qualifying for the playoffs, that compared to much better odds for Philadelphia (46.5 percent), New York (45.7 percent), and Washington (35.7 percent).
The Cowboys’ schedule could factor heavily into the simulation, as 9 of the Cowboys 16 opponents are forecasted to make the playoffs. That’s tied for the most in the NFL.
And while the Cowboys are long shots to reach Super Bowl XLIX, the predicted match-up is a familiar one. The Broncos and Seahawks will once again meet, but this time, it’s Manning and the Broncos coming out on top.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Top Trending:My Matcha Green Tea Powder arrived the other day and I was very excited to use it in my baking, I thought about making a cake, but I’ve done a lot of cakes recently, so reverted back to cookies and these are super tasty, I was really surprised at the taste, it’s really hard to explain, but let’s just say, yummy! I’m definitely going to bake a cake next time to see how it comes out!!
Last day of the football season today, so going to have to find some other way to while away the hours on a weekend!
Might need to go look on the internet to see if I can get my hands on some cocoa butter as I fancy making a white chocolate dessert, but can’t get cocoa butter here! I also want Goji berries and some Maca powder amongst many other things!
Matcha & Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan & Gluten Free)
MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range
Makes 6 cookies – Ready in 30 minutes
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Matcha Green Tea Powder
1/2 cup Buckwheat flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup oats
2 tbsp non dairy milk (I used almond)
6 walnut halves roughly chopped
2 tbsp vegan dark chocolate chips
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with parchment
2. In a mixing bowl mix together the peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla extract until smooth, stir through the matcha green tea powder, now add the buckwheat, baking powder, oats, walnuts, chocolate chips and almond milk and mix everything together until a stiff dough comes together
3. Using your hands separate the mixture into 6 balls, flatten them in the palm of your hand and place on the baking tray, pop in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until almost firm, remove from heat. You can eat them just as they are or like me, you can melt your favourite dark chocolate and drizzle over the top!Several times in Generation B, and in a parenting column before, I wrote about my daughter and three sons, now ages 15 to 22. Before going, I thought it only fair to give their side. And so, I hand it over to my son Sam, 19, a twin who just finished his sophomore year of college:
THIS is being written to give you firsthand proof of my dad’s uniquely bizarre parenting system that made us who we are today, but not always intentionally. I will attempt to illustrate his confusingly liberal but strangely confining restrictions throughout my childhood.
From third grade on, compared with our friends, our restrictions were much tighter. My dad would not let us miss school unless we were clearly sick, his rule being ‘guilty until proven innocent,’ which meant a serious medical condition. I had poison ivy all over my face junior year of high school and my dad made me go to school that entire week.
We couldn’t watch TV in the morning unless it was the weekend. We never had any type of video games and had to read for 30 minutes a day. My dad always loves having sit-down traditional family dinners, meaning we ate together about 5.9 days out of the week. Things got really bad when we were in high school because we had an early curfew that was very often ruined because of late and binding family dinners. He almost never let us sleep over at our friends’ houses — he was huge on family time — and he was always nosy when it came to how we were doing in school.
Junior and senior years were when my twin, Adam, and I struggled most to understand how to deal with Dad’s rules (mainly unnecessary and strict). Our curfew was considerably earlier than our friends’ and our punishment was usually the worst. There were stretches when we found ourselves grounded more nights than not for doing things like getting in trouble in school or doing poorly, coming home smelling of alcohol or pulling various stupid stunts and pranks. On an opportunity scale of 9 weekend nights a month, we probably got out 3.7 times. (Definitely not our choice.)
But when we were grounded, we were allowed to hang out with our friends and run around during the day because he couldn’t stand keeping us from having a little bit of fun.
Another argument we always had was about cellphones. Out of everyone in our school, Adam and I were the last ones to get phones. And what made it worse was the first few years my dad wouldn’t get himself a cellphone. With three of us in high school doing too many extracurricular activities, some days he made six trips to school. And then he’d get mad because we couldn’t coordinate ourselves better.
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Eventually my mom talked him into getting a cellphone, which helped, but he still wouldn’t get us cellphones and would always tell us to use our friends’ to call him. My friends had to be my secretary. “Sam, it’s your dad again.” (Embarrassing.) With no phone to store a call list, I memorized over 50 friends’ numbers. (Test me, I still know them.)
Adam and I thought it was hypocritical, but Dad just said, "When you go to college."
Fortunately, Adam found a way to beat him. He convinced my dad that if we didn’t get cellphones by January of our senior year, Adam wouldn’t take one to college so Mom and Dad would never be able call him. Adam could always find a way to make my dad worry. We got cellphones that Christmas, and although it was still extremely late, it was a very sweet and rare victory.
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My dad was big on gearing us to do things that should be appreciated and learned about, as opposed to catching bad habits. He refused to give into short-lasting fads and materialistic bull. He taught us that Pokémon and professional wrestling were pointless to buy into. He also showed us that you didn’t need fancy things, by driving three different Chevy Astro vans over the last 18 years.
We had to clean up after ourselves to a decent point, work hard and get consistent summer jobs by the age of 15.
This helped us to focus on school, sports and worthwhile hobbies. My dad was the first one to be all for any new creative obsession that we thought we might like. He loved it when Adam got into circus tricks like juggling on his unicycle; also diving, rock climbing and bike riding around the country (didn’t work out). Or when Ben went to Australia. Or when I pitched and played basketball. He’s the loudest parent cheering at Annie’s softball games. (Embarrassing.)
When I decided, instead of getting a part-time job at college, that I was going to sell these personalized T-shirts my freshman year to make money, he helped me get the stenciling done during Thanksgiving break so I could sell them to kids in my dorm for gifts before Christmas. (Still have plenty left, if there’s a need.)
He loves hearing stories of when his three sons are doing stuff together, whether it’s about surfing or about our lifeguarding world. He loves paying attention to what his children love to do, where we love to go, because he sees us happy and it makes him happy. That’s why he has intentionally tried to work at home so we could be around him more. He’s pretty much been the household mom, doing laundry, cleaning and making dinner.
But he also let me and Adam venture south to schools he didn’t know about, because we needed to get away and we needed to go to colleges by the beach, it’s what we wanted most. We just had to have a plan and a commitment to stick to whatever it was that we wanted to do. He spoiled us with creativity rather than materialistic surroundings.
Being back home this summer, after another year of college food, we brothers have loved every good home-cooked meal. We don’t mind Dad’s family dinners anymore, especially now that he’s given up on curfew, so we don’t feel pressure to eat fast.I've felt this way for a long time. At least, since you sacrificed yourself to save me. But, I cannot say anything because of how happy you are with him. But my heart sighs when I think of how I can't be with you...
-----------------------------------------------
The day you break up with him is one of the happiest days of my life. I feel guilty, but I know it's true. I think that I finally have a chance with you. Even though I feel bad about it, my attraction for you has grown into a strong, true love.
The next time I am holding an advisory, the courts mentions suitors and marriage and my heart breaks. I know that they will never let me be with you because they'll consider it wrong and inappropriate. But I hope for it anyway.
I walk up to you, nervous because of what I'll be confessing. You look at me with love shining in your eyes, but I feel that its the wrong kind. I whisper the three words that will change everything: I love you. Your eyes start to sparkle with tears and I fear that I have ruined everything. It takes one word – finally...- whispered from your lips to make me lose my icy exterior and hug you, just like I did when you saved me. We both lean forwards and our lips touch. I don't see fireworks, but I am surrounded by a comforting warmth that tells me that everything is going to be okay.
I'm nervous again, but this time, you grab my hand and some of the anxiousness fades away. This is the time we have to tell the court of our love and desire to be married. The minutes the words leave our mouths I see disgust and disappointment in their eyes. You see how upset this makes me and mention that your love for me was the act of true love that saved both of us. The court nods reluctantly and accepts us, knowing that they cannot interfere with true love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is the day of our marriage and it is the absolute happiest day of my life. When I see you in your light green dress, all thoughts leave my mind. All I know is that I am the luckiest person in the world and I am so glad to have to be mine. I can see awe and love shining in your eyes when you see me walk towards you in my icy dress. The entire kingdom is here because no one would miss the marriage of the queen. When I finally reach you, you remove the veil from in front of my eyes and you grab my hand. I finally feel like I'm home.
The priest is smiling at us, glad to see two people who truly love each other. When the time comes I whisper I do and then you follow me. I am so happy that snow starts to swirl around us. I slide the ring on your finger and you slide the other onto mine. You whisper to be careful and I pull in my powers only letting it snow slightly. When the priest declares us married and tells us to kiss, I kiss you and my powers explode letting the snow fall gracefully around us.
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The wedding party is just as amazing as the wedding. I am so happy when it is time to cut the cake. I find it silly how you manage to get the chocolate cake all over my face. When we have our first dance, I am surprised to see that you led me in the dance. I was happy to relax in your embrace and rely on you. I know we stumbled a couple times but it doesn't matter. I am just so happy to belong to you.
The wedding night is even more fun. Again you surprise me, you are the one who takes charge. You have me under you, feeling better than I ever have before. The whole night is just a blur of love and pleasure.
The next day I wake up in your arms. Your smiling face is the first thing I see. I smile and kiss you. I am amazed that I am yours.
I spend the rest of my life with you. Every day is just like the first. We live happily ever after.
I, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, love you forever, my dear Queen Anna of Arendelle.
I love you forever, Anna.Microsoft has started pushing out the latest improvements to the Windows 10 photos app to most users on the Windows 10 Creators Update.
Gallery
The update brings some useful new features, such as the ability to search for photos by theme or content, e.g. food, new tagging options and the biggest change, the ability to create a video from your photos, which Microsoft calls a new form of story telling.
Using the new app in Windows 10, users will be able to create memories out of their photos and videos. The app utilizes Microsoft’s Graph service to automatically create memories using your photos and videos. These memories can be shared as a video with cinematic transitions, a soundtrack, as well as a theme which is pretty neat. The app will likely come with a set of different sounds tracks and themes, but users might be able to create their own themes or use their own soundtrack for a memory.
The app has a lot of advanced features — for instance, you can select a star for your memory and it will automatically focus them in a video and follow them around in the edited memory. There’s even a memory editor that lets you edit the memory itself right within the app.
What’s really cool about this new app is the fact that users can create mixed reality content with their photos and videos. The app will let users insert 3D objects into their photos and videos, which they can then share in a memory. The new app will also utilize Microsoft’s new Fluent Design System that was announced earlier at Build 2017.
You can download Microsoft Photos from the store link below.(KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) Hey, if you can sell anything with those eight selfies I took with slightly different angles and filters, you deserve it.
Look, Instagram. You are welcome to your new terms of service. You are welcome to share our pictures and activity and updates with advertisers. You are welcome to potentially even share our pictures as advertisements, possibly even as advertisements that you do not label as such, without our express permission.
If you want to. But, really?
Have you seen these pictures?
I assume you have. You’re Instagram, custodian of weirdly filtered images of people’s avocadoes and friendships.
But I am not sure exactly how you plan to transform these into advertising gold. What will you sell with my weird pictures of the interior of the Guy Fieri Restaurant Bathroom? What will you sell with those six selfies Jen took at various angles and then posted to see if we thought her face were symmetrical?
But, hey, you know better than I do.
I understand that some people live perfect, photogenic lives. Their hair looks good. Their dogs sit decorously on their laps. They are wearing coordinated jackets and scarves at all times. Even their recently-baked pies look good for the camera. Their instagram photos are well-composed and beautifully lit.
And we cannot stand them.
If I see a promoted story that Kevin is enjoying what appear to be sepia-filtered noodles at that Hip New Noodle Place From The Groupon, I will cross that Hip Noodle Place off my list. Kevin is the annoying guy who puts a sepia filter on pictures of noodles, for crying out loud. I want to avoid him at all costs.
All this new policy is doing is alerting us to the places to avoid. Mark is There, using This? Kara has just bought a That? Well, good to know. Forewarned is forearmed.
There are ways out of this. Leave Instagram before January 16, when the new policy takes effect. Stay on Instagram, but leave only pictures that are totally unusable in ads.
But will we? As I’ve noted before, the biggest lie of modern life is “I have read the service agreement.” No one has ever read the service agreement. If you were to show up on my doorstep a decade from now demanding my firstborn child, claiming that this condition was a line in the iTunes agreement that I hastily marked “read,” I could not argue with you. “Here,” I would say, bundling the toddler into your arms. “Bedtime is at six.”
We only notice when it changes. “Did you see Instagram now wants your second-born child?” we gasp.
“It took your first-born already,” someone mutters.
“We knew that,” we say, fidgeting.
Besides, Instagram is a part of Facebook now, that vast country we complain about but never leave. Why should this particular county be any different?
There’s a larger question here, though, about the privacy we feel entitled to in our quasi-public interactions. Photos that used to be shared between friends — in albums, in polaroids, in emails — are now posted online. Does that make them stock photos? After all, they’re in public, for all — theoretically — to see.
But just because all can theoretically see what we post doesn’t mean we expect them to. Look at all the people who get shamed for racism on Twitter. Most of our lives are conducted in the online equivalent of a crowded, noisy cafeteria — we talk and share images and carry on as though no one is listening but the people we want to hear, but at any moment the rest of the cafeteria could go silent and all eyes could be on us. Mostly, we are content to live with that Sword of Damocles hanging over us by a thread. It comes with the decor, and the food’s great. But we always expect that it won’t fall, and we’re always startled that it does — or when someone points out that it can, or when a new policy weakens that thread.John K. Samson Reveals Canadian Tour, Premieres New Track
Published Dec 12, 2011
Next year is shaping up to be a busy one for songwriter John K. Samson. Not only did he previously announce plans to release his Manitoba-minded solo album Provincial in January, but the Weakerthans frontman also promised to unveil Canadian tour dates in addition to the American ones revealed last month. Sure enough, Samson has now confirmed his Canuck touring plans.The singer has revealed 13 shows here in his home and native land. Starting in Ontario in March, he will make his way west, playing shows across the Prairies before arriving on the West Coast and then heading back. You can see the schedule below.As if this wasn't reason enough to get excited, Samson has also rolled out a new track fromcalled "When I Write My Master's Thesis." This melancholic rocker describes collegiate malaise and -- surprise, surprise -- namechecks a Manitoba road (Highway 23). Scroll past the tour itinerary to listen.is due out January 24 via Epitaph Records Tour dates:3/7 Kingston, ON - The Grad Club3/8 Ottawa, ON - Mavericks Bar3/9 Montreal, QC - La Sala Rossa3/10 Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall3/11 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer3/13 Washington, DC - Black Cat3/15 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom3/16 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe3/17 Buffalo, NY - Mohawk3/18 Hamilton, ON - The Casbah3/20 London, ON - The Aeolian Hall3/21 Guelph, ON - E-Bar3/22 Toronto, ON - Great Hall3/27 Winnipeg, MB - West End Cultural Centre3/28 Regina, SK - The Exchange3/29 Edmonton, AB - The Royal Alberta Museum Theatre3/31 Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore4/1 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern4/2 Portland, OR - Doug Fir4/5 San Diego, CA - The Casbah4/6 Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour4/7 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill4/13 Calgary, AB - The Palomino4/14 Saskatoon, SK - Amigos CantinaBoots Riley Talks Optimism, Occupy and Revolution
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American musician and activist Boots Riley performs in Rome. Photo Astramarina Cobras
With an immaculate afro and razor-sharp sideburns, Boots Riley looks like a Black Panther frozen in time, or a long-lost member of Sly and the Family Stone. But the lifelong activist and musician’s politics are only looking forward, ever searching for the path to revolution.
Boots, born Raymond Riley, is coming to Concordia Feb. 11 as the latest in the Concordia Student Union’s speaker series, this month presented in collaboration with the Concordia Caribbean Student Union and Students of History at Concordia.
Riley’s music is best known from his Oakland-based hip-hop group The Coup, which has been active since the early ‘90s, and more recent work with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello in the Street Sweeper Social Club.
From the MTV crowd to the underground rap show, Boots does it all. After all, he got into music to reach out to as many people as possible.
“Some of what’s informing the revolutionary aesthetic is a punk aesthetic. A punk aesthetic has to do with being rebellious against any number of people, but a punk aesthetic is not one with the aim of creating a revolution of touching the people that are not yet won over,” said Riley.
“This is not about being underground, this is about being above ground. That’s what drives my whole artistic being; it’s what drives who I am.”
Growing up with a father who belonged to the radical communist Union Labor Party, Riley had early insight into class struggles and a distaste for the current economic system. No matter the topic of his rhymes, he says that class dynamics are always present.
“If you don’t have a class analysis [in protest music] that says this world is run by the exploitation of the working class’ labour by the ruling class, then you’re going to come up with all this other mystical shit of why things are fucked up,” said Riley |
below), advanced anti-vibration motor circuit, with user adjustable electronic fine speed adjustment. (as seen on the RP10 PSU) The Neo uses the RP10 DSP (digital signal processing) generator built upon a high stability crystal. The DSP generator will divide the accurate signal from the crystal to the exact frequency required to turn the platter at the selected speed. The DSP generator will also generate a near perfect sinusoidal waveform to drive the motor. This, along with an efficient drive amplifier, generates a 24V AC balanced signal of less than 0.15% distortion, which is completely un-affected by any changes in the mains/line voltage and conditions. This then drives the turntables anti-vibration circuit, which is situated beneath the turntable.
- RB330 handmade precision tonearm with custom stainless weight.
- New high spec Rega 24v low noise synchronous motor – each motor matched by hand to its own NEO PSU ensuring optimum anti-vibration control.
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Available with Ania MC cartridge factory fitted.
UK SSP Planar 6 £998 (Without cartridge).On Sunday, Nintendo finally released Wii U, its new game console. We've raved about early launch games like NintendoLand and New Super Mario Bros. U, showing that the big N still has the magic touch when it comes to making great play experiences.
Unfortunately, Nintendo is still lagging behind when it comes to creating what consumers are increasingly expecting out of their devices: a feature-rich, multimedia online experience. Wii U, available in $300 and $350 configurations, has a bunch of these features – Netflix, a social network feed called Miiverse, a digital game shop – but all of them have distinct problems that make the user experience less fun than it should be.
Problems like this at the launch of a new piece of hardware are to be expected. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had all kinds of problems when they shipped, and remember when the iPhone didn't even have copy-and-paste? Nintendo does have the ability to upgrade all of these features over time – and it should get cracking on them immediately. Until then, Wii U has over-promised and under-delivered. Here are the 10 things that tick me off the most.
The Big-Ass Firmware Update. ——————————-
The reason you're only reading about Wii U's online features now is that out of the box, it doesn't have any of them. You can't even connect to the internet on Wii U without first downloading a massive firmware update. Nintendo released this at the eleventh hour – almost literally, since it was released a couple of hours before the midnight launch on Sunday – and anyone who took home a Wii U realized that if they wanted to play games with online integration (that is, the way they were meant to be enjoyed) they had to first update the firmware.
Okay, no problem. Except the giant update – which contained Miiverse, Netflix, a web browser and God knows what else – was such a ginormous download that it took users around 90 minutes to pull it down. So be aware: If you buy a Wii U for Christmas, you're going to be spending a good part of Christmas morning and some of Christmas afternoon updating the OS first. Oh, and don't get impatient and stop the process halfway, or as L.A. Times reporter Ben Fritz found, you might permanently brick your new Wii U.
Brutally Slow OS. ——————–
This is the problem that makes every other problem seem that much worse. Clicking on anything in Wii U's menu, anything at all that you try to do, takes For. E. Ver. People can post text and images to the Miiverse feed, kind of like Twitter where you can draw pictures. But imagine Twitter where every time you wanted to view a new tweet you had to wait five seconds. Booting up, loading software, loading games, refreshing feeds.... Everything is accompanied by an agonizing wait.
Netflix. ———–
This should have been an early killer app for Wii U, and instead it just sucks. "Netflix will be great on Wii U," I'd tell friends, apparently talking right out of my ass. "Say somebody has to get a drink from the kitchen: They don't have to pause the movie for them! They can just take the GamePad with them! Or say you're browsing: You could show a movie on the TV screen, while you browse for more on the GamePad! It's going to be our Netflix machine for sure."
Netflix on Wii U, as it turns out, doesn't do any of that. The only difference between it and any other bog standard Netflix app is that you can show the movie on the TV or the GamePad. Convenient, but nothing you couldn't do – better – with an Xbox and an iPad.
Tiny Battery in the GamePad. ——————————-
Wii U's big defining feature, from which all things flow, is the GamePad controller. It features a touchscreen right in the middle that can display graphics perfectly in sync with the TV, allowing for new types of gameplay. Unfortunately, you'll find yourself needing to charge it constantly. This problem is compounded by the fact that even though Nintendo built the GamePad to hold a large battery, it ended up putting a smaller one inside the case, presumably to keep the cost of goods low. Oh, and you can't charge GamePad by plugging it into the Wii U console. It has its own proprietary AC adapter and it must be plugged into the wall.
Miiverse, the Social Network in Which You Are Not Allowed to Socialize. ————————————————————————–
I signed up for Nintendo Network, Nintendo's first (!) ever attempt to create an account-based online service for its players. I clicked through the Terms of Service, skimming them. As you do. OK, I'm not going to post anything offensive, no problem. I enter my details into my profile and throw Game|Life's URL and my Twitter handle in there so people know it's me. Big mistake. Minutes after I posted my profile, I got a message saying that I had posted prohibited content and that Nintendo had blocked my profile pending a change. The hell? Turns out that you are strictly prohibited from posting anything on Miiverse that might allow someone to personally identify you. It didn't specifically call out Twitter URLs, but I guess those must also be banned. Nintendo clearly doesn't want any stories in the press about harassment (or worse) stemming from people meeting on Miiverse. So it is doing everything it can to make sure its members do not know who each other actually is.
That's apparently not the only thing that Nintendo's eagle eyes are looking out for. Destructoid writer Jim Sterling said he had a message banned for using the word "idiot" in a funny Batman quote (it was later reviewed and re-posted). One parent said on Twitter that his son cannot use his first name – Killian – because Miiverse deems the word to be offensive.
I changed my profile to "Hi!" Nintendo has not flagged it – yet.
Wii, games, mario, song party Photo: Alex Washburn / Wired Photo: Alex Washburn/Wired
Content Transfer From Old Wii Is Terrible. ———————————————
If you have tons of content – game save data, Mii characters, and downloaded software – on your old Wii, you'll want to transfer them over to Wii U. The process is about as convoluted as can possibly be. You'll actually need to alternate between your Wii and your Wii U, which means either hooking them both up to the TV or swapping cables. First you have to get an SD card. Then you have to put it in your Wii U to "prepare" it for transfer. (You'll need an internet connection to do this so Nintendo can transfer the digital rights to the software.) Then you put it into the Wii and wait for, oh, about half an hour as it copies over all of the files from the internal storage to the SD card. (Admittedly, this is dressed up with a very cute animation of Pikmin hauling your files away.)
Then you put the card into the Wii U and wait another half hour as the Pikmin move the files from the SD card to the Wii U. But besides being time-consuming, there's also a big missing feature. If you had games already stored on an SD card and not on the Wii's system memory, you have to move them back to the Wii or else you can't transfer them. But if you have games stored on the SD card in the first place, that's probably because you ran out of memory on your Wii (not hard, since it only has 512 megabytes in there). So you are screwed. The transfer process will move over all of the digital licenses, but to get those games onto your Wii U, you'll have to individually download every single one again from the digital store, which will take forever.
Adding insult to injury, if you pop the SD card full o' games into your Wii U, it will actually recognize them, show them as icons on the menu, then tell you you cannot play them if you try to click on them.
Playing Old Wii Games Is Sub-Optimal. —————————————-
Wii U is, sort of, backward compatible with the vast majority of your Wii software, whether it was on disc or downloaded. But the way it does it is not exactly seamless. In fact, it's kind of like Boot Camp. You click on a Wii icon on the Wii U menu. This causes the system to actually reboot in "Wii mode," running the old Wii operating system. At this point, you can play Wii discs in their original 480p resolution, and access your downloaded games once you've transferred them.
So instead of simply being able to drop all of your previously owned Virtual Console classic games into a folder on Wii U's main menu, you have to navigate into the Wii mode, basically rebooting the system, to do it. Most things on Wii U take forever, but man does this take forever: one minute, 28 seconds, two controllers and five clicks from startup to gameplay.
And yes, even though Wii now has tons of internal storage, you can still only use 512K of it for old Wii games, meaning you'll have to still keep an SD card full of Virtual Console games in your Wii U even if you connect a terabyte hard drive to it.
You can't play old Wii games on the GamePad's screen. This would have been pretty amazing for the classic Virtual Console games – imagine just sitting back with the GamePad and playing the 8-bit version of Legend of Zelda while someone else uses the TV. Nintendo says it's going to release new versions of the games with GamePad support for the Wii U's eShop. Hopefully it will offer some kind of upgrade path instead of screwing its most dedicated big-spending customers.
Finally, I don't know about yours, but my TV will not let me go into "normal" 4:3 display mode when it gets a 16:9, 1080p signal. And that's what Wii U outputs all the time, even for the old games. So unless I want to play Secret of Mana stretched out like a freaking funhouse mirror across my whole TV, I have to manually set the Wii U's display to 480p.
Non-Functional Buttons on the Home Screen. ———————————————
Hey, remember like a week ago when Wii U was going to be released with "Nintendo TVii," a piece of software that was going to let you run your whole television experience using the GamePad, adding interactive content to football games and such? Yeah, that's not out yet. But there is a great big useless button on the GamePad screen for it. Also see: Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, YouTube.
Resistive Touchscreen Not Great for Fingers. ———————————————–
The GamePad comes with a stylus, which works well with the resistive touchscreen. But you don't always want to pull out a stylus pen; sometimes you just want to press a button with your finger and get on with it. That's not so good on this type of screen. One wants to, when using Netflix, just sort of lightly swipe with a finger and scroll through the cover gallery. Not so much.
Miiverse Is Just Plain Confusing. ————————————-
Contrary to Nintendo's every desire, I was able to find someone I knew in real life on Miiverse, 1up editor Jeremy Parish. Or I figured it was him anyway. So I decided to make him my first friend. "You must complete initial Friends List setup first," I was told. Okay, how do I do that? It did not say. I looked around all of the different sections of Miiverse and found nothing, nothing at all. Kept looking. Looked in the Wii U instruction manual. Nothing. Jumped out to the Wii U main menu. Nothing. Edited my Nintendo Network profile. Tried all of those things over again in case I missed something. Where the eff was the Friends List Setup? Finally hit the Home button and there it was, a button that said Friends List. Clicked it.
"Do you want to have a Friends List?" it basically said. "Yes," I clicked, exasperatedly. "Okay, now you have one!" it said (again I paraphrase).
That was the Whole. Entire. Process.The hundreds of women soldiers who angrily left Simhat Torah celebrations in the south after they were made to crowd into a small area away from male celebrants are the latest victims of a worrisome trend toward ultra-Orthodoxy in the Israel Defense Forces. There had already been incidents where male soldiers refused to serve under female instructors and officers, and women have been segregated at a training school's swimming pool. Another time, officer candidates left a ceremony because women were singing.
During the IDF's main Sukkot holiday event, organized under the banner "we build the people's army in a spirit of unity," women were segregated in an offensive way, as though this were a remote ultra-Orthodox social hall and not an official army event held with civilian participation in the area of the Eshkol Regional Council. This was incredibly insulting. Many of the participants were not religious, and apart from those who enforced the wrongheaded segregation policy, the religious celebrants were also taken aback.
Female soldiers celebrating the Simhat Torah Holy Day. 42.6 percent of young Jewish women do not serve at all, mostly because they say they are religious. Eliyahu Hershkowitz
Apparently a few religious extremists were not satisfied that the women were dancing separately and took the initiative to move them to a separate area. Yet senior officers in the Gaza division, including Brig. Gen. Yossi Bachar and IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz, stood idly by and did not intervene on the women soldiers' behalf. How can it be that a few extremists who seek to turn Jewish law into an instrument of crude segregation can lead two top IDF officers by the nose? Or do these officers disavow responsibility when it comes to actions offensive to women soldiers?
The trend toward ultra-Orthodox extremism that has been gripping religious soldiers takes on a particularly fanatic cast when it applies to women. In recent years the IDF has created unprecedented opportunities for female soldiers, and women soldiers are now promoted in elite units and combat roles based on their abilities. But aggressive religious isolationism belies these new realities and undermines the status of women soldiers who serve in all roles in the IDF.
This is a dangerous trend that distorts the army's character and causes revulsion among most Israelis. It behooves Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to take steps to stifle this trend before it's too late.Organisers of the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic announced Wednesday that they have upgraded their men's race from UCI 1.2 to 1.1 status in 2016. In the announcement, City Mayor Michael Nutter also praised the women's event for its status as the ninth leg of the 17-event inaugural Women's WorldTour next year. Related Articles Philadelphia Cycling Classic to shorten men's and lengthen women's race
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Boels-Dolmans return to Women’s WorldTour Philly Cycling Classic
"It is great to see the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic continue to raise the bar for women's cycling in America with their iconic single-day road race in one of America's most treasured cities," said Derek Bouchard-Hall, USA Cycling CEO. "The women's field will be one of the strongest, deepest fields in the world as a stop on the UCI Women's WorldTour, and the classification upgrade to the men's race will attract many of today's top riders to the U.S. We are thrilled the eyes of the world will be on Philadelphia next June."
The upgrade to a 1.1 event will allow race organisers to invite and host only professional cycling teams with the highest level of talent in the sport, the press release stated, and organisers are expecting a more high-profile field to start in Philadelphia next year.
For the past three years, both races have utilised the start-finish line at the top of the circuit's main climb on the Manayunk Wall, and followed a 19.2km circuit that included climbs over Lemon Hill, Strawberry Mansion and flat sections along Kelly Drive. This year the women's race was lengthened six laps and roughly 115km, while the men's race was shortened by one lap for a total of nine laps and around 173km.
Although organisers did not reveal any details about next year's courses or the lengths of each of the races, they did note that the "2016 race will feature an enhanced course design, continuing its tradition as a dynamic and selective course best known for the intense elevation on the Manayunk Wall."
In an interview with Cyclingnews earlier this year, Robin Morton, the event's technical director and a founder of G4 Productions, acknowledge the possibility of a return to the old start and finish area along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where the finish line was located near the stairs to the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Whether that change will happen this year remains to be seen.
Philadelphia makes its mark on the Women's WorldTour
The UCI announced the details of the first-ever Women's WorldTour at the World Championships in Richmond at the end of September. They revealed that the series would host 17 events, a mixture of one-day races and stage races. The Philadelphia International Cycling Classic elevated their women’s race to a World Cup last year, and for the first time since 2001 when it was then known as the Liberty Classic.
There will be four stage races with the Tour of Chongming Island, Tour of California, Aviva Women's Tour and the Giro Rosa. It will also include one-day events that were on the World Cup with the Flèche Wallonne, GP Plouay, Tour of Flanders, Open de Suede Vargarda road race and team time trial, Ronde van Drenthe, Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Philadelphia Classic. In addition, Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, La Course by Tour de France, La Madrid Challenge and Prudential RideLondon have also been added to the mix.
"We are thrilled to host such a prestigious and competitive race in the City of Philadelphia," said Mayor Nutter. "The 2015 UCI Women's Road World Cup was the first race of its caliber to return to the United States since 2001 and it didn't disappoint. This year, the WorldTour will replace the World Cup events, but the race will still be the same exciting, compelling event that has come to be expected of the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic. I look forward to watching the best cyclists in the world ride the course past world-famous Philadelphia landmarks next year."But the Democratic nominees said Trump accomplished their goal for them with his address in Gettysburg, Pa., earlier in the day. “Donald Trump went to Gettysburg, one of the most extraordinary places in American history, and basically said if he is president, he will spend his time suing women who have made charges against him based on his behavior,” Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane in Pittsburgh.
“Tim and I are going to keep talking about what we are going to do if we are given the great honor of serving.”
Kaine, standing shoulder to shoulder with Clinton in the aisle of the packed plane, expanded on Clinton’s observations about Trump's address, which the GOP candidate had billed as a policy outline for his first 100 days in office.
“The parts that grabbed everybody’s attention, and that he seemed most personally invested in, were all the scores that he needs to settle, the people he is mad at,” Kaine said.A rich-text editor is one of the best and most efficient web development tools. It provides many benefits and plays a big role in enhancing overall functionality and efficiency of a computer system. These editors are those web components which are used for a large number of purposes including, code management, writing quick notes and, many other web based applications.
Currently, many rich text editors are available online. Each one has its own quality, and helps a lot in catering various development needs. You can easily simplify various tasks by picking an efficient and reliable editor. So, checkout the list of top 10 editors to pick the best one. Also share your views with us.
1) Best Rich Text Editor – NicEdit
Ckeditor is one of the best and most efficient lightweight web text editor to allow of easy editing web content. It most customizable editor, loaded with special features. After using this editor, you’ll defintely get great results with features of easy customization and extension.
2) Rich Text Editor – Xinha
Xinha is also a popular and efficient text editor. It is an open source, community built editor released under the BSD style license. Being highly configurable, extensible, and feature packed, this editor can play a big part in delivering best results in quick time. Primarily, its focused on community development.
3) Free Rich Text Editor – WYSIWYG Editor
WYSIWYG is cross browser editor for web based applications and forms. Its one of the lightest and most customizable web editors available on the internet. After using this editor, your web development process will be simplified perfectly.
4) Best Web Text Editor- FCKeditor
Another editor which you should consider to enhance your web development skills is FCKeditor. It is an extremely popular open source online text editor and has an efficient clean feature which automatically detects and removes the text which has been copied Microsoft office documents. Added to this, features of HTML table editing and creation also play a big role in making it easy for users to create and edit tables for displaying data.
5) Best Javascript Markup Editor – MarkITUp
MarkITUP is a javascript based markup editor built on the top of JQuery library. Its one of the most popular editors, and offers a rich collection of features to the developers.
With the help of this tool, you can easily convert any HTML text area into a fully featured WYSIWYG editor. Its light weight, built-in Ajax preview and many other features help a lot in delivering best results in quick time.
6) Rich Text Editor – WidgEditor
The next editor which should be used for easy editing and customization is WidgEditor.
This editor is a perfect editing tool which installs easily and, provides adequate results in quick time. After using this tool, your web developing skills can improve a lot.
7) Best Leading Text Editor – XStandard
Xstandard is also a leading text editor for desktop and web based applications. It not only offers nice features, but can also ensure clean seperation of content from presentation. After trying this editor, you’ll defintely get a nice experience as it meets most accessibility requirements perfectly.
8) Free Web Based Text Editor – Whizzywig
Wizzywig is also an efficient web based text editor. It offers all essential features of a reliable editor and is also available in a spanish and german versions. While using this editor, you’ll also see the unique feature of web-safe color picker to change color of the text and, design custom UI controls.
9) Best Web based XHTML Editor – WYMeditor
This web based HTML editor plays a big part in delivering best results and emphasizes on the use of standards-compliant markup. If you are a standards aware developer, this tool is the best option for you as it was developed to output compliant HTML 4.01 Strict Doctype HTML. It’s a reliable option for easy and proper editing and customization.
10) Top free Rich Text Editor – FreeTextBox
FreeTextBox is also an efficient and reliable editor. It’s fully featured, and is extremely useful for ASP.NET applications. Along with basic editing features, this tool also offers a built-in image gallery and a full list of editing control for construction of tables and spell checking.how to find an alien forest
Light from alien worlds could have a telltale signal of a forest, hinting at an entire extraterrestrial ecosystem.
Illustration by Tyler Smith
Chirality seems to be a hot topic in astrobiology this month. Just a few weeks ago, astrobiologists at NASA announced that they found a possible explanation as to why the amino acids present in all life forms we know today wind to the left. Now, another team of scientists is taking what we know about chirality to a whole new level and thinking of using telescopes to hunt for vast bacterial colonies and forests on alien worlds. In their experiments, photosynthetic organisms like cyanobacteria and plants polarize the light they reflect to produce a signature of the handedness of their molecules. This means that a telescope able to image a planet in another solar system could detect a strong biomarker and let us know that the world we’re seeing is not only habitable, but inhabited.
Now for the technical part. While the molecular structure of amino acids in all living things on Earth is wound to the left due to the potential influence from meteors that fell to our young planet as it was forming, not every molecule in our bodies has a left-handed chirality. Some compounds in our DNA are actually right-handed. So what good would it do to look for polarized light from an alien forest which would probably have both right- and left-handed molecules present in its basic makeup? According to the team, light reflected by photosynthetic organisms has a bias towards a particular chirality in stark contrast to various minerals used as controls in their experiment. Minerals have a fairly random distribution of chiralities and don’t polarize light as definitively as living things. Even water rich meteorites, which can have up to 18% more left-handed molecules, wouldn’t be as homochiral.
This homochirality is what an “astrobotanist” would try to find in the spectrum of light from an extrasolar world. Having a clear bias towards a particular handedness should be a sign of heredity and heredity is a sign of living things. With a strong bias to the right or the left coming off the planet’s flora or enormous colonies of microscopic fauna, we could safely theorize that we’ve found an alien biosphere. And since we’d be doing this light years away, we wouldn’t have to fret about cross-contamination tainting our data.
The idea of looking for photosynthetic aliens has been around for a while and was discussed in a Scientific American cover story which goes into another intriguing detail; the possible colors of plants on other worlds. On planets orbiting a very bright star, they could be blue to reflect most of the light they get. If they didn’t, they’d absorb too much energy and fry themselves to a crisp. Around small, dim stars, the picture could be very different with black plants trying absorb any light they can. Finally, around young flare stars, plants might need to be aquatic which would pose a big problem for telescopes. Water would alter whatever light is being reflected by the extraterrestrial flora and potentially interfere with spectrometry readings. Of course this is all based on our understanding of photosynthesis and that understanding is limited to one planet. There’s really no telling what a forest on a faraway planet would look like.
Originally, trying to give potential colors to alien plants was suggested as a quick and dirty way for an astronomer to figure out whether there might be something interesting on the planet’s surface when we can build telescopes powerful and agile enough to take snapshots of exoplanets. But the idea of looking for a chemical signature of heredity would skip the problems associated with guessing what photosynthetic alien biospheres would look like on a planetary scale and could make it easier to detect a more persuasive indicator for life than unidentifiable colored patches measuring less than a fraction of a fraction of a pixel at best.
See: Sparks, W., et al., (2009). Circular polarization in scattered light as a possible biomarker Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2009.02.028Silicon Valley has been reeling from the aftermath of the presidential campaign and the surprising results. Yet there has been less outward condemnation than one might have guessed. Rather, the response has been “deafening silence and quiet acquiescence,” noted one commentator. This may be due to the fact that the promise of financial deregulation has encouraged cooperation by corporate executives who are focused on short-term economic interests.
This complacency was challenged in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s recent anti-immigration executive order. In response,many tech leaders took action, including Sergey Brin of Alphabet GOOG, +0.52%, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook FB, -0.30%, Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, and Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, to name a few.
Read more: Your company’s CEO is a strong check on Trump.
Hedge fund executives as well pledged to match donations made by their colleagues and friends to advocacy groups including the ACLU. Close to 100 tech giants, many of them rivals who are often at odds, co-signed a legal brief arguing against the controversial order.
Shutting U.S. borders and reducing competition is the most un-American of actions.
This widespread reaction I believe was propelled by the belief that shutting U.S. borders and reducing competition is the most un-American of actions. But it is more than that — these companies and executives understand, as should we as a country, that what’s best for American business, workers, and this nation’s comparative advantage in the world, is driven by the diversity of thought and action. Immigration and competition drive this country’s success.
As an immigrant who for 30 years has called America home, I can say from experience that the U.S. is an extraordinary nation. America throughout its history has given so many immigrants, including my family, the opportunity to fulfil numerous dreams, and to celebrate and practice freedom, opportunity, and vibrancy like no other nation.
Why do immigrants succeed in the U.S.? Partly it’s a numbers game, as venture capitalist Paul Graham commented, the U.S. represents only 5% of the world’s population, so it stands to reason that most of the world’s best new ideas will come from people not born in the U.S.
Immigrants bring different perspectives. For example, the Brazilian founder of Instagram understood that eliminating text would encourage worldwide adoption by non-English speakers, which has made Instagram such a great product.
Moreover, immigrants work hard. Around the world, the phenomena that is Silicon Valley is being emulated, demonstrating a voracious appetite for innovation, risk-taking, and creativity. I am confident that without immigration, Silicon Valley wouldn’t be the global beacon and inspiration it is.
One in four Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or by first-generation Americans.
Open borders also allow greater competition. This has been the backbone of U.S. economic policy. Competition yields lower costs, better quality, more choices, more innovation, greater efficiency, and a stronger democracy by dispersing economic power.
Preserving competition is, of course, the central tenet of America’s antitrust laws. The Sherman Act was designed to be a comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade. It rests on the premise that the unrestrained interaction of competitive forces will yield the best allocation of our economic resources, the lowest prices, the highest quality and the greatest material progress. At the same time it provides an environment conducive to the preservation of America’s democratic, political, and social institutions.
So how has this manifested in the real world? Of the 87 “unicorns” (privately held U.S. startups valued at $1 billion or more), more than half were founded by one or more individuals born outside of the U.S. More than 70% of these companies are led by immigrants in executive roles. One in four Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or by first-generation Americans like my children. These companies provide jobs to millions of Americans around the country. These are the facts.
Finally, it is important to note that immigrant families contribute significant philanthropic dollars towards education, training, health, the environment, and the underprivileged in so many communities. The responsibility a government carries to address the basic needs of her citizens are being supported by immigrants who proudly call America their home.
When I think about America, I see the same America that Nike NKE, +0.74% founder Phil Knight describes as having an “outsized sense of possibility mixed with a diminished capacity for pessimism.” That’s the power of this great nation; allowing creativity and innovation to foster opportunity and success for all of us.
America’s dynamic, free, and open economy has for more than two centuries acted as a powerful magnet for the world’s brightest and most creative minds. This is the American tradition. In every generation, millions of talented people from around the world risk leaving their homes to seek a better life in the U.S. And the U.S. economy benefits enormously from the contributions of these hard-working, innovative individuals. Let us celebrate and build on this great American tradition.
Lata Krishnan is CFO of investment firm Shah Capital Partners in Santa Clara, Calif. and co-chair of the American India Foundation. On March 3 in San Francisco, she will be a recipient of the Commonwealth Club’s Distinguished Citizen Award.
Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. Sign up here.Nick Xenophon Team still negotiating with the government on the bill before party room makes a decision
Labor has attacked the Coalition’s plans to limit paid parental leave for parents accessing both the government and their employer’s scheme.
On Sunday the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the plan to limit so-called double-dipping would decrease income support for 80,000 mothers.
Last week the government gave notice it would reintroduce its paid parental leave bill, which lapsed when parliament was prorogued in April.
The bill prevents parents accessing both the government and their employer’s paid parental leave scheme, or limits federal government payments to a top-up of the employer’s scheme to the value of $11,500.
Josh Frydenberg to work with Port Melville operators over struck-down approval Read more
The fate of the bill is uncertain. Although Nick Xenophon indicated opposition to paid parental leave cuts before the election, the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) is still negotiating with the government on the bill before its party room of four makes a decision.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is also due to discuss the bill this week.
Parliament does not resume until 7 November, when the Senate will meet to consider government bills passed in the last sitting including the plebiscite enabling legislation and the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill.
The government’s industrial relations agenda was given a boost by One Nation’s announcement it would support the ABCC and registered organisations bills but it will spend the coming weeks negotiating support with NXT and other crossbench senators.
In the meantime, Senate committees will meet to inquire into the 2016 census debacle and the government’s bills to cap vocational education and training loans in a bid to restrain runaway loan growth from programs with poor-quality courses, low completion rates and unethical enrolment practices.
The Australian Human Rights Commission president, Gillian Triggs, may be recalled to explain a claim before another committee she has since retracted that she had been misquoted in an interview with the Saturday Paper in which she described politicians as “usually seriously ill-informed”.
The Coalition and Labor will be keen to move on from internal party divisions in the last week, after Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull contradicted each other on the existence of a deal on shotgun importation and went head to head with duelling motions for party reform at the New South Wales Liberal state conference.
Christopher Pyne attacks Gillian Triggs' judgment, saying she has 'politicised' role Read more
On Sunday Shorten said that employer paid parental leave schemes were a condition “negotiated to offset wage rises” workers otherwise would have got, whereas the government’s scheme is a “minimum standard”.
“Why should nurses, or shop assistants or other people who have foregone pay rises in lieu of getting a paid parental benefit now be slugged because they’ve negotiated these conditions and not get the minimum paid parental leave?”
The shadow minister for families and social services, Jenny Macklin, said the planned parental leave cut was particularly unfair on women “who are pregnant right now [and] face the prospect of massive cuts to their paid parental leave arrangements if their baby is born after 1 January 2017”.
But the social services minister, Christian Porter, said more than half the parents who used the scheme – about 90,000 – would not be affected by the changes.
“Currently a parent earning $140,000 annually can receive a combined government and employer PPL amount of more than $44,000 – this is more than another parent working a minimum wage will earn in an entire year and that is not fair,” he told AAP in a statement.
The government has previously estimated that cuts to paid parental leave will save almost $1bn over the forward estimates but business groups have warned employers will simply stop offering paid leave, reducing any potential savings.On Saturday, around ten thousand people took to the streets of Budapest to celebrate love and call for the equality of LGBT people. The 21st edition of Budapest Pride was held without any major incident and contrary to previous years, no counter-protesters were spotted on the scene.
On Saturday, around ten thousand people took to the streets of Budapest to celebrate love and call for the equality of LGBT people. The 21st edition of Budapest Pride was held without any major incident and contrary to previous years, no counter-protesters were spotted on the scene. Due to violent attacks against the march that have been going on since 2008, Budapest Pride took place on streets sealed off by cordons and with a robust police presence. This year the cordons and the extreme security measures stayed in place despite the growing demand for once again opening up the march to the entire city. The lack of counter-manifestations might provide the organizers with a strong bargaining chip next year, when they will try to persuade the police to scrap the cordons.
Photos by Orsi Pósfai and András Jámb |
them at least somewhat consistent while I go through and try and add things.
Also, if you would like an explanation as to why certain things are on the list, all you honestly have to do is ask instead of assuming I’m a “fucking noodle” or some shit. It’s not about having thick skin or not, it’s about, collectively, what kind shit Gerg’s done and compiling it all, even if some of it seems pretty innocuous or whatever. The man’s manipulative, hence why there’s a lot of seemingly harmless things on here or things that don’t seem offensive to some.
Finally, I don’t ID as feminist or anti-feminist. I think that there might be more to add, but meh. Though some of the Reddit threads are pretty old, I’d still like to make a point to reply later.The new, compact INSTAX Mini 8 color models preserve the ease of use and attractive design elements of the existing INSTAX Mini series. At the same time, the Mini 8 cameras offer new features and enhancements.
You will instantly notice a slimmer and lighter body. The INSTAX Mini 8 is approximately10% smaller than the Mini 7S in volume ratio. It is now even easier for the consumer to carry around an INSTAX with them everywhere.
The new INSTAX Mini 8 features automatic exposure measurement. The camera signals the recommended aperture setting with a flashing LED light and the user can manually adjust the dial to the recommended setting. This helps the user capture the perfect photo every time.
A new High-Key mode is available on the INSTAX Mini 8 cameras. This mode enables consumers to take brighter pictures with a soft look -perfect for portraits.
The viewfinder has also been improved for enhanced subject viewing. Framing a shot becomes easier for the user with even greater clarity and improved visibility.Editorial: “Taking the long view on the world’s energy supplies“
“A better, richer and happier life for all our citizens.” That’s the American dream. In practice, it means living in a spacious, air-conditioned house, owning a car or three and maybe a boat or a holiday home, not to mention flying off to exotic destinations.
The trouble with this lifestyle is that it consumes a lot of power. If everyone in the world started living like wealthy Americans, we’d need to generate more than 10 times as much energy each year. And if, in a century or three, we all expect to be looked after by an army of robots and zoom up into space on holidays, we are going to need a vast amount more. Where are we going to get so much power from?
It is clear that continuing to rely on fossil fuels will have catastrophic results, because of the dramatic warming effect of carbon dioxide. But alternative power sources will affect the climate too. For now, the climatic effects of “clean energy” sources are trivial compared with those that spew out greenhouse gases, but if we keep on using ever more power over the coming centuries, they will become ever more significant.
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While this kind of work is still at an early stage, some startling conclusions are already beginning to emerge. Nuclear power – including fusion – is not the long-term answer to our energy problems. Even renewable energies such as wind power will have to be used with caution, because large-scale extraction could have both local and global effects. These effects are not necessarily a bad thing, though. We might be able to exploit them to geoengineer the climate and combat global warming.
There is a fundamental problem facing any planet-bound civilisation, as Eric Chaisson of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, points out. Whatever you use energy for, it almost all ends up as waste heat.
Much of the electrical energy that powers your mobile phone or computer ends up heating the circuitry, for instance. The rest gets turned into radio waves or light, which turn into heat when they are absorbed by other surfaces. The same is true when you use a mixer in the kitchen, or a drill, or turn on a fan – unless you’re trying to beam radio signals to aliens, pretty much all of the energy you use will end up heating the Earth.
We humans use a little over 16 terawatts (TW) of power at any one moment, which is nothing compared with the 120,000 TW of solar power absorbed by the Earth at the same time. What matters, though, is the balance between how much heat arrives and how much leaves (see “Earth’s energy budget”). If as much heat leaves the top of the atmosphere as enters, a planet’s temperature remains the same. If more heat arrives, or less is lost, the planet will warm. As it does so, it will begin to emit more and more heat until equilibrium is re-established at a higher temperature.FIG-mg28491701.jpg
See diagram: “Earth’s energy budget”
Over the past few thousand years, Earth was roughly in equilibrium and the climate changed little. Now levels of greenhouse gases are rising, and roughly 380 TW less heat is escaping. Result: the planet is warming.
The warming due to the 16 TW or so of waste heat produced by humans is tiny in comparison. However, if humanity manages to thrive despite the immense challenges we face, and keeps on using more and more power, waste heat will become a huge problem in the future. If the demand for power grew to 5000 TW, Chaisson has calculated, it would warm the planet by 3 °C.
This waste-heat warming would be in addition to the warming due to rising CO 2 levels. What’s more, since this calculation does not take into account any of the feedbacks likely to amplify the effect, well under 5000 TW may produce this degree of warming.
Such colossal power use might seem implausible. Yet if our consumption continues to grow exponentially – it has been increasing by around 2 per cent per year this century despite rising prices – we could reach this point around 2300.
Chaisson describes his work as a “back of the envelope” calculation done in the hope someone would prove him wrong. So far no one has. On the contrary, preliminary modelling by Mark Flanner of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, suggests that waste heat would cause large industrialised regions to warm by between 0.4 °C and 0.9 °C by 2100, in agreement with Chaisson’s estimates (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 36, p L02801). Normal climate models do not include the waste-heat effect.
Does this mean human civilisation has to restrict itself to using no more than a few hundred terawatts of energy? Not necessarily. It depends on where the energy comes from. If you turn the sun’s energy into electricity and use it to boil your kettle, it won’t make the planet any warmer than if that same energy had instead gone into heating up the tiles on your roof. But if you boil your kettle using energy from fossil fuels or a nuclear power plant, you are adding extra heat. “The only energy that is not going to additionally heat the Earth is solar and its derivatives,” says Chaisson, referring to sources driven by the sun’s heat – wind, hydro and waves.
So although nuclear fusion could in theory provide an effectively unlimited source of energy, if our energy demand keeps growing we will not be able to use it freely without significantly warming the planet.
It seems Chaisson’s mentor, Carl Sagan, was right. “Sagan used to preach to me, and I now preach to my students,” says Chaisson, “that any intelligent civilisation on any planet will eventually have to use the energy of its parent star, exclusively.” More specifically, they will be limited to the solar energy that is normally absorbed by their planet – anything extra, including space-based solar, is out.
Any intelligent civilisation on any planet will eventually have to rely exclusively on the energy of its parent star
Waste-heat warming
In theory an advanced alien civilisation could produce a lot of waste heat and still maintain a stable climate by using geoengineering to counteract waste-heat warming. On Earth, though, there is probably little scope for reducing greenhouse gas levels much below preindustrial levels, because plants need CO 2. Shading the planet or increasing its reflectivity would be problematic, too.
Chaisson accepts that warming from waste heat is not important now. Nevertheless, he argues that we might as well switch to solar-based energies as soon as possible. “Everyone agrees that something must be done to stop the rise of CO 2 in the near term, and then we need to worry about excess heating of our atmosphere by energy usage in the long term,” he says. “My point is that if we can do both at the same time, then why not take the steps now to do just that?”
That’s music to the ears of Mark Jacobson of Stanford University in California. He has been pushing an ambitious plan for a wholesale switch to renewable energy by 2030. He envisages wind and solar providing 90 per cent of this (Energy Policy, vol 39, p 1154). Yet on these kinds of scales, even renewable power sources could begin to affect the climate.
Take wind power. In 2010, Somnath Baidya Roy at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign reported that wind farms affect their local climate. Long-term data from a wind farm at San Gorgonio, California, confirmed his earlier model predictions: surface temperatures behind the wind turbines were higher than in front during the night, but as much as 4 °C lower by day.
Roy thinks the turbulence created by the turbines sucks air down from above. During the day, when the hottest air is usually near the surface, this has a cooling effect. At night, when the air near the ground may be colder than that above, it can have a warming effect.
These effects could be minimised by placing wind farms in areas where there’s already a lot of turbulence. But we might not want to minimise them. “Some of these effects are actually welcome for agricultural reasons,” says Cristina Archer at the University of Delaware in Newark, who studies wind power. Strategically placed wind farms might keep crops cool in summer and reduce the risk of frost in other seasons. Farmers in California and Florida already use wind machines to fight frost by pulling down warmer air.
Do offshore wind farms affect sea surface temperatures and evaporation rates? Could these local effects add up to produce significant regional or even global effects? Perhaps. Winds obviously play a major role in climate. Slowing or altering wind patterns will alter the movement of heat and water around the planet, and thus temperature and rainfall.
It might seem inconceivable that humans could have a significant effect on the wind, but we may already be doing so. While wind speeds over the oceans are increasing, surface winds over Europe, Asia and North America have slowed by up to 15 per cent on average since 1979. At least half of the slowdown is thought to be due to changes in land use, with more vegetation and possibly more buildings making the terrain rougher (Nature Geoscience, vol 3, p 756).
A 2004 study by David Keith of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, suggested that the climatic effects of wind power might start to become apparent at a level of 2 TW. According to Axel Kleidon and Lee Miller of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, the impact of wind power depends on what proportion of the available power we extract. They recently calculated how much wind energy there is from the top down, starting with the incoming solar radiation that drives the winds by creating temperature differences in the atmosphere. They concluded that at most 68 TW could be extracted. Further modelling suggested there could be as little as 18 TW available – far lower than other estimates.
Even more controversially, the team claimed that extracting all the available wind power would produce big changes in temperature and precipitation. While they are not suggesting the world will warm overall, according to their model the local changes are comparable in magnitude to those associated with a doubling of CO 2.
Even if this conclusion is correct, we are nowhere near to extracting this level of wind power. At the end of 2011, worldwide wind power generation capacity was just 0.2 TW. And many others in the field are extremely sceptical about the team’s conclusions. “I don’t believe their results,” says Archer.
“The idea that [the impact] is on par with doubling of CO 2, that’s just nonsense,” agrees climate scientist Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. There will be some impact of large-scale wind-power generation, but Miller’s team is overstating it, he says.
According to Archer and Jacobson’s bottom-up estimates, which unlike Kleidon’s are based on actual measurements of wind speeds, there is 1700 TW of wind power at an altitude of 100 metres over land and sea. Of this, between 72 and 170 TW could be extracted in a practical and cost-competitive manner.
Modelling by Jacobson’s team suggests that extracting 11.5 TW of this wind power would reduce the kinetic energy of wind at 100 metres by less than 1 per cent. The effects on temperature and precipitation are so small they cannot be distinguished from natural variability, he says.
Solar cooling
The science is far from settled. Yet even if wind farms do turn out to have significant climatic effects, we might be able to turn this to our advantage. Perhaps carefully placed wind farms could boost rainfall in arid regions, for instance. It might even be possible to use wind power as a form of geoengineering (see “Generate energy, cool the planet”). “Could some of the climatic impacts of near-surface wind power be desirable? Absolutely,” says Miller. But this type of research is only beginning, he points out. What is clear, of course, is that every wind farm that goes up means less CO 2 pumped into atmosphere.
Compared with solar power, though, wind resources are relatively small. “I think that there is simply not enough wind energy capturable on Earth to do much good in the long term,” says Chaisson. “Nor with water and waves. The only way to endure is to learn how to utilise the sun’s energy.” Thousands of terawatts of solar power could be generated just using existing technology.
Even solar power can affect climate, though, because solar panels can alter the reflectivity, or albedo, of the surface. One recent study modelled the effects of building a 1-TW solar power plant in the Mojave desert in California. It concluded that placing so many dark solar panels over light-coloured sand will warm the air above by 0.4 °C, affecting temperature and wind patterns within a 300-kilometre radius.
If we develop much more efficient solar panels in the future, though, a similar solar plant would cool the local area. The heat would end up wherever the energy is eventually used. Indeed, even existing solar panels can have a local cooling effect if they are placed over dark surfaces, such as black roofs. “Solar panels will basically take 20 per cent of sunlight and convert it to electricity,” says Jacobson. “That cools down your house.”
What’s more, many other human activities, from building cities to planting crops, alter albedo, and these activities have a much greater impact because they affect a far greater proportion of Earth’s surface. Air temperatures in south-eastern Spain have fallen more than 0.6 °C since 1983 because there are so many reflective greenhouses in the area, for instance.
So while the large-scale use of solar power could potentially affect the climate, the effects will be relatively minor so long as we don’t capture hundreds of terawatts that would otherwise have been reflected straight back into space. Careful design and placement of solar plants should minimise any negative consequences.
Some regard any discussion of the climatic effects of renewable energy, and waste heat, as a distraction from the far more urgent task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But if we do not start thinking about it now, we may one day discover that in trying to solve one climate problem, we have created another.
Generate energy, cool the planet When we talk of extracting wind energy, it’s mainly from wind at an altitude of about 100 metres. But wind speeds increase the higher you go. In the four jet streams that circle Earth more than 10 kilometres up, wind speeds of well over 100 kilometres per hour are typical. Exploiting this energy will not be easy, not least because of the way the jet streams meander and change location, but several groups are developing ways to do it. Most involve tethered turbines or kites that turn generators on the ground. According to some estimates, the available energy in the jet streams is about 100 times the current global energy demand. Simulations by Cristina Archer at the University of Delaware in Newark and Ken Caldeira of Stanford University in California suggest that extracting enough energy from high-level winds to meet all our current energy demands would have no significant impact on global climate. But their model suggests that extracting larger amounts would have a big impact. In the extreme case of extracting 1000 TW, mean surface temperatures fell nearly 10 °C, total rainfall decreased by about 35 per cent and sea ice cover doubled (Energies, vol 2, p 307). The reason, says Caldeira, is that slowing down the high-altitude winds would slow the heat transfer between the equator and the poles. This would cause the equator to warm and the poles to cool, increasing sea ice cover. More sea ice means more heat is reflected from the poles. The end result is that the equator warms slightly, but the poles cool significantly. This effect might actually be desirable to counteract global warming, given that the Arctic is warming faster than any other area on Earth and losing sea ice fast. So could we deliberately induce it? “This is one of the things we plan to look at in the future,” says Caldeira. However, Axel Kleidon and Lee Miller of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, claim Archer and Caldeira have massively overestimated the amount of energy that could be extracted. They think the high wind speeds in the jet streams are a result of a near lack of friction, rather than a constant input of energy. As a result, they estimate that only about 7.5 TW of power could be extracted from the jet stream, and that even this would have a major effect on climate (Earth System Dynamics, vol 2, p 201). From an energy perspective this would be bad news, but it makes cooling the planet this way seem more feasible. According to their model, though, the planet would cool just 0.5 °C, with the Arctic getting 2 °C cooler but the Antarctic warming by 2 °C, among other effects. We will obviously need to have a far better understanding of the changes before we even begin to entertain the notion of geoengineering, Miller says.CHANDLER, Ariz. — With one simple click of a button on Monday, Jamie Collins told the world exactly what he’s all about.
“Behind my smile is a story you’ll never understand,” was the message he posted on Twitter.
The world is trying to get to know Collins, the Patriots’ athletically freakish linebacker, at Super Bowl XLIX. But he’s a man of few words.
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The man his teammates call “Tweet” for the canary yellow earrings he sometimes wears doesn’t like to say much to reporters. But he doesn’t say much to his teammates, either. He’s usually walking around Gillette Stadium with headphones on, and keeps to himself.
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“He doesn’t like a lot of attention,” said fellow linebacker Dont’a Hightower, one of Collins’s best friends on the team. “He’s not selfish. He’s just a kid from Mississippi.”
But Collins isn’t Marshawn Lynch, either. Collins dutifully performed his media obligations this week, patiently answering questions from a booth at Media Day and from a ballroom table on Wednesday at the hotel the Patriots are staying in. He’ll occasionally flash a big, gold-toothed smile, and answers questions respectfully and humbly, if not briefly.
“I don’t really need all the publicity,” he said. “I do it for you guys. It’s cool. Whatever.”
Collins has a heartbreaking backstory he doesn’t say much about, but it made him the mature, 25-year-old man he is today.
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“Jamie’s kind of a quiet, introverted kind of guy until he learns to trust you,” said Larry Fedora, his college coach at Southern Miss. “Then he’s really outgoing and talkative and all those things. But if you don’t know Jamie, he’s going to be more reserved.”
Collins was born and raised in McCall Creek, Miss., a tiny, unincorporated town off US Highway 84, near Homochitto National Forest in the southern part of the state. Collins, the youngest of five, grew up modestly.
“McCall Creek has a post office, a store, and a saw mill, and not much more than that,” said Trent Hammond, his coach at Franklin County High School in Meadville, population 500. “I left the area a year after Jamie did. My wife wasn’t very happy being 35 minutes from a grocery store.”
Collins was forced to grow up quickly. His parents died by the time he was 6 years old, the causes of which he won’t talk about. His oldest sibling, Lisa, essentially raised Collins and his three older brothers.
“I had so much adversity coming up, so adversity is nothing to me,” Collins told the Hattiesburg American in 2012. “I’ve fought and fought. I sort of like adversity. I believe that’s what really wakes me up.”
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Hammond recalled a kid who usually sat in the front of the classroom and didn’t give his teachers any problems.
“Family was always a big deal to him,” Hammond said. “But for the most part he just kind of took care of himself. He was really mature. He hadn’t been the guy with the silver spoon in his mouth, so he had to grow up fast.”
Collins is fiercely loyal to his siblings, but also protective. I asked Collins if he wouldn’t mind sharing Lisa’s contact information so I could speak to her for this story.
“Nah,” he replied. “She won’t talk. She’s worse than me.”
Sports were always Collins’s outlet. A lean 6-foot-3-inch, 200-pounder in high school, Collins almost single-handedly led Franklin County to the state championship game in his senior year as the quarterback, safety, and punter. He threw down monstrous dunks with his 41½-inch vertical leap, and was a state champion in the shot put and discus, and he finished second in the high jump and triple jump.
“When Southern Miss recruited him, he was jumping over the high bar at 6 feet, and we were throwing him the football and he was catching it,” Hammond said.
Collins originally committed to play football at Auburn, but decommitted when the coaching staff was fired. He signed on at Southern Miss, in large part to be only an hour away from his family.
“Jamie could’ve played anywhere in the country now, but there aren’t a lot of schools going to Franklin County,” Fedora said. “It’s the opposite end of the world as Boston, I can assure you.”
The Southern Miss coaches didn’t know what to do with Collins, but knew they had to get him on the field. His freshman year, he was a nickel defensive back. Then he packed on weight as a sophomore and transitioned to linebacker. Then he packed on even more weight and became a pass rusher during his junior season.
Collins’s maturity and dedication to the film room helped him transition smoothly to each position. He also graduated from Southern Miss in 3½ years.
So it should come as no surprise that Collins had the most versatile stat line of any Patriots defender this season — 4 sacks, 2 interceptions, 4 forced fumbles, 6 passes defended, a blocked field goal, and a team-high 130 tackles in 15 games.
Now a filled-out 250 pounds, Collins is strong enough to bull-rush a guard, fast enough to cover running backs 5 inches shorter, and limber enough to pull off consecutive back flips on the practice field.
“He’s a freak of an athlete,” Fedora said. “There aren’t many of them out there that can do the things he can do. I think his best ball is ahead of him, because he changed positions every year and never got to settle in and learn the nuances of one position.”
Collins’s teammates on the Patriots are in awe of his athleticism.
“Certain times he’ll be rushing the passer, he’ll be rushing a certain way, and I’ll say, ‘Hey Jamie, how’d you do that?’ ” said Chandler Jones, the team’s best pass rusher. “And he’ll be like, ‘I don’t know.’ So I’ll be rewinding [the tape], trying to see certain things he does, thing I can learn from him.”
Collins said moving to New England has been a culture shock, but he doesn’t venture into Boston much. He prefers keeping things low-key at his home in the quiet suburbs near Gillette Stadium.
“Jamie’s a man of few words, but when he speaks, everyone’s listening,” Patriots linebackers coach Patrick Graham said. “He’s not one for wasting time, of talking just to talk.”
He’d rather let his smile do the talking for him on Sunday.
Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolinFactory work dwindled as companies moved operations overseas. Indiana, a manufacturing powerhouse where you once could get a good-paying job even without a high school education, was falling behind.
Yet when Subaru started building a plant here, it wasn't celebrated as a coup for the Republican candidate for governor. Instead, a Democratic challenger was swept into office after running attack ads highlighting that the automaker was Japanese.
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In a state where resistance to change is often touted as a virtue, historians say the xenophobic-tinged opposition to the Subaru factory was no exception.
Now, nearly 30 years later, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb says Indiana's prosperity relies on rethinking that approach.
"Isolation, digging a moat around yourself, filling it and saying, 'We're good,' would be retreat from not just competing, but having the opportunity to win." Holcomb said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"There's a lot of good about 'the good old days,' but there's a bigger windshield than rearview mirror," he later added.
In recent months, Holcomb helped persuade India-based outsourcing firm Infosys to establish offices in Indianapolis, bringing a projected 2,000 jobs; got skeptical Republicans in the Statehouse to fund a direct flight between Indianapolis and Paris with hopes of luring European business; and signed an agreement to deepen economic ties with Japan.
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On Friday, he will be leading a trade mission to India, his third such trip since taking office in January.
It's not yet clear whether Holcomb's efforts will amount to more than baby steps — or if change-averse Indiana is willing to go along.
If history is any guide, Holcomb is likely to face resistance. His vision of Indiana outcompeting larger commerce centers on the world stage also comes when nostalgia for the past and hostility to foreign trade are powerful political currents that helped elect President Donald Trump.
"Change in Indiana has always been evolutionary — moderate, slow, sometimes very slow," said James H. Madison, an emeritus history professor at Indiana University who wrote the state's definitive history, "Hoosiers." ''When someone does try to move outside of the comfort zone, often they are slapped back down."
Around the turn of the 20th century, those who embraced scientific agricultural advances in the agrarian state were often ridiculed as "book farmers." In the 1920s, anxieties about immigrants and the loose morals of the Jazz Age fanned a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership, including among government officials.
Then there was former Lt. Gov. John Mutz's race against Evan Bayh in 1988, in which Bayh attacked Mutz for his support of tax incentives that went to Subaru.
And just two years ago, Indiana — under then-Gov. Mike Pence — again found itself resisting change, as lawmakers, amid increased acceptance of same-sex marriage, created a legal defense for business owners opposed to serving gay people. The Legislature made changes to the law, but only after the state's business community revolted and outsiders threatened to boycott Indiana.
Holcomb's efforts come as experts say the Rust Belt state needs to develop a skilled workforce for jobs of the future while improving quality of life to make it a more attractive place to live. A 2015 Lumina Foundation report found only 42 percent of central Indiana residents have the education needed for most available jobs.
"We are at an inflection point, like when we moved from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy," said Jason Kloth, president and CEO of Ascend Indiana, a policy advocacy group supported by some of the state's largest employers. "It's going to differentiate the communities that thrive in the next century."
While Republicans who control state government celebrate the low-tax and limited-regulation environment they've helped establish, critics say lawmakers' enthusiasm for conservative social causes could turn off businesses.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce, Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Columbus-based diesel company Cummins have pushed unsuccessfully for statewide gay rights protections.
While Holcomb has largely tried to avoid that issue, he wrote a letter in June welcoming visitors to Indianapolis' gay pride festival. "Hoosier hospitality means that all are welcomed and valued" regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, he wrote.
Katie Blair, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group Freedom Indiana, said Holcomb's softer tone means little without action.
"It's superficial." Blair said. "A good way to make Indiana welcome all would be to update our state's civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity."
Blair also noted that Holcomb signed laws this year targeting immigrants and abortion rights.
On the other end of the spectrum, such talk worries conservatives.
"We have a whole body of Republicans who are acting like Democrats and they will face consequences over that," said Monica Boyer of the conservative Indiana Liberty Coalition.
Mutz, for his part, says he's encouraged by Holcomb's efforts to move the state forward.
"Hopefully, it will be good for his political career," Mutz said. "I won't say it derailed mine, but it certainly didn't help."
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Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfvThe All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Monday told the Supreme Court that the dispute was not just the issue of triple talaq but the prevalence of patriarchy among communities.
The board told a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, which was hearing pleas challenging the constitutional validity of triple talaq, that all patriarchal societies discriminate.
Sibal told a bench, also comprising Justices Justices Kurian Joseph, RF Nariman, UU Lalit and Abdul Nazeer, that there was a difference between personal law and customs and usage.
“All patriarchal societies are partial. In Hinduism, a father can will away his property to anyone, but not in the Muslim community. I can point out many such practices in the Hindu society. Is it better for a woman to apply for divorce and fight for 16 years and get nothing,” Sibal said.
He said in some areas of Himachal Pradesh, polygamy was practised but it had been protected since it is a custom and only society will decide when to change it.
The arguments of AIMPLB remained inconclusive and will continue on Tuesday.
During the hearing, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said AIMPLB should apologise for justifying triple talaq in its affidavit by saying that men have greater strength to control their emotions.
First Published: May 15, 2017 22:35 ISTCompared to the almost infinite complexity of vertebrate cognition and behavior, the number of genes influencing central nervous system development is staggeringly small (Kadakkuzha and Puthanveettil, 2013). Thus, understanding the molecular mechanism underlying the epigenetics of vertebrate central nervous system architecture has become an issue central to neuroscience (Kundakovic and Champagne, 2015).
One fundamental principle of brain organization is lateralization, i.e. structural or functional difference between the left and the right hemisphere of the brain (Corballis, 2014). Lateralization is a conserved feature across the vertebrate lineage (Ströckens et al., 2013; Ocklenburg et al., 2013a; Bisazza et al., 1998; Rogers et al., 2012; Versace and Vallortigara, 2015) and recent studies strongly suggest it is also present in invertebrates (Frasnelli et al., 2012). This ubiquity of behavioral and brain lateralization strongly supports the idea that lateralized central nervous system organization provides an evolutionary advantage (Vallortigara and Rogers, 2005). Suggestions about why a lateralized brain would increase an organism’s fitness include avoidance of unnecessary duplication of neuronal activity in both hemispheres, faster neuronal processing due to not being constrained by slow callosal transfer of information between the hemispheres and better coordination of unilateral behaviors in swarms or other social groups of animals (Vallortigara and Rogers, 2005; Corballis, 2009). In humans, hemispheric asymmetries have been shown in almost all major cognitive systems (Ocklenburg et al., 2014a) including language (Friederici, 2011; Sepeta et al., 2016), memory (Giammattei and Arndt, 2012; Tat and Azuma, 2016; Habib et al., 2003), attention (Falasca et al., 2015; Duecker et al., 2013), emotional processing (Demaree et al., 2005), face perception (De Winter et al., 2015), working memory (Langel et al., 2014; Nagel et al., 2013) and executive functions (Ocklenburg et al., 2011a, 2012; Stock and Beste, 2014).
By far the most widely investigated manifestation of lateralization in humans is handedness (Corballis, 2014). Importantly, handedness is related to the lateralized organization of cognitive systems in the human brain (Ocklenburg et al., 2014b; Frässle et al., 2016). For example, left-hemispheric language dominance is found in 96% of right-handed subjects, but only in 73% of left-handed subjects (Knecht et al., 2000). The relevance of handedness has recently been highlighted by Willems et al. (Willems et al., 2014), who state that it is one of the most important factors influencing the individual brain organization and that explicit inclusion of left-handers in experimental studies has strongly improved our understanding of language, motor behavior and visual processing. Handedness might not only be a behavioral proxy for individual brain organization, but is also interesting from a clinical perspective: A variety of neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders like autism spectrum disorders (Colby and Parkison, 1977; Forrester et al., 2014; Preslar et al., 2014; Rysstad and Pedersen, 2016), depression (Denny, 2009; Elias et al., 2001; Logue et al., 2015), bipolar disorder (van Dyck et al., 2012; Nowakowska et al., 2008), anxiety disorders (Logue et al., 2015; Hicks and Pellegrini, 1978; Orme, 1970; Wright and Hardie, 2012; Hardie et al., 2016; Lyle et al., 2013), schizophrenia (Hirnstein and Hugdahl, 2014; Dragovic and Hammond, 2005; Sommer et al., 2001) or alcoholism (Denny, 2011; Mandal et al., 2000; Sperling et al., 2000) has been associated with left- and mixed-handedness. Thus, understanding the ontogenesis of handedness and hemispheric asymmetries in general could potentially yield important insights into pathogenesis of these disorders.
However, despite their importance for many aspects of brain organization, the ontogenetic background of brain asymmetries is still far from being understood. Initially, single gene theories have been suggested to explain the emergence of handedness as a function of one gene with two alleles (Annett, 1998; McManus, 1985). However, recent genome wide association studies failed to detect any genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms, refuting single gene theories (Armour et al., 2014; Eriksson et al., 2010). Candidate gene studies revealed a number of genes that display an association with handedness, among them leucine rich repeat transmembrane neuronal 1 (LRRTM1) (Francks et al., 2007), proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 6 (PCSK6) (Scerri et al., 2011; Arning et al., 2013; Brandler et al., 2013) and the androgen receptor gene (AR) (Arning et al., 2015; Hampson and Sankar, 2012; Medland et al., 2005). However, these genes explain only a fraction of the variance in handedness data. Moreover, a number of studies has suggested that only about one quarter of the variance in handedness is attributed to genetic variation, whereas the remaining 75% of variance are explained by non-shared environmental factors (Medland et al., 2006, 2009; Vuoksimaa et al., 2009). These findings highlight the importance of integrating both genetic variation and epigenetic processes modulating gene expression when investigating the ontogenesis of hemispheric asymmetries (Geschwind and Miller, 2001).
Asymmetric gene expression in the fetal cortex has been suggested as the molecular basis of left-right differences in hand-use: Sun et al. (Sun et al., 2005) compared gene expression levels in the right and left perisylvian cortex of the human fetus |
proteins, evidence is presented to indicate that the type of collagen associated with EVs is temporally dependent on the mineralisation status of the osteoblast (Fig. 5). Given their size, these larger ECM components are thought to be anchored to EVs via various binding proteins rather than being localised within the EV lumen50. Both vesicles-derived from mineralising and non-mineralising osteoblasts were found to contain collagen-binding proteins, such as protein disulphide isomerase, which may serve to anchor collagens to the EV and provide a mechanism of transit from the endoplasmic reticulum to the ECM51. Intriguingly, MO-EVs were found to be significantly enriched with collagen type-VI but were less associated with collagens type-Ia and -XII when compared with NMO-EVs. The contribution of collagen type-I to mineralisation is well described and it represents the major ECM component of bone. However, osteogenesis is a complex process that requires the contribution of other structurally distinct, and frequently overlooked, collagens. Collagen type-VI (non-fibrillar) and -XII (fibrillar) have coordinated roles in the formation of collagen bridges involved in osteoblast cell-cell communication, with the deletion of these genes leading to a reduction in bone mass and increased fragility52. Collagen-VI is a primary component of the periosteum ECM that is thought to function in early osteoblast differentiation and formation of the primary osteon53,54. Receptors for collagen-VI are found on the surface of chondrocytes and have been shown to transduce signals to the mitochondria and having important roles in the release of mitochondrial Ca2+, which is subsequently packaged into endosomal vesicles and delivered into the extracellular environment55. Collagen-XII contains several domains, specifically one collagenous domain that interacts with collagen-I and another large N-terminal globular domain that has been shown to interact with molecules, such as tenascin, which regulate cellular interaction with the surrounding pericellular matrix, influencing osteoblast adhesion and differentiation, and which was found here to be significantly upregulated in NMO-EVs56. To our knowledge, this study presents the first indication that the deposition of these bridging collagens is, at least in part, coordinated by the extracellular delivery of osteoblast-derived EVs and that the transfer of these collagens is likely temporally distinct.
Other proteins that were found to be significantly up-regulated in MO-EVs also warrant some brief discussion, since their contribution may have important implications for early mineralisation that demand further investigation. The majority of these proteins function in the binding of calcium ions and as intracellular messengers but have under characterised roles during early osteogenesis. These proteins included nucleolin, calmodulin and protein-S. Nulceolin is a nuclear phosphoprotein that has previously been shown to be translocated in small matrix vesicles to the cell surface57. Although the relationship between nucleolin and osteogenesis remains unknown, there is evidence to suggest this calcium-binding protein is linked to cartilage matrix degradation through MMP-9 and the relaying of signals to the ECM and nucleus58. A second calcium-binding protein found to be up-regulated in MO-EVs was calmodulin, which is activated through the binding of calcium ions and functions in the Ca2+ signal transduction pathway that enhances osteoblast differentiation and bone development59. Finally, a protein that was found to be significantly up-regulated in MO-EVs yet largely uncharacterised in relation to osteogenesis is the vitamin-K-dependent protein, protein-S. Unlike nucleolin and calmodulin, protein-S does not function in the binding of calcium ions. Members of the vitamin-K-dependent protein family have well defined roles in osteogenesis as well as in pathological vascular calcification. Currently, little information exists regarding the role of protein-S during osteogenesis. However, it has previously been hypothesised that this protein may be as important as other well characterised vitamin K-dependent proteins, such as osteocalcin and matrix gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) protein, in bone turnover60. It is recommended that further examination of this protein is required in order to better define its role during early osteogenesis.
In conclusion, data is provided to show that sEVs derived from mineralising osteoblasts have considerable utility as an acellular approach to mineralised tissue engineering. Interestingly, the contents of these vesicles appear to be dependent on the culture environment in which they are generated, with sEVs derived from non-mineralising osteoblasts demonstrating limited efficacy in vitro. Comparative proteomic analysis of MO-EVs and NMO-EVs highlighted significant up-regulation in the presence of calcium chelating proteins, namely annexins, that have been shown to have important yet under-characterised roles in the EV-localised mineral nucleation, as well as bridging collagens previously shown to be important in the formation of the early mineralising ECM. Lastly, since the mineral identified was defined as OCP and found to be primarily associated with phospholipid, it is proposed that this likely represented a transitioning mineral phase that continued to remain in contact with EVs even within the developing ECM. Perhaps one of the most striking findings, and a further reason to hypothesise that EVs acted as an early site of mineral nucleation, was that MO-EVs were only capable of significantly enhancing mineralisation when added in the presence of MM. This suggests that exogenous ions within the medium became associated with the MO-EVs extracellularly - likely due to the enhanced presence of annexins - and were required for the formation of OCP in these cultures.Compared to other religious groups in the country, white-evangelical Protestants top the chart in support for the death penalty. By contrast, black and Hispanic Protestants—groups that each overwhelmingly identify as born-again or evangelical—anchor the bottom of the chart. Only about one-quarter of black Protestants and Hispanic Protestants favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder, compared to more than two-thirds of black and Hispanic Protestants who prefer life in prison with no chance of parole.
The NAE resolution is notable, however, for explicitly mentioning “racial disparities.” The inclusion of these two words—even if they go by fairly quickly among a list of other problems—marks something genuinely new and significant.
The NAE’s willingness to talk about racial disparities in capital sentencing comes as it slowly strengthens its ties with black and Latino evangelical leaders. For example, the NAE board’s 12-member executive committee includes Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Reverend John Jenkins, pastor of First Baptist Church of Glenarden, a predominantly African American megachurch outside of Washington, D.C. Rodriguez penned a 2014 op-ed in Time calling on his fellow evangelicals to rethink their position on capital punishment following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma.
These increasing ties have been driven by moral conviction, but they are also dictated by demographic realities. Since 1998, white-evangelical Protestants have fallen slightly as a proportion of the population, from 22 percent in 1998 to 18 percent in 2014. Black Protestants have largely remained steady, comprising 10 percent of the population in 1998 and 9 percent in 2014. But Hispanic Protestants have shown remarkable growth in the 21st century, moving from only 1 percent of the population in 2000 to 4 percent in 2014.
Calculating this a bit differently—looking at all self-identified evangelical or born-again Christians by race over time—confirms the pattern. According to the General Social Survey (GSS), in 1998, 72 percent of self-identified evangelicals were white, while 24 percent were black, and 4 percent were some other race. In 2014, the white proportion of evangelicals had fallen 8 percentage points to 64 percent. Meanwhile, the black proportion of evangelicals remained steady at 25 percent, Hispanics accounted for 8 percent, and other races accounted for two percent.
The demographic data unequivocally point to an evangelical future that is less white, comparably African American, and more Hispanic. As whites are becoming less dominant in the American evangelical family, organizations like the NAE have begun to adjust to the new reality by becoming more inclusive in their leadership and membership. The recent NAE statement on capital punishment signals at least two ways in which these nascent connections may already be having a deeper impact on white evangelical moral theology and worldview.Most people know that the Olympics started out in Ancient Greece, but did you know that back then the athletes competed in the nude? (Though technically, they could wear penis restraints - yes, you read that right). Or that one of the games was an ancient form of mixed martial arts? Or that a chef won the very first Olympic games?
To help celebrate the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, we'll posts some neat facts about the Olympics, starting with this one: 10 Fascinating Facts About the Ancient Olympic Games:
1. Ancient Olympic Athletes Competed in the Nude
Milo of Kroton, one of the greatest Ancient Olympic champion. He won
the wrestling event 6 times, over the span of 34 years! (Source)
Yes, that's right - ancient Olympic sportsmen (all men, by the way) ran, wrestled, and fought buck naked. The ancient Greeks had a tradition of doing things nude (they walked around in the buff in the bedroom and at parties called sympsia*, and they exercised without any clothes on) - indeed, the word gymnasium came from the Greek word gymos, which means "naked."
Why naked? Well, to appreciate and celebrate the male physique, of course, and as a tribute to the gods. Participants regularly anointed themselves with olive oil to enhance their looks... and to keep the skin smooth!
In the sixth century, there was an actually attempt to make athletes wear loincloths, but this proved to be unpopular and soon afterwards nudity regained its status as fashion in athletics.
*Great trivia for the next time you're in a boring symposium: the original symposium is a nude drinking party (sympotein is Greek for "to drink together"), complete with courtesans (basically sophisticated prostitutes).
2. The Prudes Wore Penis Restraints
Did I say all athletes competed naked in the Ancient Olympics? Silly me - actually, not all of them were naked.
Some wore a kynodesme (literally a "dog leash"), a thin leather thong used as a penis restraint:
[The kynodesme] was tied tightly around the part of the foreskin that extended beyond the glans. The kynodesme could then either be attached to a waist band to expose the scrotum, or tied to the base of the penis so that the penis appeared to curl upwards.
3. A Chef Won the Very First Olympic Games
The very first recorded Ancient Olympic Games took place in 776 BC. The event was a stadion race (a foot race equivalent to a 190-m or 208-yard dash). The winner was a humble baker from the Greek city state of Elis named Coroebus (also spelled Koroibos).
For the first 13 games, the stadion race was the only competition. At the 14th Ancient Olympic Games, a double race was added.
4.... and He Won... An Olive Branch!
An Olympionike or a winner of an event receiving an olive wreath and red ribbons
(Epiktetos Painter, 520 - 510 BC - from mlahanas.de)
Yup - that's because the Ancient Olympic Games didn't have any medals or prizes. Winners of the competitions won olive wreaths, branches, as well as woolen ribbons. Oh, that and the all important honor.
They did, however, come home as heroes - and got showered with gifts there. Many victors subsequently used their fame to endorse products and to get paid posing for sculptures and drawings (just like today, huh?)
5. More than Just Running: Wrestling and Boxing Added to the Ancient Olympics
Tired of all the running, a new game of wrestling (called pale) was added to the 18th Olympics in 708 B.C.
Greek wrestling was a bit more fun than your regular high school wrestling. For one, submission holds were allowed (actually, they were encouraged) and that a referee could punish an infraction by whipping the contestant with a stick until the undesirable behavior stopped!
Later, pygme/pygmachia or Ancient Greek boxing was added. Now, some historian believed that boxing was originally developed in Sparta. Being the original tough guys, Spartans believed that helmets were unnecessary in battle. Instead, they boxed themselves in the face to prepare for battles!
In the Ancient Olympics, there were no rounds - boxing was done when a fighter was knocked out cold (if the fight lasted too long, then they each took turn punching each other in the head until one collapsed).
6. Pankration: Ancient Greek Mixed Martial Arts
In this Pankration scene, the pankriatiast on the right is trying to gouge his opponent's eye and the ref is about to beat the living tar out of him with a stick
(Photo: Jastrow [Wikimedia])
If you think that Ancient Greek boxing was violent, it's more like knitting when compared to pankration, the ancient form of mixed martial arts.
How violent was pankration? Let's just say that there were only two rules: no eye gouging and no biting (the referees carried sticks to beat those who violated the rules). Everything else - including choke holds, breaking fingers and neck - was legit. There was no weight division or time limits: the fight continued until a combatant surrendered, lost consciousness, or died.
In 564 BC, Arrhachion of Philgaleia was crowned the pankration victor... even after he had died:
Arrhachion's opponent, having already a grip around his waist, thought to kill him and put an arm around his neck to choke off his breath. At the same time he slipped his legs through Arrhachion's groin and wound his feet inside Arrhachion's knees, pulling back until the sleep of death began to creep over Arrhachion's senses. But Arrhachion was not done yet, for as his opponent began to relax the pressure of his legs, Arrhachion kicked away his own right foot and fell heavily to the left, holding his opponent at the groin with his left knee still holding his opponent's foot firmly. So violent was the fall that the opponent's left ankle was wrenched from his socket. The man strangling Arrhachion... signaled with his hand that he gave up. Thus Arrhachion became a three-time Olympic victor at the moment of his death. His corpse... received the victory crown. (Source)
Lastly, just to prove that they're bad asses, the ancient Greeks then decided to start a pankration event for the paides or youth (boys aged 12 to 17) Olympic games!
7. The Olympic Games Weren't the Only One
Those Greeks sure did love their sports! The Ancient Olympic games were actually just a part of four sports festival called the Panhellenic Games:
- The Olympic Games, the most important and prestigious game of them all, was held in honor of Zeus every four years near Elis.
- Pythian Games was held every four years near Delphi in honor of Apollo
- Nemean Games was held every two years near Nemea, in honor of Zeus
- Isthmian Games was held every two years near Corinth, in honor of Poseidon
The games were arranged in such a way that there was one going on (almost) every year.
8. Heraea: Ancient Olympics for Women
Married women were banned at the Ancient Olympics on the penalty of death. The laws dictated that any adult married woman caught entering the Olympic grounds would be hurled to her death from a cliff! Maidens, however, could watch (probably to encourage gettin' it on later).
But this didn't mean that the women were left out: they had their own games, which took place during Heraea, a festival worshipping the goddess Hera. The sport? Running - on a track that is 1/6th shorter than the length of a man's track on the account that a woman's stride is 1/6th shorter than that of a man's!
The female victors at the Heraea Games actually got better prizes: in addition to olive wreaths, they also got meat from an ox slaughtered for the patron deity on behalf of all participants!
Overall, young girls in Ancient Greece weren't encouraged to be athletes - with a notable exception of Spartan girls. The Spartans believed that athletic women would breed strong warriors, so they trained girls alongside boys in sports. In Sparta, girls also competed in the nude or wearing skimpy outfits, and boys were allowed to watch (to encourage gettin' it on later marriage and procreation). (Photo: Sikyon.com)
9. Ancient "Computer" Used to Set Olympics Date
In 1901, a Greek sponge diver discovered the wreck of an ancient cargo ship off the coast of the Antikythera island. One of the item recovered was an ancient mechanical computer that became known as the Antikythera mechanism. Scientists estimated that it was created in 150 to 100 BC
For over a hundred years, scientists debated the true purpose of the Antikythera mechanism and marveled at the intricacies of the device (mind you, the mechanical clock didn't appear in the West until about a thousand years later).
Recently, scientists believed that they've finally cracked the mystery:
Tony Freeth, a member of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, said he was "astonished" at the discovery. "The Olympiad cycle was a very simple, four-year cycle and you don't need a sophisticated instrument like this to calculate it. It took us by huge surprise when we saw this. "But the Games were of such cultural and social importance that it's not unnatural to have it in the Mechanism." (Source)
10. Christianity Killed the Ancient Olympics
The Romans, who conquered Greece, viewed the Olympics as a pagan festival.
So, in AD 393, Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Ancient Olympics in part to institute Christianity as a state religion. The Olympics was no more... until it was revived 1,500 years later in 1896.UPDATE 8/9: We have reached our first 72 participants but may have some spots open up. While we can't promise a spot if you submit your application now, we will add your information to our wait list!
Amazon Games Studio will be hosting a play test event at the UCI Esports Arena on August 11th from 2PM - 6PM. Players will be compensated hourly, with $10 cards to The Hill, for their participation of playing Amazon Game Studio's newest game: Breakaway. There are only 72 slots available, that will be offered on a first come first serve basis, and you do NOT have to be a UCI student to participate.
If you have any questions, message the UCI Esports page. See you in game!
By filling out this form, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of Amazon Games Studio and UCI Esports.Screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET
Do you really wish you had X-ray vision? Sure, it would be fun to see what your neighbors are doing behind those walls -- until you see something you wish you hadn't.
Regardless, researchers at MIT have developed a sensing technology that uses low-power Wi-Fi to detect moving people. It follows other wall-penetrating sensor tech using radar and heavy equipment.
The Wi-Vi system by Dina Katabi and Fadel Adib sends out a low-power Wi-Fi signal and tracks its reflections to sense people moving around, even if they're in closed rooms or behind walls.
Part of a Wi-Fi signal transmitted at a wall will penetrate it and reflect off people on the other side. The MIT system ignores all the other reflects, such as from objects, to focus on those from moving people only. It can determine the number of moving people in the room and their relative locations.
The system sends out two nearly identical signals, but one is the inverse of the other, and thus they cancel each other out.
"So, if the person moves behind the wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human," Adib, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was quoted as saying in a release.
The Wi-Vi receiver uses changes in the signal reflection time to calculate where a moving person is behind a wall. It can also detect gestures such as arm waving and could be used to control home lighting or appliances in another room. It could also let people communicate with the outside using hand signals alone.
British researchers have also been investigating how to use Wi-Fi for surveillance and urban warfare, but the MIT system could be used in applications such as search and rescue, law enforcement, or personal security.
"If you are walking at night and you have the feeling that someone is following you, then you could use it to check if there is someone behind the fence or behind a corner," said Katabi, a professor in the department.
Or the NSA could use it to see how badly you dance in front of your mirror.
The research (PDF) will be shown at the Sigcomm conference in Hong Kong in August. Check out a brief demo in the vid below.When you think of Dunkin' Donuts, what comes to mind? Doughnuts? (Or, rather, donuts?) Or just dunking?
Well, some stores formerly known as Dunkin' Donuts will be trying a new name and slogan: Dunkin’. Coffee and more.
Notice that the new name has a hole in it: Where are the doughnuts? The emphasis seems to be on dunking.
What can you dunk, and where can you dunk it? The answer seems to be "coffee and more." This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Jerry wrote a card to Elaine that said, "To a wonderful girl, a great pal, and more."
As Dan Orlando reported for the Nation's Restaurant News, the trial roll-out of the new name will begin in Pasedena, California, but then spread to other locations. The company said in a statement: "While we remain the No. 1 retailer of donuts in the country, as part of our efforts to reinforce that Dunkin’ Donuts is a beverage-led brand and coffee leader, we will be testing signage in a few locations that refer to the brand simply as Dunkin'."
This feels a little like when Kentucky Fried Chicken moved to the name KFC to de-emphasize the word "fried." In the case of Dunkin' Donuts, the company has emphasized that the Dunkin'-only name is a continuation of the "America Runs on Dunkin’" campaign that has been around for over a decade. Either way, this is substantial attempt to shift away from the word "donuts."
What's wrong with doughnuts? While they may be yummy, the name doesn't necessarily imply healthy and fit. Typically doughnuts are fried, which can mean a fair amount of saturated fats (nine grams for a Powdered Donut and seven for a Boston Kreme, according to the Dunkin' website) and trans fats. A single doughnut can have 200 to 400 calories (320 for a Powedered Doughnut and 300 for a Boston Kreme).
Doughnuts can also have a surprising amount of sodium (320 oilligrams, or 13% your recommended daily limit, for a Powdered Doughnut and 360 mg, or 15%, for a Boston Kreme). And, of course, there's the sugar: 14 g for a Powdered Donut and 17 g for a Boston Kreme. You can assume that a large percentage of the sugar is added since doughnuts don't grow naturally. Moreover, the Powdered Donut and Boston Kreme contain artificial ingredients.
Still, while you probably don't want to have an all-doughnut diet, a doughnut here and there is not the end of the world. In fact, many products marketed as health foods have more fat, salt or sugar per serving. Products with more sugar include various brands of granola and energy bars and smoothies, as indicated on the website Eat This, Not That! The site also shows a number of coffee drinks that have more sugar than a can of Coke (and thus a doughnut).
Moreover, attempts to make healthier doughnuts have been emerging, such as baking rather than frying, using less sugar and using more natural and healthy ingredients, like fruits and nuts. Faith Brar listed some sample recipes for Shape magazine. Remember, as with people, what's inside is what matters -- not the name or the appearance. And beware of artificial ingredients.
So even though Dunkin' may be moving away from "donuts" in its branding, to quote (sort of) a song from Grease, "there are worse things that you can do" than eat a doughnut.Earlier in the week, this blog noted that 2014 is the 20th anniversary of California's Proposition 187, a controversial effort to curtail illegal immigration. That anniversary was cited at the recent conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), part of which was shown on C-SPAN Thursday morning.
NALEO President Alex Padilla referred to pro-Proposition 187 television ads that showed illegal immigrants streaming across the Texas border as a narrator sounded the alarm: "They keep coming!"
Then Padilla noted the presence in the audience of Latino officials from every level of government. "It's true," he said. "We keep coming. And we have in Gov. Brown someone who embraces us when we keep coming."
The California governor had just addressed the conference, making wry use of a double entendre as he hailed the advance of "Brown Power."
He drew a lesson from history to show a series of forceful transfers of power. Said Brown: "The Mexicans threw out the Spanish... and then of course the gringos threw out the Mexicans in 1846 or 1848. But the point is you never keep control forever. There's always new waves coming. So you've got to stay ahead of the wave. That's what we call Brown power."
The governor spoke proudly of bills he had signed to provide in-state tuition, driver's licenses, and scholarship eligibility to illegal immigrants as the result of increasing Latino power.
Said Brown: "It's really the people, the participation, the sheer power of the Latino community as it is felt in the towns and cities and counties up and down this state. So that's the tide that's turning the political feelings and philosophy of state government."
Brown took pride in another bill that allowed an illegal law-school graduate to practice his profession. "I think that's pretty good," he said. "You can practice law in California even if the law doesn't recognize that you ought to be voting in California. But you know what? If we keep doing stuff like that all across the country, Congress will get the message."
The governor also boasted of a school-spending formula that provides extra funding for schools with large numbers of English-learners.
Said Brown:ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania man used a homemade, high-pressure air gun to fatally shoot a neighbor with whom he had an affair, a prosecutor and police said.
Josef Raszler, 35, was charged Wednesday with criminal homicide in the Sept. 13 shooting of 46-year-old Stephanie Roof. She was shot with a homemade metal projectile at about 1 a.m. in the driveway of her home across the street from Raszler’s in Lower Macungie Township.
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said investigators haven’t found the weapon Raszler allegedly used, but they have evidence he researched making it and practiced with it at his parents’ lake house days before Roof’s killing. A county detective even made such a gun using materials and information that correspond to the online research Raszler allegedly did, and that device was displayed Wednesday at Martin’s news conference announcing the charges.
Raszler at first denied knowing Roof well, but eventually confessed to having an intimate relationship with her, Martin said. Items in her home and information from her cellphone confirmed that, investigators said.
Roof reportedly ended the relationship in the summer of 2015, but Martin said Raszler was angry and “not accepting” of that.
The Allentown Morning Call reports Raszler sent Roof a barrage of text messages -- 3,400 texts over a course of four months, an average of 30 a day -- that became increasingly angry.
“I was a perfectly good person just trying to help and now my soul has holes I can’t mend,” Raszler texted Roof in September 2015, according to his arrest affidavit released Thursday and obtained by the paper.
A month later, Raszler reportedly wrote, “I will forever hate you.”
Roof reportedly texted Raszler in October 2015, calling the unsolicited messages “vile, abusive, threatening... very intimidating” and warning him that she would call the police if he didn’t stop.
Roof was found shot in the chest and her live-in boyfriend performed CPR before she died at a hospital. Roof had four daughters, two of whom are adults.
Investigators say they found the metal projectile they believe was used to kill Roof, and that DNA from blood on it matched her.
Authorities believe Raszler drove to his parents’ lake home in Schuylkill County and practiced firing the weapon he made. Witnesses recalled hearing sounds like a pneumatic nail gun being fired repeatedly on Sept. 9 and 10 and two projectiles similar to those investigators believe killed Roof were found on the lakeside property.
Police later found copper tubing and piping, air tanks, an air gun trigger and melted lead at Raszler’s home, along with receipts for air gauges, air tanks and other items he allegedly bought in May and June. His home computer revealed numerous searches for items including “high pressure air pumps for air rifles,” ‘’high pressure air pump gun” and “most powerful air rifle,” according to a criminal complaint.
Court records indicate Raszler has applied for a public defender, but an employee with that office said Thursday that no attorney there has been assigned to represent him.
He remained jailed without bond Thursday and was scheduled for a preliminary hearing April 12.FOR BOTH sides of Australian politics, the 1980s has assumed the status of a heroic age. Among Labor figures, this is hardly surprising, since the era was marked by a string of election victories, significant policy innovation and economic transformation, led by two charismatic personalities – Bob Hawke and Paul Keating – and supported by many talented ministers. For the Liberals and Nationals, it is harder to see why the period should be celebrated, except as a magnanimous tribute to the past achievements of their opponents, which they can then, not so magnanimously, contrast with Labor’s recent performance.
But not so, for the conservatives have come to regard the 1980s as the happy era in which they waged war on the “Industrial Relations Club.” The term is Gerard Henderson’s, from a 1983 essay in Quadrant in which he claimed that employer groups, unions, the federal industrial relations department and the Arbitration Commission formed a largely Melbourne-based club that controlled Australian industrial relations. The individuals running these organisations, he wrote, had a “vested interest” in an IR system based on pragmatic deal-making between contending parties. They acted without regard for the economic effects of their decisions, or for the national interest more generally.
In a recent speech to the Sydney Institute, employment minister Eric Abetz compared Henderson (who now presides over that very institute) to Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg five centuries ago. Abetz claimed that Henderson, like Luther, caused reverberations that led to a “Thirty Years War.” (The real Thirty Years War actually broke out a century after Luther’s famous protest, but things presumably moved at a slower pace in those days.)
Henderson’s argument in 1983 would have been recognisable to any “public choice” theorist among economists and political scientists; his IR Club was a group whose self-interest dictated behaviour that undermined the public interest. At the time, he was working in Melbourne for the federal Department of Employment and Industrial Relations. He recalled a few years later that it “caused some disquiet” among the departmental heavies in Canberra. “It is as if the Will of Allah had been queried in a mosque.” Today, any public servant who published such an article in the policy area in which he or she happened to be employed would surely be subject to disciplinary action if not dismissal.
In the years ahead, during which he became a Liberal staffer and then the director of a right-wing think tank, Henderson was among a group of lawyers, journalists, intellectuals and business leaders who attacked Australia’s centralised system of wage determination and the union power which they believed it underwrote. Some of them belonged to the H.R. Nicholls Society, an organisation named after a former English Chartist and Australian gold miner who, in his dotage in 1911, said some hard things about the new Arbitration Court and its president, H.B. Higgins, thereby earning a contempt of court charge.
The H.R. Nicholls Society is central to the right’s 1980s heroic age myth. Initially treated as “malcontents and eccentrics” (to borrow from one of its contemporary critics), the Society took on union tyranny and – according to myth – won. The story has its martyrs: brave employers and their supporters who risked everything by confronting union power and intimidation.
Good publicity goes a long way; these IR revolutionaries gave the impression that the most serious problem facing Australia was the lack of employer power, an ill rivalled only by excessive government regulation. This hostility to regulation was also common among eighties entrepreneurs, for whom it nonetheless posed no serious barrier to the rapid acquisition of massive wealth. The “New Right” (as it was called, to distinguish itself from old-style conservatives less interested in rocking boats) didn’t spend much time worrying over the likes of Alan Bond and Christopher Skase.
The mid 1980s saw a string of employer victories in disputes whose names still carry resonance for anyone who lived through those times and read the papers: SEQEB, Robe River, Dollar Sweets, Mudginberri. In each case, the New Right claimed victory. Their collective endeavour, according to the myth, contributed to an intellectual ascendancy which meant that, by the mid 1990s, the Industrial Relations Club had been disrupted and the power of unions drastically reduced.
LIKE most myths, this one is as much an exercise in forgetting as remembering. Speaking to the H.R. Nicholls Society’s inaugural meeting in 1986, Henderson paid tribute to various employer victories of recent years – Mudginberri, Dollar Sweets and “the enormous success of the Queensland government in the 1985 power dispute.” But it’s unlikely that Henderson was celebrating a year or so later when, emboldened by many victories of just this type, the Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen launched a crazed bid to become prime minister of Australia and thereby destroyed any chance that Henderson’s former employer, John Howard, could win the 1987 election.
This is one of the forgotten dimensions of the activities of the New Right enthusiasts for an IR revolution. Their ideas contributed to disruption and disunity among the conservative parties during the 1980s and early 1990s and helped Labor occupy what is now called “the sensible centre” (even as the whole political culture moved rightward). IR reform was a helpful launching pad for the political career of Peter Costello, an H.R. Nicholls Society member who was an enthusiast for the use of the common law against unions. Costello made a name for himself as a barrister in the 1985 Dollar Sweets case, when a small Melbourne manufacturer of “hundreds and thousands” took on and defeated the Federated Confectioners’ Association, which was campaigning for shorter hours. But it was all too easy to paint the H.R Nicholls Society as a cabal of extremists with seriously wacky ideas, plotting to down the workers and destroy their unions.
For the Coalition parties over the last thirty years, industrial relations reform has been a bit like a quest for the lost lollipop. Visions of charming swirls of colour and the anticipated delights of sugar hitting the palate have usually given way to sour disappointment. It took twenty years for the delusions nurtured in the mid 1980s – the idea that employers would be able to appeal directly to their workers over the heads of union bosses and so bypass the unions entirely – to exact their full price in the WorkChoices fiasco of 2005–07. By then, Peter Costello, the ambitious young barrister of the mid eighties, was federal treasurer.
The Coalition, it is true, has learned from WorkChoices. But elements in the business community and at News Limited have been clamouring for a return to the fray. Recently, Henderson’s notion of an Industrial Relations Club has been implausibly revived in order to allow the Coalition to craft a language of IR reform that avoids the implication that it is anti-worker or even anti-union.
In the first place, as Laura Tingle pointed out in the Australian Financial Review, this move involves the notion that an important part of the problem lies not with workers or unions, but with bosses who too readily give way to union demands. Such people, it seems, need to be saved from themselves. Or, at least, the public interest needs to be protected in the face of their lack of fortitude. In the wake of recent manufacturing closures, especially in the car industry, this story now includes the assertion that the very companies that gave the union bosses overly generous deals then ran off to the hard-pressed taxpayer for financial support.
As for the unions, the government focus here is on corrupt, greedy and militant officials, rather than on unions themselves. This approach allows the government to give the impression that its actions will actually work in favour of “good” unions and the “honest” workers who support them. It side-steps, or at least obfuscates, the possibility that the government’s intention is to attack wages and conditions. The proposed revival of the Australian Building and Construction Commission would, in this story, do no more than clean up union corruption and allow a large and important industry to do its proper work for an ailing economy. It will not threaten the rights of honest employees any more than it will result in a loss of life or limb among building workers because their unions are unable to enforce proper safety standards. Or so the government and its allies want us to believe.
Recent allegations that some building union officials have been taking bribes have inflated into a royal commission the government’s election undertaking to hold a judicial inquiry into unions. Anyone |
was going on as strongly in 2012 as it was in 2006.
Opel event producer Syd Gris has plenty of grievances he plans to address on Monday. Gris, who will be speaking on the panel for the first time, said what the Guardian coined as the “War on Fun” in 2006 wages on in 2012.
Gris plans to bring up June’s Opulent Temple Massive on Treasure Island, which was designed to be for visitor aged 18 and over, but the San Francisco Police Department captain that oversaw the event insisted it only allow in those of drinking age, “despite ample precedence of events in the city being 18 and over.”
“For them to deny us the ability to do something that happens all the time in the city just because one captain didn’t like it was unfair and had a huge economic impact,” Gris said. “It’s a great example of what’s wrong with how certain things work in the city. Arbitrary decisions that are inconsistent, unfair, and have a deleterious impact on an event producer can be made by small groups of people.”
His was not a stand alone experience, but part of a broader, Gris said. The mellow Fillmore Jazz Festival had to have beer gardens for the first time this year, Power to the Peaceful was cancelled last September, as was LovEvolution this year after the SFPD places onerous restrictions on it.
“I am certainly glad that the conversation is happening with people that need to be hearing about it,” Gris said of the Summit. “Will a real change come out of it? I’m not optimistic but I certainly hope so.”
Burning Man’s ticket system is already responsible for attendance being less than last year, despite a population cap increase and 10,000 extra tickets being approved in a special permit from the Bureau of Land Management. The already shrinking event has now also lost one of its major drawcards.
Syd, Opel Productions, and the whole Opulent Temple crew, thank you so much for everything you have given us over 10 years in Burning Man. Please come back once you’ve had a break!
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Pocket12 episode titles down and 1 to go. The time has finally come to name our season 2 finale.
To date, you (the fans) have chosen the following:
“Episode 14: Welcome To Your New Home”
“Episode 15: Kill Them All”
“Episode 16: I’ve Seen The Other Side Of You”
“Episode 17: We Were Family”
“Episode 18: We Voted Not To Space You”
“Episode 19: We Should Have Seen This Coming”
“Episode 20: She’s One Of Them Now”
“Episode 21: Stuff To Steal, People To Kill”
“Episode 22: Going Out Fighting”
“Episode 23: Take The Shot”
“Episode 24: Wish I’d Spaced You When I Had The Chance”
“Episode 25: Sometimes In Life You Don’t Get to Choose”
And now, you have one more choice to make. Select a season finale title from among the following…
Polls close in 24 hours. Vote away!
Some EOS-7 surveillance room visuals compliments of Kelly Diamond and the gang in playback:
Tell your friends to head on over to twitter and follow @DarkMatter_show for a daily dose of Dark Matter goodies. Today, we continued our look back at some of the season 1 behind-the-scenes moments:
While, over on Reddit, the Stargate fun continues with another two posts:
My Journey to the Gate II – which includes the SG-1 theme with lyrics!
Stargate Memories: Small Victories, The Other Side, Upgrades
If you missed them the first time, head on over to Reddit and check out my trip down Stargate: SG-1 season 4 memory lane!
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Like this: Like Loading...File photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Promoting cycle as multi-utility mode of transport, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said that cycle was identity of youths, farmers, working class in the country.After inaugurating the two-day cycle fair, Mr Yadav said that cycle is a beneficial mode of transport and therefore Samajwadi P arty government was promoting it in every manner.Due to efforts of samajwadis no person was hesitant to ride a cycle, he added.He asked the people from the industry to give their suggestions on promoting cycle and assured that the state government would consider them seriously.He also said that while in India, cycle was considered as a transport of weaker section, its use has increased in developed countries.In London a super cycle highway was being constructed, but the system does not exist in India due to lack of planning, Mr Yadav added.He said that the present SP government has adopted a policy of safe and separate path for pedestrians and cyclists, adding that while the government was promoting cycle, it was also working on metro rail.When you see a Christian confronted with a non-believer asking for evidence, watch for the dance to begin.
It’s not a pretty dance. It’s a flailing mess only one step above a fistfight, really, all elbows and knees. Not all Christians even enter the dance floor; many aren’t actually all that interested in persuading non-believers, as strange as that sounds. We are surrounded by Christians and most of us non-believers get through our days without getting engrossed in these conversations from all sides. But if one enters the floor, then we can predict the conversation as if paper footstep outlines were placed on the ground to guide the dancers.
The Christian will present some apologetics zinger he or she thinks is very persuasive (largely thanks to apologists’ excellent salesmanship skills). That zinger will be shot down very quickly, usually with a reference to what logical fallacy it contains (or pseudoscience it parrots or bias to which it falls prey) and maybe some mention of what evidence would actually be acceptable. Undeterred, the Christian will try another argument in lieu of evidence or bit of pseudoscience. The non-believer will discard the argument and restate the terms.
Oh, but that’s only the bow and curtsey before the dance.
Once everyone gets down to business, the Christian discovers an insurmountable task ahead of him or her.
There’s not going to be a way that any Christian is going to be able to give skeptics what we actually want in terms of evidence. That’s not because we’re so very unreasonable. It’s because what we want doesn’t actually exist for the Christian to provide, though it absolutely should exist–and would if the Christian’s claims were true.
Instead, the Christian has only one option:
To persuade us to accept and use his or her standard of evidence instead of our own.
If that believer can talk us into using his or her own reduced standards for “evidence,” then the dance contest is halfway won. They do this by trying to persuade us to discard our standards, which they generally scornfully denigrate as “naturalism,” “materialism,” or “material naturalism” (all of which I’ll shorten to simply “naturalism” here today), in favor of their own.
This tactic is dishonest, but it’s really their only hope.
“Naturalism” is the Christian catch-all term for “real evidence.” They mean by this term the idea that natural laws and forces, not supernatural ones, operate in our universe. There are some more complex permutations of the idea and I’m vastly oversimplifying a lot, but that’s how Christians think of it and talk about it. If something is true, then it is real, and we can measure real things and describe them in real terms. Often we use the term “naturalism” to mean that if a claim about reality is objectively true, then it can be supported using natural laws and processes–and that if we can’t use natural laws and processes to establish a claim, then the claim is not supported (and let’s face it, probably not true either).
If a Christian is one of those “ground of being” types like Paul Tillich or one of those more deistic sorts who don’t actually claim that there is a god who interacts with the material world, then naturalism isn’t a big problem. Naturalism covers stuff that interacts with the, well, natural world, not the metaphysical world. If someone’s saying that their god is purely supernatural and only interacts with the metaphysical and never with our world, then there’s not really a way to assess that claim at all; we can discard it in full if we wish without further ado. Usually Christians who believe that way don’t make a big problem of themselves for anyone, and I’ve got no desire to start an argument if it’s not necessary.
The problem is that Christians tend to prefer a metaphysical god who constantly tinkers, bubbles through, and meddles with the natural world–yet who leaves not one single trace of its actions in the doing for us to assess. They want a god who is active in the material world yet whose activity is impossible to assess using naturalistic methods. And they want that for a reason.
They desperately need us to agree that it’s possible for a being to act in our reality without its actions being measurable in any way using any method or technique known to us because if we don’t agree with that idea, then there is no way they are going to make their case. They need a claim that can stand without any natural or reality-based evidence at all for its validity. They need a supernatural force that exists to some extent outside of the material universe, yet is thought to affect the natural world and our reality in a million different ways.
When we demand real-world evidence of their claims, therefore, we stop them dead in their tracks.
Naturalism: the Dread Pirate Roberts of the sea of Christian apologetics.
Wow, do Christians tend to hate the idea of naturalism. One apologetics site even calls it, without a hint of irony or self-awareness, “a belief-system opposed to our god.” Notice their flowchart, by the way. It’s actually not too bad. “The natural world is all that exists, so if something falls outside the natural world, it is excluded from reality.” One almost wants to say in response “Yes, and…?”
But they’re using the flowchart as a criticism, not as a statement of fact. I’d been initially planning to cite this site and its flowchart as a quick throwaway reference to general Christian hostility to the idea of what they understand as naturalism, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized that the page was actually a completely representative (if somewhat antique-looking by internet standards, though I’m nobody to talk) summary of Christians’ general teachings about the topic.
What this page outlines is exactly what Christians, evangelicals especially, are being taught. Even slickly-produced “nice” apologetics sites like gotquestions.org fall into this type of thinking. They might not fully understand what it is, but they know it’s not friendly to their brand of superstition–so they must demonize it and negate it. In pursuit of the goal of neutralizing their most deadly enemy, they tell their readers and followers (paraphrased), “Naturalism is a claim without evidence. It’s a presupposition. It’s an argument from ignorance. Gosh, those poor ole atheists just don’t understand the universe as well as we do and are cutting themselves off from purpose, love, and a full life by being so close-minded to all these ‘other ways of knowing!'” It’s like Christians learn these terms from non-believers and like an adolescent given “whiskey and car keys,” to borrow P.J. O’Rourke‘s amusingly evocative phrase, they rush right out and apply it to everything whether it applies or not. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!
Just as Christians are taught from infancy that arguments are perfectly valid evidence for their claims, they are taught to completely distort and misapply the big fancy words and ideas they’ve heard from skeptics’ responses to their claims.
Worse still, when presented with people’s perfectly reasonable outlines for what kinds of evidence would be acceptable, they’ve got one response and one response only:
They decide that their job is to persuade their marks to adopt their totally different (and much lower) standard of evidence.
And that often forms the bulk of their “witnessing” attempts for the remainder of the conversation. But don’t imagine they want us to extend that thinking everywhere to all claims. No, no: they only want us to lower our standards for Christian claims. Adherents of all religions make markedly similar claims. Every religion seems to have a totally different myth surrounding how the universe came into being and what kind of afterlife people can expect to see if they’re obedient followers. Further, if we substitute gods’ names in Christians’ “proofs,” generally we discover that their arguments make any number of gods and supernatural ideas sound plausible. And Christians are just as adept as we are at seeing that these claims have no credible support in the real world.
But we’re supposed to allow Christians to demand that we apply their arguments only to their own claims. Once we’ve allowed ourselves to think that feelings of certainty or personal purpose are proof, or that popularity or longevity somehow indicate objective veracity, then we’re not supposed to remember that all religions have very fervent, purpose-filled believers–and some religions have many more believers and more longevity than Christianity has. Once we move outside the bounds of using the laws of nature to measure a real-world claim, then we’re not supposed to use the new lowered standard to judge anything else but what the Christian wants us to use it for.
The tactic does come off as rather self-serving.
As far as I can see, the only reason that anybody would have for adopting Christians’ alarmingly low standards for evidence–and then applying that standard only to their claims and nobody else’s–is that it’d really, really help them out if we did.
And that’s simply not enough of a reason for me to do it.
Just a Little Bit of Magic is Still Magic.
The alternative is to fall into magical thinking, which is the term for a behavior or thought that someone might engage in to achieve a goal that doesn’t actually have any relationship to or influence on that goal. Prayer is the general gold standard for illustrating the idea of magical thinking, but there are a lot of other examples.
We might think of magical thinking as fairly harmless, but it isn’t. A few weeks ago, the Minister of Agriculture of one of the biggest and most populous countries on our planet thought it’d be awesome to tell a huge group of scientists and farmers in his country that thinking good thoughts toward their seeds would increase their crop yields. Forget advanced agricultural technology, forget all that stuff we know actually works: think your way to higher yields. Americans are busy doing much the same thing by demonizing GMO crops and idolizing organic ones, putting our faith in a host of “fatlogic” and “broscience” myths in trying to manage our weight and fitness, and generally demonstrating that we’re just as superstitious as any developing-world farmer facing the fear of a barren field just before harvest.
Fear and greed are what sell magical thinking. Either we’re tricked through the use of threats about what’ll happen if we don’t buy the snake oil being peddled at us, or else we’re enticed with greed at the thought of what we’ll gain via This One Stupid Trick. The last thing the purveyors of this nonsense want is for us to start asking a lot of questions about how we know any of it is true.
Because our society has been successfully boondoggled into seriously lowering our standards for evidence, we fall prey to wolves who seek to fleece us. If we’re not aware of what real evidence looks like, then we simply have no defense against those who are skilled in separating fools from their money.
Worse, when we waste our time with magical thinking, we’re not actually doing anything real to achieve the goal we say we want to achieve.
So if someone’s got a real-world claim, then yes, oh yes, we use real-world methods to support or discredit that claim. That’s because there has never been another way to reliably do it. If the claim involves something that impacts and affects the physical world in any way, then it should not be hard to devise a test that supports that claim. Nobody gets to have a real-world physical claim that is exempted from real-world assessment methods. Just because Christians really wish there was a way to have it both ways and to mix and match at will doesn’t mean there is.
When someone tells me to disdain and discard real evidence with regard to a real-world claim, then the discussion is over and I hold even more tightly to my spiritual (and physical) checkbook. And if the self-appointed salespeople for that claim want to turn their noses up at me for feeling that way, then it won’t worry me any more than if a salesperson at a department store gets sniffy about my not wanting to buy a particular dress. Their “paycheck” comes from selling me s0mething, so why should I care what they think if I reject their pitch? Their fit of pique is also not evidence for their claims because I know something they don’t know:
If any real-world assessment and measurement method actually showed a single scintilla of support for any supernatural claim in the world’s entire history of superstition, then they’d be all over it. Because no method does, however, they have to negate it to have any hope of persuading the unwary.
If Christians or any other folks want to persuade me, then they need to do it on my terms–or give me a much better reason for lowering my standards than “it’d really help me out if you’d lower your standards to a point where I can actually meet them.” Whining about how high my standards are only highlights how poor their case must be if they can’t find reasonable amounts of evidence for a claim that should be ludicrously simple and easy to support.
I’ll close with this observation: it was realizing exactly that last point that started me on my journey right out of Christianity. I realized that my religion’s claims, which should have been incredibly easy to prove in the real world given the scope of what we thought was our god’s involvement in this world, couldn’t be supported without lowering the standards for evidence to the point where any and all supernatural claims suddenly sprang into “truthfulness.” I began wondering why, and began seeking real-world evidence for what I truly at the time believed was my god’s hand upon the world. At the time, it didn’t even occur to me that I was seeking to do the impossible, much less that I’d fail utterly. I had been told my whole life that this evidence existed aplenty, so I had no reason to think it would be difficult to find that evidence and assemble it.
And here we are today.
I’m not even the first person who, in trying to find genuinely persuasive support for the idea of a god who supposedly operates constantly in the natural universe, ended up waltzing clean out of the religion.
Shall we dance?
Yes, this post was sparked by a recent comment exchange, but it’s not particularly directed at anybody. I just wanted to call attention to the general tactic because it’s so common.There will be a chance to go behind the scenes at a number of Crossrail building sites during the 6th-7th March, as part of the construction industry’s Open Doors event.
Open Doors is for the industry to show off why construction is a good career choice for younglings, but is also a great chance for curious bystanders to learn a bit about the strange world of muck and hard-hats that is scattered around the city.
To book tickets, keep an eye on Crossrail’s EventBrite page.
Although bookings aren’t being taken yet, they have announced which sites will be open:
Illford Yard
Ilford Yard will be a vital part of the Crossrail route, providing tracks to store trains overnight, and to carry out train maintenance. It is a complex project carried out in a live railway depot site, taking into account other railway companies that share the site during construction.
Liverpool Street
At the eastern end of the Crossrail station, a new Crossrail ticket hall will be constructed beneath Liverpool Street close to the Broadgate development. The new ticket hall will provide step-free access from street level to the new Crossrail platforms. Nearby, a 40m-deep box structure will be located on Blomfield Street to accommodate ventilation, electrical, mechanical and systems equipment. You will be able to see both of these sites on this event.
At the western end, a further new ticket hall will be built by developing the existing Moorgate station ticket hall. The development in which this is housed also contains a 33m-deep draught relief shaft, which has already been built in its lower basement to aid the Crossrail development.
Custom House
Custom House will be a vital part of the Crossrail route, welcoming regional and international visitors to London’s largest conference centre ExCeL, and creating a transport interchange with DLR and local buses, providing further benefits such as enabling reduced journey times to ExCeL and London City airport for people coming from the West and reduced journey times to central London for those in the East.
Limmo Peninsula
Limmo Peninsula is one of our busiest worksites, including two shafts (one temporary) which service two Tunnel Boring Machines, a wharf to unload concrete segments used to create the Crossrail tunnels, and a wharf to load the earth dug from the tunnels onto barges for transport out of London.
Pudding Mill Lane
Pudding Mill Lane will be a vital part of the Crossrail route, providing a portal for 12 trains per hour to enter and 12 trains per hour to exit the central tunnel section, connecting Crossrail’s Central London stations with Stratford and beyond. Pudding Mill Lane will also house part of the electrical infrastructure needed to serve the 42km of electrified railway. It is a complex project which has involved building a replacement DLR station fit for development in the area, and future development in the Olympic Park.
Tottenham Court Road
Alongside the upgrade of the existing tube station, Crossrail is building a new station the length of three football pitches four storeys underground. A new street level ticket hall will be constructed at Dean Street, with the station box continuing five levels below ground at a depth of around 25m, providing access to the new Crossrail platforms.
Whitechapel
Whitechapel Station will provide a vital interchange between Crossrail, London Overground services and the London Underground. At peak times there will be 24 Crossrail trains per hour in each direction – in addition to the existing London Underground and London Overground services. This will not only ease overcrowding on the existing services but also support the economic growth in the surrounding area.
There are also a host of other building sites that still have places available to visit – details here.June 9th, 2016
Do Sony Vaios Dream of Ubuntu MATE?
A new open source tinkerer begins his journey with Ubuntu MATE Linux on an ancient laptop with almost the greatest of ease. Almost.
The Linux Gadabout
For years I’ve been toying with the idea of tinkering with Linux and seeing what this whole open source thing is all about. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been mostly a Windows (and sometimes an OS X) user for most of my adult life (and a Commodore 64 and Apple IIe user when I was much less of an adult). In truth though, I’ve always had a healthy respect for those who dabble in the arcane arts of open source. The DIY aesthetic reminds me of the kids in high school shop class who would make their own guitars, and the punk bands I knew who would record demo tapes in their garages and tour the country in rusty, decades-old vans. The community exudes a spirit of exploration and an overall attitude of “permission be damned” that, as an outsider, I admire.
So why did I wait so long to dig in and get involved? Well, while I (like a lot of FOSS Force readers, I’d wager) have a closet of geriatric tech sitting around that would rival the innards of a Jawa sandcrawler, none of it’s been ideal for this purpose — until now.
My trusty old Sony Vaio VGN-FS550, purchased circa 2005, has been conscripted as fodder for this experiment. It’s served me well enough over the past eleven years, but its original install of Windows XP had slowed to a pitiful hobble no longer suitable for my needs (or the needs of anyone whose patience exceeds that of a particularly drowsy mollusk). These days, trying to open a webpage was like a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of dial-up. But in its heyday, this little computer was used for watching movies on planes and trains (though never automobiles), various writing assignments, DJing at the local bar, photo enhancements, and other countless missions of motion. My wife would keep track of finances on it when we were out of town, and sometimes our cat would even sneak in a game of World of Warcraft (as seen below).
But that was then and this is now. Enfeebled beyond practicality in its current condition, I gave the old machine a choice: take its place among the other dusty monuments to obsolescence in my office closet, or volunteer for a potentially revitalizing project that could ensure its most exciting days were yet to come. Admittedly, it wasn’t enthusiastic about either option, but that was hardly a surprise. It had been ages since it could muster enthusiasm about anything. I aimed to turn that situation around with the power of Linux!
But what distro could I expect to not only function, but thrive on an old computer with these specs?
Sony Vaio VGN-FS550
Intel Pentium M processor 1.60 GHz/1596 MHz
RAM: 512 MB
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies LTD R0104J0
Disk Size: 69.52 GB
Luckily, I was able to rely on the sage advice of my old friend and tech wizard extraordinaire Matt Hartley for a fine place to begin. Here’s the rundown he gave me:
“With regard to the Linux distro, I recommend Ubuntu MATE. I’d go with the Longer Term Support (LTS) 16.04 version. There is a ‘Direct Download’ option in the middle of the page once you’ve selected ‘Choose a Release.’
“This will download a file called an ISO image. With the ISO file ready, you’ll download LinuxLive USB Creator for Windows. This software will allow you to browse to your downloaded ISO file (the source the app will ask for), and you’ll have a formated FAT32 flash drive as the destination. Note, you will not need ‘Persistence’ or ‘Virtualization.’
“Once it’s done burning to the USB flash drive, remove the drive, plug it into the computer you’re looking to use, and make sure it’s set up in the BIOS to boot from USB flash device.
“From there, let it boot into Ubuntu MATE (it may take a bit since this is running off a USB flash drive), then choose ‘Try Ubuntu’ (not ‘Install’) so we can test the hardware out before installing anything permanent. From there, follow this tutorial video by Jay LaCroix for a walkthrough.
“A brief rundown of the steps above again are:
Download ISO file. Use USB Creator to put the ISO source onto the USB flash drive destination. On the test computer’s BIOS, make sure it’s set to boot from the USB device (it should be plugged in during this process). Reboot. Using the Fn key for boot menu works, too. Select ‘Try Ubuntu’ (not ‘Install’). Watch Jay LaCroix’s video tutorial for further details.
“If you find you’re dealing with GRUB errors, black screens after the Ubuntu logo, etc., let me know and I’ll help!”
Not knowing upon receipt of these instructions what I might expect from a GRUB error, my brain conjured up visions of sandworms on the Dune planet Arrakis. (While still frustrating, the truth of the matter is far less sinister.) With confidence bolstered by Matt’s clear guidance (and offer of help should I get stranded along the way), I pressed bravely onward.
Initially, things went well. The download of the ISO file was easy enough. Getting the bootable image onto the flash drive was a piece of cake. And then the first hiccup — one that kept me scratching my head well into the wee hours — made its grand entrance. Surprisingly enough, this hiccup had nothing to do with Linux. When trying to shuffle the boot order in my Vaio’s BIOS, I was startled to discover there was simply no option for a USB device.
Sources online seemed to agree that, if no such option existed, enabling External Drive Boot in the advanced tab should do the trick. Alas, this was also absent from available options.
Other sources reported success by physically plugging the USB drive into a different port. Still no luck nor love. Was my old Vaio ready to throw in the towel so soon?
Further research eventually directed me to salvation: Plop Boot Manager!
Having grown up in the Midwest where shortcuts through dog-walked vacant lots were the quickest way home before curfew, this may have been the first instance in my life where “plop” and “boot” in the same sentence turned out to be a good thing. But in this case, it was a very good thing. By following the very simple and comprehensive instructions included there, I was finally given an option to boot from my USB drive.
Success! After determining that Ubuntu MATE would work fine on the Vaio’s hardware by using the “Try Ubuntu” option first (per Matt’s cautionary advice), I crossed my fingers, took the next big step, and installed it.
Compared to any Windows install I’ve ever endured, getting Ubuntu MATE onto my old Vaio was a pretty speedy process. Once my new operating system was in place, I marveled at how quickly this 11 year old computer responded to every subtle click and drag as if it were a new machine again. I’m not going to say I went full-on Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein” mode (my wife was slumbering in the next room, after all), but inside I was shouting: “It’s alive!”
There were only two quirks post-install I experienced before finally heading to bed for the night:
Though I stated my language preference as American English, my calendar defaulted to Spanish. While I’m not averse to adding a little spice of variety to my life, I wanted to see if this was easily fixed. It was. A random clicking kept emanating from the laptop’s speakers; it was not a joyful noise. To keep the aforementioned slumbering wife from entering the scene to strangle me, I plugged in some earbuds to subdue the sound. Muting did no good, but a simple reboot remedied the situation. It’s the next day as I write this and all’s quiet on the Linux-infused Vaio front. For now.
For a first foray into Linux, I’d say my experience was pretty painless. (Thanks again, Matt Hartley!) The biggest pain in the behind was due to my attempt at bending an archaic, stubborn BIOS to my clueless human will, but the problem was ultimately conquered by an open source solution once I started asking the right questions. Now that my foot’s in the door, I hope to run into some problems that’ll be interesting enough to share next time around — but not so interesting that I swear off computers to pursue a less stressful hobby like hang gliding off Everest or jousting against subway cars.
RelatedApple's new "Health" application in iOS 8 was apparently driven by what the company feels is a "moral obligation" to help its users live healthier lives, it disclosed in conversations with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Prior to last week's unveiling of iOS 8 and the new Health app, executives from Apple had privately met with the FDA to discuss "mobile medical applications." Multiple meetings occurred between the two parties, most recently in December of 2013.In an effort to find out what those meetings were about, Apple Toolbox filed a formal request with the FDA. The administration responded and revealed that Apple executives feel that mobile devices can do more to help people learn about themselves, and that they feel there "may be a moral obligation to do more."Beyond Apple's philosophy regarding health tracking data, little else was revealed about the meeting between the company and the FDA. The administration simply said that Apple "wants to make sure they are on the side of the FDA" as they continue to innovate with future products."Apple will work closely with the FDA as they develop future products," the administration's disclosure reads. "The earlier FDA is involved and advising, the less likely that Apple would be caught by surprise later when they wish to release a new product, if that product must be regulated."Apple's first official foray into the so-called "quantified self" market will come with iOS 8 and its native Health application, which will serve as a central place for users to track and organize all of their health-related data. It also comes with a new digital Medial ID that could help first responders make life saving decisions in the event of a medical emergency.Of course, Apple's interest in health-related applications —and its talks with the FDA— have only helped to further drive speculation that the company could be planning to launch a wrist-worn device later this year, frequently referred to as a so-called "iWatch." The latest rumors claim the device may sport a curved OLED touchscreen, and that Apple is apparently planning to hold an event to unveil the accessory this October.MINNESOTA UNITED FC vs. ATLANTA UNITED FC
TCF Bank Stadium | Minneapolis, Minnesota
03.12.17 | MLS Week #2 | MLS Game #2
4:00 p.m. CT (ESPN2, MLS LIVE in Canada, MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN)
2017 Records:
MIN: 0-0-1; 0-0-0 at home
ATL: 0-0-1; 0-0-0 on the road
After opening its inaugural season on the road against the Portland Timbers, Minnesota United FC gets its chance to play in front of a home crowd for the first time in MLS history this Sunday, March 12. The team will face fellow expansion side Atlanta United FC, who played its home opener last weekend, a 1-2 loss to the New York Red Bulls. Kickoff is at 4:00 p.m. CT with TV coverage on ESPN2 and radio coverage on 1500 ESPN.
MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN begins its pre-match coverage with longtime soccer commentator Chris Lidholm at 3:30 p.m. CT before play-by-play and commentary is taken over by Callum Williams and Kyndra de St. Aubin for the match itself.
In their season opener, Minnesota United fell 5-1 to the Portland Timbers despite winning the possession battle and putting together good stretches of offensive play, particularly in the second half.
“We defended very poorly, gave away two or three really poor goals late on in the game,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath. “When you consider it was 2-1 in the 82nd minute and we were having most of the play then, to give the penalty away and then the last two goals was really poor from our point of view. One thing it did show me, and the quotes from their manager and their players after the game, it certainly wasn't a ‘5-1’ in terms of a game. The scoreline really flattered them.”
Minnesota United’s first goal in MLS history was scored in the 79th minute after Johan Venegas got the ball to Christian Ramirez at the edge of the box. Ramirez turned on defender Lawrence Olum and fired it into the right side of the net. Ramirez had come on in the 69th minute, and his goal made the score 2-1. Instead of tilting the game in Minnesota’s direction, though, it led to a penalty kick goal by Diego Valeri in the 82nd minute and two goals from Fenando Adi in stoppage time for Portland.
“It opened the game up a little bit,” said Heath. “But at that particular time, we were having probably our best spell of the game. We were certainly controlling the game and most of the game was in their half of the field. But the penalty was a poor decision from Vadim [Demidov], and then after that, we were trying to push forward again and very naively gave away the last two goals. As disappointed as I was, if we'd have somehow come out with a result in that game, I wouldn't have been too high and I'm certainly not going to get too low.”
This will be the first meeting for soccer teams from Minnesota and Atlanta in the top division since June 20, 1981 when the North American Soccer League’s Minnesota Kicks and Atlanta Chiefs played a match at Metropolitan Stadium. The Kicks beat the Chiefs 3-2. Minnesota would no doubt be happy with a similar result this weekend.
“We know how important this is for us, for our supporters, to get off on a good foot at home and I'm looking forward to the game,” said Heath. “It will be good for everybody if we can get three points on the board, make everybody calm down and realize what I said before the game last Friday: This is a work in progress. It's early days, but I've been encouraged with a lot of the stuff with this group.”
Heath was the head coach for Orlando City SC when that team joined MLS in 2015 and played their first home match against that season’s other expansion side, New York City FC, so he knows what the home opener for an expansion club can mean, especially for the supporters.
“This is going to be their team,” said Heath. “I know that some people will be there on Sunday for the first time. I guarantee you: there are so many people that will come to the game on Sunday and this will turn their life around forever in terms of being a sports fan. Because there's not another sport like soccer in terms of having a part and being part of the game. That's what I want our supporters to be this weekend. Everything that we do as an organization, we have to think about them. They're the people who pay hard-earned money to come and actually support us. We have to give them a performance this weekend and that will be as important for me as anything.”
After their home opener, Minnesota heads out on the road again to face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, March 18 at 8:00 p.m. CT. That match will be broadcast on my29 |
is that DCMA requirements under criminal law are different from the tests that apply under civil law. Jennifer Granick writes that most of the discussion about DMCA “safe harbor” provisions since the raid and arrests has looked at the principle from the perspective of civil law. However, Granick – general counsel of entertainment company Worldstar Management – points out that American authorities are trying to apply criminal jurisdiction to Dotcom, his associates, and his companies. That, she argues, changes everything, since the protections applying to criminal defendants are different to those fighting off civil lawsuits.
The point is that in a civil case you just (and I agree, this is a pencil sketch, no more, of the situation) need to be shown to have been breaching copyright and IP. Damages are then payable. However, in a criminal case the prosecution needs to show that not only did you know about it but that you were actively participating in it, intending it. Analagous to mens rea if you like....actually, given my detailed knowledge of the law that could actually be mens rea, intent.
That second standard is much harder to prove, of course.
So, why are the authorities trying to charge Dotcom et al under the criminal code? Because without doing so they couldn't get extradition. We don't go around extraditing people for civil cases, only for criminal ones. So in order to get their hands on Dotcom they've had to charge him with something that's really going to be rather difficult to prove.
Which is, as I say, something I do find amusing.MyoKardia just announced that its experimental drug mavacamten improved heart function in patients with an inherited cardiac condition, with eight of 10 showing normal readings after treatment with the drug.
It is the first major clinical test for the South San Francisco biotech's lead drug candidate, which is partnered with Sanofi, and the top-line data had pushed shares up by a third in out-of-hours trading at the time of writing.
Former Fierce 15 company MyoKardia says it is now working on the design of its next trial in patients with symptomatic, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM) which could start later this year and potentially be the basis of a regulatory filing—something it hopes to discuss with the FDA "as soon as possible."
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HCM is a genetic disorder affecting about one in 500 people in which a defect in the proteins that help control cardiac contraction cause the muscle wall in the heart to become thickened. In some patients HCM is relatively benign, but if the wall thickening blocks the flow of blood in the heart, as is the case in oHCM, it can cause severe symptoms and sudden death.
Mavacamten—formerly known as MYK-461—is designed to reduce the contractility of the muscle fibers in the heart. In the phase 2 PIONEER-HCM trial, its effect in patients at the severe end of the oHCM spectrum was assessed using a measure called the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradient, which is used by physicians to diagnose and monitor HCM.
All 10 evaluable patients in the trial saw their LVOT gradients reduce after 12 weeks' treatment, and in eight these were restored to normal levels, below the diagnostic threshold for oHCM. Added to that, secondary benefits were also seen, including peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2) and improvement on the New York Heart Association (NYHA) scale.
Improvements from baseline were observed at week 12 by at least one NYHA class in seven patients, with two of these patients improving by two classes.
"Going from NYHA Class III to Class I is really impressive from the point of view of patient symptoms…going from fatigue with mild exertion to being completely asymptomatic," said Marc Semigran, M.D., chief medical officer of MyoKardia, on a conference call.
The results seen with the drug are comparable to those achieved with surgery for HCM, he added, noting that this was remarkable given that patients were also not on beta blockers—the primary therapy at the moment. Investors will get a chance to see the data in more detail at the Heart Failure Society of America (HSFA) annual meeting later this year.
The upcoming trial, called EXPLORER-HCM, will use peak VO2 as a primary endpoint and enroll 200 to 250 patients; additional details such as its duration will be revealed later this year. Meanwhile, MyoKardia has a second, low-dose patient cohort in PIONEER-HCM that has completed enrollment and should generate results in early 2018. In that study, patients will be able to continue beta blocker therapy.
The company estimates that about 70,000 oHCM patients could potentially benefit from mavacamten if approved for marketing.To commemorate Stussy‘s triumphant 35-year anniversary, Converse worked with the iconic streetwear label to create the “Stussy 35” collection; a duo of sneakers that embodies the “vibe” we know and love from the California staple brand. Coming in a black and grey combo high-top and blue mix lows, both pairs utilize intricate embroidered canvas uppers, a slightly glossed midsole, and icy-clear bottom outsoles with the “double S” insignia peering through underneath. Both high and lows also feature a slew of fine details for those who appreciate the subtler things in life; custom Stussy tongue tags, striped shoelace end caps, and silver foil insoles complement Converse’s signature black heel tabs, metal eyelets, and the circular patch on the high-tops. The collection officially drops August 28 at Stussy Chapter stores at $130 USD and $125 USD for the highs and lows respectively, with a wider retail release later in September.Ten of Cups is a Minor Arcana tarot card.
Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.[1]
In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.[1][2]
Divination usage [ edit ]
In many decks, the Ten of Cups appears in the form of a series of ten cups arranged in a rainbow, being contemplated by a young couple, their arms raised in wonder. Nearby, two young children are seen playing. In other decks, the rainbow image is removed and the children are not evident, but in most cases, the cups are arranged upright and a young happy couple is pictured.
The divinatory message is evident in this image, in that it represents fortunate marriage, contentment of the heart, and the perfection of human love and friendship. It can also refer to the town or country where the querent lives. This is one of the most positive cards in the entire Tarot deck. Reversed, it can refer to quarreling, violence, and a troubled heart.[3]
Other divinatory meanings include a peaceful environment and (reversed) a disrupted routine, and selfish exploitation.
Within some esoteric disciplines, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, each of the forty pip cards of the Tarot deck is assigned and attributed to one of the four letters of the tetragrammaton and one of the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life. In the case of the Ten of Cups, this attribution is to the tenth sephirah of Malkuth and the letter ה (Heh). The correlation between the two terms in this combination leads to a symbolic title for each card. In the case of this card, that key name is Perpetual success.[4]
Rider-Waite symbolism [ edit ]
The image appears remarkably idyllic, rustic.
Besides the Seven of Cups, this is the only card in the suit where the cups are up in the air and not physically supported. This may show contentment which is not based on material circumstance, or a lack of material consideration.TRANSITIONS ONLINE: No Wheelchairs Allowed by Galina Stolyarova 31 May 2012
Brave front-line workers protect Russians from unsightly disabled people.
Alexander Mokin had his birthday party all planned out. He booked a table for four at Galereya, a popular restaurant and club in downtown Yekaterinburg. He’d chosen to celebrate turning 27 years old quietly, with just his wife and two friends. The restaurant manager was courteous on the phone, and the arrangements were in place. Until the group arrived at the venue.
When they turned up the management refused entry to Alexander. He failed even to get past security, or “face control.” That kind of thing happens every day in clubs when known troublemakers are turned away. But there was no such reason for Galereya to exclude Mokin.
The club’s duty manager, a pleasant-looking woman, explained the situation in uncompromising and insulting terms.
“You’re an invalid. You look ill and you would scare our customers away,” Mokin said she told him. “It’s up to me to decide who to let in, and I don’t see you fitting in here. Your appearance would only make the other guests uncomfortable.”
Mokin has used a wheelchair since his lower body was left paralyzed by an accident two years ago. On a hot summer day, he plunged into a lake to cool down. But the water was too shallow and he hit the bottom, severing his spinal cord.
Mokin said he was especially taken aback by the ugliness at Galereya because he had made it clear on the phone that he uses a wheelchair. Another manager had even offered him a table he said would be suitable for wheelchair users.
“It’s not the first time that I’ve been turned away from cafés for the same reason,” Mokin said. He says staff at such venues have often told him openly that his wheelchair would scare other clients away.
It seems to be a common attitude in Russia that people who are obviously sick or handicapped should be banned from places that others visit for fun, and that sitting next to a disabled person is enough to ruin one’s appetite. So much for acceptance, cordiality, and good manners.
Russia’s disabled people are often too poor to go out, and not all who need a wheelchair even have one. At the same time many of those who do have wheelchairs have to stay at home much of the time because no carer is available to accompany them on excursions.
“On only one occasion have I received apologies from the director of a café where a security guard had not let me in. They even offered me a frequent visitor card, but after such humiliation I couldn’t accept it,” Mokin recalls.
The management of Galereya eventually issued a written apology to Mokin, but only after a group of about 20 disabled people in wheelchairs held a protest outside the venue. To the staff who turned Mokin away, that must have qualified as an unpleasant sight for the club’s guests.
Yekaterinburg’s ombudsman has urged Mokin to sue the club. A high-profile court ruling might help to change some of the primitive attitudes toward disabled people that are widespread in Russia. Society seems largely determined to ignore disabled people if it can, almost to obliterate them from its consciousness.
Another troubling case concerns a young cancer patient, 18-year-old Marina Barlukova, who was due to fly from Moscow to Vladivostok after a course of chemotherapy in the capital. One of Marina’s legs had been amputated, and every move for her was fraught with pain.
She and her father booked with a regional airline, Vladivostok Air. Three seats were required for Barlukova because she had to be horizontal. But airline staff refused to allow her on board on the grounds that she looked ill and that the airline could not assume any responsibility for her – even though she had the necessary medical clearance to fly.
The airline demanded that Barlukova return to the clinic where she had been treated and obtain a document from doctors guaranteeing that she would not become ill or die on board. According to Barlukova’s family, the doctors, although shocked by the airline’s treatment of their patient, complied. However, the airline took two more days to make its own bureaucratic arrangements, choosing to get her trip approved by senior managers.
Vladivostok Air then charged the young woman and her father for the initial flight, from which it had barred her. In the end, Barlukova flew home with another airline, S7, which did not raise any problems. In more than one sense it was the most painful journey of her life.
The Russian tendency to discriminate against people who are sick or disabled, despite their pleas for help, is an important blemish on our country which we need to combat and confront, and which we must never tolerate. Are we ever going to arrive in the 21st century and change our ways?
The family of Marina Barlukova, treated so shabbily by an airline, are considering suing the offending party, just as Alexander Mokin is being urged to do by the Yekaterinburg ombusdsman.
If progress is to be made, court cases and publicity are certainly important. But a more complete and permanent change in mentality can be achieved only when young people are educated and brought up in a spirit of equality.
A good place to start would be our schools. It is time that disabled children were allowed to attend the same classes as other pupils and be accepted by them as equals.
And all of us need to vote with our feet – to boycott and, if possible, blow the whistle on any restaurant, café, or other business that infringes on the most basic human rights of the disabled.
In June, Marina Barlukova will have to fly to Moscow again for another course of chemotherapy. She has not yet chosen an airline.
Galina Stolyarova is a writer for The St. Petersburg Times, an English-language newspaper.
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Like this: Like Loading...WASHINGTON -- The Democratic National Committee is increasing its involvement in the push to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), promising grassroots assistance and a fundraiser hosted by the chair.
DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) called Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) on Tuesday, pledging her full support of his gubernatorial campaign, according to DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.
Wasserman Schultz will host a fundraiser for Barrett in Wisconsin later this month; the exact date has not been set.
"The DNC is going to use both its substantial network of volunteers and supporters, and our online resources to help build the ground game that will be necessary to win on election day," Roussell told The Huffington Post.
The call comes less than a week after the Obama campaign jumped into the recall, organizing phone banks and canvassing operations to get out the vote for the June 5 election.
"The DNC is fully committed to helping Mayor Barrett win the recall election," said Roussell. "We believe this election will be an important victory for working families across Wisconsin, because Gov. Walker has turned his back on the middle class and Wisconsin workers. He has wholly embraced Mitt Romney's failed economic policy. He, like Mitt Romney, believes that we should provide more tax breaks and giveaways to the wealthiest few that are paid for by slashing investments in health care, education and job creation."
Roussell declined to address a report by the Plum Line's Greg Sargent, who noted that Wisconsin Democrats would like the DNC to commit $500,000 to the recall effort.Introducing the mod that really needs no introduction. I don't really want to give away any spoilers, so I'll try to keep it short and to the point.I would recommend having an extra 2gb of storage space available on your SHIELD's Internal Storage. The download itself is 826mb and the installation itself is even larger. Alternatively, you could download it to your External SDCard and only extract it to the portal folder, which would save you some internal storage space.- Download this file: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23622183712467400 - Follow the guide at http://r3pwn.github.io/sourcemodding.html from "What to do?" downwards. (Use the instructions for Portal modding, obviously)- Shoot me a PM or a Hangout telling me what you think of the port.As for actually playing the game, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are REALLY good with Portals. It's pretty difficult. It had me mumbling profanities to myself on Test Chamber 1. If, however, you need a walkthrough, they are available at http://www.portalprelude.com/walkthrough.php113 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr Digg Linkedin Stumbleupon Mail Print
This text comes to us from our friends at the Peaceful Streets Project. It was included in the press release published on July 30, 2013 titled Press Release: Police Accountability and Civil Rights Groups Respond to APD Press Conference on the Killing of Larry Eugene Jackson, Jr.
Austin Police Department
(512) 974-5750
http://austintexas.gov/department/police
____________________________
On Friday, July 26th, Larry Eugene Jackson, Jr., a black man, walked to the Benchmark Bank and tried to gain entry several hours after that bank had been robbed by a “tall and heavy set white man.” Despite having not committed any crime, and not being told he was being detained under suspicion of committing any crime, when Jackson decided to leave, Kleinert decided to follow him, despite policy dictating otherwise.
Allegedly, Jackson ran – although a witness said he saw him “merely walking” along the sidewalk. Kleinert, instead of pursuing on foot (and why he felt he needed to is in question), commandeered a vehicle driven by a motorist that was sitting in a parking lot near the bank. The witness said Kleinert was “out of control” and did not identify himself before frantically ordering the confused motorist to drive him around. “The motorist implored Kleinert to calm down and explain what was happening, the source said,” but Kleinert merely yelled, “Go! Go! Go!” When Kleinert identified Jackson, “who the source said was merely walking along the sidewalk,” Kleinert yelled “there he is!” before jumping out of the car to chase after Jackson. The shaken motorist quickly left and called 911 to report what they must have thought was a crime in progress – perpetrated by the “police officer.”
Underneath the bridge, Assistant Police Chief Brian Manley claims a scuffle ensued. Jackson ended up dead, shot once in the back of the neck by Detective Kleinert. Manley also implied the shooting may have been accidental, as if they don’t know yet whether it was. Possible? If APD didn’t issue a “hearing” on Friday following the shooting, then Kleinert may not have had to tell APD his side of the story yet. According to the City’s Meet & Confer contract with the Austin Police Association (just renewed, as it is done every five years), officers have 48 hours in which they don’t have to talk about any use of force incident – triggered by APD calling a hearing for the investigation. He may not have talked to them yet if they failed to issue the notice, and has even more time to create a tale to cover up his policy infractions based on some serious mistakes he made in assessing a public safety threat and resolving conflict as he was trained.
Debbie Russell of the Austin Police Accountability Coalition: “I didn’t think there could be a worse tale of APD misconduct and cover up after the shooting of Nathaniel Sanders, II (someone asleep in a car with no gun in hand and only awake for 4 seconds before shot in the back of the head)…then I didn’t think anything could top the unjust killing of Byron Carter, Jr. (a passenger in a vehicle not having committed any crime attempting to flee armed men not identifying themselves as police-also shot in the back of the head). But this is beyond the pale! An unarmed black man chased down and killed based on what one officer believed he might do, sometime in the future.”
Antonio Buehler of the Peaceful Streets Project: “It is remarkable that every time an APD officer commits a felony crime, that APD comes out and blames the victim of police violence. Cops know that pedestrians have a right to walk (or run) away from police if they are not being legally detained, so APD’s claim that it is “not a good idea to run from police” is nothing more than a diversion tactic to take the focus off of the killer cop and apply it to the deceased. Further, APD has a history of slandering the dead to protect their cops. APD suggesting that Jackson was at the bank to “defraud” them suggests that APD has prophetic wisdom into the future actions of the people they kill.”
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EPNDemon’s Souls’ design is incredibly pronounced. For something whose world is centred around destitution and solitude, it’s packed with mechanical, literary, and historical substance. It’s the debut title from a series many of us hold up as having created multiple modern classics, but Demon’s Souls is remarkably unique in its own family of games. Like so many other marquee releases, Demon’s Souls is distinct despite being deeply informed by the history of games.
I won’t pretend to be a master of the lore of Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls; if you’re interested in that I strongly recommend VaatiVidya’s videos. They are excellent. What I’m looking to discuss here are some of the less tangible thematic qualities I’ve enjoyed from the Souls series’ first instalment.
One of the most striking differences between Demon’s Souls and the sequels that followed it is the game's very familiar version of humanity. The worlds of Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls are filled with sorrow, but whereas Dark Souls’ world feels ancient, epic, and fantastical, Demon’s Souls’ take on great despair feels influenced by an almost religious sense of loss. If Dark Souls is a world post-humans, a new age of souls and dragons, then Demon’s Souls offers a world following the rapture. A land where the dead still roam, unsure if this is home, purgatory, or just the closest thing to hell. In an essay for TIME, Jared Newman illustrates the difference between the two games with a simple example, “The attitude in Demon’s Souls is that you’re not going to survive, so no one particularly cares about you. Dark Souls is practically the opposite. You are sometimes called ‘Chosen Undead,’ and many characters pray for your safe travels.” With no hope on the horizon, it’s easy to understand Demon’s Souls as a game about the end of days.
Unlike Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls is broken up into distinctly separate areas. Each one of these zones offers a snapshot of a shrivelled humanity.Former StCharles employee faces...
BEND, Ore. - (Update: Adding video; comments by DA, hospital on St. Charles not notifying local police initially)
Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel filed criminal charges Tuesday against a Prineville woman for illegally accessing scores of electronic patient records in the St. Charles Health System.
Dawnielle Vaca, 35, while employed as a certified nursing assistant at St. Charles Bend, "viewed thousands of patient records that she was unauthorized to view," Hummel said in a news release.
Vaca faces two counts of computer crime for accessing the St. Charles computer system to view the records, Hummel said. She has not been arrested, and instead was sent a letter to appear in court later this month, the DA told NewsChannel 21.
"Vaca did not have a financial motive to access the records," Hummel wrote, "and there is no evidence that any patient suffered financial harm as a result of this privacy breach." Rather, he said, "Vaca viewed the records because she was curious."
Under Oregon law, computer crime can be a Class C felony or Class A misdemeanor. In this case, based on Hummel's findings, the charges are misdemeanors. It is a "felony if done with a financial or malicious intent, otherwise a misdemeanor," the DA said.
Still. Hummel said the allegations are serious in nature and affected many people.
“Patients share intimate details of their lives with their medical providers, including mental health struggles, relationship problems, medication use, and embarrassing medical conditions,” Hummel said.
“We expect, and should demand, that these private matters will remain private," the DA added. "Oregon law makes it a crime to violate the privacy of patients, and I will never hesitate to hold accountable those who do.”
The alleged illegal patient-records access occurred between October and January, and was revealed by the hospital in March St. Charles told affected patients by letter that the then-unnamed caregiver had been fired and that the hospital system had implemented added security measures to reduce the risk of a similar incident in the future.
Hummel said he found out about the data breach through a media report, which forced him to launch his own investigation.
NewsChannel 21 asked St. Charles spokeswoman Lisa Goodman why administrators didn't notify local law enforcement.
Goodman said the following via email:.
"We hired a law fire to help carry out our notification duties to affected patients, the news media, the state attorney general and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Oregon's notification statute does not require that we alert local law enforcement."
Goodman also said St. Charles Bend has implemented changes that will help the administration to identify inappropriate access of patients' medical records.
The hospital also has updated its auditing platform and offered to those patients affected credit monitoring and identity restoration services, and information to protect their identity.
Hummel said once he began a legal review of the matter, St. Charles Health System cooperated with his office and police detectives. He added that Bend police "conducted a top-notch investigation."
Vaca's first court hearing is scheduled for Thursday, J at 1:15 p.m.The recently released firmware update for the Canon C300 Mark II includes a couple of nice operational improvements as well as enhanced lens compatibility. Most importantly, however, it introduces of the new Canon Log 3 Gamma.
A lot has been discussed about the capabilities of the Canon C300 Mark II. Sebastian’s findings in the lab published back in September opened up a debate about the actual usable dynamic range of the camera, which the manufacturer clarified in November.
At NAB 2016, we had the pleasure of talking to Larry Thorpe, Senior Fellow at Canon, who talked to us about the upcoming improvements to the camera and the introduction of Canon Log 3.
Watch this interview here in case you missed it:
Larry Thorpe Announces Canon C300 mark II Dynamic Range Improvements from cinema5D on Vimeo.
Well, July has come and gone, and the Canon firmware update is finally here. Here is a quick look at what version 1.0.4.1.00 has to offer.
In addition to the new Canon Log 3 profile and low-light improvements for the existing Canon Log 2, operational improvements include magnification during recording and enhanced menu operations, retaining some settings when changing things such as frame rate.
There are also many lens compatibility enhancements, including (from Canon’s press release):
The following features are enabled when these lenses are attached: CN7x17 KAS S/E1*3, CN-E18-80mm T4.4 L IS KAS S or CN20x50 IAS H/E1*3. – Enables autofocus using the Dual Pixel CMOS AF function. (Not applicable to the CN20x50 IAS H/E1 lens) – Enables the joystick on the camera’s grip unit to be set to operate the zoom. – Enables control of iris to be set to manual operation, and control of focus, zoom and iris using the separately-sold Remote Controller RC-V100. – Enables automatic aperture and push auto iris functions. – Enables retrieval of metadata, such as the model name and the focal distance of the lens attached, and display of metadata on the camera, Enables Dual Pixel Function when these lenses are attached: CN7x17 KAS S/E1 lens, CN-E18-80mm T4.4 L IS KAS S lens or any of the EF cinema prime lenses. Adds peripheral illumination/chromatic aberration correction for the following lenses: – COMPACT-SERVO lenses: CN-E18-80mm T4.4 L IS KAS S – CINE-SERVO lenses: CN20x50 IAS H/E1 – EF lenses: EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 STM and EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM.
Similar lens-related improvements have also been added to a new firmware update for the Canon C100 Mark II, although unfortunately no Canon Log 3. You can find the upgrade and installation guide for the C300 Mark II here.
Also be aware that there is a new handbook for the camera available in the download section in PDF form.
Have you upgraded yet? How is that shiny new Canon Log 3 working out for you so far? Let us know in the comments below!THE whole English batting line-up is running scared of Mitchell Johnson, but a British TV host reckons he could handle the Aussie firebrand.
CNN talk show host Piers Morgan took to Twitter this morning, saying he'd "love" to face Johnson's bowling and "wouldn't back away".
But as other Twitter users called for Channel Nine to arrange a date in the nets, commentator Shane Warne claimed Morgan was "all talk".
It all started when Morgan settled in for Day Four of the Adelaide Test by telling the English batsmen to "grow a pair".
Right England, getting slightly bored of this collective scaredy-cat act. Can you please all grow a pair today? Thanks. #Ashes — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 7, 2013
Some other cricket-watchers doubted whether Morgan, who has never played the sport at a high level, was qualified to make that criticism.
One of them told Morgan he should face the pace of Mitchell Johnson himself, and the TV host didn't back down.
You see, Morgan has batted against speeds above 140km before. In the nets. So he's definitely prepared to face one of the fastest and most intimidating bowlers in the world.
I've faced 90mph regularly in my net from a bowling machine. Never backed away. That's what helmets and pads are for. #Ashes — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 7, 2013
Asked how many Tests he has played by one cheeky cricket fan, Morgan kept the bravado going.
Not as many as I should have > RT @simonjfrazer @piersmorgan how many tests have you played again, Piers? — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2013
Then the situation escalated. Channel Nine noticed the developing stoush, and its TV commentators suggested the date with Johnson was a good idea.
Former Australian players Mike Hussey and Shane Warne dusted off their sledging skills.
Any time > RT @Karen3697 @piersmorgan ch9 commentators have challenged @piersmorgan to face Johnson himself then have a go at Cook. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2013
Warne was particularly harsh on Morgan.
"He's all talk mate," Warne said. "There's absolutely no way that he'll get in the nets."
To his credit, the plucky Pom still didn't back away. He even started a cocky hashtag, "#MonsoonMorgan".
Oh, I've got the courage alright @warne888 - get down the nets in Melbourne yourself, and I'll hammer you too. #MonsoonMorgan @Channel9 — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2013
"I'm more than happy to do it but I'm not sure you'd be able to face me after the quicks are finished with you," Warnie said. "If you're still standing, I might be able to roll one down to you."
Meanwhile, former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee issued Morgan a formal challenge to face him in the nets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Morgan accepted.
So @BrettLee_58 has just issued me with a formal challenge to face him in the @MCG nets. I've accepted. Game on. @Channel9 — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2013
We are setting it up for the Boxing Day Test! @piersmorgan has accepted my challenge to face me in the nets @wwos9 stay tuned for details — Brett Lee (@BrettLee_58) December 8, 2013
Tell you what @BrettLee_58 - bring Thommo & Lilllee out of retirement too. You'll need a bit of help. #MonsoonMorgan — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 8, 2013
The cocky Brit won't be facing Mitchell Johnson then, but Brett Lee was just as quick in his day. We think he could do some damage.
Keep the banter going on Twitter: Piers Morgan | Brett Lee | Sam Clench | newscomauHQ
News_Image_File: Yes Piers, you could definitely handle this guy.
###Welcome to new(ish) series Late to the Game, where Sarah Ingram of The Geekmates reviews games that she’s shamefully left unplayed up to this point. It’s like newbie recaps, but not. Scroll to the bottom for a few options as to what you can peer pressure Sarah into playing next.
It’s been a while friends, but I am back with another Late To The Game! However, I have delayed the winning vote from last time (Skyrim) for after Christmas because 1. I have been working 65 hours a week and 2. My graduate thesis was accepted (YAY) and I have to finish final edits and 3. Dragon Age: Inquisition came out. So instead I played second choice Tomb Raider! I was so excited to finally play this. As a woman and an archaeologist, I couldn’t wait to see what Crystal Dynamics had done to freshen up the old franchise. I had high hopes. I don’t think I’ve cringed so much during the beginning of a game in my life. Falling off the boat, getting cracked in the head, falling on a conveniently placed pipe thing and YANKING IT OUT (why would you do that I would never do that). If this is an indication of the graphic violence of the rest of the game, I may not be prepared for this.
The intro was pretty grabbing. I am of the minority of people who actually like QTE’s, and they were used really well to add the urgency of escape to the controls – I felt little pangs of panic to get out and to safety. It was fast, and confusing (in a good way), and introduced the mechanics in a manner that didn’t really feel too tutorial-ly. The game doesn’t hold your hand too much. So, holy shit, the death scenes. Some crazy dude who tried to grab me got his head seriously bashed in by a boulder, and it did not hold back. I feel like I’m in for some grim death things. Lara also trips a lot. Like so much. I feel a connection to her – last week at work I fell three times on frees, had a huge goose egg, and more bruised than not-bruised sections of leg. She gets me. So in the beginning she falls, slips, and cries a lot. And I hope – I really hope – that this goes away. Even as the main protagonist she seems weak and un hero-like, with blood on her face and cries for help. I’ve never seen Drake in situations like this. He doesn’t struggle to climb walls, or fall, or is scared to climb over a plane hanging from a cliff. I’m hoping she finds her place, and her agency – and quick.
random creepy door is suddenly open – sure, let’s go in! #latetothegame pic.twitter.com/ILot1orZEb — CeraTopz (@Cerajoy) November 16, 2014
and now we’re looting things like responsible archaeologists #latetothegame — CeraTopz (@Cerajoy) November 16, 2014
Crystal Dynamics tried to add some archaeological collecting to the game, but it’s really just treasure collecting like any other game that does it. Maybe if we were digging 1m by 1m units with trowels to find treasures, and then bagging and writing call numbers on them… kidding! The little tidbits about the “artifacts” were cool though – I like those little additions, it makes me want to go collect all the things! There’s also an “archaeologist” trophy, which of course I need. I catch up to Sam and she’s talking to a stranger. WHY HAS NOBODY ASKED HIM HOW HE GOT THERE. Honestly, are you that dumb? I would freak out and threaten him and – oh yes of course they are missing when you wake up, Lara!
what kind of dumb girl trusts a creepy stranger ON A SUPPOSEDLY ABANDONED ISLAND YOU SHIPWRECKED ON?! #latetothegame — CeraTopz (@Cerajoy) November 16, 2014
Found my first tomb while looking for salvage to help Whiny Whitman, and oh man do I love these parts. I really enjoy solving environment puzzles without being shot at, and figuring out the right chain of events to raid all the tombs. Also, treasure.
this Whitman guy would make a shitty supervisor #latetothegame — CeraTopz (@Cerajoy) November 17, 2014
Like, why is everyone so trusting of strangers? Whitman puts his gun down!? “Give them whatever they want?” Ewwww, gross. And then this eerie face-touching, trigger bullshit at the camp before Lara kills the guy? Unnecessary. The groping and the face smelling is too far; it objectified the shit out of the supposedly strong female protagonist, and does literally nothing for the story. Not to mention I failed the QTE a couple times, and had to watch it more than once.
ffs this captive scene. just nope nope nope. #latetothegame — CeraTopz (@Cerajoy) November 17, 2014
“I |
legislature is able to pass an effective, comprehensive medical marijuana law this year, that's excellent. But in the meantime, we're going to moving forward with just such a law at the ballot box in case the legislature doesn't follow through."But the accounts are just as striking for what they reveal about the extraordinary strains on the soldiers who were assigned here, their frustrations and their frequently painful encounters with a population they did not understand. In their own words, the report documents the dehumanizing nature of this war, where Marines came to view 20 dead civilians as not “remarkable,” but as routine.
Iraqi civilians were being killed all the time. Maj. Gen. Steve Johnson, the commander of American forces in Anbar, in his own testimony, described it as “a cost of doing business.”
The stress of combat left some soldiers paralyzed, the testimony shows. Troops, traumatized by the rising violence and feeling constantly under siege, grew increasingly twitchy, killing more and more civilians in accidental encounters. Others became so desensitized and inured to the killing that they fired on Iraqi civilians deliberately while their fellow soldiers snapped pictures, and were court-martialed. The bodies piled up at a time when the war had gone horribly wrong.
Charges were dropped against six of the accused Marines in the Haditha episode, one was acquitted and the last remaining case against one Marine is scheduled to go to trial next year.
That sense of American impunity ultimately poisoned any chance for American forces to remain in Iraq, because the Iraqis would not let them stay without being subject to Iraqi laws and courts, a condition the White House could not accept.
Told about the documents that had been found, Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the United States military in Iraq, said that many of the documents remained classified and should have been destroyed. “Despite the way in which they were improperly discarded and came into your possession, we are not at liberty to discuss classified information,” he said.
He added: “We take any breach of classified information as an extremely serious matter. In this case, the documents are being reviewed to determine whether an investigation is warranted.” The military said it did not know from which investigation the documents had come, but the papers appear to be from an inquiry by Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell into the events in Haditha. The documents ultimately led to a report that concluded that the Marine Corps’s chain of command engaged in “willful negligence” in failing to investigate the episode and that Marine commanders were far too willing to tolerate civilian casualties. That report, however, did not include the transcripts.
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Under Pressure
Many of those testifying at bases in Iraq or the United States were clearly under scrutiny for not investigating an atrocity and may have tried to shape their statements to dispel any notion that they had sought to cover up the events. But the accounts also show the consternation of the Marines as they struggled to control an unfamiliar land and its people in what amounted to a constant state of siege from fighters who were nearly indistinguishable from noncombatants.
Some, feeling they were under attack constantly, decided to use force first and ask questions later. If Marines took fire from a building, they would often level it. Drivers who approached checkpoints without stopping were assumed to be suicide bombers.
“When a car doesn’t stop, it crosses the trigger line, Marines engage and, yes, sir, there are people inside the car that are killed that have nothing to do with it,” Sgt. Maj. Edward T. Sax, the battalion’s senior noncommissioned officer, testified.
He added, “I had Marines shoot children in cars and deal with the Marines individually one on one about it because they have a hard time dealing with that.”
Sergeant Major Sax said he would ask the Marines responsible if they had known there had been children in the car. When they said no, he said he would tell them they were not at fault. He said he felt for the Marines who had fired the shots, saying they would carry a lifelong burden.
“It is one thing to kill an insurgent in a head-on fight,” Sergeant Major Sax testified. “It is a whole different thing — and I hate to say it, the way we are raised in America — to injure a female or injure a child or in the worse case, kill a female or kill a child.”
They could not understand why so many Iraqis just did not stop at checkpoints and speculated that it was because of illiteracy or poor eyesight.
“They don’t have glasses and stuff,” Col. John Ledoux said. “It really makes you wonder because some of the things that they would do just to keep coming. You know, it’s hard to imagine they would just keep coming, but sometimes they do.”
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Such was the environment in 2005, when the Marines from Company K of the Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment from Camp Pendleton, Calif., arrived in Anbar Province, where Haditha is located, many for their second or third tours in Iraq.
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The province had become a stronghold for disenfranchised Sunnis and foreign fighters who wanted to expel the United States from Iraq, or just kill as many Americans as possible. Of the 4,483 American deaths in Iraq, 1,335 happened in Anbar.
In 2004, four Blackwater contractors were gunned down and dragged through the streets of Falluja, their bodies burned and hung on a bridge over the Euphrates. Days later, the United States military moved into the city, and chaos ensued in Anbar Province for the next two years as the Americans tried to fight off the insurgents.
The stress of combat soon bore down. A legal adviser to the Marine unit stopped taking his medication for obsessive-compulsive disorder and stopped functioning.
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“We had the one where Marines had photographed themselves taking shots at people,” Col. R. Kelly testified, saying that they immediately called the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and “confiscated their little camera.” He said the soldiers involved received a court-martial.
All of this set the stage for what happened in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.
A Tragedy Ensues
That morning, a military convoy of four vehicles was heading to an outpost in Haditha when one of the vehicles was hit by a roadside bomb.
Several Marines got out to attend to the wounded, including one who eventually died, while others looked for insurgents who might have set off the bomb. Within a few hours 24 Iraqis — including a 76-year-old man and children between the ages of 3 and 15 — were killed, many inside their homes.
Townspeople contended that the Marines overreacted to the attack and shot civilians, only one of whom was armed. The Marines said they thought they were under attack.
When the initial reports arrived saying more than 20 civilians had been killed in Haditha, the Marines receiving them said they were not surprised by the high civilian death toll.
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Chief Warrant Officer K. R. Norwood, who received reports from the field on the day of the killings and briefed commanders on them, testified that 20 dead civilians was not unusual.
“I meant, it wasn’t remarkable, based off of the area I wouldn’t say remarkable, sir,” Mr. Norwood said. “And that is just my definition. Not that I think one life is not remarkable, it’s just —”
An investigator asked the officer: “I mean remarkable or noteworthy in terms of something that would have caught your attention where you would have immediately said, ‘Got to have more information on that. That is a lot of casualties.’ ”
“Not at the time, sir,” the officer testified.
General Johnson, the commander of American forces in Anbar Province, said he did not feel compelled to go back and examine the events because they were part of a continuing pattern of civilian deaths.
“It happened all the time, not necessarily in MNF-West all the time, but throughout the whole country,” General Johnson testified, using a military abbreviation for allied forces in western Iraq.
“So, you know, maybe — I guess maybe if I was sitting here at Quantico and heard that 15 civilians were killed I would have been surprised and shocked and gone — done more to look into it,” he testified, referring to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “But at that point in time, I felt that was — had been, for whatever reason, part of that engagement and felt that it was just a cost of doing business on that particular engagement.”
When Marines arrived on the scene to assess the number of dead bodies, at least one Marine thought it would be a good time to take pictures for his own keeping.
“I know I had one Marine who was taking pictures just to take pictures and I told him to delete all those pictures,” testified a first lieutenant identified as M. D. Frank.
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The documents uncovered by The Times — which include handwritten notes from soldiers, waivers by Marines of their right against self-incrimination, diagrams of where dead women and children were found, and pictures of the site where the Marine was killed by a roadside bomb on the day of the massacre — remain classified.
In a meeting with journalists in October, before the military had been told about the discovery of the documents, the American commander in charge of the logistics of the withdrawal said that files from the bases were either transferred to other parts of the military or incinerated.
“We don’t put official paperwork in the trash,” said the commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Richardson, at the meeting at the American Embassy in Baghdad.
The documents were piled in military trailers and hauled to the junkyard by an Iraqi contractor who was trying to sell off the surplus from American bases, the junkyard attendant said. The attendant said he had no idea what any of the documents were about, only that they were important to the Americans.
He said that over the course of several weeks he had burned dozens and dozens of binders, turning more untold stories about the war into ash.
“What can we do with them?” the attendant said. “These things are worthless to us, but we understand they are important and it is better to burn them to protect the Americans. If they are leaving, it must mean their work here is done.”This is the third part in a series of three articles surveying automation projects within OpenStack, explaining what they do, how they do it, and where they stand in development readiness and field usage. Previously, in part one, I covered cloud deployment tools that enable you to install/update OpenStack cloud on bare metal. In part two, I covered workload deployment tools. Today, we'll look at tools for day two operations.
Day two operations automation is all about maintaining and managing the cloud infrastructure and workload to keep it running.
The day two use cases include responding to hardware failures and app performance degradations, troubleshooting, reactive and proactive maintenance, and other tasks, often boring and mundane—stuff we really want to automate so that we can spend time on more creative work. This is a wide area, but the projects here are only emerging now. And, unlike cloud or workload deployment automation, there is no established pattern or dominant approach to automating day two operations.
Some projects, like Rubick, Blazar, or Satori, are solving a specific, narrow use case. Others, like Mistral and Congress, are set to become generic, general-purpose cross-domain automation tools.
Blazar
Blazar (ex. Climate) is an “OpenStack reservation as a service project”. Blazar manages the “lease” of cloud resources (virtual or physical), scheduling resource use in the future, negotiating lease terms between the user and the system, automating the process of allocating and releasing the resources, and providing visibility to resource consumption.
Blazar introduces Nova filters and API extensions to Nova (blazar-nova) to make it aware of lease concept (see blazar-nova).
It currently implements reservation of virtual instances and physical hosts. With its pluggable architecture, the support for volumes and other resources is coming.
Blazar is a new “related” project and was first announced at the OpenStack Hong Kong Summit 2013, and now has base functionality implemented, but it's not ready for use beyond POC.
Rubick
Rubick is a diagnostic tool that inspects and validates OpenStack cloud configurations for correctness and consistency, and reports any errors or misconfigurations.
Rubick auto-discovers an OpenStack cluster, extracts actual configurations of OpenStack components (Keystone, Cinder, Nova, etc.), and checks them against a rule set to validate consistency and correctness. Some rules are simple syntax checks of configuration parameters. Other rules are more complex and inspect the entire model to find semantic inconsistencies across multiple OpenStack components. A simple web UI walks the user through the process of discovery and validation, and reports configuration errors and warnings.
Status: OpenStack related product. It is functional and complete but the out of box rule set is limited. For broad adoption, Rubick needs other OpenStack projects to jump on contributing the rules. As of now, this has not happened.
Satori
Satori provides configuration discovery for existing infrastructure. Given a URL and some credentials, it will discover the role and resource behind this URL, figure out how this resource is related to the OpenStack cloud (e.g., it’s a Nova instance, or Cinder control node), and lists the services that are running on this server.
Satori is conceptually similar to discovery tools like Ohai and Facter, and may leverage these tools, adding OpenStack specifics to it.
With pluggable implementation on the roadmap, Satori plans to discover non-OpenStack infrastructure—API for other clouds, nodes in a Chef server, operating system and application topologies, run time processes and relations between the systems.
Satori is a very young project—it started in 2014 and just had a first proof of concept in March 2014.
Congress
Congress is a generic cross-domain policy management framework for the cloud. It monitors the set of cloud services for policy compliance, and applies corrective actions when violations are identified. In the future, Congress will even prevent violations from happening in the first place when possible.
Congress policies apply to applications, hardware, networking, security and business rules. By being a cross-domain framework, it is capable of handling cross-domain policies, like “every network attached to a VM must be a private network owned by someone in the same group as the VM owner”—touching Neutron, Nova, and Keystone.
The policies are declared in the DataLog language. Data providers are used to connect with cloud services, fetch the relevant data, keep them up-to-date, and execute corrective actions.
To be successful, Congress will need a buy in from OpenStack projects, so that they provide their own hooks and plugins for policy monitoring and enforcement.
Congress is a “related” OpenStack project. It has an early implementation showing basic architecture, policy language support and basic data source plugins for Nova and Neutron.
Mistral
Mistral is a workflow service for OpenStack cloud automation.
A workflow—a sequence of tasks with transitions and conditional logic—is expressed as YAML based definition. A workflow can be triggered on demand, on schedule, or on a monitoring event. Mistral runs workflows at scale, with high availability and resilience. It executes task actions, keeps the workflow state, and carries data between the tasks. The new improved Version 2 of DSL and API introduced a variety of new features.
Mistral offers an extensible set of actions, with SSH, REST HTTP, email, and OpenStack pack included. A basic UI is available as a Horizon dashboard; a visual representation of workflow plan and execution is on the roadmap.
Mistral’s target users are cloud administrators for workflow-based automation of operational procedures, integration across cloud components, other infrastructure services and business processes. Application developers can leverage Mistral as workflow service, similar to AWS Simple Workflow.
Mistral is also a platform component for other OpenStack services that need a concept of a workflow service. Solum, Fuel, Barbican, Murano, Keystone, Trove, Congress, and a few more are beginning to integrate with Mistral.
Mistral is a related project, and has a functional pilot version. It is planning to apply for incubation in Juno cycle.
Summary
Day two operations are still dominated by manual and custom individual scripts that operators have built themselves. Automation is inevitably coming to the enterprise but the operational patterns are still being established.
General cross-domain tools can help form these patterns—Congress policies and Mistral workflows can become a currency to capture and share them across the community.
As the patterns are established, we can expect more projects and solutions to emerge, getting OpenStack closer to a fully automated, autonomic, self-driving cloud.Ultimate vs. Internet
One of the most common discussions on Mr. Gore’s interwebs is the crown of best new 4wd on the market, and more specifically for this readership, what is the best new overland vehicle. Certainly, “best overland” needs a little qualification, and can be easily described as:
Overland 4wd: A travel vehicle designed to reliably carry multiple occupants and the weight of extensive support equipment in a wide range of road conditions, from long stretches of smooth highway to technical sections of mud, rocks, snow and sand.
For North America, we are already hamstrung by limited options; solid axle Defenders, Land Cruisers and Patrols all painfully absent. This opinion is not “which is the best overland vehicle in the world” (or even to drive around the world), but the ultimate new 4WD available in the USA, one that provides the best overall performance and attributes for backcountry adventure travel. After considerable research and years of extensive testing, we believe the ultimate new overland 4WD available in the USA is the AEV Brute Double Cab. I am not a “Jeep guy”, but this truck is without question the most exceptional travel/adventure 4WD I have tested in North America. I own all manner of vehicles, daily drive a Mercedes G-Wagen, have four Land Rovers and have circumnavigated the planet a few times with Land Cruisers. I appreciate all of the brands, but for the rough and tumble American West, and the typical overlanding experienced in the USA, the Brute has them all beat, with a little extra pummeling available from the optional 37-inch tires and 470hp HEMI... It is the breadth of capability that makes the difference. Sure, a full-size truck will have a greater payload, but it is often too big for remote, technical travel. The 4Runner is a high quality SUV, but lacks the storage volume and flexibility of the double cab pickup. The closest competition would be a Toyota Tacoma, but try to (easily) fit 37″ tires and have the vehicle still cruise comfortably down the highway or achieve even close to the same trail performance. I owned a Tacoma for many years, and the limitation of the drivetrain was painfully obvious on more than one occasion. In addition, all of those vehicles are relatively pedestrian, ubiquitous and dare I say boring. It is impossible to drive the Brute without smiling, mostly because of the endless stream of smiles coming from passing traffic, little kids erupting into fist pumps and parents fumbling for their phones. People love the Brute, and for good reason- it not only looks awesome, but it can actually cash those checks too, trail after trail, trip after trip.
For some reason, the word “ultimate” causes rational people to lose their minds, synapses exploding and blood vessels erupting into a furry of Disqus comments and Facebook rhetoric. I suspect that is because calling something the ultimate somehow implies that everything else is inferior, and as a result, the reader takes the opinion as a personal affront to their P38 Range Rover or Hummer H2. However, there are truly ultimate vehicles, just as there are ultimate cameras and ultimate carbines. There are pinnacles of design and performance that outpace the rest, despite their price or the badge they wear on the hood. Price, of course, becomes the immediate point of contention, but who cares? Products cost what they do because of the components required to assemble them, the engineering time required to design them and the volume at which they are sold. “Ultimate” and “Cheap” are rarely bedfellows.
The Brute
While a SUV wagon is arguably the most popular 4wd for exploration, nothing provides more flexibility and configuration options than a double-cab pickup. The Brute combines the industry-leading trail capability of the Rubicon with a significant increase in payload volume. For travel in North America, requirements are quite unique from the developing world or even treks across Australia. US highways are wide and fast and our overland tracks are (comparably) short and often technical. A 70 series Land Cruiser or Defender 130 are limited in both scenarios, with inadequate limit handling performance at high speeds and mediocre trail performance unless extensively modified (further reducing their road manners). I have cruised in the Brute comfortably at 85-90 mph, with one finger on the wheel and plenty of braking and accident avoidance capability left in the tank. Set the cruise control, lean back into the custom leather seats (heated), adjust the automatic climate control and let the miles fly by in XM radio (or Bluetooth) induced bliss. Even with 37” tires, this truck cruises effortlessly, benefiting from the adequate 3.6L 285hp V6 or any flavor of HEMI you can afford. On the trail, the Brute has both benefits and limitations due to the 139-inch wheelbase. For climbs and higher speed tracks, the length provides stability and control, and the more technical the climb, the better the long wheelbase performs, the front axle often clearing the obstacle before the rear engages it. Despite the length, it is still surprisingly nimble and well protected, although turning radius is more battleship than PT boat. The tires stick out past the sheet metal and a rock slider guards the quarter panels. With the height only being the length of the double cab, it even maneuvered around trees well. Once the terrain gets particularly nasty, all of the hardware is present to solve problems, including a driver activated swaybar disconnect and front/rear locking differentials. The 37-inch tires and 4.5-inch suspension system/lift provides more than adequate clearance and breakover angle.
A Brute of All Trades
Despite the awe-inspiring trail performance and docile road manners, the Brute is really defined by its adaptability. Honestly, it is the most useful vehicle I have ever driven. Want to run Pritchett Canyon? Take the Brute. Want to grab some hardwood flooring from Home Depot? Take the Brute. Want to mount a Fourwheel Camper and spend a few months in Alaska? Yep, take the Brute. I haul mountain bikes and motorcycles with it, load it up for the dump or fill the bed with targets for archery with my nephews. I also wouldn’t hesitate to drive it around the world, including crossing Glaciers in Iceland or the Canning Stock Route in Australia. While the modifications appear extensive, all of the important factory parts are retained. This is not a frankenjeep, just a better Jeep. So, based on my view of this AEV Brute, it is absolutely the Ultimate Overlander. There is nothing sold new in the USA that is even close, and given that you can buy one for less than a new Land Cruiser, or far less than a new G-Wagen, I would say that some of us could actually afford one. I know that most readers will appreciate how cool this Brute really is, but there will still be a few Hummer H2 owners, 1990 YJ believers and 2002 Discovery apostles that will be convinced otherwise – no worries, I won’t judge. Drive what you love...
American Expedition Vehicles: BruteJohn Arrillaga and Stanford: Generosity begets generosity
John Arrillaga's $151 million gift to Stanford is only the latest in a long history of extraordinary contributions to the university. The gift is the university's largest ever from a living donor.
Stanford alumnus, friend and benefactor John Arrillaga, '60, has made a gift of $151 million to the university. The gift, Stanford's largest single gift ever from a living individual, will be used over time to support a variety of university projects.
It is only the latest in a long line of extraordinary contributions to Stanford. The Arrillaga family name graces many buildings across the campus, and Arrillaga has played a key role in the development of many other campus projects. In addition, the Arrillaga family's endowed scholarships support nearly 50 Stanford students each year.
"John is a true friend to Stanford, combining extraordinary generosity with unwavering service," said Stanford President John Hennessy. "He brings his professional expertise to each project, and our entire community has benefited from his vision, attention to detail and passion for Stanford University."
Arrillaga's daughter, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen – an alumna, philanthropic entrepreneur and lecturer at the Graduate School of Business – contributed this perspective on her father, his relationship with Stanford and his decades of generosity.
BY LAURA ARRILLAGA-ANDREESSEN
Generosity is a gift that keeps on giving – so many of the gifts we receive in life turn us into givers. In no one do I see this principle more powerfully demonstrated than in my extraordinary father, John Arrillaga Sr. More than 50 years after becoming the recipient of someone else's generosity – through a Stanford scholarship – my father is making a $151 million gift to Stanford University, its largest ever from a living donor.
Now among Silicon Valley's most active real estate developers, my father grew up in Inglewood, Calif., as one of five children. He could only attend Stanford because a generous individual believed in supporting the potential of an unknown young person. His tuition athlete-scholarship did not cover living expenses, so while meeting his basketball and academic requirements, he held six jobs, from washing dishes to delivering mail and working as a gardener. Meanwhile, he achieved stellar grades in his major and became an All-American basketball player.
Athletics creates strong family bonds. My father attended every basketball game, tennis match and softball or baseball game in which my brother, John Jr., and I played as kids. Today, he rarely misses a Stanford home basketball or football game – often accompanied by his lovely wife, Gioia (who could easily win Top Chef, but is too busy cheering on the Cardinal).
My father's giving story begins with his first gift to Stanford – a two-figure donation made just after he graduated. He gave what he could at the time, and even then the gift was a stretch financially.
A few years later, he met my late mother, Frances, another Stanford graduate (MA '64, MA '65) and a sixth-grade teacher in the Palo Alto Unified School District. They fell madly in love, married and began a family life. Their partnership of service and generosity spread to the university that had educated them (including my father's endowed scholarships that help nearly 50 students attend Stanford each year), as well as to the Silicon Valley community in which my father generated our family's financial resources.
However, my father's gifts have not only been financial. As importantly, he has applied his vast knowledge of architecture, construction, landscape design, real estate and project management to all his philanthropic projects, making the most of everything he has to give.
With his vision and expertise, he identifies unmet needs and enhances the physical infrastructure. Over the past five decades, he has constructed and donated dozens of buildings and other projects at Stanford, including the Frances Arrillaga Alumni Center (honoring my late mother's own Stanford service), the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons, the Graduate Community Center, the Physics and Astrophysics Building and the Arrillaga Center for Sports & Recreation. He has also financed and built dozens of building projects for the Silicon Valley nonprofit community.
Of course, in financial terms he is extraordinarily generous. Perhaps driven by the competitive spirit that led him to All-American basketball fame, he is constantly out-giving himself, and his new gift to Stanford is no exception. It is his second nine-figure donation – the first was also at the time Stanford's largest gift from a living donor.
But for my father, writing a check is not enough. He sees philanthropy as marrying financial resources with intellectual, network and human capital.
As part of making his first nine-figure gift to Stanford, he led the construction of the university's state-of-the-art football stadium – completed under-budget and in just 42 weeks' time. He made high-level decisions on stadium design and landscaping while paying attention to detail, overseeing 24-hour construction crews, picking out every tree, selecting seat materials and tasting countless hot dogs before choosing which brand to serve.
My father is my philanthropic hero. He and my late mother were born with the giving gene – precious DNA they shared with my brother and me. In fact, my father's philanthropy was a primary inspiration behind the $27.5 million my husband, Marc Andreessen, and I gave to Stanford Hospital in 2006 to fund a new Emergency Department.
And while my father taught me many important lessons (including always picking up any trash you see on a university or nonprofit campus), two stand out: Give as much as you possibly can and give equally from among your resources – time, mind and money. These are principles I follow every day.
My father embodies humility, service and generosity. But one of the most exciting things about his philanthropy is that it's impossible to tell where it will lead. Who knows what will emerge from my father's latest gift – how many athletes, scientists, politicians, business leaders and community pioneers will use their Stanford education to enhance our society? How many will graduate as philanthropists with a mission to change the world because of his example?
In his generosity to Stanford University, my beloved father has therefore created a remarkable gift – one that, far, far into the future, will keep on giving.
Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, BA '92, MBA '97, MA '98, MA '99, is a lecturer in philanthropy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, a lecturer in public policy at Stanford, and founder and chairman of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.Curiosity's lab carries quartz sample cups (white) and “wet lab” cups with solvent (silver). PHOTO: NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
For almost 40 years—ever since NASA's Viking missions—landers and rovers have searched the desiccated soil of Mars for the carbon-bearing organic compounds that would be essential for any Earth-like life. Last week here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, scientists working with NASA's Curiosity rover announced a major milestone in that search. They reported the most definitive detections of organic molecules yet, along with hints of heavier, longer-chain molecules resembling those in cell walls.
The detected molecules do not necessarily indicate past or present life on Mars. They could also have come from asteroid impacts or rocks that burbled up from Mars's mantle. But they at least show that fragile organic materials can survive in the inhospitable environment—which bodes well for searches for clearer indicators of past life.
“We are all excited about it,” says Paul Mahaffy, a scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and principal investigator for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on Curiosity, which made the detections. “The fact that there are any organic compounds in the near surface at all is very promising.” It suggests, he says, that “biosignatures,” if any exist, might survive billions of years to be detected today in spite of the harsh surface conditions.
Mars's soil is known to be filled with harsh oxidizers like perchlorate, which break down organic molecules. Ultraviolet (UV) light at the surface can also destroy organics, as can cosmic rays. The Viking landers may have detected organic molecules in the form of chloromethanes, but in such tiny quantities—about 15 parts per billion—that the team was never confident about making a claim.
The Curiosity team is now making a claim with gusto, having detected chlorobenzene—a six-carbon molecule in an aromatic ring structure—at levels of up to 300 parts per billion. They have also detected smaller two-, three-, and four-carbon chains in the alkane family at lesser abundances. The results were posted online on 4 March in advance of publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
The organics come from a sample that Curiosity collected nearly 2 years ago by drilling 6.5 centimeters into a mudstone—hardened sediment from an ancient lake—at a site called Cumberland. The SAM team took so long to announce their finding in part because they wanted to be sure they had not been fooled by contamination from leakage in their “wet labs,” which hold thimblefuls of a solvent called MTBSTFA, used in isolating organic molecules. The SAM team has now controlled for this background contamination, and they have not seen the chlorobenzene at subsequent sampling sites—evidence that the Cumberland detection was real.
Curiosity scientists suspect that the chlorobenzene arose when organic molecules reacted with perchlorate in the soil as the sample was baked in SAM's ovens. To pin down the precursor molecules, the SAM team decided not to use any of their precious thimbles; instead they took advantage of the leaked MTBSTFA. They baked a sample from Cumberland to drive off any perchlorate and then exposed it to ambient MTBSTFA inside the onboard lab for 2 days. The solvent makes organic molecules much more volatile and thus more likely to be detected by SAM's mass spectrometer before they react with anything else (like perchlorate). “It gives them ‘wings’ so they can fly through the instrument unimpeded,” Mahaffy says. After the exposure, the team slowly started heating the sample again. “That's when this beautiful set of rich organics showed up.”
At the meeting, Danny Glavin, a SAM scientist at Goddard, reported compounds that, in a preliminary analysis, were consistent with an eight-carbon molecule akin to a benzoic acid, an 11-carbon alcohol-like molecule, and, most interesting of all, a 10-carbon molecule that could be a fatty acid–like carboxylic acid. Glavin is excited that long-chain organics can survive in spite of the oxidizing compounds and UV-rich sunlight. “The fact that we see something long means this could be a good location for preservation,” he says.
Drill hole from the Cumberland site, in rock that was an ancient lakebed. PHOTO: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
Other scientists wonder if the compounds could signify something more than just good odds for preservation. In the case of the 10-carbon fatty acid–like compound, “You're talking about cellular-wall material,” says Marc Fries, a curation scientist at NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “That's a potential biogenic molecule.” But it could also be a contaminant, he cautions. Fries notes that a 2014 study by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where the rover was assembled, warned that Curiosity could harbor traces of carboxylic acids, which are found in plant and animal oils as well as synthetic lubricants.
But Glavin points out that six batches of martian soil went through the SAM instrument before the Cumberland sample and ought to have scrubbed the instrument of residual contamination. And George Cody, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., says that the compound is unlikely to have come from Earth. Fatty acids from biological sources, like technicians' fingerprints, Cody says, tend to have 14, 16, or 18 carbon atoms, not 10. Also, if the contamination were something like residual machine oil, smaller chain organic compounds would have been detected in the background–molecules that Curiosity does not see.
The Curiosity team has yet to use any of the seven MTBSTFA thimbles, or two with another type of solvent. Glavin says the team is saving them for promising rock formations farther up the mountain that Curiosity is now climbing: clay mineral–bearing deposits that, like the Cumberland mudstone, probably formed in water and could be a good location for preserving organics. Mahaffy hopes to get a chance to test one of his thimbles soon—and hopes to find even more-tantalizing organic molecules. “There's a lot of interesting sites coming along,” he says.Christy Rupp's Rat Patrol posters
On May 10th, 1979, a woman was attacked by a "pack of rats" in Tribeca—some say a few of them even got in her car when she tried to flee. A couple of days later the NY Times ran this horrifying account:
"A woman walking toward her parked car on Ann Street, just south of City Hall, felt a tug on her leg. The tug became a sharp, searing pain. The woman screamed. She was being attacked by a pack of rats, one of which apparently bit her leg. The account of the attack, provided by witnesses, was released by the police. One of the witnesses was a man who said he had run to help the victim, pulling off his light summer jacket to wave the rats away. But more rats appeared, and the man ran to dial 911. Meanwhile, the woman leaped into her car and drove off. She was in a'state of hysteria,' witnesses said. The rats were still there when police arrived minutes later."
An expert at the Department of Health determined the rats on Ann Street were Norway rats, which have also been called "super rats" because of their resistance to rodentcides. They can measure up to a foot-long, and weigh around one-pound.
Rupp's rubble rats (Brooklyn Museum) Gallery 98 points out, Rupp put up her rat posters wherever she saw rats taking over, and they got "widespread media attention in 1979 during a contentious, three-week strike by NYC sanitation workers... just down the street from her loft in the financial district, became a magnet for the press when witnesses reported that a woman had been attacked there by a pack of rats." Since Rupp had already taken note of the rat problem in that area, her posters were all over, which gave the photographers covering the story a great visual.
On her website, Rupp explains how her poster project started: "The garbage strike of 1979 went on for 3 weeks, |
with a quick double move. Haden overplays Marshall's quick move inside so he is unable to recover when he reverses towards the pylon. Even though the pass is poorly thrown and leads Marshall back inside, he is unable to get to the football.
When Darrelle Revis faces a receiver such as Brandon Marshall, he is able to stick with him through breaks and contain his quickness while still contesting jump balls. When Richard Sherman faces Brandon Marshall, he is able to fight him for the football and do enough with his technique and physicality to disrupt his route running and quickness.
What Joe Haden proved in this game is that he can't compete with Marshall on jump balls and he can't stick with his quickness through routes.
He was outclassed.
Week 16: New York Jets
Total qualifying plays: 15
Failed coverages: 2
Shutdowns: 1
In Position: 12
After being outclassed by Marshall the previous week, Haden returned the favor to the Jets wide receivers. He primarily covered David Nelson, who was the only receiver to beat him as he successfully ran two curl routes late in the game.
2013 NFL Season Total
Total qualifying plays: 218
Failed coverages: 81
Shutdowns: 16
In Position: 121
Success rate for the season: 62.8%
Results at Spots
Qualifying Plays at left cornerback: 117
Failed coverages at left cornerback: 40
Success Rate at left cornerback: 66%
Qualifying Plays at right cornerback: 86
Failed coverages at right cornerback: 34
Success Rate at right cornerback: 61%
Qualifying Plays in the slot: 15
Failed coverages in the slot: 7
Success Rate in the slot: 53%
Results versus Routes
Percentage is Success Rate. Total number of routes is in parentheses.
1. Seam 89% (9)
2. Sideline 88% (56)
3. Post 80% (10)
4. In 68% (25)
5. Curl 57% (46)
6. Out 54% (24)
7. Crossing 50% (22)
8. Comeback 50% (14)
9. Double Move 42% (12)
10. Slant 39% (13)
Joe Haden is an adequate starting cornerback who could excel in a scheme that allows him to play more zone coverage or as part of more Cover 2 looks. His ball skills are exceptional and his physical talent is easy to become infatuated with.
At 25 years of age, Haden needs to be better than what he currently is.
The consistency in his footwork and overall technique in man coverage simply isn't good enough. Not only is he not a shutdown cornerback, but he is also not even an above average cornerback in man coverage. His 62.8 percent success rate for the 2013 season is significantly worse than his 73.6 percent success rate for the 2012 season.
Haden's name is often mentioned alongside Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman in terms of him being a shutdown cornerback, but his performances don't merit that recognition. Under the same criteria for last season, Revis had a success rate of 81.9 percent, while Sherman had a success rate of 79 percent.
Even in comparison to Alterraun Verner (79.8 percent), Sam Shields (68 percent) and Patrick Peterson (69.6 percent), Haden's raw numbers are very unimpressive.
His tape helps his case because he is a very willing tackler and a good zone defender, but the Browns have made a catastrophic mistake by giving him such a huge contract extension. He will likely be thrown at a lot more next season too after the Browns investments at the cornerback position in the draft.
You can follow Cian Fahey on twitter @CianafAtheists have an image problem. According to a study led by University of Minnesota sociologist Penny Edgell, published in 2006, Americans have a lower opinion of them than homosexuals, Jews, Muslims and African-Americans. They can't get elected to political office, and most people view them as outsiders. Yet the disdain is comparatively quiet and abstract, rarely erupting into palpable conflict. Part of the reason may be that nobody seems to know who atheists are, including atheists themselves.
This year's North American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reported that 2% of US adults don't believe in God, while another 10% aren't sure. Only 0.7%, however, called themselves atheist and only 0.9% agnostic. In all, 15% said they don't have a religious affiliation, and 27% that they won't have a religious funeral. Even apparent atheists, it seems, sense a stigma around the label. But is it deserved? "People who truly have no religion," says David Yamane, editor of the journal Sociology of Religion, "are not very well understood."
Thanks to an emerging community of researchers focusing their attention on the non-religious, that is beginning to change. The ARIS, for instance, is based out of a new centre at Trinity College in Connecticut, the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC), the only one of its kind in a country full of academic centres for the study of religiosity. Its fellows produce demographic studies and curriculum materials about the history and development of non-belief.
Younger researchers have begun to take a lead in the field. ISSSC fellow Ryan Cragun's dissertation identifies "risk factors" for people who are likely to leave religious communities, including relocation, education, youth and marrying outside the faith. Cragun is an atheist himself, but he doesn't advertise this among his colleagues and research subjects for fear that negative stereotypes might get the better of them. Neither does Joseph Hammer, a psychology graduate student at the University of Missouri, who has been eagerly forming networks with others studying the non-religious. "We're all looking to support each other in this," he says. Hammer is particularly concerned about discrimination that atheists and otherwise non-religious people suffer, and he has been investigating how clinical psychologists can be more attentive to their needs.
Others are driven to the field more by academic interest than personal inclination. "I had never considered myself particularly interested in religion or non-religion," recalls Lois Lee, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Cambridge who founded the Non-Religion and Secularity Research Network last year. She came to it by accident in the course of studying other things. "My historical and sociological analyses of various secular phenomena often led me to these topics," she says. She soon discovered irreligion to be "an obvious lacuna in our sociological understanding".
It should go without saying that what these researchers are finding doesn't lend much support to discrimination against non-believers. Irreligious people are, on the whole, healthy, intelligent and well adjusted. They tend to be less prejudiced and less authoritarian than fervent believers, says a study by Canadian psychologists Bruce Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer. What they lack in traditional religious belief they sometimes make up for with the occult or paranormal. But they are also more sensitive than most to intellectual consistency, according to ISSSC fellow Frank Pasquale's work on secularist groups in the Pacific Northwest since 2001.
Eager to show Americans what a less religious society can look like, Pitzer College sociologist Phil Zuckerman spent a year conducting interviews in Denmark and Sweden, two of the least religious countries in the world. In his book, Society without God, he portrays people living meaningful lives amid low crime, plentiful bike lanes and accessible healthcare. "Society without God is not only possible," he writes, "but can be quite civil and pleasant."
Of all that Zuckerman and his colleagues are learning, perhaps the most important lesson, for now at least, is the simplest: by and large, non-religious people are just fine.The 17-year-old son of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was the victim of an assault and robbery, a spokeswoman for the mayor told CNN on Saturday.
"Yesterday evening, Mayor Emanuel's son, Zach, was assaulted in a robbery during which his phone was stolen," spokeswoman Kelley Quinn told CNN. "He sustained injuries that required medical treatment, but was able to join the family for a long-planned trip."
Chicago police spokesman Officer Thomas Sweeney would not confirm the identity of the victim.
He said the incident occurred when the victim was approached while walking near his home "by two unknown male offenders who grabbed him and went through his pockets, taking his phone and then they fled the scene."
Emanuel did not offer a comment on the robbery.
"The mayor's focus is on his son's well-being, and as parents, he and Amy ask that the media respect their family's privacy at this time," Quinn said.A state-funded orthodox Jewish girls' school in north London has been criticised after it was discovered that dozens of pupils had their GCSE exams censored, with questions about evolution deliberately blacked out of science papers.
The OCR examinations board found that 52 papers in two GCSE science exams sat by pupils at Yesodey Hatorah Senior girls' school in Hackney this summer had questions on evolution obscured, making them impossible to be answered.
"Ensuring the integrity of the exam system is of paramount importance to OCR and we will always take all the steps necessary to protect it," a spokesman for OCR said.
The exam board said it was holding discussions with the school to ensure that the episode was not repeated, as well as raising its concerns with the Department for Education and schools watchdog Ofsted, as well as the Joint Council for Qualifications of exam boards.
"We have tried to respect the religious and cultural sensitivities of this community while protecting the integrity of our exams. That said, we do not consider obscuring aspects of question papers to be good exam practice.
"We are also in the process of agreeing safeguards with the school to ensure good exam practice in the context of today's pluralistic society. Ofqual are also fully aware of our investigation and its outcome," OCR said.
Yesodey Hatorah is a voluntary-aided all-girls school, meaning it is fully funded by the government but retains full power over its own admissions procedure. According to the school's prospectus it gives priority to admitting "Charedi Jewish girls who meet the Charedi criteria as prescribed by the rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations."
Charedi Jews are often described as strictly Orthodox Jews, with Stamford Hill home to Europe's largest community of Orthodox Judaism.
The school's 2012 GCSE results were excellent overall, putting it in the top 20% of state schools. In GCSE science, 95% of its pupils gained a C grade or above, well above the national average of 75%.
The school was last inspected by Ofsted in 2006, and rated as outstanding. It had an interim inspection in 2010.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: "All schools should provide children with a good education. If Ofsted believed any school was deliberately preventing children from receiving a broad and balanced curriculum, this would be taken very seriously.
"As part of our risk-based approach to inspection Ofsted inspects schools rated outstanding less regularly. This school was rated outstanding in 2006 and then had an interim assessment in 2010 which found that its performance had been sustained. If Ofsted becomes aware of any information that proves otherwise, or if any other legitimate concern is raised about the school, this could trigger an inspection in line with our risk assessment policy."
According to the school's prospectus, prospective applicants are told: "Parents are expected to co-operate fully in insulating the children from undesirable external influences and fashion trends that conflict with Charedi Jewish values."
The prospectus also notes: "Charedi homes do not have TV or other inappropriate media. Parents ensure that their children do not have access to the Internet or any other media which do not meet the stringent moral criteria of the Charedi community."
The exam censorship came to light after complaints by the National Secular Society, after comments by Rabbi Avraham Pinter, the principal of Yesodey Hatorah, to the Jewish Chronicle, in which he said "sometimes Charedi schools, if they find anything in the paper which could be offensive to parents, advise children to avoid that question".
Stephen Evans, the National Secular Society's campaigns manager, said: "Faith schools such as Yesodey Hatorah not only impede social cohesion by segregating children along religions and ethnic lines, they also fail to prepare pupils for life outside of a religious community and deny young people the opportunity to reach their full potential."
The school could not be reached for comment.$\begingroup$
Let's try, for example, $\sqrt5$:
Since that $2\lt\sqrt5\lt3$, the first term is $2$. Subtract $2$ and invert: $$ \frac1{\sqrt5-2}=\sqrt5+2 $$ Since $4\le\sqrt5+2\le5$, the next term is $4$. Subtract $4$ and invert: $$ \frac1{\sqrt5+2-4}=\sqrt5+2 $$ We are at the same point as the previous line. Thus, the continued fraction is $$ (2;4,4,4,4,\dots) $$ Let's try $\sqrt3$:
Since $1\lt\sqrt3\lt2$, the first term is $1$. Subtract $1$ and invert: $$ \frac1{\sqrt3-1}=\frac{\sqrt3+1}{2} $$ Since $1\lt\frac{\sqrt3+1}{2}\lt2$, the next term is $1$. Subtract $1$ and invert: $$ \frac2{\sqrt3+1-2}=\sqrt{3}+1 $$ Since $2\lt\sqrt3+1\lt3$, the next term is $2$. Subtract $2$ and invert: $$ \frac1{\sqrt{3}+1-2}=\frac{\sqrt3+1}2 $$ and we are back where we were two lines ago. Thus, the continued fraction is $$ (1;1,2,1,2,1,2,\dots) $$ In general, we may have to go several lines before we get the same remainder. It can be shown that roots of any quadratic polynomial with integer coefficients give a repeating continued fraction. Therefore, we will, at some point, get the same remainder.Nasa's Opportunity rover is little more than a bluish speck on the rim of the Santa Maria crater on the surface of Mars in an image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's high resolution camera.
Opportunity has confounded all expectations by continuing to operate years after its primary mission was over. The rover was dispatched to Mars in 2003, with a twin called Spirit that fell silent in March last year after getting a wheel stuck in the soil.
A photograph was taken by the orbiter on 1 March from an altitude of more than 155 miles (250km) as Opportunity extended its robot arm to take close-ups of a rock called Ruiz Garcia. Tracks left by the rover as it approached are visible to the west of the crater.
It has been gathering information about the geology of the relatively fresh, 90m-wide crater that will help explain how it formed and how erosion and the Martian weather have shaped it since. The bright orange streaks are material kicked up by the impact.
The rover will soon leave the edge of Santa Maria and trek for 3.7 miles (6km) to a larger crater called Endeavour, where the Martian soil contains hydrated sulphates and phyllosilicates that formed in a wetter past.SHARE
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When PepsiCo Inc. didn't show up in Jefferson County Circuit Court to defend itself against accusations it hijacked the idea of two Wisconsin men to sell water in bottles, a judge decided against the soft-drink maker and handed the pair one big gulp of a damage award - $1.26 billion.
Now PepsiCo, alarmed by the enormous default judgment, is pushing hard to have the award rescinded.
Although the case was filed in April and the damage award was handed down by Circuit Judge Jacqueline R. Erwin on Sept. 30, PepsiCo contends the proper people in the company didn't even know about it until Oct. 5 because of a series of miscues.
PepsiCo did not immediately respond to a Journal Sentinel request for comment, but company spokesman Joe Jacuzzi told the Associated Press the company feels it has been denied due process and wants the opportunity to defend itself, although it acknowledges an "internal process issue."
One of the reasons for PepsiCo's delayed response, according to court documents, was that a secretary in PepsiCo's legal department was so busy she did not tell anyone about a letter regarding the case or enter it into a log that tracks such matters.
The case was filed by Charles A. Joyce of Juneau and James R. Voigt of Cleveland, who allege that in 1981 they entered into confidentiality agreements with an executive of Watertown-based Pepsi products distributor Wis-Pak Inc. and an executive of Carolina Canners Inc. of Cheraw, S.C., about their idea for a new product.
Joyce and Voigt contend that Wis-Pak and Carolina Canners breached their confidentiality agreement with them because Pepsi began making and distributing its purified bottled water product Aquafina. The lawsuit argues that PepsiCo used information it knew was secret when it began selling Aquafina years later.
Pepsi is asking the judge to vacate her $1.26 billion award, saying the plaintiffs didn't properly serve PepsiCo with the complaint and that the soft-drink maker acted diligently once it became aware of it.
PepsiCo's local attorney, Robert W. Roth, of Menomonee Falls, contends the judgment is "unprecedented" and that the company has "strong defenses" against it.
"The sole basis for the plaintiffs' claims - the confidentiality agreements - are nearly 30 years old and fail to show any connection between the alleged trade secret and PepsiCo's sale of Aquafina," Roth argued in court documents.
Voigt referred a reporter's questions to his Chicago attorney, David C. Van Dyke, who could not be reached. A phone call to the Chuck A. Joyce residence was not answered Wednesday.Buy Photo City Councilman Chris Seelbach (Photo: The Enquirer/Liz Dufour)Buy Photo
Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach took Leelah Alcorn's cause to council's chambers on Wednesday.
Seelbach, the city's first openly gay councilman, gave an emotional nine-minute speech at the closing of council's first meeting of 2015. He read the transgender 17-year-old's suicide note and offered words of encouragement to LGBTQ individuals.
Alcorn, who was born as Joshua Alcorn, died Dec. 28 after being struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 in suburban Union Township. The Kings Mills teen's death has drawn worldwide attention and engendered lots of reaction on social media and in letters to the Enquirer editor.
Seelbach first read the note Alcorn posted on a social media site, which has since been deleted. The councilman then addressed some of the issues Alcorn wrote about, including feeling isolated and being treated poorly. Holding back tears, Seelbach said in part to the LGBTQ community:
"The truth is, we as a society have failed you. What I know for sure is that with every day, it may not feel like it gets better, but I know that you can get through it. You can survive the rejection. You can survive the pain. You can survive the isolation. You can because you're exactly who you're supposed to be. You're the person God made you to be, and you have the strength to persevere. It will not be easy. It may not get better with every day, but you can do it – I know you can. If no one seems to have faith in you, I do."
Seelbach added: "You are not alone.... You can live. You can live. You can live."
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1IsRoFtFederal government increases number of companies under tax office scrutiny from 30 to 80 under budget measures announced in May
The federal government has widened the scope of legislation aimed at tackling multinational tax avoidance, increasing the number of large companies under the tax office’s microscope from 30 to 80.
Multinational tax avoidance risks losing citizens' trust, says Hockey Read more
The government announced budget measures in May that allow the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to receive information on 30 multinationals that have a global revenue of more than $1bn.
“From the beginning of next year that would extend to around 80,” the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said.
Legislation was introduced into parliament in September to enhance the integrity of the tax system by closing loopholes that allow large corporations to avoid paying their normal share of tax. The government wants legislation passed in time for the laws to come into effect on 1 January.
A Senate inquiry looking into multinational tax avoidance recommended that companies that deliberately avoid tax be named and shamed.
The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, rejected the idea.
“Under our secrecy laws, we are compelled to hold our discussions in private,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday. “I don’t see any particular advantage in us sort of trying to name and shame companies.”
The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a 15-point plan to increase transparency and minimise tax avoidance practices.
The organisation estimates that between 4% to 10% of global revenue is lost through base erosion and profit shifting measures, amounting to up to US$240bn annually.
G20 leaders will discuss the OECD anti-avoidance measures when they meet in Peru on Thursday.
Morrison said Australian laws were stronger than those in other countries, meaning the tax recouped would not be as high.
“You need to be wary here when others are making claims about how much can be raised here, and suggesting it can be used for any number of things. I think there’s a very big question mark over that,” the treasurer said.
Richer nations reject call for tough tax provisions at foreign aid conference Read more
The budget included a strengthening of penalties for companies that deliberately shirk their tax burden.
Jordan said it was “not possible” to give a precise figure on the amount of tax lost in Australia.
“I’m very reluctant to try to sort of throw a figure out there,” he said. “What I have said in the past is we know there are billions of dollars of sales that are booked overseas from activities that directly occur here in Australia.”
“I should acknowledge that the majority of corporates do pay the right amount of tax in Australia and are open and transparent in their dealings with us. However, there is a minority that try to avoid their obligations and we do act on behaviour that is questionable.”The project has been operated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. A number of Western countries, as well as Ukraine and Russia, contributed more than $1.5 billion to the project, and the bank provided more than $500 million of its own.
The accident, on April 26, 1986, was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. It forced more than 50,000 people to evacuate the surrounding area, which was declared off limits. More than two dozen workers died from radiation exposure, and an unknown number of other personnel were injured while responding to the disaster. Many more people around Chernobyl and far beyond were affected indirectly, with an increase in cancers and other diseases.
“Let the whole world see today what Ukraine and the world can do when they unite, how we are able to protect the world from nuclear contamination and nuclear threats,” President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine said at a ceremony.FONTANA — 46 illegal aliens were temporarily sheltered at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Thursday, where they waited to be driven to bus stations after being released at around 6:45 p.m.
Although the immigrants’ final travel destinations could not be confirmed, San Bernardino Diocese spokesman John Andrews told Breitbart News that the church provided “travel cash” to those headed on long journeys east toward New York or New Jersey.
Andrews also said the church was helping the illegal immigrants–32 children and 14 women–buy bus tickets, and helping them navigate the complex bus transportation system.
“The Catholic Church welcomed us,” an immigrant named Bianca told CBS Los Angeles. “We are here, we are okay.”
Meanwhile, protesters in Murrieta, who succeeded in turning around three rounds of buses of illegal aliens bound for the local Border Patrol station, waited all day for a new round of buses to come, but they never showed up. Border Patrol had announced on Wednesday afternoon that a flight carrying another 140 illegal aliens to San Diego scheduled for Thursday had been cancelled, as well as all future flights, although those same flights had resumed after being cancelled in the past.
One of the organizers of the Murrieta protests, Diana Serafin, told Breitbart News that protesters would remain outside the Border Patrol station for as long as necessary.
“We can’t let our guard down now,” she said.• First prize for one-day race exceeds what is on offer for men over three days • ‘Women want same course and media coverage as men and financial parity’
Tour de Yorkshire organisers have turned this year’s race into the most lucrative on the women’s calendar, offering a first prize for the one-day event that will exceed the men’s winnings for their three-day stage race over the same weekend.
Thanks to a three-year deal with the supermarket chain Asda – who sponsored the “Tourmakers” volunteers when Yorkshire hosted the Tour de France start in 2014 – the first prize for the women’s Tour de Yorkshire will be €20,000 (£15,628).
In another development that will help to galvanise women’s cycling worldwide, the 135km, three-and-a-half-hour race from Otley to Doncaster on Saturday 30 April will be televised live in full.
Bradley Wiggins after last Olympic gold having completed cycling video game Read more
The dramatic expansion of the Yorkshire event after a low-key beginning last year means that British roads appear to be hosting an informal contest to stage the richest and most high-profile contest on the women’s calendar.
That is probably appropriate for a nation that boasts the current world road race champion, Lizzie Armitstead, who has dominated racing this season, taking three wins in four starts. The Yorkshire upgrade comes in the wake of the successful launch in 2014 of the Aviva Women’s Tour five-day event by the men’s Tour of Britain organisers Sweetspot, who have always been open about their aim to put women’s prize money and race organisation on a par with men’s racing.
“Compared to our men’s race, if a rider won all three stages in that, and the overall, they would make €14,000, so that is 40% more,” said Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire. The total prize purse will be €63,623. “The aim was always to create the most lucrative women’s race on the planet,” Verity added. “There are three things women cyclists have been asking for: the same course as the men, the same media coverage and financial parity. All three are valid criteria and we hope we can address all three. What I don’t want is for my daughter to say to me: ‘I want to be a professional cyclist’ and for me to have to answer: ‘how will you earn a living?’”
Eurosport will broadcast the entire event, while ITV4 will cover the final three hours – pretty much the whole event bar the ceremonial roll-out – live as well.
The 135km course begins in Otley, home of the Armitstead, and covers the same roads as the men’s event hours later, travelling through Harewood and Pontefract. “There are three categorised climbs and the route is at the upper limit in terms of distance, so it’s not benign in the slightest,” said Verity, no doubt aware that last year Armitstead skipped the inaugural event as the flat, relatively short route around York was not tough enough for her.Share. A new, unannounced project inbound? A new, unannounced project inbound?
Square Enix Japan has filed a trademark for "Stormblood," possibly hinting at a new title from the publisher that has yet to be announced.
According to a post on Twitter by trademark_bot (via NeoGAF), the trademark was filed last month on August 30.
Square Enix has yet to announce any type of project that bears the "Stormblood" branding. We've reached out to the publisher for comment and will provide an update as soon as we receive a response.
Several titles from Square Enix are slated to release later this year, including Final Fantasy XV and World of Final Fantasy, the latter of which could very well be the series' funniest game yet.
Exit Theatre Mode
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his video content on YouTube.Strikingly tall skeletons uncovered in the Ecuador and Peru Amazon region are undergoing examination in Germany, according to a research team headed by British anthropologist Russell Dement. Will these remains prove that a race of tall people existed hundreds of years ago deep in the Amazonian rainforest?
According to a Cuenca news site, since 2013 the team has found half a dozen human skeletons dating to the early 1400s and the mid-1500s which measure between seven and eight feet (213 to 243 centimeters) in height.
Dement said,
“We are very early in our research and I am only able to provide a general overview of what we have found. I don’t want to make claims based on speculation since our work is ongoing. Because of the size of the skeletons, this has both anthropological and medical implications,” reports Cuenca Highlife.
Skeletal Remains in Ecuador and Peru
In late 2013 Dement received word that a skeleton had been uncovered by a Shuar local, approximately 70 miles (112 kilometers) from Cuenca, in Loja Province, Ecuador. Dement traveled to the site and recovered a rib cage and skull of a female which had been exposed by flooding. The bones were thought to date to 600 years ago. The rest of the skeleton was located and, once assembled, reportedly measured seven feet, four inches (223.5 centimeters) in height.
This prompted the formation of a research team including four researchers from Freie Universität in Germany, and the assistance of Shuar locals. Funding was provided by the university for excavation and investigation.
Recognizing it is a controversial area of research, Dement noted “Even though I had been working with Freie for many years, I was concerned that they might not give a grant for someone looking for giants. To outsiders, especially scientists, I understand this sounds a little hair-brained. […]
“Because of the sensational nature of this, we have to be extremely diligent in our research since it will be met with a great deal of skepticism,” he said.
Illustration from "Mundus subterraneus" - suggesting that fossil bones were from giants ( Wikimedia Commons ).
Within six months of excavations and mapping at two different sites: the one outside of Cuenca, and another settlement dating to about 1550, approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) away on the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border, the team had found five more tall skeletons, as well as artifacts. It is believed by Dement and colleagues that the tribe at the second site had been at the settlement for at least 150 years.
The three complete skeletons and two partial skeletons had no disfiguration and suggested they were relatively healthy.
Dement said,
“The skeletons show no signs of diseases such as the hormonal growth problems that are common in most cases of gigantism. In all the skeletons, the joints seemed healthy and lung cavity appeared large. One of the skeletons that we have dated was of a female who was about 60 when she died, much older than typical cases of gigantism,” reports Cuenca Highlife.
The burials were elaborate. Bodies were wrapped in leaves and buried in thick clay. This sealed the skeletons and protected against water intrusion, leaving the remains in fairly good condition.
Legends Come to Life
It is reported that Dement had previously studied Amazon indigenous communities for more than two decades and had heard the legends of “very tall, pale-skinned people who used to live nearby,” he said. Community elders described them to Dement as a race of large, peaceful Amazonians who were welcomed by the indigenous Shuar and Achuar people, however, the locals also believed these people belonged to the ‘spirit world’ and were purely mythical.
A Shuar man in traditional garb. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Real-Life Giants
Since the announcement of this discovery several reports have vastly exaggerated the dimensions of the finds, with seven feet being reported as seven meters (making them 23 feet tall). The bones have also been erroneously connected with hoax photos, as well as a reconstruction of an “Ecuador giant”, which was in fact a fake skeleton for a now-closed theme park in Switzerland.
These false reports should not detract from the actual discovery of seven-to-eight-feet skeletal remains in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian rainforest, which are being scientifically studied. Such skeletons, while seeming to fit the ancient legends of a mythical race, are not unheard of or unproven in scientific literature.
Other such cases of extremely tall humans (or “giants”) can easily be referenced, such as Robert Wadlow, known as the “Alton Giant”, cited as the tallest person in recorded history. Wadlow was born in Alton, Illinois, USA in 1918, and at his death was eight feet, eleven inches (2.72 meters) tall.
Robert Pershing Wadlow, tallest person in recorded history, was of a giant height due to hyperplasia of his pituitary gland. (Creative Commons Fair Use )
Another of the many cases of modern gigantism include that of Charles Byrne (1761-1783), known as “The Irish Giant,” whose skeleton is now on display at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. Measurements of his skeleton measured him at approximately seven feet, seven inches (2.31 meters) tall.
The skeleton of Charles Byrne, “The Irish Giant” in London, 2007. (StoneColdCrazy / CC BY SA )
Sketch depicting skeletons of a male giant and a female dwarf, displayed at the Royal College of Surgeons. ( Wikimedia Commons )
Earlier this year archaeologists in Bulgaria discovered the remains of what they have described as a “huge skeleton” in downtown Varna, a city on the shores of the Black Sea whose rich culture and civilizations spans some 7,000 years. The size of the bones were said to be “impressive” and that they belonged to “a very tall man”.
As such cases exist in history, it stands to reason there were cases of individuals or even communities of people who were seen as “giants” to the ancients.
Results of the reported Freie University research are to be published a year from now according to Dement, who is said to be examining DNA samples from the Shuar communities near the excavation site to see if they connect with the skeletal remains from the ancient settlement.
Hopefully the published information will shed light on the people who lived in the Amazonian rainforest hundreds of years ago, and how they might have interacted with the Shuar and Achuar peoples, possibly sparking myths and beliefs which were passed down for generations, resulting in the legend of the Ecuadorian giants.
Featured Image: A human skull. Representational image only. (Steve Snodgrass/ CC BY 2.0 )
By Liz LeafloorIs Warner Bros. secretly planning on making two DC Comics movies in 2014? A trusted source tells Latino Review that the upcoming WB/DC project that Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson has been teasing is a Justice League movie. They go on to speculate that Batman vs. Superman and Justice League could be shot back-to-back just like The Hobbit films, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, and the last two Matrix movies.
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Latino Review listed out a couple of reasons why shooting the movies back-to-back would make sense:
To maximize everyone’s schedules. Ben Affleck is a busy man, Henry Cavill is in-demand, and Johnson is a workaholic. Not to mention Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, and the rest of the unannounced cast are no slouches either. Because Batman vs Superman is going to end with an insane cliffhanger/teaser that leads right into Justice League and, like those other back-to-back productions, they want to be able to deliver the second film within a year to strike while the iron is hot. Could this very aggressive approach be how DC intends to pull the rug right out from under rival Marvel Studios? Sure could be.
This could also be why we keep hearing rumors about Nightwing, The Flash, and even Green Lantern. Perhaps Warner Bros. wants to introduce these characters so that audiences are familiar with them in a 2016 follow-up Justice League movie.
This should be taken as a rumor for now, even Latino Review says that this news comes from a “combination of insider information and good old fashioned speculation from folks who’ve been in the game a long, long time.” Judging by the reasons given, it certainly does make sense. Is this awesome, or are you nervous about the thought of Warner Bros. rushing into things? Let me know how you’d feel about this approach in the comments below.
SOURCE: Latino ReviewSabrina Rubin Erdely is a journalist and American magazine reporter who became known in 2014 as the author of a discredited article in Rolling Stone describing the alleged rape of a University of Virginia student by several fraternity members. The story, titled "A Rape on Campus", was later found to be unsupported by evidence. The magazine retracted the article following a Columbia University School of Journalism review which concluded that Erdely and Rolling Stone failed to engage in "basic, even routine journalistic practice".[2] As a result, Erdely was named in three lawsuits with demands of more than $32 million combined for damages resulting from the publication of the story.[3]
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Erdely has written about rape and bullying. Prior to the Rolling Stone article, her work appeared in GQ, Self, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, Glamour, Men's Health and Philadelphia.[4]
In November 2016, a federal court jury found Erdely was liable for defamation with actual malice in a lawsuit brought by University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo,[5] and Erdely was found personally responsible for $2 million in damages.[6]
Education and early life
Erdely graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.[4] According to Erdely, she was initially a pre-med student but became |
18-year-old who chooses to join the army. Going from nuns and affluent stay at home moms to drill sergeants not-all-that-much-different than the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket was a bit of a culture shock. But I handled it
I am now going on my 6th year in the military. When I left my first duty station in Alaska, I changed from active duty to reserves. After my active duty discharge, I started wearing headwraps. Whether it was the bright and beautiful colors of the different cloths, or the fact that my ears were never again cold, I loved them. I wear them everywhere. (Also, I have to say that the headwrap changes the way men approach me on the street. Instead of "hey redbone" or "hey bitch" its "hey beautiful nubian sista." Which I know is super, duper problematic, but that's another topic for another day.)
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The only time I can't and don't wear them is with military uniforms. Not that I would want to in my new unit, which is located in backwoods West Virginia. I’m not going to say they fit every single stereotype up there but holy hell they sure do come pretty close. And something happened to me recently that exemplifies that. And the fallacy of us existing in a "post-racial' America.
I was there for a weekend for drill. Once a month, we show up in uniform for a weekend and do a month’s work of work in two days. It was after hours so I was off duty and going to eat dinner at one of the local eateries. I was sitting down minding my business — literally not doing anything but staring at my phone rereading Fifty Shades of Grey because I’m a lonely woman — when I hear several grossly uncomfortable comments that made my skin literally crawl and urged my legs to move me to the exit.
"Why the fuck would she come around here knowing there are soldiers that frequent this area?"
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"Check if she has a bag"
"I wonder if she would cry if I ripped it off her head?"
"Her father probably raped her, that's why she's shy"
I am by no means a passive, let people roll over me, let it slide, turn the cheek type of person. But ignorance is always palpable and around every corner in this area so I let it slide. I let it slide… until…. this slender “I would date a sixteen year old if she looked right” man and his “I am the sixteen year old that looks right” girl approach my table visibly intoxicated. They actually thought it was a good idea to speak. They either thought about this scenario a little too much or not enough because they strolled up to my table too jolly for my liking.
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The skeleton man, with his potentially underage partner in slime in tow, came to me and spoke. What he said was laden with swear words, slurs, words that I can only guess about, and spittle. Lots and lots of spittle. Here’s my kosher and SFW translation:
"It's really disrespectful of you to wear that (points at my head wrap) around here. The troops are honorable and they don't need constant reminders of why all their friends are dying. You need to take that off."
Now, the military has taught me several things that I value. Because of those harsh lessons, I carry a knife. More precisely, I carry a tactical knife. A benchmade 556 Griptillian. It's sharp. It's always concealed on my hip. By the time I heard their giggles and saw them swaying towards me, I had already grabbed Bessie (my knife) and had her in an ice pick grip with the edge out and the tip aggressively carving into the wood of table. It took them too long to notice, but I noticed when they had just begun to notice. The misguided young lady flexed her arm to reach towards me — not sure what the she was intending to do without getting her fingers sliced off — but I pulled the knife out of the table and flipped it around in my palm and pointed it at her. She was not as stupid as I thought because she stopped her advance.
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What came next is the best and most accidentally craziest — and probably sexiest (to the right person) — thing I’ve ever said. To this day, I can still hear how low and scary it sounded to my own ears.
"If you, or your cousin-husband ever reach to grab my head wrap again, I'll castrate him up to his neck and filet the skin off your thighs.
They blinked. I didn't blink. They blinked again. I must have been a good liar. I can't even cut a steak without crying about the dead cows and their families that wonder why they never came home that day.
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I watched their retreat. Either deciding I was an actual threat or I wasn’t worth the trouble, they went outside to smoke. I tried to calm my shaking hands down. I paid my bill to an oblivious waitress who either didn’t care what was happening or just honestly didn’t see anything. (I’m going to keep my faith in humanity and say she didn’t see.)
As I'm leaving, I see them in the parking lot. I keep my head leveled to watch and make sure they don’t try anything dumb. But, alas, drunk people are dumb. They didn’t physically assault me. But verbally, they were adamant with their prejudice. I heard several things, including "troops" and "Muslim bitch." I needed to put them out of their misery. I needed the satisfaction that came with my next move.
From the safety of the driver’s side of my car, I pulled my military ID out of my pocket and flashed it at Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
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"BITCH I AM THE TROOPS"
Samantha moonlights as a feminist pterodactyl whose only pickup line is 'you like bread, or nah?'Free agent Benoit Pouliot's first full season in the pros, at the age of 25 with the Montreal Canadiens, proved mostly uneventful: 30 points, 87 penalty minutes and four healthy scratches in the Habs' seven-game, first round series with the Bruins earlier this spring.
But in the 6-foot-3 left wing, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli saw a body of work good enough to sign to a reported one-year, $1.1 million contract. Pouliot has struggled to live up to expectations since being picked fourth overall by Minnesota in the 2005 draft, but in Chiarelli's eyes, the 25-year-old is still young enough to coach up.
Benoit Pouliot wasn't an impact player with the Canadiens, but Peter Chiarelli sees something in the 25-year-old. Francois Lacasse/Getty Images
"Pouliot is a player that was drafted quite high and this would be his third team," Chiarelli said in a conference call with the media Friday afternoon. "We like his skill, we like his size, we think he'd fit in with our team. He's got a good shot off the wing, he's still young, we feel he'll develop, and we were happy to get him at that number."
Pouliot acknowledged Friday after signing with the Bruins that consistency has been an issue for him.
"I can do more. Obviously, this year was a tough year, not saying that I didn't really get the chance that I should have, but sometimes, you know, you want to be on the top two lines, you want to be a power player, especially when you're playing well," Pouliot explained. "And at times, I was playing well and sometimes it's the coach's decision and you can't really do anything about it, you just have to keep playing. It's just a thing about being consistent every night, being good, playing good, in practice and in games. It's just a thing about, my game, I mean the game is fine, it's just being able to compete every night and every time you step on the ice."
The left-shooting Pouliot is a natural fit on the left side. But Chiarelli noted that while with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, Pouliot saw some time on the right wing, giving the Bruins another flexible winger like Rich Peverley, Jordan Caron and Brad Marchand.
Asked whether Pouliot could slide up and down the forward pairings, Chiarelli said, "Yeah, listen, he's been a healthy scratch in Montreal. He certainly has shown flashes. He's got to earn a spot, as will everyone else. So you know, he's anxious to come here and to prove himself. We think he's got a pretty good package that we can work with."
Amid a flurry of big-money signings on this first day of free agency, the other big news locally was the Dallas Stars' signing of Michael Ryder, who underperformed in the regular season but was instrumental in the Bruins' Stanley Cup run (eight goals, nine assists). Ryder -- who signed a three-year, $12 million deal with Boston back in 2008 -- signed a two year, $7 million deal with Dallas.
Chiarelli said he sent a text message this afternoon to Ryder, wishing him well and to "make sure you light up all of those Eastern Conference teams -- except us". Chiarelli remains confident in the leadership values of his core, should the Bruins not sign a suitable replacement.
"You know what, in the three years we had him, he was really good in the postseason," Chiarelli said. "So that's going to be an area I hope that the group will, I talked about leadership earlier, the group inheriting some of that responsibility if we don't bring in someone else. And you know, the timely scoring is something that I've liked what I've seen with the rest of the group."
The Bruins aren't expected to go after any big names this summer, but Chiarelli revealed that he is not done yet. He's currently in talks with several defensemen, including unrestricted free agent Tomas Kaberle, whom the team acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in February.
"Yeah I've had a few discussions today with him and that's where I'll leave it," he said. "But I have had a couple of discussions and again, I'm not ruling out re-signing Tomas."
The Bruins also re-signed forward Trent Whitfield and goaltender Anton Khudobin to two-year contracts Friday.
Whitfield played in 45 games for the Providence Bruins last season, recording 18 goals and 18 assists for 36 points.
Khudobin played in 16 games with the Providence Bruins last season, posting a.920 save percentage and 2.40 goals against average.
Brendan Hall covers the Bruins and high school sports for ESPNBoston.com.Plenty is on the line for both Stanford and Washington State when the two Top-25 teams clash in Pullman this weekend.
Once again, the No. 18 Cardinal (6-2, 5-1 Pac-12) have claimed the driver's seat in the Pac-12 North. Stanford has won five straight after suffering back-to-back losses against USC and San Diego State. Wins in the next two weeks over the Cougars and Washington would clinch yet another divisional crown for the Cardinal.
Washington State, on the other hand, has no room for error at this point. A loss to Stanford would virtually eliminate the No. 25 Cougars (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) from the divisional title race ahead of remaining games against Utah and their Apple Cup rival Washington. The Cardinal also would hold a valuable tiebreaker over Washington State.
Stanford holds a 40-26-1 lead in the the all-time series with Washington State. The Cougars demolished the Cardinal 42-16 a year ago to snap an eight-game losing streak in the series.
Stanford at Washington State
Kickoff: Saturday, Nov. 4 at 3:30 p.m. ET
TV Channel: FOX
Spread: Washington State – 2.5
Three Things to Watch
1. Will Bryce Love return?
Without Love (above, right), Stanford's offense has no engine. He demonstrated as much when he sat out with an ankle injury during the team's 15-14 win over Oregon State last week.
Moving the ball proved to be a chore without Love in the backfield. Cardinal running backs Cameron Scarlett and Trevor Speights combined for 82 yards on 22 carries in his absence. It marked a single-game season low on the ground for Stanford.
One reason why Love is a serious Heisman Trophy candidate is his ability to take over a game. He leads the nation in rushing yards (1,387), rushing yards per game (198.1) and rushing yards per carry (10.27). He has accounted for one-third of Stanford's offensive touchdowns this season.
Cardinal head coach David Shaw told reporters during Tuesday's Pac-12 teleconference that Love would be a game-time decision on Saturday. If the junior can't go, it could seriously cripple Stanford's ability to claim a valuable road victory.
2. Can Luke Falk bounce back?
There isn't a quarterback controversy at Washington State, but Cougars head coach Mike Leach turned more than a few heads when he benched Falk in a 58-37 loss to Arizona last weekend.
Falk struggled to move the offense before being replaced by Tyler Hilinski late in the second quarter. Falk guided Washington State on seven drives; five ended in punts and only one ended in a touchdown. He totaled just 93 yards and a TD pass on 13-of-23 passing before his day came to an end.
Hilinski moved the offense better over the remainder of the game, but he ended up being too turnover prone. He threw for for 509 yards and a pair of touchdowns while completing 45-of-61 pass attempts, but he also threw four interceptions that opened the door for the Wildcats to pull away behind the legs of Khalil Tate.
History says that Falk can bounce back. Through nine games this season, he has been a model of consistent excellence much of the time. The senior has completed 68 percent of his passes, while totaling 2,576 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Falk remains the active NCAA leader in passing yards (13,469) and touchdowns (112). He needs to throw for only 132 yards on Saturday to break Sean Mannion's Pac-12 record for career passing yards.
3. Storm clouds ahead for both defenses
Stifling defense has been as responsible for Washington State's success this season as its usual brand of explosive offense. The Cougars took a major step backward on defense, however, against Arizona.
A week after shutting out Colorado, Washington State gave up a season-high 328 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate, along with running backs J.J. Taylor and Zach Green, found more holes in the line than in a slice of Swiss cheese and made the Cougars pay for it. If Love can go, it could be another long day for the front seven.
Stanford could have a tougher time than anticipated stopping Falk from shredding its pass defense. The Cardinal suffered a major blow in losing senior defensive back Alijah Holder to a season-ending leg injury against Oregon State. Holder totaled 26 tackles, two tackles for a loss, three forced fumbles and an interception in eight games this year.
Final Analysis
Washington State has been a Jekyll-and-Hyde team on both sides of the ball over the last few games. The Cougars usually don't suffer two down games in a row, especially when returning to Pullman after a loss. Stanford is a bit of wild card. If Bryce Love is healthy enough to play, he is a game-changer who can will the Cardinal to victory almost by himself. His questionable status means that Stanford could have its hands full on the road against a Cougars team looking to stay alive in the Pac-12 North title chase.
Prediction: Washington State 24, Stanford 20
— Written by John Coon, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network. Coon has more than a decade of experience covering sports for different publications and outlets, including The Associated Press, Salt Lake Tribune, ESPN, Deseret News, MaxPreps, Yahoo! Sports and many others. Follow him on Twitter @johncoonsports.Just check out IceCaps head coach Sylvain Lefebvre as he adopted Liam Neeson’s “Lego Movie” role of Bad Cop/Good Cop in his handling of top prospect Nikita Scherbak.
Actually it was more a case of Good Cop/Bad Cop.
Last weekend, during two games against the Providence Bruins, Lefebvre seemed to take a patient, benevolent attitude with Scherbak, who had a litany of rough shifts, including one on Saturday where he turned over a puck on the power play leading to a shorthanded goal that cued a Providence comeback from a 3-0 deficit.
But Lefebvre showed forbearance and stayed with the young Russian, giving him a regular shift and using him in the last minute of regulation, in overtime and in the shootout, where Scherbak repaid his coach’s trust with a winning marker.
But after Scherbak — and, mind you, most of the rest of his teammates — produced an absolute clunker Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to the Syracuse Crunch, Lefebvre did as that law-enforcing Lego character would do, and changed from a smiley face to a stern one.
Scherbak was in the lineup for Wednesday’s rematch with Syracuse, but he didn’t play a shift in the first period.
He didn’t like the benching, obviously, but once he hit the ice in the second period, Scherbak made the Crunch pay for whatever displeasure he felt. He scored St. John’s first goal on a laser-pointer shot to the top corner, and with time ticking down in the second frame, showed real tenacity, helping force a turnover in the Syracuse end and sending a deft pass to Marcus Eisenschmid, who scored — as the video review would show — with a 10th of a second left before the buzzer.
Wednesday, after what turned out be another shootout win for the IceCaps, Scherbak offered a polite “I don’t really have a comment on that,” when first asked what he was feeling during the first period.
But there’s no doubt the benching hit him hard.
“It got me right in my mind, I guess, and right in my heart,” said Scherbak.
And there was no doubt Lefebvre was interested in how Scherbak would react, but so was the player, especially since he said he had never experienced so obvious a punishment before.
“Like Sly (Lefebvre) said, you have to respond like a man and I think I did,” said Scherbak, who actually described it as “good experience.”
“Now I know something more about myself, about what I can do in those situations,” he said.
Whether Scherbak was being used as an example after a team-wide stinker Tuesday — he is after all, the IceCaps’ leading score with 17 points on nine goals (also a team high) and eight assists — or the object of specifically directed penance, Lefebvre wouldn’t say.
He did say that while they had discussions after Tuesday’s game, Scherbak had no pre-knowledge that he would be benched for the first 20 minutes Wednesday.
“I don’t need top go over the details. It was something between Scherby and I,” said Lefebvre.
“I’m trying to find ways to make sure Scherby understands he’s a professional.
“But the thing everyone forgets is that he’s still young. He hasn’t turned 20 yet. But with the work ethic and with the skills he has, he can do some damage and he won’t spend too much time here.”
Scherbak, who turns 21 later this month, certainly had some veteran-like takes on the game Wednesday, saying the win was by far the most important thing, especially against the first-place team in the division which had schooled them the night before.
“It’s not about the personal stuff — yeah, I got benched, but it was important for us to get those points and we did it as a team,” he said. “It was good to be part of that, to have helped.”
Scherbak knows there will be dealt other knocks — just hopefully, not the kind he experienced in the first part of Wednesday’s game. Whatever they are, whenever they come, he says he expects to be able to react in a similar way.
“It’s not in my character … to give up. I made a promise to myself and to my parents that I’m not going to give up in my life,” he said.
“This is just a step to living up to that, just one step of many.”
Note
Big IceCaps centre Michael McCarron did not play in the late going of Wednesday’s game. He remained on the bench throughout, but with an icepack on his wrist/hand. The IceCaps did not practise Thursday, so there was no immediate word on whether McCarron — who was said by Lefebvre to be dealing with a day-to-day injury — would be available when the IceCaps host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday and Sunday afternoons (both 4 p.m. start times) at Mile One...
[email protected]
Just check out IceCaps head coach Sylvain Lefebvre as he adopted Liam Neeson’s “Lego Movie” role of Bad Cop/Good Cop in his handling of top prospect Nikita Scherbak.
Actually it was more a case of Good Cop/Bad Cop.
Last weekend, during two games against the Providence Bruins, Lefebvre seemed to take a patient, benevolent attitude with Scherbak, who had a litany of rough shifts, including one on Saturday where he turned over a puck on the power play leading to a shorthanded goal that cued a Providence comeback from a 3-0 deficit.
But Lefebvre showed forbearance and stayed with the young Russian, giving him a regular shift and using him in the last minute of regulation, in overtime and in the shootout, where Scherbak repaid his coach’s trust with a winning marker.
But after Scherbak — and, mind you, most of the rest of his teammates — produced an absolute clunker Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to the Syracuse Crunch, Lefebvre did as that law-enforcing Lego character would do, and changed from a smiley face to a stern one.
Scherbak was in the lineup for Wednesday’s rematch with Syracuse, but he didn’t play a shift in the first period.
He didn’t like the benching, obviously, but once he hit the ice in the second period, Scherbak made the Crunch pay for whatever displeasure he felt. He scored St. John’s first goal on a laser-pointer shot to the top corner, and with time ticking down in the second frame, showed real tenacity, helping force a turnover in the Syracuse end and sending a deft pass to Marcus Eisenschmid, who scored — as the video review would show — with a 10th of a second left before the buzzer.
Wednesday, after what turned out be another shootout win for the IceCaps, Scherbak offered a polite “I don’t really have a comment on that,” when first asked what he was feeling during the first period.
But there’s no doubt the benching hit him hard.
“It got me right in my mind, I guess, and right in my heart,” said Scherbak.
And there was no doubt Lefebvre was interested in how Scherbak would react, but so was the player, especially since he said he had never experienced so obvious a punishment before.
“Like Sly (Lefebvre) said, you have to respond like a man and I think I did,” said Scherbak, who actually described it as “good experience.”
“Now I know something more about myself, about what I can do in those situations,” he said.
Whether Scherbak was being used as an example after a team-wide stinker Tuesday — he is after all, the IceCaps’ leading score with 17 points on nine goals (also a team high) and eight assists — or the object of specifically directed penance, Lefebvre wouldn’t say.
He did say that while they had discussions after Tuesday’s game, Scherbak had no pre-knowledge that he would be benched for the first 20 minutes Wednesday.
“I don’t need top go over the details. It was something between Scherby and I,” said Lefebvre.
“I’m trying to find ways to make sure Scherby understands he’s a professional.
“But the thing everyone forgets is that he’s still young. He hasn’t turned 20 yet. But with the work ethic and with the skills he has, he can do some damage and he won’t spend too much time here.”
Scherbak, who turns 21 later this month, certainly had some veteran-like takes on the game Wednesday, saying the win was by far the most important thing, especially against the first-place team in the division which had schooled them the night before.
“It’s not about the personal stuff — yeah, I got benched, but it was important for us to get those points and we did it as a team,” he said. “It was good to be part of that, to have helped.”
Scherbak knows there will be dealt other knocks — just hopefully, not the kind he experienced in the first part of Wednesday’s game. Whatever they are, whenever they come, he says he expects to be able to react in a similar way.
“It’s not in my character … to give up. I made a promise to myself and to my parents that I’m not going to give up in my life,” he said.
“This is just a step to living up to that, just one step of many.”
Note
Big IceCaps centre Michael McCarron did not play in the late going of Wednesday’s game. He remained on the bench throughout, but with an icepack on his wrist/hand. The IceCaps did not practise Thursday, so there was no immediate word on whether McCarron — who was said by Lefebvre to be dealing with a day-to-day injury — would be available when the IceCaps host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday and Sunday afternoons (both 4 p.m. start times) at Mile One...
[email protected] it was the reaction to Mr Shorten's claim that "Richard Marles will deliver immigration policies that are safe and humane" that underscored just how difficult a fight the Labor leader and Mr Marles will face over refugee policy. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten addresses the ALP national conference. Credit:Andrew Meares Earlier this week, Mr Shorten and Mr Marles announced that Labor in government would adopt the Coalition's policy of turning back asylum seeker boats. That drew fire from Mr Shorten's 2013 leadership rival Anthony Albanese, who said - as first revealed by Fairfax Media - that he had "real concerns about the way that yesterday was conducted in terms of the announcement on asylum seekers". "I think that it is absolutely critical, critical that we always remember our need for compassion and to not appeal to the darker side."
On climate policy, Mr Shorten said climate change "is an economic and environmental cancer and it demands early intervention … if the world's biggest capitalist nation and the world's biggest planned economy can agree climate change is a priority, it's time Australia did, too". Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles (right) with right-wing factional operative David Feeney. Credit:Andrew Meares "Labor will cut pollution with a market solution," he said, setting up a clear contrast between the policies of the opposition and government. He also set Labor a target, by 2025, of having 50 per cent representation of women MPs in Parliament. Anthony Albanese (left) with other Labor frontbenchers at the conference. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
On economic policy, Mr Shorten set out a clear contrast with the government over tax policy, arguing that Labor would require foreign multinationals to pay more tax rather than asking working Australians to pay more GST. He also pledged that, under Labor, the next generation of submarines would be built at home, that Australia would be more inclusive by allowing same-sex marriage and, on a future republic, called for "the next decade [to be] the first decade where our head of state is one of us". This erratic, indulgent government, with their knee high hopes for Australia's future are trying to drag Australia in the wrong direction Australians faced a clear choice between the "habits and fears of the past or the demands and opportunities of the future". "This erratic, indulgent government, with their knee-high hopes for Australia's future are trying to drag Australia in the wrong direction," he said.
"Australians deserve better than a PM who wants to make them afraid of the future. Friends, I know there hasn't been a one-term federal government in Australia for more than 80 years but it's time there was." Follow us on TwitterFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton escaped criminal charges last year, but her legal troubles may not be over — the Arkansas state bar has promised a decision by next month on disciplinary action.
And the State Department continues to probe Mrs. Clinton’s mishandling of classified information, with an eye toward deciding whether she and several top aides should maintain their access to classified information at the State Department.
“The department’s investigation is ongoing,” State officials said in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, which the Iowa Republican released earlier this month.
The department said Mrs. Clinton still has access to documents created or reviewed during her time in office. Meanwhile, some seven aides have access to limited classified information, the department confirmed.
It said their access is also under review.
Mrs. Clinton sent and received thousands of emails with material now deemed classified, including some top-secret, from an account she maintained on a server she kept at her home in New York. The FBI declined to push charges against her, with then-Director James B. Comey saying she was too inept with technology to put national security at risk knowingly.
But the issue continues to dog her, not only at the State Department, but as a lawyer.
Ty Clevenger, a New York lawyer, filed an attorney misconduct complaint last year against Mrs. Clinton in Arkansas, accusing her of dishonest behavior and lying under oath in testimony to Congress.
In an email Wednesday, Michael E. Harmon, deputy director of the state bar’s office of professional conduct, told Mr. Clevenger he’s still working on the matter. “It is my hope to have something to you by the middle of July at the latest,” he wrote.
Mrs. Clinton’s ability to practice law in Arkansas has been suspended for not keeping up continuing education requirements, but it could be reinstated.
Mr. Clevenger is also asking for discipline in other venues against Mrs. Clinton’s lawyers during the email fiasco: David Kendall, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Washington (CNN) Republican lawmakers are ramping up their calls for the Trump administration to act against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the wake of Tuesday's chemical attack that killed dozens.
Many Democrats, too, are pressing for actions like creating a no-fly zone and trying to bring war crimes charges against the Syrian leader.
The calls are coming from many of the same lawmakers in both parties who for years urged President Barack Obama to do more to arm Syrian rebel groups and to strike the Assad regime, and now say that it's Trump's turn to act to remove Assad from power.
"I don't think there is a future with Bashar al-Assad in existence," Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said on CNN's "New Day." "That is something that this administration, frankly, like the last one I think failed to do -- they did in words but not in deeds — this administration is going to have to come to that reality or this problem is sadly only going to continue and get worse."
On Tuesday, the Trump administration blamed Syria's attack on the Obama administration's failure to act against Assad. But at a news conference Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he is now responsible for the situation, and suggested he was considering taking additional action.
"I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me, big impact," Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. "And I have that flexibility. And it's very, very possible, and I will tell you it's already happened that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much."
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley also suggested Wednesday at a UN meeting that the US could be "compelled to take our own action."
The statements earned praise from Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has been critical of the Trump administration's actions in Russia. McCain also defended Trump for blaming the attack on his predecessor.
"Think those were excellent words," McCain said when asked about Trump's statement.
"They did chemical attacks," he continued. "Barack Obama did worse than nothing. He said he was going to do something and then didn't. And that clearly gave Bashar Assad license to kill again."
But the comments from Trump and Haley were a shift from a week ago, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Syrian people would determine Assad's fate.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Tillerson's remarks could have given Assad motivation to launch the latest attack.
"My belief that if you're Bashar al-Assad and you read that it is no longer a priority of the United States to have you removed from power, I believe that that is an incentive to act with impunity," Rubio said at a news conference.
McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina met with Tillerson for an hour at the State Department on Tuesday, and McCain said Tillerson was being misinterpreted.
"He said to me he realizes we've got to take action against these elements that are committing war crimes as we speak," McCain said.
Graham told CNN the Trump administration needs to make clear what its policy is when it comes to Assad.
"I'd be a disaster if it's a policy change, as bad as drawing the red line," Graham said.
Trump's comments even got some begrudging praise from Democrats.
"I'm pleased to see the president come away from the position that he was adopting mere days ago when he was making the point that Assad is a fact on the ground, sort of validating Assad's presence," Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
For many Democrats, Tuesday's chemical attack was the latest evidence that a safe zone is needed in Syria to protect civilians.
"I think we should establish some kind of a safe zone in Syria where this humanitarian aid can be delivered to the Syrian people and with military protection for the safe zones so that, if anybody tries to mess with it, they will regret it," Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said on CNN's "New Day."
Kaine was one of a group of Democrats who were also pushing the Obama administration to take similar action against Assad. But Kaine dismissed Trump's accusations that Obama could be blamed for the chemical attack.
"He's commander in chief. And when something happens and he tries to blame President Obama, give me a break," Kaine said. "And remember, when President Trump was just Donald J. Trump back then, he was urging President Obama not to do anything in Syria."
Not all members of Congress condemned Assad. Speaking on CNN's "At This Hour" with Kate Bolduan, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, told the host that he didn't think the Syrian leader launched the attack, and that further intervention by the US government may aggravate the situation.
"Frankly, I don't think Assad would have done that," Massie said. "It does not serve his interests."New Tom of Finald stamp. (Itella)
For the cost of mailing a letter, you can be the proud owner of a piece of miniature homoerotica.
If you’re in Finland, that is.
That’s because Itella, the Finnish postal service, is releasing commemorative stamps featuring the art of Tom of Finland, or Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991). Laaksonen remains a towering and iconic figure in the gay art scene. His sketches, often explicit, were unapologetic depictions of gay sex and relationships. Laaksonen’s subjects were almost always muscle-bound, handsome figures, often bursting out of their clothes. His work, a meditation on masculinity, was also heavy on leather fetish imagery. It’s a pretty risque sheet of stamps, which will feature 33 different designs based on Laaksonen’s work. They even include a little exposed booty, but nothing hardcore.
“Of course, the choice was discussed, but we wanted to live in the year 2014,” Itella development director Markku Penttinen told the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Laaksonen’s art is part of a number of public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
“The sheet (of stamps) portrays a sensual life force and being proud of oneself,” said graphic designer Timo Berry, who selected the work that will be printed on stamps released this fall. “There is never too much of that in this northern country.”
The announcement of the Tom of Finland stamp follows news that the U.S. Postal Service is honoring gay rights icon Harvey Milk with a postage stamp that will be released on May 22, Harvey Milk Day. Milk, the San Francisco supervisor whose story was the basis for Gus Van Sant’s film “Milk,” was killed by a former city supervisor in 1978. Milk will be the first openly gay person person to grace a U.S. postage stamp, which features Milk’s picture and the LGBT pride flag.
“Linn’s Stamp News” says Washington, D.C., and San Francisco are both possibilities for first-day cities, where a stamp is first released.
h/t BilericoDespite the conclusion by US intelligence that there is no evidence of Russian involvement in the destruction of the Malaysian airliner and all lives onboard, Washington is escalating the crisis and shepherding it toward war.
Twenty-two US senators have introduced into the 113th Congress, Second Session, a bill, S.2277, “To prevent further Russian aggression toward Ukraine and other sovereign states in Europe and Eurasia, and for other purposes.” https://beta.congress.gov/113/bills/s2277/BILLS-113s2277is.pdf The bill is before the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Note that prior to any evidence of any Russian aggression, there are already 22 senators lined up in behalf of preventing further Russian aggression.
Accompanying this preparatory propaganda move to create a framework for war, hot or cold with Russia, NATO commander General Philip Breedlove announced his plan for a deployment of massive military |
and elsewhere.
For many Americans, it was the kind of hard-hitting public interest piece that changes rules and punishes bad actors. To critics, however, ABC’s “pink slime” report became synonymous with media misconduct.
On Thursday, a judge in South Dakota allowed the bulk of the complaints in a defamation lawsuit lodged by Beef Products Inc. against ABC News – including anchor Diane Sawyer – to go forward. The major US media company had asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out.
The lawsuit alleges that ABC slanted its coverage of “pink slime,” costing the company $1.2 billion and 700 jobs. ABC has countered that the meat industry doesn’t get to dictate how people describe its products, and it maintains that its reporting on what the meat industry calls “lean, finely textured beef” (LFTB) was both accurate and fair.
But in her ruling, Judge Cheryle Gering noted that ABC News isn’t protected from liability simply by couching damning reporting with a single sentence about how authorities say the product is safe and nutritious.
In that way, First Amendment experts say, the “pink slime case” could become a test for whether “hedging” a blockbuster story with a throwaway disclaimer is enough to protect reporters from liability if that story hurts a corporation’s bottom line.
More specifically, the case is likely to rest on the factual details of the report – in particular, its contention that “pink slime” is “not meat.” Another factor: the jurisdiction in which a jury might one day hear the case is the cattle ranch country of South Dakota.
“Diane Sawyer is E.F. Hutton,” says Lin Wood, a lawyer and defamation expert in Atlanta. “When she speaks, people listen.... That’s why this one sounds like it’s a little problematic for ABC, especially in this jurisdiction and especially if a company can show impact on its business.”
To be sure, the “pink slime” story raised some legitimate concerns: for one, that US food labeling didn’t require producers to list the ingredient separately. The US Department of Agriculture has now begun requiring more details on meat labels.
LFTB, according to medicinal chemist See Arr Oh, writing in Scientific American, starts with “connective tissue, trimmings, and scraps from industrial butcher plants [that] are mixed in a large steel reactor.” The mixture is then heated and centrifuged to leave a “squishy pink goo.”
The definition of “meat” in the Code of Federal Regulations, Mr. Oh points out, includes everything that is in “pink slime.” “In this light, ‘slime’ doesn’t seem half as bad; as a culture, we’ve implicitly agreed that throat, blood, and tendons are already on the menu,” he writes.
Judge Gering’s ruling on Thursday was procedural and not on the merits of the case, and ABC News has vowed to vigorously defend itself. The ruling means, however, that the beef company’s attorneys can begin the discovery process of how ABC News produced the story.
Beef Products and its attorneys said in December that while ABC News did include a disclaimer, the story also called the product “not meat” and questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s determination it was safe, because some scientists had questioned its use. In that way, Beef Products has argued, the network’s intent was to damage the company, the only one named in the report.
What happens if corporate interests are able to, through the courts, curtail not just how journalists, but also average Americans, use language to hail or decry companies? Even unsuccessful lawsuits against media companies can have a chilling effect on journalists, legal experts say.
“In principle, the law is very protective of the media, but it can also be very expensive to vindicate that principle,” says Michael Dorf, a First Amendment expert at Cornell University Law School in Ithaca, N.Y.
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In a 2006 report from the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment, Mr. Wood said he believes that US judges at some point will begin to roll back at least some of journalism’s defamation protections to create “a much more level playing field for plaintiffs.”
But in an interview with the Monitor on Friday, Wood said the “pink slime” lawsuit, even if it’s won by the beef company, would ultimately not “suggest we’re going to begin to give greater weight to reputation versus First Amendment.”If you look at the record of global temperature data, you will find that the late 20th Century period of global warming actually lasted about 20 years, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Before that, the globe was dominated by about 30 years of global cooling, giving rise in the 1970s to media discussions of the return of the Little Ice Age (circa 1450 to 1850), or worse.
But the record of satellite measurements of global atmospheric temperatures now shows no warming for at least 17 years and 5 months, from September, 1996 to January, 2014, as shown on the accompanying graphic. That is surely 17 years and 6 months now, accounting for February.
If you look at the record of global temperature data, you will find that the late 20th Century period of global warming actually lasted about 20 years, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Before that, the globe was dominated by about 30 years of global cooling, giving rise in the 1970s to media discussions of the return of the Little Ice Age (circa 1450 to 1850), or worse.
But the record of satellite measurements of global atmospheric temperatures now shows no warming for at least 17 years and 5 months, from September, 1996 to January, 2014, as shown on the accompanying graphic. That is surely 17 years and 6 months now, accounting for February.
Britain’s Met Office, an international cheerleading headquarters for global warming hysteria, conceded in December, 2012 that there would be no further warming at least through 2017, which would make 21 years with no global warming. The German Herald reported on March 31, 2013 regarding Russian scientist Dr Habibullo Abdussamatov from the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, “Talking to German media the scientist who first made his prediction in 2005 said that after studying sunspots and their relationship with climate change on Earth, we are now on an ‘unavoidable advance towards a deep temperature drop.’” His colleague Yuri Nagovitsyn is quoted in The Voice of Russia saying, “we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years.” Skepticism over the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is increasingly embraced in China and elsewhere in Asia as well.
It is now 18 years and 2 months but what's a few months between friends. A child who started their schooling in 1996, would be around 23 years of age now. That child was probably taught about catastrophic global warming all through the schooling but in fact there has been NO warming during that period.Ferrara then discusses the solar activity previously addressed in these pages and then continues:Read More HEREThis article is over 6 years old
New year will bring longer hours, continued squeeze on pay, fewer new posts and more job insecurity, warns economist
Workers can expect longer hours, a continued squeeze on pay and fewer jobs being created in a "hard year of slog" in 2013, a report has warned.
Job insecurity will remain high, with workers maintaining a "grin and bear it" attitude, said John Philpott, director of The Jobs Economist.
Unemployment is forecast to increase by 120,000 to 2.63 million in 2013 because growth in the workforce will exceed the number of jobs being created, Philpott said.
Youth unemployment is forecast to fall below 900,000, while long-term unemployment will remain broadly the same, the report said.
Pay deals will continue to be affected by unemployment, with pay increases lagging behind inflation, leading to wage cuts for workers.
Philpott said he expected only limited support from workers in private firms for union opposition to public sector cuts.
"Our jobs outlook for 2013 is relatively optimistic in that we expect only a modest rise in unemployment. However, the fact that this can be considered good news merely underlines the harsh reality of current economic austerity.
"GDP may grow somewhat faster but 2013 will be another year of hard slog, with longer hours for those lucky enough to have jobs and a further squeeze on living standards for workers and the jobless alike.
"Hard-pressed private sector workers are likely to keep their heads down and get on with the job rather than actively stand shoulder to shoulder with striking public sector trade unionists.
"Workplace disgruntlement in the private sector will instead take the form of simmering distrust of bosses, especially those who adopt the trendy management speak mantra of 'employee engagement' while piling the pressure on overstretched staff," he said.
• The number of people in work could reach 30 million before the next general election, a separate report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has predicted.
The study of the labour market said continued growth in employment was likely in 2013.
But the report also warned that excess capacity had built up in some firms as employers held on to skilled and talented staff. This could lead to weaker employment growth even if the economy picks up.Puppy Tao has been upgraded, so this post has moved. It will eventually be unavailable at this location.
Samson wanted to pull and whine and bark, but instead of telling him
not to by making it unpleasant, we taught him that he could look to his
owner as the source of good things.
I recently stumbled across this article: "What makes an aggressive dog, and how you can spot one." It's not the best piece of science journalism, since the substance of the article gives you basically no information about how to "spot" an aggressive dog. However, it does summarize the findings of this study: "Human directed aggression in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris): Occurrence in different contexts and risk factors." Since everything but the abstract of that study is behind a paywall, it's nice to have an article summarize some of the findings.I'm not one to take one study as gospel, particularly a study that's based on surveying dog owners rather than on direct research, but it does confirm a number of things that are found throughout the contemporary literature on dog behavior. The article and study have a number of really interesting things to say about dog aggression that are worth reading about, including aof correlation between breed and aggression, as well as a finding of significantlyaggression in dogs who've been through puppy classes. However, for right now, I want to use it to highlight the relationship between punishment and aggressive behavior.This study, like several before it, found yet another strong correlation between dogs who are trained with aversives and dogs who show aggressive behavior. Contemporary dog trainers push owners to avoid yelling, hitting, leash corrections, e-collars, and other dog training tools that involve pain, discomfort, or intimidation, not just because we love dogs and those things aren't nice. We also push people to avoid those things because we see the very real consequences when dogs sometimes become reactive and aggressive. There are many causes of aggression in dogs, and obviously not all dogs trained with aversive tools become aggressive, but there is abundant research demonstrating an increased risk of aggression when dogs are trained with intimidation, discomfort, or pain.I can't tell you how often I have to encourage a client not to yank up on the leash and yell "no" when their dog stares at another dog and then barks. They want him to stop it—and fair enough, he ought to—so they punish him for it by using a stern voice (intimidation) and a tug on the collar (an unpleasant sensation). However, while some dogs might learn to stop the behavior when subjected to leash and voice corrections, the handler isn't really addressing the fact that the dog is nervous, energized, or possibly even afraid when he's barking. In fact, more often than not, the behavior actually becomes worse, because the dog is barking out of a kind of anxiety, and the owner is showing the dog he is absolutely right to be anxious. After all, if you're anxious already, wouldn't it make youanxious if somebody yanked on your neck and yelled at you?Instead, we work on building a relationship where you learn to catch the dog when he looks back up at you, and you reward him. He begins to learn that if he gets nervous, he can look at you, and you'll do something calm and nice. You work to create a positive feedback loop so your dog learns that you are a source of safety and trustworthiness. Over time, through repetition and reinforcement, this becomes a habit that runs deep enough to overcome nearly any situation.As trainers, we have to get out of the habit of doing things that are uncomfortable, intimidating, or even painful to dogs. I've said before that it's not sporting to punish a dog in that manner for misbehaving when it's often a lack of understanding of context that makes the dog misbehave, but it goes beyond the fact that it's not fair. It's also counterproductive and even dangerous, and it stands to reason that the more you rely on intimidation and discomfort, the more you run the risk of creating fear, aggression, and other truly serious problems.So while it might seem to make sense to be "old school" and use collar corrections, prongs, chokes, e-collars, and rolled up newspapers to punish behaviors you don't like, the more research that's done, the more we learn how counterproductive or even dangerous those tools are. Modern trainers don't just recommend dog-friendly training because we're froofy hippies who think dogs are people. In fact, many of us used those more old-fashioned methods back when they were the best tools we knew of at the time.But we know better now, and we have methods available to us that are kinder and carry lower risks of side effects like aggression or a reduced trust. This study is just one in a long line that confirms that intimidating a dog or using discomfort to shape behavior can double—yes,in this study—a dog's chances of showing aggressive behavior towards strangers, anda dog's chances of showing aggressive behavior towards a family member. This study does notthat these punishmentsaggression, but they underscore the concern in a growing body of scientific literature that dogs who are punished in this fashion are more likely to develop reactive and aggressive behaviors than dogs who are trained through more progressive, dog-friendly means.Marjorie Schenkels had unprotected sex three times with a friend, while they both had been drinking, as she was going through a difficult and volatile time in her life.
The Manitoba woman was also living with HIV — a diagnosis she had told only her mother about — and feared she would lose her friends if they, including the man she was having sex with, found out.
She also did not tell the man she had sex with those three times, and he also later tested positive for HIV, although the question of where he contracted it is a matter of contention.
The over-criminalization of HIV non-disclosure discourages many individuals from being tested and seeking treatment. - Jody Wilson-Raybould
A jury convicted Schenkels of aggravated sexual assault in December 2014.
She did not lie, or manipulate or exploit, the sentencing judge from the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba wrote in the Mar. 1 decision that includes the details of her story.
"Rather, her silence was the result of fear and inability to accept the gravity of her situation," the judge wrote as she sentenced Schenkels, who is now also a registered sex offender, to two years in prison less a day.
Schenkels is appealing her conviction, with arguments being heard Jan. 10.
There is no particular provision in the Criminal Code regarding the disclosure of HIV status, but there are certain circumstances in which failing to do so is a crime.
That can include having consensual sex — something the Liberal government is now open to changing.
"The over-criminalization of HIV non-disclosure discourages many individuals from being tested and seeking treatment, and further stigmatizes those living with HIV or AIDS," Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said in a statement published online Dec. 1, which was World AIDS Day.
"Just as treatment has progressed, the criminal justice system must adapt to better reflect the current scientific evidence on the realities of this disease," she wrote.
The statement said Wilson-Raybould would be taking a closer look at how the criminal justice system deals with non-disclosure of HIV status, which could include reviewing current practices on laying charges and going ahead with prosecutions, as well as developing prosecutorial guidelines.
I recognize that it's difficult, but I think it's important to draw some lines into when the criminal law is actually warranted and not warranted. - Cecile Kazatchkine
The justice department did not make anyone available for an interview, but spokesman Ian McLeod said in an email that preliminary discussions are underway.
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the consent someone gives to engaging in sexual activity can be considered null and void if the accused person failed to disclose, or lied about, his or her HIV status.
The Crown must also prove the person would not have consented to sex if he or she had been aware of the HIV status.
That can lead to a charge of aggravated sexual assault — the most commonly applied, although there have been others — so long as the sexual contact has either transmitted the virus to the complainant, or put them at significant risk of contracting it.
The high court clarified in 2012 that this would not apply if someone is using a condom and also has a "low viral load," but advocates argue the law has fallen far behind the science and creates more problems than it attempts to solve.
The fact that HIV non-disclosure falls under aggravated sexual assault or other offences makes statistics harder to come by than they are for other crimes, but the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has counted at least 180 people charged for offences related to HIV non-disclosure in Canada since 1989.
This relatively high number of prosecutions — and the fact that the issue is criminalized at all — has brought Canada under scrutiny on the world stage.
The only time you see HIV, practically, is when someone's picture is on the paper, being charged... with aggravated sexual assault. - Cynthia Fromstein
In July, Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court of South Africa shamed Canada — alongside Zimbabwe — for its approach to the issue in his keynote address at the International AIDS Conference in Durban.
"I ask all Canadians to share the blame — not just us in Africa," he said to resounding applause.
Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott was in the room.
The changes the Liberal government ends up proposing will likely face some opposition over the ethical challenges surrounding the issues of disclosure in intimate relationships.
"I recognize that it's difficult, but I think it's important to draw some lines into when the criminal law is actually warranted and not warranted," said Cecile Kazatchkine, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has recommended prosecuting only those people who knowingly and intentionally transmit the virus to their partners, rather than simply not disclosing it, which some advocates say is not always possible, such as in abusive relationships.
Cynthia Fromstein, a Toronto-based defence lawyer who has represented clients facing HIV disclosure-related charges, said there is still "enormous" ignorance and fear surrounding HIV, which is only made worse by the current laws.
"The only time you see HIV, practically, is when someone's picture is on the paper, being charged... with aggravated sexual assault," said Fromstein.Is it possible we are, collectively, overreacting to the rash of shootings in the final weeks of 2014?
Put another way, could this be four or five idiots with rusty guns and terrible aim, as opposed to an all-out war between street gangs over money, drugs and turf?
“The short answer is yes,” says Acting Staff Sgt. Ken Bryden of the Ottawa police guns and gangs unit, though he would estimate the total number of shooters as, not four or five, but likely between 10 and 20.
“We’re not experiencing a gang war by any stretch of the imagination.”
This might help explain, too, why Chief Charles Bordeleau is not clanging the town bell or calling for the cavalry. He made clear to police reporter Shaamini Yogaretnam in a Monday interview that the gang flare-up can be internally managed and does not require extraordinary measures, such as pleading for more funding.
The shorthand: No need to address city council, don’t go startin’ no inquisition, just move along people, take a pill if need be.
Guns and bullets make for one of those panic, please-don’t-panic situations and the language and “record” numbers being referenced are part of the dilemma with so-called “framing” a public policy discussion.
We keep using 49 as a high point in the total number of fired-gun incidents last year. True, but this includes every shooting, including those not gang-related, like the National War Memorial tragedy.
Gangs, however, accounted for about 85 per cent of the total. So, obviously that’s a worry and when it hits a shopping mall, the needle is getting close to freakout red.
(In 2013, there were 30 shootings and in 2012 about 35.)
But the number of gang members is not dramatically up, nor the number of gangs, nor does there appear to be an all-out turf dispute. Not to be underestimated, either, is the amount of “stupid stuff” that amounts to motive. This is a common theme in gang life.
Samples, from a U.S. police chief conference:
“We have a bunch of disjointed neighbourhood gangs or affiliations — usually first generation kids — who practically shoot each other on sight. A lot of violent crime in Philadelphia is due to stupid disputes that happen out on the street” — Philadelphia police commissioner.
“And we have a lot of people affiliated with local crews and gangs who shoot each other because of what somebody said about them … basically crews that behave rather immaturely” — Wisconsin police chief.
“A lot of the fighting is about drugs, girls, and territory. But the majority of the violence involves young people, a lot of males between 14 and 18. They’re not structured and they have no allegiance” — Chicago police commander.
Staff Sgt. Bryden was asked whether “stupid stuff” accounts for some of Ottawa’s spike in numbers in 2014.
“Yes,” he said. “We have incidents we’re investigating now and it looks like the motivation is over a girl.”
Oddly, showing “disrespect” in the gang world can be a major slight that, for fear of appearing weak, cannot be ignored by a rival. So, a retaliatory message might be sent, but with a bullet — but only when an easy opportunity presents.
Back to numbers.
A survey in 2002 found Ottawa had 15 gangs and about 250 members. In 2012, the number of gangs was 15 to 19, with the total number at 485, but about two-thirds of those were considered “associates.”
Even the word “gang” is probably causing confusion. The police have a criteria, but the gang can have as few as three members. They can also be loosely affiliated, leading to phrases like “hybrid” gangs or even “disorganized” gangs. Some of the gangs are even based in other cities.
“I hate using numbers,” says Staff Sgt. Bryden. And little wonder. This is not the Kiwanis Club, with a paid-up membership list. Gang today, gone tomorrow.
And this internal gang code — you diss me, I shoot you — obviously makes things more unpredictable in terms of so-called suppression. All the gathered intelligence, all the confidential informants in the world, won’t alert police to the moment a gangbanger feels dishonoured and needs to lash out.
Staff Sgt. Bryden would not be the least bit surprised to see the 49 number drop into the more “normal” 30 range this year.
“I’m not pushing any kind of buttons, either. We’ve got the right people in here. We just had too much of it going on, right now.”
You only hope he’s right. 2015 has rung in fairly quietly. Silence is holdin’.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email [email protected]
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumnPresident Trump wants to make America's roads, bridges and tunnels great again. But the Trump administration's $1 trillion infrastructure plan could be wasted if it ignores the predicted effects of climate change.
Extreme heat could cause pipes to crack, or melt asphalt. Airports below sea level could be flooded. Communities could relocate because of drought or heat, putting pressure on transportation systems and reducing the relevancy of others. Extreme weather could cause flooding of inland roads, and storm surges could flood highways on the coasts.
"Infrastructure has largely been designed for historical weather and climate conditions," Mikhail Chester, assistant professor of civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering at Arizona State University, explains.
So far the models have served us well. But the potential impacts of climate change could make those systems less reliable down the road.
Climate scientists predict more bouts of extreme weather and larger swings in temperature, "which upends how we have to think about designing," Chester added.
Related: Trump move to roll back climate rules won't bring back coal or mining jobs
The most recent National Climate Assessment, a federally funded study published in 2014, details how global warming is likely to affect the United States' infrastructure across the country: Many roads, bridges and tunnels will be pushed to the breaking point.
In some cases, the infrastructure failures predicted by climate models have already happened. For example, New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority estimates that Hurricane Sandy, which flooded the New York City subway system, caused $4.75 billion in infrastructure damage.
There's some debate over whether the hurricane itself was caused by climate change -- but scientists agree that we can expect to see weather events like Sandy more frequently as a result of global warming. That makes it harder to file away the damage done by Sandy as a singular occurrence.
Related: Coal country's message to Trump: We want jobs of the future
Trump has not offered specifics on his infrastructure plans, but he has made it clear that he will not continue President Obama's efforts to combat and mitigate the effects of climate change. The president recently rescinded a number of Obama's actions on climate change, including the 2013 Climate Action Plan -- which featured an effort to prepare infrastructure for global warming.
But disregarding climate change would make it harder for engineers to do their jobs.
As U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lead for Climate Preparedness and Resilience Kate White puts it, "we design this infrastructure... to operate as reliably as possible under the foreseeable future conditions."
Without taking the challenges posed by climate change into account, she says, "we could be at risk for failure to perform the services."
Michael Meyer, senior adviser with engineering and design firm WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, added that as we upgrade existing infrastructure and plan new bridges, roads and tunnels, "we need to be very aware of what the future climatic conditions will be, and incorporate them into the design."
"It really is all about resiliency," he says, adding that engineers need to be prepared both for short-term and long-term impacts of climate change -- like rising sea levels, which should inform the way a bridge should be designed to last a century.
Meyer says that over the past few years, a lot of research has been done on how to incorporate climate change preparedness into infrastructure engineering.
"I think it's incumbent upon us to take things like the National Climate Assessment into consideration," he says. He hopes the current administration would agree.
It's Climate Change Week at CNN MoneyStream. For more stories about how global warming is impacting business, follow the Climate Change stream in the CNN MoneyStream app.Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in Copenhagen on Saturday said she feared for Europe’s unity and urged neighbouring countries to shore up their frontiers in the face of the crisis.
Solberg pointed out that the Schengen zone of countries that guarantee borderlesss travel were most at threat and that divisions on how to best stem the flow were tearing at the fabric of European unity.
“The challenge for the Nordic region is not an internal one, but the fact that Schengen’s outer borders have broken down,” Solberg warned.
“We must now make sure that the outer borders work,” she added as Europe struggles to cope with its worst refugee crisis since World War II.
Schengen, which permits citizens of 26 states including non-EU member Norway to travel without passport formalities, is creaking under the strain of an unending flood of new arrivals with Germany, Austria and Slovakia reimposing border checks.
The flow is in defiance of the Dublin Regulation which identifies the Member State responsible for the examination of an asylum claim in the EU.
The regulation is intended to avoid asylum seekers travelling from one country to another or being able to abuse the system by the submission of several applications. The country in which the migrant first applies for asylum is responsible for either accepting or rejecting the claim and the seeker may not restart the process in another jurisdiction.
Germany’s actions guaranteeing Syrians immediate settlement encouraged migrants to cross Europe after landing in Italy and Greece before initiating asylum applications.
As Breitbart London has reported, Hungary has erected fences along its borders with Serbia as a result with promises to use military force to stop the country being used as a migrant freeway for people moving from their Mediterranean entry points to Germany and beyond.
Solberg, whose Conservative Party is in a ruling coalition with the anti-immigration Progress Party, echoed concerns over Schengen expressed by French President Francois Hollande on Thursday.
Speaking to AFP, Hollande said Schengen was “in danger” due to the absence of registration centres to distinguish between refugees and economic migrants as EU states seek to share out some 120,000 asylum seekers, most fleeing the war in Syria but now including economic migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan amongst their number.By By Kesavan Unnikrishnan Jan 22, 2017 in Technology Iceland is digging world’s deepest geothermal borehole into the heart of a volcano at a depth of 3.10 miles (5 km) to tap renewable energy. The extreme pressure and heat at such depths could derive 30 to 50 MW of electricity from one geothermal well. A typical 2.5 km-deep geothermal well in Iceland yields power equivalent to approximately 5 MW. Scientists expect a ten-fold increase in power output per well by digging further deep into earth's crust. At a depth of 5 km, the extreme pressure and heat of over 500 degrees Celsius will create ‘supercritical steam’ substantially increasing the turbine efficiency. READ MORE: CHECK OUT OUR TOP STORY ABOUT A joint attempt by Statoil and The Iceland Deep Drilling Project(IDDP), world's hottest geothermal well, is currently being drilled on the Reykjanes peninsula, where a There is no guarantee that things continue to go smoothly, as at such depths much can still go wrong quickly. All this can take a sudden end, because for some reason you can not drill deeper. We don’t expect to drill into magma, but we are drilling into hot rock. And by hot rock, we mean 400 to 500C. Over the next several years the Iceland is a world leader in the the use of geothermal energy and produces approximately 26 percent of its electricity from geothermal sources. The installed generation capacity of geothermal power plants totaled 665 MW in 2013 and the production was 5.245 GWh.A typical 2.5 km-deep geothermal well in Iceland yields power equivalent to approximately 5 MW. Scientists expect a ten-fold increase in power output per well by digging further deep into earth's crust. At a depth of 5 km, the extreme pressure and heat of over 500 degrees Celsius will create ‘supercritical steam’ substantially increasing the turbine efficiency.READ MORE: CHECK OUT OUR TOP STORY ABOUT RENEWABLE ENERGY A joint attempt by Statoil and The Iceland Deep Drilling Project(IDDP), world's hottest geothermal well, is currently being drilled on the Reykjanes peninsula, where a volcano last erupted 700 years ago. The drilling, which began in August last year, has already reached a depth of 2.9 miles(4.6kms). A similar attempt six years ago ended in disaster, with the drilling team hitting magma at a depth of 1.3 miles(2.1 kms), destroying the drill string. Ásgeir Margeirsson, CEO of project partner HS Orka said Over the next several years the IDDP plans to drill and test a series of boreholes that will penetrate supercritical zones believed to be present beneath three currently exploited geothermal fields in Iceland. More about Iceland, geothermal energy, Borehole Iceland geothermal energy BoreholeFile (Photo: Getty Images)
On the Fourth of July, our nation comes together to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy, freedoms our service members, veterans and their families have made possible through their sacrifices.
Just as these Americans responded to the call to defend our liberties, our nation must respond to our call to duty: ensuring veterans and their families have a successful transition from service to community.
Together, one nation with one common goal, we must serve those who have served us.
As more than 2.6 million service members transition home from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and duty around the globe, it will take the country working together to put in place the services and support our veterans and their families have so honorably earned and so richly deserve.
Only more robust partnerships among organizations from across all sectors — community institutions, corporations, nonprofits, government and philanthropy — can accomplish this goal.
Building on strategic partnerships, more than 30 philanthropic organizations have taken the Philanthropy-Joining Forces Impact Pledge. First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden helped launch the initiative last year, along with its leaders — the Blue Shield of California Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Lincoln Community Foundation and Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This unprecedented collaboration between the charitable sector and government has already raised philanthropic commitments of more than $276 million. In the interest of establishing best practices, all those who have pledged are actively sharing information, research, results and lessons learned.
This collaboration is already producing results. In 2013, there were 722,000 unemployed veterans in the labor force. In 2014, that number dropped to about 573,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported around 507,000 veterans still unemployed across the United States. So, while partnerships between government and the private sector have contributed greatly to the downward trend, there is more work to be done.
This summer, the Department of Veterans Affairs, in partnership with the Red Cross and Coursera, is launching learning hubs in 27 cities across the country to help veterans develop new skills that open pathways to new careers. Veterans Affairs has also partnered with LinkedIn to add LinkedIn's robust job search services to the toolkit the VA provides to veterans as they matriculate through the Transition Assistance Program.
Public-private partnerships are also addressing another major challenge — veteran homelessness. Ending homelessness among veterans may seem like an impossible goal, but we have already witnessed meaningful progress in cities like Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Houston and New Orleans. Thanks to innovative partnerships among the Department of Veterans Affairs, government partners, philanthropy and community leadership, these cities have announced their end to chronic veteran homelessness. The National League of Cities has taken the lead in bringing together government and philanthropic organizations in a coordinated, nationwide effort that has already earned the support of 460 mayors, seven governors, and 137 county and city officials.
These are just a few examples of what partnerships can accomplish for veterans.
We can also do more.
To build on these efforts, VA is engaged in its nationwide Summer of Service, committing to growing its partnerships by enlisting the support of individuals and organizations in communities across the country who want to help VA give back to those who have given so much to our nation. And VA is working closely with the Council on Foundations and its network of philanthropic partners to identify even more ways to support our nation's commitment to veterans and their families through volunteerism and community engagement.
Americans observe the Fourth of July as a day of celebration. We should also recognize the Fourth as a call to action on behalf of our veterans and their families — to give our veterans service and support that is commensurate with what they have given all of us.
Please, join us.
Serve those who have served.
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Photo: MLS Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Image 2 of 35 The entry to the main entertainment level The entry to the main entertainment level Photo: MLS Image 3 of 35 18-foot ceilings 18-foot ceilings Photo: MLS Image 4 of 35 Open entertaining space Open entertaining space Photo: MLS Image 5 of 35 Image 6 of 35 Another view of the open floor plan Another view of the open floor plan Photo: MLS Image 7 of 35 The dining area The dining area Photo: MLS Image 8 of 35 The living and dining spaces The living and dining spaces Photo: MLS Image 9 of 35 A gas fireplace, one of two |
weapons related
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Q: If you know, what was it that these Turkish entities wanted from this Congresswoman?
A: I know for sure that Armenian genocide was one, but also where she came from, that city or the district where she came from is where certain Turkish operatives, lobby groups run illegal businesses for fund raising for themselves to generate money, and for laundering that money they needed her influence in that district where she is from and also her husband because he husband was also involved, had some high level position, not an elected person, with where she came from, and they had another Representative who was making it possible, but supposedly she at that point was kind of -- was an obstacle. That’s all I know.
Q: In your experience, I mean, was this hooking technique used with other members
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A: Well, when I worked for the FBI, I work on operations that were not only current, but specific period of 1996 till 2000, 2001, December, 2003 January. So there were a lot of things that certain field office had provided me to go over, and some of that I didn’t complete, but one example would be with regard to Mr. Hastert. For example, he used the townhouse that was not his residence for certain not very morally accepted activities.
Now, whether that was being used as blackmail I don’t know, but the fact that foreign entities knew about this, in fact, they sometimes participated in some of those not maybe morally well activities in that particular townhouse that was supposed to be an office, not a house, residence at certain hours, certain days, evenings of the week.
So I can’t say if that was used as blackmail or not, but certain activities they would share. They were known.
page 76
Q: With respect to the Congresswoman who they were -- you don’t know what happened ultimately because you left, right?
A: Correct.
Q: Or you were terminated.
A: Correct.
Q: But with respect to that Congresswoman you said one of the things that they wanted was you said Armenian genocide. I assume you were referring to the fact they wanted her support --
A: Yes.
Q: -- to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution.
A: Yes, and she was not leaning that way during that stage, until this hooking start.
Q: And does it surprise you that they would go to those lengths to gain her opposition to such a resolution?
A: Not at all.
Q: Why not?
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A: I don’t know what their reason is, but they are going to this extent. I mean, they may have -- I can only guess what their reasons are, but I think they would do anything. It’s a very important issue, and whether it’s money, whether sexual blackmail, anything they would do to not let this happen or get the support so it wouldn’t happen.
Q: Are you aware of -- other than the people that we’ve talked about, and I want to come back to Roy Blunt in a minute, but aside from the people we’ve talked about, are you aware of other current sitting members of Congress who you believe have been given money by the Turkish lobby, Turkish government to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution?
MR. FEIN: Objection. Speculation.
MR. MARINO: You can answer.
THE WITNESS: The pictures are there, and I just talked about that Congressional woman with the question mark
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BY MR. MARINO:
Q: Just before I leave this subject, in your -- when we talk about the Armenian genocide, can you describe what your understanding of that is?
A: In terms of historically?
Q: Historically what it is.
A: It’s the genocide that the -- that was committed in Turkey against Armenians, and there -- I have read certain documents, historical documents in the past because this issue I have been aware of for a long time. Everybody in Turkey, they kind of know but they can’t admit they know, and it’s basically what was available in Turkey was very limited. So my knowledge would be just very, very limited knowledge of what occurred.
Q: All right. So just based upon,
page 79
A: In Turkey?
Q: Yeah.
A: In Turkey, no. I mean, in Turkey nobody can even say they think about it.
Q: What about elsewhere?
A: In other countries like --
Q: Outside of Turkey.
A: -- outside Turkey?
Q: Yeah.
A: Yes. AT least in the circles that I’ve been it is seen as something that is -- that is accepted and that is known as one of those historical events that have taken place.
Q: Like the Holocaust in World War II, something that people generally regard --
A: Correct.
Q: -- as something that happened.
Are you aware of anyone and
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A: Throughout the years, because I used to be on the E-mail list of certain student associations that have international students, so I would get from the Turkish parts of those communities E-mails from this professor or that from Turkey visiting to give that lecture, but I don’t even remember their names of those people.
Is that the question? Did that answer the question?
Q: Well, I gather from what you are saying, that you would get E-mails possibly from Turkish organizations --
A: I did.
Q: -- people where they would dispute that the Armenian genocide took place.
A: Absolutely.
Q: Okay. Outside of that group, that cultural group, if you will, are you aware of other objective scholars who dispute that the
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A: I’m not.
Q: Why is Roy Blunt in your gallery?
A: One of the individuals who was the recipient of both legally and illegally raised donations, campaign donations from foreign entities.
Q: And what foreign entities?
A: The ones that I’m aware of, Turkish entities. It’s just like a network because those people, they worked together, and I don’t have expertise in PAC, but a lot of -- there are so many ways that these PAC things can be not very legally distributed from one person’s, let’s say, Mr. Hastert’s campaign to that individual or let’s say it’s a foreign registered lobbyist, like Livingston can get foreign money, but then clean it and then give it to him. It’s just so many ways. It’s a very complicated maze-like network on how they get this money cleared and into people, into people’s pocket and also their
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Q: Are you familiar with some of those PACs?
A: No, not really.
Q: Have you ever heard of the Turkish Coalition, USA PAC?
A: Yeah.
Q: So, I mean, you’re aware that the PACs exist, but you wouldn’t be able to identify any of them?
A: Correct, not by names, correct.
Q: Now, are you -- has it come to your attention that some members of Congress once they’ve left Congress like Dennis Hastert engaged in lobbying for the Turkish government?
A: Dennis Hastert is known publicly. Stephen Solarz is known publicly. He used to be a Congressman, and then he became lobbyist as soon as he left both for Israel and Turkey. Bob Livingston, he within a year after he left Congress, he became lobbyist for the
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But then there are people who work for these lobbying firms who are not the top, but they have received their share while they were working, whether they are in Pentagon. One person was Defense Intelligence Agency person, Dana Bauer, and now she works for Bob Livingston, but this individual, Ms. Bauer, did a lot of favors and illegal favors to -- for government of Turkey and others, and then was hired by Livingston and put on a big salary to represent Turkish government.
So it’s not only top tier of the lobbying firm, but then the people who work for them later and the various layers of those people.
Q: How about Richard Gephardt? You know, who he is, right?
A: Yes, I do.
Q: And do you have any information about whether or not he took money from
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A: No, I just have (unintelligible) information based on what I read that he joined the lobby firm for -- that represents Turkey, the lobby that Mr. Hastert got hired, but I don’t have any information.
Q: For the firm called DLA Piper?
A: Yes.
Q: Law firm. Are you aware of them lobbying for the Turkish government?
A: Yes.
Q: Let me give you a hypothetical and just get your understanding of what might be going on because it’s particularly relevant to our case.
You have a hypothetical Congresswoman from State X. Her district has no Turkish population to speak of or Armenian population to speak of. She’s the largest recipient of Turkish PAC money in the 2008 election cycle. All right?
She meets with Livingston and
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What’s your sense? What does it tell you is going on there in --
MR. FEIN: Object. There’s no showing at all that she’s got any expertise. It’s speculation here. He’s asking purely for an opinion. It’s totally irrelevant and objectionable.
THE WITNESS: Based on several that I personally know about in terms of how they conduct and how they behave, those elected officials who are serving the foreign government’s interest, I would say that’s modus operandi that you describe. It’s a
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BY MR. MARINO:
Q: And your view, based on what you know, would it be a reasonable statement to say that that Congresswoman is taking money from Turkish interest in part for denying the existence of the Armenian genocide?
MR. FEIN: Objection. Pure speculation?
THE WITNESS: Say based on my knowledge, my experience, and what I know, that money -- those Turkish entities’ lobby organization will not give a penny to anyone unless they have a prior pact with that person. This is what you’re going to do for
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BY MR. MARINO:
Q: On your blog, one of the things that you say, you’re referring to your lawsuit, I think, but you say, “My case also involves espionage activities by several high level U.S. officials both elected and appointed.”
Have we already talked about for the most part what you were referring to there?
A: Some of it.
Q: What have we not talked about that you’re referring to in that portion of your blog?
MR. KOHN: Do you want to discuss it off the record?
THE WITNESS: Sure.
MR. MARINO: Do you want to take a break off the record?
(Whereupon, the foregoing matter
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MR. MARINO: We had a pending question and during the break discussed it with counsel, and we agreed to withdraw that question basically because it was too broad and so forth, and it’s probably not necessary.
BY MR. MARINO:
Q: Let me ask you a different question, Ms. Edmonds. I understand that you executed an affidavit or a declaration actually in this case on August 5, 2009. I’m happy to show it to you. I’ve only got one copy, but I’m happy to show it to you if you’d like to see, but I just have some questions about some of the things you said in the declaration.
In Paragraph 3 of your declaration, you say, “I also obtained evidence that the government of Turkey had engaged in practices and policies that were
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Do you recall saying that in your declaration?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you tell me what practices and policies that you were referring to that were inimical to American interests?
A: There’s several. One is practices and operations implemented from mid-1990s at least until towards end of 2001 in Central Asia and Caucasus, and these operations and practices included Islamization of certain segments of those Turkic nations, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan. There are so many of them in that -- in that area, and setting up madrasahs and bringing in, helping bringing -- at the time they were not referred to as al-Qaeda until 2001, September 11th. They were referred to as mujahideens from Afghanistan and Pakistan into Central Asia,
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And also -- and it’s very broad I can go on for a long time about what practices and why they were -- they were against the security and the interests of the Americans and the lives.
Q: Okay. Well, I don’t want to burden you too much, but I would like as complete an answer as you can give us in terms of what you were referring to.
A: Those operations when until -- at least until September 2001, and again, for those operations, they corroborated and worked with certain U.S. persons who were involved in these operations.
The other, the obtaining, illegally obtaining and selling U.S. military and military technology and that includes weapons and nuclears, and even from foreign policy related secret or high -- top secret
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Q: Well, that was going to be my next question, is how do you connect what the Turkish government was doing to the direct and indirect loss of American lives.
A: One example of this would be with Brewster Jennings, for example, just selling that information and giving that information out in the hands of those foreign entities, including Pakistan. One of the things that the CIA was asked for right away, to do damage assessment, and one of the things that came out of it was the damage assessment included
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And the third one that I started talking about were helping these individuals from Azerbaijan, the Turkey entities that served the mujahideen groups starting from 1995, 1996. They were given Turkish passports. In some cases they were given Azerbaijani passports, and they -- Turkey played a very active and important role in taking these people and moving them into Europe and some of those people actually ended up in the United States.
Q: And I think you indicated earlier that the Turkish government to your knowledge was provided support to what was once called
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A: Correct.
Q: It’s now called al-Qaeda.
A: Right.
Q: And has it generally been publicly reported that al-Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks?
A: Correct.
Q: And that cost American lives?
A: Correct.
Q: How else has, to your knowledge, the mujahideen or al-Qaeda that Turkey was supporting cost American lives?
A: September 11 and the other category I talked about was the intelligence and identifying assets or the front companies. The third category that involved narcotics activities and that was, at least until I left, these Turkish people, and some of them are directly connected to Turkish intelligence and Turkish military in the United States, they played a very significant role in
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Q: All right. So if I were to say that -- if I were a Congress person and I’m taking money from the Turkish government either directly or indirectly, would it be a fair statement that I’m taking money from a government that has engaged in policies and practices that cost American lives?
A: Correct.
Q: Are you familiar with a personnamed Fetullah Gulan, G-u-l-a-n?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you tell us who that is?
A: My information is mainly about his activities and issues that were, again, done from late 1990s until I left, and then after that it will be known activities here in the United States. He shortly -- he was the
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And when he was wanted in Turkey for that and he was going to go to jail, he actually got on the plane and came to the United States, and he was given immediately visa to stay in the United States, and he has been in the United States until now as far as I know.
He has since established more than 300 madrasahs in Central Asia and what he calls universities that have a front that is called Moderate Islam, but he is closely involved in training mujahideen-like militia Islam who are brought from Pakistan and Afghanistan into Central Asia where his madrasahs operate, and his organization’s network is estimated to be around $25
page 96
He has opened several Islamic universities in the United States. As I said it’s being promoted under Moderate Islam. It is supported by certain U.S. authorities here because of the operations in Central Asia, but what they have been doing since late 1990s is actually radical Islam and militizing (phonetic) these very, very young, from the age 14, 15, by commandoes they use, and this is both commandoes from Turkish military, commandoes from Pakistani ISI in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and after that they bring them to Turkey, and from Turkey they send them through Europe, to European and elsewhere.
Up until 1999, the Turkish government, also paramilitary units in Central Asia, they operated under the groups that call themselves Gray Wolves, ultra-nationalists, and their method was, you know, assassination of certain leaders in the Central Asian countries, and militizing, but not through
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But after this scandal that took place in Turkey, Susurluk scandal, they were no longer supported by certain segments in the United States, and instead some of our people involved in foreign policy, they supported the Islamic movements of Gulan in the Central Asian countries in order to counter Russia as far as the energy sources are concerned in those countries.
Q: How is it, if you know, or how is it that Gulan is allowed to be in the United States?
Let me ask a different question.
A: Okay.
Q: I’m sorry. Is that an individual based on what you’ve told me that you would be -- that you would consider a threat to U.S. interests?
A: One hundred percent, absolutely.
Q: And if you know, how is it that he’s allowed to be in the United States?
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A: Because part of what he has in terms of the deal with certain segments in the United States is furthering the interests of the people who are interested in the energy sources in Central Asia, and that is the -- whether it’s oil or whether it’s natural gas, and basically it’s a fight.
The best way to describe it is Cold War is not over. It’s a continuation of Cold War over those nations, and what we did in Afghanistan in early 1980s with mujahideen, we have been joined now in Central Asia by using Islam and extremism and these madrasahs, and Pakistani and Afghani elements to build (unintelligible) and staff in terms of those resources towards certain business interests.
Q: Did you say that Gulan had set up schools in the United States as well?
A: Yes.
Q: Are some of those in Cincinnati, if you know?
A: I’m not sure. I know of some in
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Q: I assume that - -well, let me just ask you, and I’m not trying to put you on the spot. If you can’t answer, just tell me.
Would you be prepared to tell me who the Congresswoman is that we’ve been talking about?
A: I would have, and it wouldn’t be because of classification I don’t believe. I -- if in case this congressional person did not bend under the pressure in case. I just don’t want somebody, innocent person’s reputation destroyed because I don’t know if this person complied with whatever she happened to be blackmailed later. I think I --
Q: All right. That’s fair enough. I take it then from what you’ve told me that the
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A: Yes.
Q: And what you’ve told me today about those people is not based on speculation.
A: No.
MR. MARINO: Can you just give me one moment please?
(Pause in proceedings.)
BY MR. MARINO:
Q: Are you familiar with reports that the Turkish nationals were being supported or acting as suicide bombers against U.S. troops overseas?
A: Not directly.
Q: Any doubt in your mind that the Turkish government has caused American lives?
A: No.
Q: Caused a loss of American lives?
A: No. And not only American lives.
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Q: Any question in your mind based on everything that you’ve experienced that the Turkish government has infiltrated members of Congress to get their support against or their opposition to the Armenian genocide resolution?
A: None whatsoever.
Q: I’ve asked you about members of Congress, but I haven’t asked you about staff. Are you aware of senior staff for members of Congress who have also been corrupted by the Turkish government?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Can you identify them?
A: The pictures are there.
Q: Who is Larry Franklin?
A: He was an analyst working for Pentagon who was indicted on charges of espionage and passing information to, I
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MR. MARINO: Okay. Well, I think that’s all I have. I think others may have some questions for you, but I do want to thank you again for your patience and for coming today..
MR. FEIN: I have many questions, but I don’t know whether you want to take a break yet. I suspect the questions may be at least an hour or two hours. So you need to estimate whether you want to break now or whatever you want to do or whatever counsel wants to do as well.
MR. MARINO: Yeah, we’ll take a lunch break.
MR. FEIN: Do you want to take a break?
THE WITNESS: How long for?
MR. FEIN: You decide. I’ll accommodate whatever you want, and I can talk
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MR. MARINO: Well, I think personally I always ask the witness how much time she wants, and then I ask the court reporters because they’re captives here. So I always try to -- yeah, why don’t we go off the record?
(Whereupon, at 12:45 p.m., the deposition was recessed for lunch, to reconvene at 1:30 p.m., the same day.)
page 104
AFTERNOON SESSION
(1:31 p.m.)
SIBEL DENIZ EDMONDS
THE WITNESS: Before we start, I need to go on the record with one question about whether I had provided a deposition. In the past I answered that question saying in a business matter, but I forgot I provided -- I was deposed by the Justice Department on a federal tort claim which had to do with my family’s pictures, that the FBI had confiscated and lost, and for that particular case they deposed me for like two or three hours.
So I just want to go on the record and correct that.
MR. MARINO: Thank you.
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MR. FEIN: I guess we’re beginning the afternoon session.
CROSS EXAMINATION
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Ms. Edmonds, my name is Mr. Fein, and I’m an attorney who represents Jean Schmidt in her complaint against Mr. Krikorian here before the Ohio Elections Commission.
When did you first learn of the complaint that Ms. Schmidt had filed against Mr. Krikorian?
A: About maybe ten days, two weeks ago, ten days.
Q: And how did you learn of that?
A: I either received an E-mail or call from Mr. Krikorian’s office, and I was told that there was this lawsuit, that I may be called as a witness.
Q: And who spoke to you?
A: I spoke with Mr. Krikorian.
Q: And what did he ask you to do?
A: He asked whether I would be
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Q: And what did you respond?
A: I don’t recall exactly, but I said -- I said, well, if I get a subpoena or just let me know what it is, then I will speak with my attorneys.
Q: Did Mr. Krikorian explain to you what the complaint was about?
A: No. He told me there was public information available and just in general he said that there was a complaint brought against him in the -- with the Ohio State Election Commission, and I just went and briefly read a couple of articles that were out there on the case, that the fact that this case existed to verify it.
Q: Did you actually read the complaint that had been filed before the Ohio Elections Commission?
A: Do you mean the actual legal
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Q: Yes.
A: No.
Q: Have you read it at present? When you came here today had you read the actual legal complaint?
A: No.
Q: So you don’t know what’s actually in the complaint; is that correct?
A: Just some major points that had been public on Websites and also on post.
Q: So you received -- Mr. Krikorian called you about ten days ago and your response was that you would be willing to be deposed or what exactly did you tell him?
MR. KOHN: Objection.
MR. FEIN: I apologize.
MR. KOHN: Asked and answered.
MR. FEIN: Well, I apologize.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: What is it -- I want a clarification. When he asked you would you be
page 108
MR. KOHN: Asked and answered.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Did anyone inform you before you appeared today that the Ohio Elections Commission had stated it would not enforce the subpoena that had been issued for you to be deposed here?
A: I read the letter.
Q: So that you knew that you didn’t have to appear here.
MR. KOHN: Objection. It calls for a legal conclusion.
MR. FEIN: No, I’m sorry. I would like her opinion here. She’s testified about States Secrets Privilege. She’s testified about what genocide means. Those are all legal questions. She can testify about her subpoena.
MR. MARINO: Excuse me. I join in the objection.
MR. FEIN: Okay. Go ahead and
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MR. KOHN: What is the question?
MR. FEIN: The question is: did you read and understand that the Ohio Elections Commission had stated that they did not intend to --
MR. KOHN: Do you have a copy?
MR. FEIN: -- enforce the subpoena?
What?
I said did you have -- were you under that understanding that the Ohio Elections Commission in the letter had stated to all the attorneys involved in the Department of Justice they did not intend to enforce the subpoena that had been issued for you to be deposed here today.
MR. KOHN: Not quite my understanding of the letter.
MR. FEIN: I think it speaks for itself.
THE WITNESS: I read the letter.
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BY MR. FEIN:
Q: So in your view are you here voluntarily?
MR. KOHN: Objection. Calls for a legal conclusion.
MR. FEIN: I know.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Are you here voluntarily? Answer the question. In your view, are you here voluntarily?
MR. KOHN: -- is under --
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Did anyone advise you that you were compelled to be here and you would be in contempt of an outstanding decree issued by a government agency if you were not here?
MR. MARINO: Excuse me. May I just make an objection?
MR. FEIN: Sure.
MR. MARINO: Object based on it calls for a legal conclusion, and now you’re asking for attorney-client communications.
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MR. FEIN: No.
MR. KOHN: I agree.
MR. FEIN: It’s not -- go ahead.
MR. KOHN: The witness is not going to answer that question because it’s outside the scope of her appearance.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Did you discuss what you would be saying here today to anyone before you arrived here at 10:30 or so?
A: Can you be more specific?
Q: Yes. Did you talk to somebody about what you would testify to in today’s deposition to anybody else? I’m not talking about the substance; just that you did, and identify the people who you spoke about.
A: I have responded to requests about comments about today as I don’t know. There are going to be questions, and I don’t know what questions I’m going to be asked, and after it is over and before, my attorneys will be present to make comments.
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Q: Did you talk to Mr. Krikorian about what you would be saying today?
A: To -- you mean this --
Q: Mr. Krikorian.
A: You mean what I’m going to say during deposition today?
Q: Yes.
A: No, no.
Q: Did you talk to anybody else about what you would be saying here today?
I’m not talking about the substance. Just a person that you can identify you spoke to about what you would be saying and what questions you might be confronting?
A: I have --
MR. KOHN: Let me just make -- excuse me. Let me just make an objection. I assume you’re not referring to her own counsel and asking whether she talked to --
MR. FEIN: No, I don’t want an attorney. I don’t want client -- attorney-
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THE WITNESS: I did not know what questions I was going to be asked. So I couldn’t talk about my answers.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Let’s go back to your hiring by the FBI. I think your testimony is it was September 15th, 2001.
A: Around that time.
Q: Okay. Now, were you employed prior to your hiring by the FBI?
A: Yes.
Q: And where were you employed?
A: Had my own company with my husband.
Q: Un-huh, and what was that company involved in? What business?
A: Technology for retail industry.
Q: And when was that company formed?
A: About 1996.
Q: 1996. Been about five years old company. Where was it -- do you know where it
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A: I believe Alexandria, Virginia.
Q: And so what were the -- what were your tasks at that company?
A: Marketing.
Q: Marketing.
A: And day-to-day management of people.
Q: I’m -- could you be a little more specific? You’re saying it’s a market -- it’s a retail marketing company. Do you offer your services to retailers? Do you actually sell retail items?
MR. KOHN: Do you have a relevant question?
MR. FEIN: Yes, I do have a relevant. It’s her background, knowing before going to the FBI exactly what her background in intelligence was.
MR. MARINO: I object. It’s outside the scope of the direct examination.
THE WITNESS: The position I had
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BY MR. FEIN:
Q: All right, and were there any employees of the company or just you and your husband?
A: No, at that time, I believe he had eight, seven or eight employees.
Q: So is it fair to say the company was involved in writing some kind of software that would enable retailers to do inventory control?
A: IT services.
Q: IT services. Did it have anything at all to do with intelligence collection?
A: No.
Q: Did it have anything at all to do with lobbying Congress or campaign finance?
A: No.
Q: How old were you when you were hired by the FBI?
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A: Thirty-one.
Q: Thirty-one years old, and prior to that time, did you consider yourself an intelligence expert?
Did you do just as an avocation a lot of reading in intelligence collection and counterintelligence and espionage and how covert operations were run?
MR. MARINO: Objection. Compound.
THE WITNESS: Both in terms of my education and background and also certain activities that I was involved still while I was in the United States, in Turkey, and basically the kind of thing that you would consider -- today’s being considered citizen journalism.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Could you be more explicit? What’s citizen journalism? I’m not familiar with that concept. If you could, explain that concept to me.
A: Conducting research and write
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Q: So how many articles or books had you published when you were hired by the FBI?
A: I had not published any books.
Q: Any articles, any newspaper articles, op-eds, magazine articles.
A: It’s hard for me to tell how many of the stuff I had written have been picked up by international press, whether in Turkey or elsewhere. I have to check. I don’t know.
Q: Let me just give you an example. If I write an article, I will submit it and it may be published by the New York Times or the L.A. Times or something like that, and I know because I have an arrangement where you submit
page 118
Did you have any such arrangement with any publication?
A: No, I was doing it just mainly for public. The same thing for my activism with the Committee to Protect Journalists or also working on behalf of sexually abused children in Alexandria with Alexandria courts. I was going -- providing all those services and expertise for free because that was my public work as a volunteer.
Q: And how many hours of volunteer time would you do for a week would you suggest?
MR. KOHN: Can we have a time period?
MR. FEIN: The time period when you were working on your -- with your company. I guess it began in ’96.
THE WITNESS: My company was established in 1992, and I had other real
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It depends. During, between ’96 and ’99 for Alexandria Court and sexually abused children I would spend about 15 hours a week working on that case. On researching and writing and reading about political related issues, including journalism, civil liberties, during that period of time it’s hard to estimate. I would say in the range of maybe ten hours a week.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: What was the title of the position that you applied for for employment in the FBI?
A: Language specialist, contract language specialist for Turkey and another agreement that said contract language specialist for Farsi.
Q: Were the criteria for that job at all involved any knowledge, expertise in intelligence?
A: When they advertised and told me
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Q: That’s -- that’s a good enough answer. And was that --
MR. KOHN: Had you completed your answer?
THE WITNESS: No.
MR. FEIN: Oh, did you want to -- if you -- if you think I’ve interrupted you, if you want to explain further, you just tell me.
THE WITNESS: Sure. The Special Agent, Dennis Sharshar, for Turkish Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Division, he also had a say in the matter, and he wanted to evaluate my political understanding and understanding of Turkish criminal operations in general, including the ultra nationalist Gray Wolves, before he gave his okay, and we had a session that was during the time when my contract was being approved, and he made recommendations saying, yes, he needed my expertise in the area of Gray
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So I don’t know how much role it played, his opinion, but that was one of the criteria that he wanted to have for his translator.
BY MR. FEIN:
Q: Was he the one who made the decision to hire you?
A: I am not sure about how the hierarchy works within the FBI. Was it taken into consideration? I don’t know because some of the Headquarters and the Headquarter people that I’m not sure who they were; they --
Q: So you -- and he -- did you have a separate interview with him in conjunction with your application?
A: After my application, yes.
Q: And this is before you were hired, as part of the application process?
A: No, this was during the time that they were drawing my contract. Because of September 11th terrorist attack, they wanted
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Q: So that when you -- at the time you were hired, you were not -- had not been interviewed by anybody at the FBI. This was just based upon your written application; is that correct? Because there was such an urgency?
A: Correct. Three years before that it was polygraph test for background check and the filling out application, but I was never interviewed by anyone in the FBI ever.
Q: And how long did it take after you applied before you were hired?
A: I don’t recall. In the range of not weeks, maybe a week or ten days, but I’m -- I don’t recall exactly how long it took.
Q: And does the FBI have the GS level pay compensation schedule?
A: As far as I know, they don’t have
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Q: Were you a contract or a full-time employee?
A: I was a contractor.
Q: So what were you -- what were the terms of the contract? How much were you paid? What was the length of the contract? What were your obligations?
Did you actually show up at the premises or did you work off premises?
A: No, I showed up the premises and --
Q: Was it at the J. Edgar Hoover Building?
A: It was Washington field office, which is only a few blocks from the FBI Headquarters.
Q: Okay. Let’s go -- I’ll -- I’ll -- let’s go thought item by item. What was your compensation rate?
A: I don’t recall exactly. It was in
page 124
Q: So they paid you on an hourly basis.
A: Correct.
Q: Did they have a minimum or a maximum number of hours you’re supposed to work per week?
A: They asked me to work 40 hours or more because they needed both my expertise in language and also in the active, urgent cases the FBI had, but I could not because I have another job, and I was also preparing for my Master’s degree. So I couldn’t give them more than 25, 30 hours a week, and they wanted much more, and they kept asking me, and they also gave me the application and asked me to apply for agent position at Quantico because they needed my expertise and language skills, and I got official letters, recommendations, recommending me to Quantico because of my knowledge, expertise, and the language skills.
Q: Did you actually apply for a full-
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A: No.
Q: No.
A: They couldn’t pay me enough. I couldn’t do that.
Q: So they offered you 35 to $40 an hour, and was it up to you or did you have to work a minimum number of hours in order to stay as a contractor?
A: They told me everything was up to me because they couldn’t find someone with my expertise in language skills and the background checks. So anything I could |
charge of national security.
Conservative MP Lisa Raitt shot back that Mr. Trudeau was "hiding behind the skirts" of anonymous national security experts and failing to do his job to protect a Canadian military technology from slipping onto the hands of China.
"This is not a question about trust in our national security agencies. This is about the competence and negligence within the cabinet of the Government of Canada," Ms. Raitt said. "Did any single cabinet minister on the other side give a heads-up to their counterpart in the United States and say, 'Is this a good idea, because I want to do a gut check?' "
The Investment Canada Act requires all foreign takeovers to undergo a security screening analysis. A far more comprehensive national security review requires federal cabinet approval and would analyze the potential impact on Canada's defence capabilities and interests and investigate how the transfer of this proprietary technology outside Canada as well as the possibility the transaction could enable foreign espionage or injure Canada's international interests, including foreign relationships. It would also consider the potential of the investment to hinder intelligence or law enforcement operations.
"It was the Liberal cabinet alone that chose to forgo a national security review. That is a fact," said Mr. Clement, who as a former industry minister was once in charge of the Investment Canada Act governing foreign takeovers.
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Michael Wessel, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reports to Congress, told The Globe and Mail that "the sale of Norsat to a Chinese entity raises significant national-security concerns for the United States as the company is a supplier to our military."
He said the Liberals appear to be willing to sacrifice national-security interests of Canada's most important ally in exchange for obtaining a bilateral free-trade deal with China. He also urged the Pentagon to "immediately review" its dealings with Norsat.
The Liberals have made closer ties to China – including a potential free-trade deal – a cornerstone of its foreign policy. China has publicly deplored Canada's national-security reviews as protectionism and demanded it be part of the free-trade talks.
Since the Liberals came to power, they have been more open to investment from China in a number of key sectors of the economy.
In February, Ottawa approved the sale of one of British Columbia's biggest retirement-home chains to a Beijing-based insurance titan with a murky ownership structure in a deal that gave China a foothold in Canada's health-care sector.
In March, the government approved a Chinese takeover of a Montreal high-tech firm, ITF Technologies – the very same transaction that had previously been blocked by the former Conservative government after it became convinced the deal would undermine a technological edge Western militaries have over China.Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell reported huge increases in their first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by higher oil prices and earnings from refining.
Exxon Mobil, the largest American oil company, said net income rose 69 percent to $10.7 billion, or $2.14 a share, in the first three months of this year, from $6.3 billion, or $1.33 a share, in the same period last year.
The earnings beat some analysts’ expectations, and was the fifth consecutive quarter that Exxon reported an earnings increase.
Shell reported earlier on Thursday that its profit for the period rose 30 percent.
Oil companies are benefiting from a rise of more than 30 percent of the price of oil over the last year. Concerns about political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East have pushed prices to heights some analysts said were not justified by the level of demand. Continued growth in economic demand is expected to support a relatively high price of oil but there are signs that rising gasoline prices are keeping some consumers in the United States from filling up their tanks.
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Exxon’s earnings “reflect continued leadership in operational performance during a period of strong commodity prices,” Exxon’s chairman, Rex W. Tillerson, said in a statement.The Brewers acquired infielder Felipe Lopez from the Rays for cash considerations, tweets Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. He'll head to Triple-A Nashville for the time being. Brewers GM Doug Melvin moved quickly to add infield depth after Rickie Weeks injured his ankle yesterday. Melvin told Tom Haudricourt that no second basemen are on the market at a price he'll meet so he'll probably mix and match a variety of players.
Lopez, 31, was a July addition for Milwaukee back in 2009 as well. He struggled with the Rays this year but hit.305/.357/.474 in 207 plate appearances for their Triple-A club. Lopez was designated for assignment and cleared waivers twice already this year, so the cash the Brewers are considering sending shouldn't amount to much.Thanks to Allan and Chris for the great shows!
very
ZFS, on FreeNAS
Windows 7
The HP Micro server cost me last year, after cashback £130, delivered, with a 250GB Seagate and 2GB DDR3 and no OS.It hs no loud fan on the CPU but uses a nice quite large fan for full ventilation. Full speed PCI-Express and Mini-Pci Express. Built in RAID0,1,10 controller. eSata, many USB's, even on the Motherboard for booting FreeNAS! WakeOn lan, auto power on after power off and mony more after unlocking the BIOS. No other NAS box comes close to these specs at this price. It is bigger but in reality is mega compacted. You cannot stick you finger in anywhere after is is fully populated!
I love this Server (As it IS A SEVER - A Micro Server! :) and not just a PC ) I love it so much that I went and bought another one! Wait! What?! January 2013. With cash back it cost me £80 delivered!
One machine will only run FreeNAS with 6GB DDR3, 4x1TB with ZFS- It will be hidden in a safe place out of reach of children, connected via LAN doing what it does best. Be a kick ass NAS!
The other one will now become dedicated for Windows 7 Pro 64Bit, 8GB DDR 1333, 2X250GB RAID1 - and 2 spare HDD's lying about for Temp storage. And this will serve my family well as it integrates into all the other Windows PC's and Laptops we use. All I do is make a Favourite Link in the sidebar to "//NAS" and they can access their Photos, documents and our community media saved on FreeNAS :)
Why not Windows Server? Because allot of free apps do not work on server editions and configuring it for home use is pointless. I do not need DNS manager, a full blown IIS or Active Domain. Windows 7 Pro can do it all after installing the add-ons if I ever needed to. I can SSH into freeNAS then Remote Desktop over a tunnel into Windows and use, what is familiar to me to do various task remotely. Queue NZB's! Hehehe.
But, I can also expose newznab on a special port using no-ip.org and just forget SSH and Remote desktop altogether.
The next step is streaming movies over the internet to my iPhone.. wait? Did somebody say Plex? :)
I call that the perfect server setup - for this particular or similar hardware.
This post was inspired by repeated questions about setting up the best server on FreeNAS/ FreeBSD and using Virtualization on Techsnap over at JupiterBroadcasting. Now Allan- If you are reading this please keep an open mind, Windows is not that evil :)Towards thewe have already been affected by many Usenet indexers closing down, like out favourites nzbmatrix or newzbin.- I have stopped using torrents along time ago. Mainly because it clogs bandwidth and things like Skype and mmorpg gaming becomes impossible.But recently I justified that even more. In UK and possibly other countries you read articles about peoplegetting fined for downloading certain "tagged" torrents, ISP's sending out warning letters about(hundreds of connections to known torrent servers). Three warning and you get banned form the ISP for life, in the UK at least (Not all do this pro actively but all have to comply with court orders- where fines must be issued)So I useas my storage server. And nothing else. Why? Because it was built to be what it is and nothing else. So I embraced that. And that is the best thing to do in my opinion.I also use. Why? Because I can share my printer over the network, and running/installing SABnzdb, couchpotato, sickbeard is MUCH easier, that is my opinion made up from bad experiences. Also Server 2012 offers me the newest IIS and plenty of other services at a click of a button, with no messy setting up. It is also allot faster than using Windows 7 as a "server"The kind that whenever I wanted to make my own FreeNAS plugin, FreeNAS bombed out - I am no BSD geek and I try to follow tutorials as close as possible. But one command can ruin your whole FreeNAS. Like upgrading PHP in the root will brick your Admin panel and trying to revert that is impossible? But is required for some plugins. OK, OK! So the jailsystem is amazing idea.. but its a nightmare to configure, install etc etc.. I do not have time for all that.I ended up reinstalling and reimporting my ZFS like a thousand times. Also I cannot share my printer on FreeNAS (And a still a nightmare to setup on Ubunut headless) - Everybody at home uses Windows.I do not want everybody coming in an unplugging the USB from my server so they can print a page; and they leave it unplugged afterwards. I have a nice laser printer for now - In the near future I will upgrade to a WiFi /Lan enabled inkjet.Virtual Machines (also allot of questions on Techsnap about this - I think this is a prime example in home use). I went through many days of hell trying to configure al this and the best application forFreeNAS is VMWare.FreeNAS as it is is very stable and powerful for the things it can do! I love ZFS! I love SSH! And the other built in features. It is really really fast when configured properly and when it has enough RAM. So- I left it to do what it is designed to do. Be a NAS! Not an indexer, not a nzb grabber, not a IMDB scrapper, not a Print Server, not a VPN gateway (although I SSH into here and tunnel into my network from outside)! And never had problems with it since!Windows is easy and simple enough to do the rest. And as I am.NET developer I love the idea of Running IIS7 server for development but also have XAMPP for any PHP development I do for other people. Yes, XAMPP! Here is something new for you usenet lovers.that needs XAMPP on Windows- So that is what I used. And it runs without problems! except the same problem you would get in a Linux/BSD machine.It is a usenet indexer. Trust me. Get the Pro version for a few bucks, you get everything you need. Regular expressions and a massive collection of NZB's requested on the Chat page. The only pain with nn+ is that creating a database of year or two behind is a real pain in the arse; Because the database bloats up and crashes. You got to clear it and start from the last place again. There are scripts to safely backfill and hopefully a safe way to import NZB's. Go and read their site and you will know what I am talking about.For well over a year I ran Windows 7 Pro x64 as the main OS and FreeNAS in a VMWare on a HP Micro server. Dual core 1.5Ghz, 8gb DDR3, 4 x 3.0G SATA BAYS (expendable with hacks to allot more) I used a BIOS hack to enable ODD (CDRom Bay) for SATA 1.5G, this is where Windows lives. It is a small 80GB, quite hard drive that runs 24/7. My 4 Bays are populated with 1TB various makes and models of hard drives. They are purely used in FreeNAS and they are configured to spin down after 5 minutes of inactivity. That is because about 90% of the time it they are unused, we are either at work or not using it any way. Plus I have a really bad vibrating Samsung hard drive that annoys us when we sleep. Spinning up allot of times (on 3.5") does not wear out the hard drive more! You can read about it somewhere on another post I made during my Data recovery ventures. 2.5" hard drives have other problems that are more serious so I do not use them. Obviously the best Hard drives to use would be the WD RED 2TB - I would let them run 24/7 because they are made to do that and are ultra silent!Now my dear friends...So that is my office / guest room. Blown up into Geek heaven with motherboards, hard drives and new stuff! Basically I am separating the two machines and moving over the drives from one and installing new ones. Hardly took me 30 minutes to do it as everything fits the same in both machines.After about 15 years of looking for the ideal NAS. I found the ideal server which is very cheap for what it can do! I found the perfect NAS OS/Distro and put it on there! I asked the same question about how to get FreeNAS to do everything I wanted it to do. After 2 years of using Windows and FreeNAS virtualized on one machine.You can't expect Zeon server performance but I had no issues watching HD movies over Wifi N on my TV, streamed from within a Virtualized FreeNAS. Just make sure SAMBA is set up properly.Obviously you can setup everything I spoke about on FreeBSD/ Linux. Execpt IIS :( - But that takes knowledge and time to do it. Every geek knows how to install Windows and booting FreeNAS of USB Stick is a joke. No configuring for a great NAS!to serve my TV/ Tablet/ Notebook with media by mounting a share, share printers, files for my family and guests that use Windows. And have a sophisticated system for indexing usenet, automatically grabbing series and movies using Couchpotoat and Sickbeard and saving it to my NAS, quickly searching on newznab and clicking a button to queue it in SABnzdb. The circle is closed and I need not lift a finger to do any of it. Best of all and I have piece of mind that ZFS keeps my data safe!Sam Felton envisions a world in which temporary housing would autonomously constructed, and origami robots would fold themselves into 3-D machines for space exploration. Based on the research he's done—and the origami robots he's already built—his vision might not be as far-fetched as it would seem.
Felton joined Northeastern University as an assistant professor in the College of Engineering, after earning his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Harvard University. There, he worked with a research team focused on creating printable, foldable robots, with an eye toward getting them to fold themselves.
"We were able to make things that could walk on their own, but we weren't just interested in building a single self-folding item," Felton said. "The idea is to push the boundaries of what's possible in self-folding structures."
Now, the challenge is to build them so they can unfold as well.
Felton was the lead author on a paper published in the journal Science, which explored the method he and his collaborators established for building self-folding machines. The idea is based on origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.
Appropriately, his robots are made of paper—though the paper is sandwiched between layers of pre-stretched polystyrene. Any toy aficionado might recognize the pre-stretched polystyrene, as it's the same material that makes up the popular Shrinky Dinks toy.
With the toy, children draw on large pieces of flexible sheets that are then placed into the oven to shrink down and harden into trinkets.
The self-folding robots use a similar heat-contracting mechanism. Strips of copper are placed along the fold lines of the robot. Microchips installed on the robot send electric current through the copper, making them heat up. When that happens, the polystyrene material contracts, causing the joint to buckle and fold.
Felton's newest challenge is finding a way to "scale up" the robots, which means getting away from using heat as the catalyst for folding.
"Now we're looking at hydraulics, pneumatics, and chemical reactions," Felton said.
The robots, he explained, could be used in a number of different ways.
"There are a lot of different options for them—the current research seems to be pushing for doing stuff at the micro scale, so getting the robot to fold itself is the only way to form these shapes," Felton said. "But I'm really interested in expanding it to the very large scale, where it could be useful both for architecture and buildings that could assemble themselves as well as for space exploration, where it's very difficult to transport stuff up into orbit. So if you could compact the robot down by folding it up and then having it assemble itself, you could save a lot in cost and manpower."
Felton envisions the buildings being used as temporary shelter in places recovering from disaster. It's a futuristic idea, he said, but that's exactly the point.
"Purely from a research standpoint, a lot of it is this pie in the sky stuff—if it were possible right now, in the short term, there would be a company already doing it," Felton said. "So you have to pick these huge goals and work backward and figure out what the first step is."
Source and top image: Northeastern UniversityAbout the author
(NewsTarget) In Great Britain and Japan, playgrounds are being built for seniors. In Manchester, United Kingdom, seniors can use low impact exercise equipment in Dam Head Public Park. In Japan, with birthrates falling and the numbers of senior citizens increasing, underused playgrounds are being renovated for seniors.In an article titled, "Japan's elderly playgrounds show fun is for everyone," Chika Osaka notes that playgrounds are not just for children. In Japan, with fewer people having children, and nearly 400,000 centenarians, Japan has the world's oldest population. As a result, local governments are disassembling children's playgrounds to convert them to fitness parks for older persons.Soichiro Saito, a 79 year old who participates in a weekly exercise class at a Tokyo park said, "If I'm at home, I tend to slouch or lie down, but if I come here, I straighten my back." Saito's class uses a climbing frame, walks on balance beams and does stretching exercises under supervision.The seniors not only enjoy the exercise but also the socialization. Many feel isolated from the community. Some report experiencing a heightened sense of well-being after the exercise.The cost of an elderly playground may start at 8 million yen ($87,220) including installation and fees for trainers. The Association of Physical Fitness Promotion And Guidance says demand has been growing. Over 15,000 pieces of workout equipment have been installed in parks in Japan, and the number of seniors using the playgrounds daily has doubled."No one is ever too old to have fun," said the association's Saijo. "Anyone can try this workout. No experience or preparation is needed. All you have to do is come out here and start working out."In "Playtime for Grandma: Council opens new playground for the over-60s," Niall Firth reports on visitors using the first playground for seniors in the UK. Named the Older People's Play Area in Dam Head Park, Blackley, users can enjoy gentle exercise for hips, legs and torsos. There are stations for pull-ups, push-ups and pedaling.Based on a German idea, the park was built by the residents' association. It cost 15,000 British pounds. The park adjoins a children's park so that grandparents and their grandchildren play together. Joan Fitzgerald, chairman of the residents' association, who also uses the park, said, "When we tested it all the people we took in were over 70." She added, "And I have never heard so much laughing! I believe you are never too old to play and this helps you keep fit," Joan said, echoing Saijo.Peggy Yuill, 74, who was one of the test group, said, "It makes you feel 21 again." The playground also helps the infirm, providing equipment that can be used by someone in a wheelchair who wants to develop upper body strength."Many older people aren't exercising enough," Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said. "We are really keen for local authorities to offer a range of accessible and affordable facilities that promote physical activity in later life."Senior playgrounds exist in England, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and Canada. Besides games like Wii suggested ways of getting healthy outdoor exercise are: walking, biking or playing catch with the grandkids. But an even better exercise might be urging city councils to add playgrounds for the elderly M. Thornley enjoys walking, writing and pursuing a raw vegan diet and lifestyle.Professor Ingo Froböse began studying eSports athletes five years ago. This made Froböse something of a pioneer, as the expert in prevention and rehabilitation at the German Sports University in Cologne became the very first scientist to conduct a study of athletes who compete in eSports. Nobody had previously looked into the demands placed on an eSports professional, the kind of training he needs to go through to compete, or what kind of strains he is exposed to during a tournament. Froböse was quite surprised by the results.
Esports are a major test of an athlete's motor skills
"We were particularly impressed by both the demands placed on the motor skills and their capabilities," Froböse said. "The eSports athletes achieve up to 400 movements on the keyboard and the mouse per minute, four times as much as the average person. The whole thing is asymmetrical, because both hands are being moved at the same time and various parts of the brain are also being used at the same time," he added.
This is a level of strain that the scientist had never observed in any other sport, not even in table-tennis players, who require a high level of hand-eye coordination.
The pulse of a marathon runner
When eSports athletes take part in a competition, it must look to the layman as if the players are just randomly hammering at their keyboards and moving their mice, but Froböse rejects this notion. He notes that strategy games such as Counter Strike or League of Legends are extremely complex, because in addition to the motor skills required, the games require a high degree of tactical understanding for an athlete to defeat his opponent.
To find out more, the scientists at the German Sports University conducted tests aimed at determining the demands placed on the athletes' minds, testing for the stress hormone cortisol.
"The amount of cortisol produced is about the same level as that of a race-car driver," Froböse said. "This is combined with a high pulse, sometimes as high as 160 to 180 beats per minute, which is equivalent to what happend during a very fast run, almost a marathon. That's not to mention the motor skills involved. So in my opinion, eSports are just as demanding as most other types of sports, if not more demanding," he said.
Better training and nutrition a must
However, many of the athletes don't appear to understand the demands that are being placed on them, because they have failed to adjust their nutrition intake and training methods accordingly. Years of study have shown that most of the athletes do not prepare themselves for competition in a professional manner.
"In terms of their fitness, many of our test subjects are simply average citizens, and average citizens worry me. They simply aren't fit," Froböse said. "For example, they fail to do exercises that would strengthen the whole support system in the shoulder and neck areas. Were they to do this, this would improve their fine-motor skills in the arm area, something that is extremely important in competition."
Rene Pinkera is among the athletes who fail to do this. With his team, SK Gaming, the 22-year-old Pinkera won the world championship in World of Warcraft at the BlizzCon 2015 tournament in Anaheim. His training methods, as well as those of his three teammates, consist entirely of playing on the computer.
"We do a short warmup, we do a couple of stretches with our arms and our hands. After that, we play, because that is what it is all about," Pinkera said. "We do that for at least six hours a day, sometimes as many at 12".
This sort of thing concerns Ingo Froböse, because Pintera is no exception. As far as he can tell, the training regimes of the majority of eSports professionals consist of spending hours in front of the computer every day. He believes that they should also be doing regular physical training as well as exercises to relax the body.
Mid-20s is the end of the road
"What isn't happening is cycling the stress, in other words, building in breaks after periods of strain so that the athlete can recover and overcome fatigue during competition," Froböse said. "Another factor is getting the right nutrition." An eSports athlete's diet should be similar to that of other competitive athletes, including added nutrients such as ginseng, which increases circulation in the brain.
World of Warcraft world champion Rene Pinkera (second from left) at Blizzcon 2015
During the many tournaments that Rene Pinkera has competed in, he too has noticed that many eSports athletes don't pay enough attention to what they are eating.
"You always see opponents with energy drinks and other beverages that are loaded with sugar, people who don't watch what they eat," Pinkera said. "We try to avoid sugar, we eat a banana beforehand, or maybe a muesli bar. And you can't go wrong by drinking water."
Froböse is convinced that a professional training regime and better nutrition could solve one problem that many eSports professionals are confronted with. On average, an eSports athlete's career is very short, usually ending in his or her mid-20s, when reflexes start to go and younger competitors are at an advantage. The German Sports University professor believes that through training and better nutrition, though, athletes like Rene Pinkera could extend their careers by four to five years. However, Pinkera is already preparing for life after gaming - by studying computer sciences at university.April 19, 2014
Final Stats | Twitter: @UVaBaseball | Coach O'Connor Twitter | Facebook | Instagram |
Video Highlights
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The top-ranked Virginia baseball team clinched its 10th straight winning weekend of the 2014 season with a 3-1 triumph over North Carolina Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 5,025 at Davenport Field. Virginia (33-6, 16-4 ACC) has won all seven of its ACC series this year and captured 10 straight ACC series in Charlottesville since a 2012 series sweep at home to UNC.
The Cavaliers used opportunistic hitting, combined with solid pitching and defense, to pick up the win Saturday. UVa finished with just three hits, but one was a two-run home run from Kenny Towns (Jr., Burke, Va.). North Carolina (22-17, 9-11) finished with 10 hits - all in the first six innings - but left nine runners on base.
Virginia starting pitcher Josh Sborz (So., McLean, Va.) grinded through five innings to earn the win and improve to 4-2. He allowed a career-high nine hits as well as two walks but gave up just one run. Sborz also struck out four.
Connor Jones (Fr., Chesapeake, Va.) worked three scoreless innings of relief and faced the minimum of nine batters before giving way to Nick Howard (Jr., Olney, Md.) who worked a dominating ninth inning for the second straight day to earn his 13th save of the year. The bullpen duo retired the final 10 UNC batters in order.
North Carolina starter Benton Moss (2-2) worked 7 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs, three hits and three walks while striking out six in taking the loss.
Sborz labored through a 23-pitch first inning as he tried to find a feel for his breaking ball, but buckled down Landon Lassiter looking to strand runners at first and second. That was a sign of things to come, as Sborz battled to leave the bases loaded in the second inning and two more runners on base in the third inning.
Virginia scored quickly in the first inning as Branden Cogswell (Jr., Ballston Lake, N.Y.) led off with a double, moved to second on a Daniel Pinero (Fr., Toronto, Ontario) sacrifice and scored on a Mike Papi (Jr., Tunkhannock, Pa.) groundout to second base.
The Cavaliers put up two more runs in the third inning as Robbie Coman (So., Lake Worth, Fla.) drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the inning and Towns followed with a two-run home run off the façade of the left-field bleachers. The blast was Towns' first of the season.
Despite recording seven hits in the first four innings, North Carolina did not score until the fifth. After back-to-back singles from Skye Bolt and Tom Zengel to start the inning, Lassiter bunted the runners to second and third. Parks Jordan grounded out to first to bring Bolt home.
Virginia goes for the series sweep at 1 p.m. Sunday.Mohamed Ali Rashwan (Arabic: محمد علي رشوان, born January 16, 1956) is a retired Egyptian judoka. At the 1984 Summer Olympics he won the silver medal in the men's Open Class category.
In 1984, he lost the finals to Japan's Yasuhiro Yamashita, who tore a right calf muscle in the preliminaries. Rashwan stated that he did not aim for Yamashita's right leg because he did not regard that as a fair play, and was subsequently given an award from the International Fairplay Committee. [3]
He also won the gold medal in the heavyweight and open class category in the African Championship in 1982 and 1983.
His first international participation was in 1972 in Czechoslovakia and Spain.
Rashwan retired in 1992 and is now member of the Egyptian Judo Federation and an international judo judge.PUEBLO, CO—Even if you park a few blocks away from the Solar Roast Coffee building, you can smell the acidic odor of roasting coffee beans wafting down Pueblo’s Main Street.
I was out in the area for an unrelated story and had heard that Solar Roast was a cool place to sit and work. But when I found out that the coffee shop was also the retail face of the only major commercial solar-powered coffee roasting company in the US, I e-mailed owner Mike Harktop to see if I could get a tour. He congenially agreed.
Move over Elon Musk, this business is OG.
The company was started by Mike and his brother David in 2004, with the two fashioning a makeshift solar-powered coffee roaster out of 100 mirrors, a broccoli strainer, and a satellite dish. That’s right—instead of relying on traditional photovoltaic cell panels converting photons into electricity and running a coffee roasting machine that way, the brothers started out building a solar thermal system, directing light and heat directly onto one pound of raw coffee at a time.
The brothers, who are from Oregon originally, moved the operation out to Pueblo, Colorado as they worked on their solar roasting design. Pueblo is southeast of the Rocky Mountains and situated in a “banana belt”—a region that’s warmer and sunnier than the area surrounding it. The city of 200,000 gets 3,470 hours of sunshine a year, or 78 percent of the sunshine available to it. Plus, it’s just two hours south of Denver and it's home to a Colorado State University campus.
The brothers eventually built a rig they called Helios III, a bigger solar thermal roaster rooted to a trailer that could cook up to five pounds of coffee at a time. They set the machine up outside of Pueblo and built a plastic geodesic dome around it to protect the coffee from birds and the weather.
Megan Geuss
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Solar Roast
Solar Roast
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The most ambitious solar thermal setup was the Helios IV, which was built in Oregon and later reconstructed in Colorado—this version was 35 feet in diameter, moved automatically to follow the sun’s path in the sky, and roasted 30 pounds of coffee at a time. “Pueblo shut us down at one point because they thought we were building a death ray,” Mike told me. All the while, the company was racking up customers from small coffee houses to specialty groceries.
But that iteration never quite worked the way the brothers wanted it to, and when they received a business development grant from the city of Pueblo in 2012, they decided to go a slightly more conventional route—setting up photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of an old multi-use building in downtown Pueblo and using the resulting electricity to power a more traditional coffee roaster that the brothers cobbled together.
The decision to move to electricity over solar thermal roasting was an economical one. The Helios IV cost $250,000 to build in total and conditions were less than ideal for employees who had to work inside the geodesic dome, with temperatures rising to 130° Fahrenheit in the summer (although Mike noted that the dome would get up to a pleasant 50° in the winter when the surrounding plains were a bitter 10°). By contrast, the company’s current roaster cost $100,000 to build and can be operated onsite next to the cafe.
The new solar roaster is grid tied, and in addition to running the company's roasting operations, Mike says the solar panels on the buildings’ roof also cover about 30 percent of the cafe’s electricity needs as well.
The roaster itself is heavily insulated to keep the roasting chamber hot. Mike said their beans are roasted at temperatures over 300° and it can take more than two hours for the internal temperature of the roaster to drop even 100° because of the insulation. By the same token, getting the temperature up in the roaster is a challenge. Using just electricity, it takes two to three hours to heat the inside of the roaster to the desired temperatures, so the company added a natural gas generator to the roasting apparatus. With the generator, it only takes 30 minutes to get the roaster up to the ideal temperature in the morning, and then Solar Roast switches to electricity to maintain that temperature and power the roaster throughout the rest of the day.
During the roasting process, the chaff from the beans will pop off and go through the base of the machine, while a cyclone filter removes smaller particulates. The roaster doesn’t need to protect against carbon monoxide or exhaust contamination because, of course, the majority of the process it completely electric. Mike says that also prevents the contents of the roaster (and the roaster itself) from lighting on fire, which is an occasional problem with more traditional roasters.
While Mike was giving me a tour of the facility, he walked over to an unassuming hulk of metal tucked away to the left of the doorway to the packing room. It looked like a DIY spaceship, with exposed areas covered in Reynolds Wrap. This, he told me, was the body of the massive Helios IV. The founder said he plans to cannibalize it this year to build a second electric roaster for his facility. The work should take a couple of months and will require a bit of patchwork. “For solar thermal, air flow’s completely different,” Mike said, pointing out a hole in the roaster’s body where a hole should not, traditionally be.
But Mike didn’t seem too sentimental about cutting up the massive handmade roaster. “It needs to be repurposed for its new life,” he told me.Layers of Rainbow Quinoa “rice”, creamy Cauliflower gravy with whole spices, nuts, cranberries, raisins, peas, cilantro make this fabulous Quinoa Cauliflower Biryani.
Yes! This delicious Biryani needs to be cooked up right now!
With some of my favorite things.. rainbow Quinoa, Cauliflower and peas, and a load of interesting spices and flavors. All bundled up in this cozy one dish meal. I couldnt have asked for more. This is the perfect way to eat warm and spiced Quinoa this Fall. Cold Salads, see you next summer.
Biryani(layered Rice and veggie gravy dish) is one of the meals that does not get enough love, probably because of the number of spices and steps involved. But the awesome thing about this dish is, it gets easier as you get a hang of the process. A few spices here and there and steps missed or added at a different time does not change up the end result much. So try this gorgeous bowl filled with protein(quinoa) and vegetables of your choice.
Biryani recipes from different parts of India and other countries as well use different spices, herbs and method or preparation. Cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, fennel, nutmeg etc can all be used for variations. Use whichever whole spices you have, or use just the spice blends like garam masala or Biryani masala. To make a quick version |
mita Nair: How are you tackling radicalisation and the ISIS threat?
We have always said ISIS is un-Islamic. I tell young guys if they are so keen on doing jihad, they should do it against poverty, illiteracy. Do jihad the democratic way by joining the MIM and taking on right-wing organisations. Fight social evils here. We also need to engage in a cerebral debate with the youth. ISIS does its online propaganda quite well. Young, impressionable children get attracted to it. The community needs to not only condemn them but also help in giving the youth a proper direction in life.
Smita Nair: What do you think about how the trust vote was won by the BJP government in Maharashtra?
They should have asked for an actual division of votes and proved their majority. We would have voted against the government. The best thing about the trust vote was to see Prithviraj Chavan sitting on the steps of the Assembly. It was a picture that needed to be framed and kept for posterity. Jinko kal tak sab salaam karte the, aaj public ne unko zameen par bitha diya. This is real democracy.
Smita Nair: Would you shake hands with Narendra Modi?
He is the Prime Minister of the country and I respect him for that position. I, however, have the right to oppose him. If tomorrow, I am the CM and under my watch, 5,000 people die, of which one of them is your father or mother, will you shake hands with me? I will not forget Gujarat until all those guilty are punished. He is the PM and I respect him, but that does not mean that I have to pay obeisance to him.
Zeeshan Shaikh: Do you think it is difficult for a Muslim candidate to get votes outside the community?
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It is difficult for Muslims to get elected. They are only getting elected from constituencies where Muslims make up over 30 per cent of the voters. As a Muslim politician, you should stand in elections only if there are more than 30 per cent Muslims in your constituency or it is better that you sit at home. A Muslim can vote for a member of the other community but he will not get their vote as they do not want a Muslim to win. I would like to see Zafar Sareshwala contest from Gujarat and win.Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes for Terrence Malick's 'To the Wonder'
"We go where instincts take us." Time for a look at the inner workings of Terrence Malick. Our friends at The Film Stage have somehow stumbled across a 3-part series of video featurettes called "The Making of To the Wonder". It's beautiful, behind-the-scenes featurettes about the making of the new Malick film out this spring, To the Wonder, starring Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem. The film is a sweeping Midwest love story, and this covers everything from casting to their lack of a script (yep!). It also features producers Sarah Green and Nicolas Gonda, all the actors, but not Terry, unfortunately. Still, this is a remarkably rare glimpse onto Malick's sets, and a fascinating must watch video.
Watch the three featurettes for Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, found via The Film Stage:
Note: two additional videos as part of this were released in the last few days, we've added them below.
Here is Part 2 of this behind-the-scenes featurette for Terrence Malick's To the Wonder:
Here is Part 3 of this behind-the-scenes featurette for Terrence Malick's To the Wonder:
If you haven't seen the first official trailer for Terrence Malick's To the Wonder yet, be sure to watch it here.
Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko star in this new film from Terrence Malick, about a man who reconnects with a woman from his hometown after his marriage to a European woman falls apart. After visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Marina meets a priest and fellow exile, who is struggling with his vocation, while Neil renews his ties with a childhood friend, Jane. To the Wonder is directed by reclusive iconic filmmaker Terrence Malick, of Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World and The Tree of Life. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and will finally be released by Magnolia Pictures on April 12th, 2013 coming soon.
1 Et_in_Arcadia_ego on Feb 19, 2013
2 hawk99 on Feb 19, 2013
3 ff on Feb 19, 2013
Sorry, no commenting is allowed at this time.Abstract Clinical studies have shown the similarity of the spectrum of physiological effects of Selank and classical benzodiazepines, such as diazepam and phenazepam. These data suggest that there is a similar basis of their mechanism of action. To test this hypothesis we studied the effect of Selank and GABA on the expression of genes involved in neurotransmission. We analyzed the expression of 84 genes involved in neurotransmission (e.g., major subunit of the GABA receptor, transporters, ion channels, dopamine, and serotonin receptors) in the frontal cortex of rats 1 and 3 h after the administration of Selank or GABA (300 μg/kg) using real-time PCR method. We found significant changes in the expression of 45 genes 1 h after the administration of the compounds. Three hours after Selank or GABA administration, 22 genes changed their expression. We found positive correlation between the changes in genes expression within 1 h after administration of Selank or GABA. Our results showed that Selank caused a number of alterations in the expression of genes involved in neurotransmission. The data obtained indicate that Selank is characterized by its complex effects on nerve cells, and one of its possible molecular mechanisms is associated with allosteric modulation of the GABAergic system. Keywords: Selank, GABA, glyproline, regulatory peptide, gene expression
Introduction Regulatory peptides play key roles in the formation, development, and normal functioning of the nervous system. They are not understood fully despite the accumulating experimental data in recent years. The study of their mechanisms of action is of particular interest because regulatory peptides have potential in the creation of safe drugs on their basis with specific clinical properties and direct physiological effects. One representative of this class of drugs is the synthetic regulatory peptide Selank. It was designed and produced at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the V.V. Zakusov Research Institute of Pharmacology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Selank is a synthetic analog of the endogenous tuftsin molecule (the short Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg fragment of the human immunoglobulin G heavy chain), which was elongated at the C terminus via the addition of three natural L-amino acids (Pro-Gly-Pro) to improve its metabolic stability and yield a relatively longer duration (Ashmarin et al., 2005; Ashmarin, 2007). Selank has pronounced anxiolytic activity and acts as a stable neuropsychotropic, antidepressant, and antistress drug that relieves aggression and fear reaction in different animal species (Kozlovskii and Danchev, 2002; Sollertinskaya et al., 2008; Semenova et al., 2010). Selank also has a nootropic action, which positively influences the formation of memory and learning processes (Kost et al., 2001; Sokolov et al., 2002; Semenova et al., 2007, 2009; Narkevich et al., 2008), and marked immunomodulatory activity (Uchakina et al., 2008; Ershov et al., 2009; Andreeva et al., 2010). Clinical studies have shown that the effect of Selank is similar to that of tranquilizers at low doses, but is not accompanied by the unwanted side effects of benzodiazepine tranquilizers such as amnesia, withdrawal, and dependence (Seredenin et al., 1990, 1998). Benzodiazepines are allosteric modulators of the type-A γ-aminobutyric acid receptor (GABA A R) and can increase the inhibitory action of GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS. The similarity of the spectrum of physiological effects of Selank and classical benzodiazepines (such as diazepam and phenazepam) suggests that there is a similar basis of their mechanism of action; that is, the allosteric modulation of GABA A receptors. Previously, it was shown that in the presence of Selank the amount of the specifically bound ligand, [3H] GABA, varied, and preliminary intranasal administration of peptide also induced changes in the number of specific binding sites of [3H] GABA but did not affect the affinity of the receptors (V'Yunova et al., 2014). Based on these data, the authors suggested that Selank can lead to a rapid change in the state of the GABAergic system by binding the peptide to GABA receptors and, thus, allosterically modulating the activity of GABA A receptor. In this study, we evaluated the contribution of the GABAergic system to the molecular mechanism responsible for the anxiolytic action of Selank. To test the hypothesis that Selank acts through GABA A receptors, we investigated its effect on changes in the mRNA levels of the genes encoding the major subunits of the GABA receptors, transporters and ion channels involved in the transport of GABA, and those of other proteins involved in neurotransmission in rat brain 1 and 3 h after administration of the peptide. To identify the effects associated with the activation of GABA A receptors, we analyzed the changes in the expression of the investigated genes in response to the action of the primary ligand, GABA.
Materials and methods Chemicals Dry preparations of Selank (Nα-Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg-Pro-Gly-Pro-Diacetate Salt) and GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) were dissolved to a concentration of 10 mg/ml in deionized water. Animal model The male Wistar rats with an average weight of 200 g were used in the experiment. The animals were kept under the standard conditions with free access to water and food, and a 12 h light/dark cycle. The animals (n = 30) were divided into three groups: one control group (n 1 = 10) and two experimental groups: Selank group (n 2 = 10) and GABA group (n 3 = 10). A single intranasal administration of the water solution of Selank or GABA was performed on each animal from the experimental groups (6 μl at the concentration of 300 μg to 1 kg of body weight) and the equivalent volume of deionized water was performed on each animal from the control group. Selank dose of 300 μg/kg was selected based on the data that this dose was the most effective therapy dose exerting anxiolytic action (Seredenin et al., 1998; Kozlovskaya et al., 2003). The first half of animals from each group was decapitated 1 h after the administration of the compounds, the second half—after 3 h. Immediately after the decapitations, the rat frontal cortexes were dissected, placed into sterile test tubes (free of RNase and DNase), and frozen in liquid nitrogen with subsequent storage at −70°C. The animal experiments were carried out in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH publication N o 80-23) and the statement of the ethics committee of the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences. RNA isolation and reverse transcription Frontal cortex tissues obtained from each rat were pooled according to the corresponding groups and time points, resulting in six pools. Total RNA was extracted from each resulting pool of tissues using the RNeasy® Mini Kit (Qiagen, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol. First-strand cDNAs were synthesized using the RT2 First Strand Kit (Qiagen, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR The effect of Selank and GABA on the expression of genes was studied with the help of the real-time PCR method using a Custom RT2 Profiler™ PCR Array: CAPR11632 (Qiagen, Germany). Amplification was carried out on the device StepOnePlus™ Real-Time qPCR System (Life Technologies, USA) using the RT2 SYBR Green Mastermixes (Qiagen, Germany). Thermal cycling was carried out as follows: (1) 95°C for 600 s, followed by (2) 40 cycles of 15 s at 95°C and 60 s at 60°C. All reactions were repeated three times in each group for each time point. Statistical analyses The threshold reaction cycle (Ct) values obtained for the genes under study were normalized to the Ct-values of the reference genes. Statistical data analysis of the normalized Ct-values was performed using the Relative Expression Software Tool 2009 (REST 2009) v.2.0.13, and Statistica 8.0. Genes with significant changes (p ≤ 0.05) in the mRNA level by 1.5 times or more were considered in the analysis to assess the changes in expression by the action of the test compounds.
Results We studied the effects of Selank and GABA on changes in the mRNA levels of 84 genes involved in neurotransmission in the frontal cortex of rats 1 and 3 h after the intranasal administration of the compounds. The intranasal administration of Selank was shown to be optimal for delivery of peptide molecules in the CNS (Zolotarev et al., 2006; Ashmarin et al., 2008). Preliminary analysis showed that, among the 84 studied genes, seven genes (Csf2, Drd4, Htr3b, Il2, Mmp7, Mmp10, and Npffr2) had a high threshold reaction cycle (Ct > 35), indicating a low content of mRNA in the tissue. Therefore, these genes were excluded from further analysis. Of the remaining 77 genes, summarily 45 genes showed changes in mRNA level 1 h after Selank or GABA administration (Table ). Twenty-five, or more than half of these 45 genes, showed changes in mRNA level after administration of either compound: Abat, Adcy7, Adora1, Bcl2l1, Cacna1a, Cacna1b, Cx3cl1, Drd3, Drd5, Gabrb3, Gabre, Gabrq, HcRt, Hcrtr2, Htr3a, Myc, Npffr1, Nsf, P2rx7, Prlhr, Slc32a1, Slc38a1, Slc6a1, Slc6a11, and Slc8a3. The mRNA level of four genes (Drd1a, Drd2, Ptgs2, and Slc6a13) changed only after Selank administration, and that of 16 genes (Aldh5a1, Birc3, Birc5, Ccnd1, Egr1, Gabbr1, Gabra1, Gabrb1, Gabrd, Gabrg3, Gad1, Glul, Htr1b, Jun, Junb, and Slc6a12) changed only after GABA administration. Table 1 Gene symbol Official full name 1 h 3 h Selank GABA Selank GABA Fold change p-value Fold change p-value Fold change p-value Fold change p-value Subunits of the GABA receptors Gabbr1 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) B receptor 1 0.74 0.0111 0.57* 0.0002 1.36 0.0013 1.19 0.0247 Gabra1 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, alpha 1 1.33 0.0531 1.94* 0.0002 0.73 0.0015 0.93 0.1772 Gabra6 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, alpha 6 1.25 0.4384 1.55 0.0968 0.83 0.1942 7.56* 0.0004 Gabrb1 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, beta 1 1.09 0.1980 1.57* 0.0005 0.94 0.0970 0.82 0.0096 Gabrb3 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, beta 3 1.58* 0.0006 2.07* 0.0009 0.86 0.0211 0.95 0.3392 Gabrd Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, delta 0.81 0.0366 0.37* 0.0015 0.88 0.0807 1.20 0.0479 Gabre Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, epsilon 0.05* 0.000009 0.06* 0.000008 16.10* 0.0002 1.06 0.7443 Gabrg3 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, gamma 3 1.29 0.0147 1.95* 0.0009 0.98 0.5120 1.00 0.9307 Gabrq Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor, theta 0.05* 0.000019 0.05* 0.00002 13.30* 0.00001 1.21 0.2129 Dopamine receptors Drd1a Dopamine receptor D1A 1.98* 0.0037 0.89 0.0762 1.36 0.0003 1.76* 0.0011 Drd2 Dopamine receptor D2 1.60* 0.0002 1.30 0.0001 1.11 0.0040 1.46 0.0001 Drd3 Dopamine receptor D3 3.36* 0.0047 1.96* 0.0061 0.83 0.1832 0.57* 0.0144 Drd5 Dopamine receptor D5 0.40* 0.0065 0.25* 0.0015 1.59* 0.0293 0.93 0.6347 Serotonin receptors Htr1b 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) receptor 1B 0.83 0.1542 0.58* 0.0004 1.59* 0.0090 1.57* 0.0145 Htr3a 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) receptor 3a 0.52* 0.0019 0.38* 0.0011 1.66* 0.0036 1.13 0.1647 Ion channels Cacna1a Calcium channel, voltage-dependent, P/Q type, alpha 1A subunit 0.58* 0.0005 0.43* 0.000003 1.09 0.2884 1.06 0.4953 Cacna1b Calcium channel, voltage-dependent, N type, alpha 1B subunit 0.64* 0.0004 0.33* 0.0086 1.35 0.0068 1.08 0.0782 P2rx7 Purinergic receptor P2X, ligand-gated ion channel, 7 0.53* 0.0004 0.22* 0.000012 1.40 0.0207 1.27 0.039947 Transporters Slc32a1 Solute carrier family 32 (GABA vesicular transporter), member 1 0.50* 0.0025 0.26* 0.0001 1.82* 0.0011 1.32 0.0299 Slc38a1 Solute carrier family 38, member 1 0.65* 0.0010 0.57* 0.0001 1.22 0.0177 1.07 0.3890 Slc6a1 Solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, GABA), member 1 0.41* 0.0010 0.20* 0.0001 1.53* 0.0015 1.29 0.0696 Slc6a11 Solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, GABA), member 11 0.29* 0.000032 0.18* 0.000008 2.29* 0.000018 1.05 0.5046 Slc6a12 Solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, betaine/GABA), member 12 1.31 0.0615 0.39* 0.0024 0.99 0.9666 0.80 0.2473 Slc6a13 Solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, GABA), member 13 1.97* 0.0002 0.69 0.0041 1.04 0.1453 0.88 0.0041 Slc8a3 Solute carrier family 8 (sodium/calcium exchanger), member 3 0.55* 0.0036 0.43* 0.0007 1.67* 0.0006 1.44 0.0055 Other genes involved in neurotransmission Abat 4-aminobutyrate aminotransferase 0.40* 0.0001 0.27* 0.0001 1.65* 0.0019 1.35 0.0493 Adcy7 Adenylate cyclase 7 0.25* 0.0013 0.16* 0.0009 3.21* 0.0004 1.23 0.0073 Adora1 Adenosine A1 receptor 0.57* 0.0011 0.40* 0.0001 1.36 0.0077 1.47 0.0046 Adora2a Adenosine A2a receptor 1.44 0.0026 0.73 0.0149 1.51* 0.0002 2.06* 0.000014 Aldh5a1 Aldehyde dehydrogenase 5 family, member A1 0.68 0.0003 0.56* 0.0001 1.22 0.0080 0.99 0.9439 Bcl2l1 Bcl2-like 1 0.63* 0.0005 0.50* 0.000001 1.32 0.0010 1.11 0.0627 Birc3 Baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 3 1.27 0.0716 0.40* 0.0253 1.33 0.1432 0.93 0.8034 Birc5 Baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 5 1.25 0.0653 1.93* 0.0008 0.73 0.000047 0.80 0.0019 Ccnd1 Cyclin D1 0.70 0.0092 0.43* 0.0006 1.72* 0.0001 1.34 0.0235 Cx3cl1 Chemokine (C-X3-C motif) ligand 1 0.56* 0.0073 0.24* 0.0003 1.42 0.0173 1.50* 0.0200 Egr1 Early growth response 1 1.17 0.0230 0.66* 0.0103 1.10 0.0145 1.21 0.0053 Gad1 Glutamate decarboxylase 1 0.78 0.0021 0.53* 0.0001 1.21 0.0072 1.15 0.0390 Glul Glutamate-ammonia ligase (glutamine synthetase) 1.48 0.0014 1.72* 0.0008 0.82 0.0148 0.95 0.4578 HcRt Hypocretin 0.04* 0.000001 0.02* 0.000001 128.29* 0.000001 1.11 0.4062 Hcrtr2 Hypocretin (orexin) receptor 2 0.45* 0.0018 0.66* 0.0034 1.44 0.0015 1.00 0.9990 Jun Jun oncogene 0.72 0.0010 0.60* 0.0105 0.94 0.1465 0.99 0.5810 Junb Jun B proto-oncogene 0.74 0.0191 0.36* 0.000031 1.45 0.0022 1.51* 0.0091 Myc Myelocytomatosis oncogene 0.59* 0.0005 0.35* 0.0003 1.75* 0.0288 1.83* 0.0015 Npffr1 Neuropeptide FF receptor 1 0.21* 0.0031 0.16* 0.0027 3.09* 0.0004 1.66* 0.0200 Nsf N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor 0.61* 0.0013 0.53* 0.0003 1.30 0.0091 1.26 0.0378 Prlhr Prolactin releasing hormone receptor 0.38* 0.0233 0.13* 0.0083 2.51* 0.000022 1.04 0.4964 Ptgs2 Prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 1.58* 0.0012 1.34 0.0097 0.93 0.0262 1.05 0.1204 The number of genes whose mRNA level changed 29 41 17 9 45 22 Open in a separate window For 23 genes whose expression changed 1 h after administration of either compound, a decrease in the mRNA level was observed. The effect was especially pronounced for three genes: Gabre (20 and 16.7 times for Selank and GABA, respectively), Gabrq (20 and 20 times for Selank and GABA, respectively), and Hcrt (25 and 50 times for Selank and GABA, respectively). An increase in mRNA level was noted only for two genes; the mRNA level of Drd3 increased 3.4 and 2 times after Selank and GABA administration, respectively, and the mRNA level of Gabrb3 increased 1.6 and 2.1 times after Selank and GABA administration, respectively. Of the 16 genes whose expression changed only after GABA administration (1-h time point), 11 showed reduction in mRNA expression, in particular Junb and Gabrd (2.8 and 2.7 times, respectively). For the five genes Birc5, Gabra1, Gabrb1, Gabrg3, and Glul, the increase in mRNA level was no greater than two times compared with that of the control group. The genes whose expression changed only after Selank administration (1-h time point) were characterized by an increase in mRNA level, although not more than 2 times; the mRNA levels of Drd2 and Ptgs2 increased 1.6 times, and those of Drd1a and Slc6a13 increased by 2 times. A different pattern was observed 3 h after Selank or GABA administration. Expression changed in only 22 of the 77 genes selected for the analysis. The mRNA levels of 13 genes (Abat, Adcy7, Ccnd1, Drd5, Gabre, Gabrq, HcRt, Htr3a, Prlhr, Slc32a1, Slc6a1, Slc6a11, and Slc8a3) changed only after Selank administration. The mRNA levels of five genes (Cx3cl1, Drd1a, Drd3, Gabra6, and Junb) changed only after GABA administration. The mRNA levels of four genes (Adora2a, Htr1b, Myc, and Npffr1) changed after administration of either compound (Table ). Level of mRNA increased for all genes except for Drd3, whose mRNA level decreased 1.8 times after GABA administration. Similar to the pattern seen 1 h after Selank administration, at 3 h after administration of this compound, the most pronounced changes in gene expression were observed for Hcrt, Gabre, and Gabrq. At 3 h after Selank administration, the mRNA levels of these genes increased 128.3, 16.1, and 13.3 times, respectively. The mRNA level increased significantly 3 h after GABA administration for only one gene, Gabra6, whose mRNA level increased 7.6 times. The aggregate analysis of all statistically significant data showed that the total number of genes whose mRNA level changed 1 h after administration of the test compounds (45 genes) was more than twice that of the genes whose expression changed after 3 h (22 genes). Most of the genes (76%) showed a decrease in mRNA level 1 h after administration of the test compounds. By contrast, the mRNA level increased in nearly almost all genes (95%) whose expression changed 3 h after administration of the test compounds (Figure ). Open in a separate window Although 1 h after GABA administration, mRNA level changed in a substantial number of genes (53%, 41 of 77 genes), 3 h after GABA administration, the number of genes whose expression changed was reduced to only 9 (12%). In contrast to GABA, Selank affected the expression of fewer genes 1 h after the administration (38%, 29 of 77 genes), but the reduction in the number of genes whose expression changed 3 h after Selank administration was smaller (22%, 17 of 77 genes). Another interesting feature was revealed: at the 1-h time point; 56% of the genes exhibited changed expression regardless of the test compound, whereas the change in expression was selective for one compound for 44% of the genes. A different pattern was seen at the 3 h-time point; only 18% of the genes exhibited changed expression regardless of the test compound, whereas the change in expression of 82% of the genes was selective for one compound (Figure ). Open in a separate window Correlation analysis was performed for those genes whose mRNA level changed significantly after administration of the test compounds. A positive correlation was observed between the changes in gene expression within 1 h after administration of Selank or GABA (r = 0.86; p ≤ 0.05). By contrast, a negative correlation was observed between the changes in gene expression at the 3-h time-point after the administration of Selank or GABA (r = −0.39; p ≤ 0.05).
Discussion Numerous clinical studies have shown that Selank has strong antianxiety and neuroprotective effects in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorders. The clinical effects of Selank are similar to those of the classical antianxiety medications such as benzodiazepines, which are allosteric modulators of GABA A receptors and increase the inhibitory action of GABA (Seredenin et al., 1990, 1998). This suggests that the molecular mechanism of action of Selank arises from its ability to affect GABA receptors. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the changes in the mRNA levels of 84 genes encoding proteins related to the functioning of the GABAergic system, as well as those of proteins involved in neurotransmission in the frontal cortex of rats 1 and 3 h after the administration of Selank or GABA. Our results suggest that Selank is able to directly influence the expression of genes involved in neurotransmission in nerve cells, and similar changes in the expression of these genes are also observed when GABA is administered. This is supported by the strong positive correlation between the changes in the expression of 45 genes 1 h after the Selank or GABA administration. However, the match between the expression profiles of these genes is not perfect. Thus, in addition to the 25 genes affected by either of the test compounds, GABA but not Selank affected the mRNA level of another 16 genes 1 h after administration. This difference in the number of genes whose expression changed suggests that Selank acts not directly through the center of the specific binding of GABA, but rather allosterically by altering the affinity of the GABA receptor for GABA. Previously, it was shown that Selank is able to affect the specific binding of GABA to its own receptors, which may be caused by modulating properties of regulatory peptide, which apparently change the affinity of endogenous ligands under the influence of Selank on the receptor (V'Yunova et al., 2014). We can assume that the observed similarity of expression profiles of our study genes after administration of Selank and GABA partly confirms the hypothesis about the possible effect of the peptide through the regulation of the activity of GABA A receptors. We note that, compared with the 1-h time point, there was a sharp decrease at 3 h in the number of genes whose expression changed after exposure to GABA. The large number of genes whose mRNA level changed 1 h after GABA administration suggests that rapid effects were caused by binding of GABA to GABA A receptors. This binding leads to the opening of ion channels in the nerve cell membrane of and the subsequent entry of chloride ions through the channels (MacDonald and Olsen, 1994). The absence of significant changes 3 h after GABA administration may be associated with a gradual decrease in the activity of the major elements of the GABAergic system. In contrast to GABA, a significant reduction in the number of genes whose expression changed 3 h after Selank administration was not observed. This suggests that Selank activates alternative processes, which cause delayed changes in the expression of certain genes that do not relate directly to the operation of the GABAergic system but at the same time contribute to the activation of certain genes involved in its operation. Interestingly, the mRNA levels of four genes (Drd1a, Drd2, Ptgs2, and Slc6a13) altered only under the influence of Selank at the 1-h time point. Intriguing results were obtained in relation to Slc6a13, which encodes the low-affinity transporter of the GABA GAT-2. GAT-2 plays a key role in peripheral mechanisms involved in the work of GABAergic system and is also responsible for the redistribution and metabolism of drugs, which can affect the operation of the GABAergic system (Schlessinger et al., 2012). Thus, activation of the carrier only after exposure to Selank suggests the presence of an alternative path of action of the peptide on the distribution of peripheral GABA. Drd2 and Drd1a encode dopamine receptors, which are associated with G-protein and are involved in the regulation of adenylate cyclase activity, thereby mediating intracellular signal transduction (Beaulieu and Gainetdinov, 2011). The activation of Drd5 expression at the 3-h time point was observed only for Selank. Drd5 encodes the dopamine receptor, which plays a key role in the formation of memory and learning processes by ensuring long-term potentiation (Beaulieu and Gainetdinov, 2011). Activation of this gene by Selank at early and later times suggests an ability of the peptide to influence processes involved in synaptic plasticity and thereby render nootropic action. It has been shown previously that Selank modulates dopamine and serotonin receptors, which play a role in the stimulation of mental activity and in the pathogenesis of anxiety (Meshavkin et al., 2006). Of particular interest is the significant change in the mRNA level of Hcrt 3 h after Selank administration. This gene encodes a precursor of orexins and is involved in the regulation of the balance between sleep and wakefulness (Ohno and Sakurai, 2008). Kolomin et al. have shown that the mRNA level of the Hcrt increases after a single administration of Selank (Kolomin et al., 2013). The presence of this significant effect of Selank suggests that the peptide has an active effect on the balance between sleep and wakefulness, and that the change in the expression of Hcrt may be in the foundation of the normalizing effect Selank has on the balance of sleep patterns in patients with general anxiety disorders. The observed changes may also explain the lack of hypnosedative action of Selank, which is common for classical benzodiazepines |
Final Specs & Price TBD
Shipping Q4 2015
One of the biggest advantages of the OZO over anything else is that it's supposed to make shooting VR in real-time quite a bit easier, with a way to view low-quality playback of the stereoscopic 3D image on set right after you've shot it. Here's more from Nokia:
OZO captures stereoscopic 3D video through eight (8) synchronized global shutter sensors and spatial audio through eight (8) integrated microphones. Software built for OZO enables real-time 3D viewing, with an innovative playback solution that removes the need to pre-assemble a panoramic image - a time-consuming process with solutions currently in the marketplace.
OZO's filmed content can be published for commercially available VR viewing hardware such as head mounted displays (HMDs), with immersive, full 360-degree imaging and spatially accurate original sound. OZO also integrates into existing professional workflows and works with third-party tools, dramatically simplifying content production at all stages.
It remains to be seen how quickly VR will take hold for the general public. Clearly there are a number of companies putting in some serious time, money, and resources into developing VR solutions, so the field is definitely going to get more interesting over the next few years.
For more on the OZO, head on over to the Nokia page. We should find out more in the next few months as the release date nears.Worried that former HP CEO Mark Hurd might not know what to do with himself after getting caught falsifying expense reports to hide girl #2 and being forced to resign? Don't be: ol' Mark's getting a $12,224,693 severance payment in exchange for agreeing not to sue HP. Yep, Mark Hurd just got $12 million in cash for fraudulently filing expense reports to conceal his mistress -- not a bad trick if you can pull it off, we suppose. (We don't know how much he'll have to pay back, but we're guessing he'll have a little cash left over.) Oh, and he's also having his option to buy 775,000 shares of HP stock extended to September, which is pretty groovy considering HP actually upped its quarterly forecast today, some other assorted stock-related compensation, and 18 months of health and dental benefits. Whoever said a little white collar crime doesn't pay?
Update: CNBC has sources claiming the total value of Hurd's severance including stocks is closer to $40-50 million, give or take. That's... well, that's a lot of ink cartridges.Welcome back to Behind Closed Ovens, where we take a look at the best and strangest stories from inside the food industry. This week, we're bringing you a special Behind Closed Ovens about all the times food workers are forced to work while sick. As always, these are real comments from real readers.
After last week's post about Elizabeth Taft, Texas Subway employee forced to continue working while violently ill then fired for taking an ambulance to the hospital, I received tons of comments from people who've worked in the food industry who've been forced to work sick. In some cases it was because they had bills to pay, but in the vast majority (as you'll see below), it's the same situation as Taft's: managers told them to come in and work or be fired, giving basically no shits about the public health dangers involved.
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krystolla:
I'm in Ohio, worked in a grocery store bakery. The written policy was "don't come in if you are sick", the actual policy was more like "Unless you are dead, you better be here." So I worked with flu, bronchitis, migraines and laryngitis — and was still raked over the coals for taking too many sick days. It should be criminal for public health reasons, if not humanitarian ones, but this is the US where illness is a bad choice made by the patient.
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Sailor Jupiter:
This is why people with chronic illness find it nearly impossible to hold down jobs. I once had a very similar situation when working in retail (I was in the middle of a flare and ended up fainting in the women's room and being taken to the ER) and while my boss didn't fire me, he did tell me if I called out again I would likely be replaced. But nothing beats the one job fired me because I told them I would need to take a few days (like 3) off to start chemotherapy.
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RegularParrot:
My favorite people are the customers who can see that you are sick, and give you shade for working and possibly getting them sick. As if a lot of service industry workers have much of a choice in the matter. You either get in trouble for phoning in sick, or you are pressured to come in no matter how sick you are, or you can't afford to give up the shift you have because it's 8 hours of money that you really need. There is no way to win. Somehow you are always in the wrong.
The Queen:
I was talking to my husband and his bff about this, since they both worked at McDonald's as teenagers. If you're sick, even contagiously sick, you still have to come in or you can be fired for missing your shift. Then if you cough, which you might do if you're sick, you get written up for improper food safety. So yeah, it's a no-win.
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Afternoon Delight:
Almost the exact thing happened to me. I was working at a cheap sushi restaurant and got food poisoning in the middle of my shift. I began vomiting over and over, about twice an hour. I was literally running in and out of the bathroom between taking orders because I couldn't stop, I was so ill. What did my manager say when I asked if I could go home? He said no, we were short staffed because he'd already let a girl go home because she'd stayed up too late the night before doing cocaine. It took 4 hours from the point I started vomiting for him to finally let me leave, and he demanded I apologize to all my coworkers for "making them work harder". Btw I didn't even make it the 6 block walk home without vomiting in the gutter. I didn't get fired right away, but I mysteriously stopped getting shifts about two weeks later despite being the oldest and most experienced server (at 20 years old, btw). Fuck the way restaurant workers are treated in this country.
Wolffia Anguste:
I worked at Islands when I was 17, and one day I came in with strep throat. I didn't know I was sick because whenever I get a fever, I go on autopilot and I don't realize I'm sick. However, my sister visited me at work and informed me that I was working with my eyes half-closed. Anyway, I worked through the day, and then the next day, when I couldn't swallow, I called my manager, in horrible pain, crying, and told her I was too sick to come in. She could barely understand me because of the strep, but she said I would have to call around to get my shift covered, or come in. Nobody would cover my shift (it was my unofficial job to cover everyone else's shift—raise your hand if you're always this person, too!), so I worked that day. The day after that, I woke up again, crying, but this time I had pink eye in both eyes. I called my manager and she said if I did't get a doctor's note to excuse me from work, I'd be fired. So I went to the doctor who told me that strep, if untreated, turns into pink eye, and if you continue to ignore it, it would turn into scarlet fever. Luckily, the doctor's note got me out of the day of work, but my boss certainly didn't care that I would have been walking around with strep and two oozing eyes, serving burgers and drinks.
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happyornot:
I was once incredibly ill at my place of employment (I was 19 at the time). I'd been vomiting off and on and only keeping down yellow Powerade. I requested to go home and was not allowed. At one point I had to run to the bathroom to use the toilet (both ends were going at this point). While I was on the toilet, I felt the urge to vomit. Not being able to hold it down, I sprayed yellow Powerade all over the bathroom stall through my fingers. At that point, I just said "deuces" and left. Turns out I had a severe case of mono and had to be hospitalized for a week. The next day my mom tried to call them and let them know that I wouldn't be in since I was hospitalized. They told her I needed to call myself. She told them to get fucked. Some employers are absolute shit.
buechelh:
This reminds me of the time I worked a 10 am Sunday morning brunch shift, after a 4-2am shift Saturday evening (which I did every weekend), at the place I worked the entire time while getting my undergrad degree. I was so sick that I was laying curled up on the prep table in the back kitchen with my coworkers jacket covering me, obviously with a miserable case of food poisoning. My boss wouldn't let me leave early, even though I only had 2 tables during my 5 hour shift. Of course this is the same jerk who wouldn't let me leave when the underwire of my bra broke because he thought it was funny that I had to work without a bra (there was a kohls 2min down the road that I could have run to to get a new one if he would have let me go on break), and said in front of me to the GM 'have you hired any pretty girls yet? Ones that don't have tattoos??' Ugh. So glad I'm through that part of my life!! Restaurant work (can be really fun sometimes) is generally awful!
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go-go-chocobo:
Got a job working at Safeway once. I got a really bad case of food poisoning (along with the rest of my family) and called in the night before to let my manager know that I wouldn't be in the next day. Manager's response? "Well, you don't sound sick to me. Be here tomorrow at 9am". I contemplated showing up and deliberately puking on the manager's shoes, but in the end I decided that it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the staff and just stayed home.
catslightly:
Not surprised. I came down with the flu once when I was working at a cafe and they told me I couldn't leave. When a customer complained that I was clearly ill, my manager just moved me to the kitchen so the customers couldn't see me infecting them all.
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Sibby:
My first job I was told to keep working after just having thrown up in a sink.
oeffoff:
It's a joke that food service workers are forbidden by law to work when they're sick. I've had several food service jobs and any time I tried to call in sick the manager told me to take some benadryl or pepto and suck it up or don't bother coming in when I recover. Especially on days when they anticipate a lot of customers.
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Cajun Ginger:
One of my kids was sick and fainted at a retail job. Her coworkers stepped over her. When she came to she was expected to work the rest of her shift.
SarahJaneMay:
Because all they care about are their metrics and numbers. I have a medical disorder and have to get IV infusions every few weeks and I had to go out of my way to learn how to self infuse because my job wouldn't let me have ANY time off to get them done. Then, I'd rush over to the clinic during my 30 minute lunch, they'd stick a 2" needle in my chest (portacath) and I'd run back to work the rest of my shift and then go home and infuse my medication. Of course, this is the same place that fired me when I was in the hospital for 9 days because I nearly died of multiple organ failure.
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abettergrift:
I don't often get sick but when I do it is a brutal soul destroying affair. I had to work through half a shift, most of which was spent sitting in a chair near the changing room, because my manager didn't want me to leave. Predatory business is awful.
quagmire:
And those same managers do not get the irony when they force you to sign something saying you will not come to work when you are sick and contagious. I had a few managers like that, and they got so mad one year when we refused to sign the thing from corporate. "They don't want me to work when I'm vomiting, but you will fire me if I don't come in? YOU CAN'T DO IT BOTH WAYS!"
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milohoops:
I waitressed once in a loud bar/club and completely lost my voice. We share tables there and it was the other waitresses first night, but I basically had her talk to all the tables and I would just drop things off. When customers did ask me things I basically had to mime or just try to speak if they could even hear me at all.
marfar:
So this one time there was a raw sewage spill (my store was in a mall; that plumbing backed up like ALL THE TIME), and was forced to stay with a supervisor whilst HAZMAT cleaned it up. Because, you know, a cashier totally is important in that situation. I showed up to work the next day with pinkeye in both damn eyes, got sent home, and got written up for skipping my next two shifts. Because retail is the American Dream, and don't let any commie lesbian pinko nazi socialist Kenyan tell you otherwise.
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Alexa:
I worked at a restaurant near the college campus and was supposed to work a double on game day. Doubles at this place could be 15 hours without a break. Huge two story restaurant. Not easy work. Anyway, my skin is basically grey and I feel like asshole so I tell me manager at the beginning of the day oh god please let me go I'm dying. "We really need you Alexa, tough it out for us." I went to the bathroom, put on a ton of makeup, and tried not to cough at my tables, working a LONG, exhausting shift. I called out the next day. And the next four days. Because whatever had been coming on, due to the exertion and lack of food turned into full blown pneumonia.
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7punchkicker:
Subway is awful to work for. My boyfriend worked there for a while and then last winter, which was quoted as being the worst in 100 years in MI, it snowed so hard we couldn't get the door open because snow was piled so high, and it was still snowing. His manager had been at work since before it started snowing but she only lived a couple of miles away anyway (we lived about half an hour away).. he called in to give 5 hours notice that he couldn't get there. She told him she'd call him back.. called him 5 minutes before his shift started and told him if he wasn't there to not bother coming in because he'd be fired. Subway is the kind of corporation where it's fine to fire someone for not being a robot/having magic powers.
Ch_eekyGirl:
This reminds me of the time I was working as a server during college. I got food poisoning from a bad sandwich that my restaurant made me. It was so bad I had to go to the ER. I was out for a week and when I called in to check what my shifts would be, they proceeded to tell me that I didn't have any and I should call in next week to check in. Later I found out that when I was at the ER I told the nurse where I worked and how I probably got sick. Being so dehydrated and zonked out I don't really remember telling any of this. One thing lead to another and the Health Inspectors paid a visit, while I was out, and voila I'm the one without the job. Zoom a couple of years later when I tried to file for Unemployment and was rejected due to the fact this place stated that I was the one who quit. Since it was a lot of "he said, she said" there wasn't anything I could to do to contest it. So much UGH and totally feel for this woman and all retail/food employees.
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quagmire:
I once had some kind of flu or virus or whatever. I couldn't keep anything down (or in) for like 3 days. I had gone to the doctor and had a note. She had said, "it's clearly a virus, it's going around, go to the ER if you need to, come back if you're not better in 3 days." So I call out. This was the only time I EVER called out at this restaurant - and I worked there for 5 years. (Twice a week, so it's easy to not call out...) The manager tries to threaten me about needing a doctor's note dated for today or earlier - it was a Saturday, I guess he figured I wouldn't call his bluff and go to the ER, and I couldn't get to a regular doctor over the weekend. "Oh, I already have one, I went yesterday afternoon." "You're lying," he says smugly. "If you went to the doctor, they would have put you on antibiotics." "Um. Not for a virus, because antibiotics are for bacterial infections. And I think you overestimate their effectiveness. Antibiotics, when they are prescribed correctly, aren't going to cure anything in 15 hours."
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acornprincess:
This reminds me of one of my roommates in undergrad who worked at the dining hall - She somehow got pink eye and tried to call out sick after going to the doctor, since, you know, pink eye is hella contagious. They said she couldn't and that they would just keep her in the back on dishwashing duties so she would be "out of sight"...like, as long as the other students didn't see her inflamed, seeping eye as they were being served their fucking turkey tetrazzini all would be well. Anyway, there was a subsequent MAJOR breakout of pink eye. Enough so that the President of the university had to send out a campus-wide email about it outlining tips/directions about what to do to prevent the spread and how to get treatment. Fucking ridiculous.
skittish:
I can't tell you how many times I've worked with people who should NOT be at work but they can't afford to take a day off, or another call-out would get them a write up. Where I work they don't want a doctor's note unless you're sick for 3 days. Other than that it's an unexcused absence, regardless. I've seen people work with food between running to the bathroom to puke or have diarrhea. I've seen people cough directly into food when they were sick. I've seen people who could barely stand up. And this is in a place where we have to wear gloves. Most places don't even require that. It sucks to feel like shit and have to count back and figure out if you're out of the woods between your last absence or if you could get a write up for just being sick too much in a crappy winter where there's a lot of shit going around.
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katieriot:
My best friend since middle school had been working for Dominos pizza for three years up until a month ago. She had been extremely ill for about 6+ months prior, and never had time to see a doctor since they worked her full time (honestly I think they overworked her) as a manager to the drivers while often delivering food herself since employees didn't show up for work, randomly quit, or were fired. So this past winter while being sick she drove in ice and snow since most of the employees didn't show. Believe it or not, people order tons of pizza when the weather is terrible, not thinking about the hazards the driver faces. They never shut down the store, so she would deliver pizzas until 11pm on icy roads to rich motherfuckers who didn't tip. (Note: the $1.50 delivery fee tacked on your bill doesn't go to the drivers, so tip them. They also don't get extra money to pay for wear and tear on own their vehicles which are used to deliver. Can't tell you how many times she almost lost her job, because she couldn't fix her car). They constantly denied her days off to go to the doctor, even scheduling over the appointments she told them she made. She was too afraid to tell them no, because she would be fired. But she finally did put her foot down and begged for four hours off one day to go to a doctor's appointment. She had to do this a couple more times since they sent her to specialists, and they allowed it, because she was practically disabled with spinal pain, stomach cramps, and more. She found out she has a mass starting in her abdomen and growing into her lungs. It's hard to see the other organs, but they're pressing into her spine. 95% of her reproductive organs seem to be consumed by it. She went to her manager, told him the news. He said she could take medical leave since her surgury was scheduled this coming week. It was shocking since medical leave in a minimum wage job is a rare fucking bird. A few days later, they called and fired her. Now she's basically wondering if she'll be able to keep her insurance (not through work insurance. Private and due to cost). She has a long road ahead health wise. I don't fucking understand how they do this to people. She was already afraid of dying on the table, and now she's afraid of dying, because she can't pay up front costs for treatment.
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NicDaMone:
I got very ill when I was 16, and ended up collapsing while attending the fitting room at a mall store. My manager told me to go to the food court and get a Sprite. Instead, called my parents, who are nurses, luckily they had the day off, and came to pick me up and drive my car home. The manager threatened to fire me then and there, and my parents said that was illegal. Wish I could have fought more, but was too sick to fight.
MouthyFishwife:
Back when I was waiting tables, I woke up with a stomach bug one morning and did the proper thing and called in for my closing shift so they'd have time to find a sub. "But you weren't sick last night...." was the response I got from my GM. I couldn't find anyone to sub for me and was told that unless I came in with a doctor's note, which would have necessitated a saturday trip to the emergency room with the sham they were calling health insurance, so I would have lost my wages along with the ridiculous emergency room bill, I could find a new job. Needless to say, I ended up working and was so disgustingly sick looking, I'm surprised that customers didn't complain. The icing on the cake came when no one would switch shifts with me and I still had to close, which was at 2am. I just stopped taking tables once things died down and hung out under the warming lamps trying to get warm.
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Mag:
I've had a similar thing happen, twice at an ex retail job. The first time I got violent food poisoning, and essentially was at the hospital the night before. I called in the next morning, an hour before my shift (hey I was sick) and told them I left the hospital late and was horribly sick. "Well, we need you today. I'm not saying you'll get fired, but you won't get anymore hours." So I got dressed slowly and sobbing the entire way (I was 18), and went to work. Basically I hid in the largest changing room we had and tried to keep myself from puking. I found out the only way to get off sick (when I really needed it, during a food poisoning) was to say you had pink eye. Holy crap no one wanted you there.
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SK_AllTheWay:
When I was in college and was bartending at a chain restaurant, I can down with strep throat so severe the doctor wanted to hospitalize me. Obviously my manager was totally sympathetic — I believe his response was "If you don't come in don't ever come back." So I didn't and just quit the restaurant biz for good.
circlegirl:
I was feeling pretty sick one Saturday and couldn't find anyone to cover my wait shift at a pretty well known restaurant, where I knew it would be a very busy night. I called the manager & he said I had to come in. I did, but was sweating, feeling nauseated, and week throughout the night. I kept putting cool rags on my neck when I was in the kitchen. At some point, I was entering an order on the system in the kitchen next to the manager's office, and I couldn't hold it anymore, so I hurled into a trash can, with the manager watching. He pulled someone from bussing to cover my tables, and shut my section down. It was the end of the night anyway. He handled my cash out & tip out. I walked out of there with a 1/3 of what I would normally make & was there the entire night. It was just a 24 hour bug thankfully, because I didn't have health insurance. I know one of the managers was ill, but I wonder how many customers also got sick.
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yammadabba:
When I was waitressing eons ago, I was told by the head waitress, and the more experienced ones, that if we ever called in sick, we would be fired. I had the flu, and first called in sick, then came in anyway. I wonder how many people I infected that day, so that the stupid diner could make a few extra bucks in profit.
jennnnn:
I once worked super sick through my lunch shift and went to a minute clinic on break for a strep culture. Came back positive, with a dr's note, and my boss sat and watched me call everyone off that evening to cover my shift. No one would so I sat and cried, feeling terrible, sick, and defeated, and shaking from my fever. Finally after watching me crumble he said go home. What a dick.
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yourstruly:
Same thing happened to me in college. Super sick after the boss made me "test" the water that was clearly pored from the wrong sick by another employee. I ended up having to get my tonsils out because of the infection and was promptly fired because I was so sick that I couldn't stand at the hostess table..when there was no customers in the whole restaurant.
thekickinside:
yeah, one of my old jobs i had to work even when i was violently ill. i had to give manicures and pedicures to people covered in sweat and wearing a ventilation/sick mask that was collecting snot and mucus and it was dripping outside my mask and even on the floor. suprising thing, lots of customers don't care if you're that sick and working. just like "um... can't you go faster?"
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pugbug:
Our main cook when I worked at Perkins would come in sick (running a fever, pale skin, and sweating kind of sick) because we didn't have sick time. He had a baby girl to feed so what the hell was he suppose to do? I remember serving the food he cooked and just crossing my fingers none of our customers got sick. Our management knew they just didn't care.
LauraK:
I was fired in 1993 for getting into a car accident on my way into work for my scheduled shift. (It was not my fault...I was hit by a drunk driver) As I was knocked unconscious and spent hours in x-rays and getting my two broken bones set...and this was before cell phones, I was unable to call into work to alert them to what had happened until many hours later. They fired me for being a "no-call/no-show". That's what happens when you work in what they call a "Right-to-work" state. Technically...they don't have to give you any reason at all. Sounds more like a No-Right-To-Work state to me!
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AmyS:
I once fainted while waiting tables. I woke up in the mangers office, finished my shift and went to the clinic the next day. I had bronchitis. I was contagious. I was told to stay home for a week. I got fired.
susieq18:
This is pretty par for the course for fast food workers. When I was working at KFC, I slipped and fell on some grease and fractured my wrist. It immediately started to swell and was turning purple. I went to my manager holding my wrist and in tears asking permission to go to the doctor. He looked me dead in the eye and said only if I could find someone to finish my shift for me.
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rentaduckie:
This happened to my brother-in-law when he worked at Chick-Fil-A. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, because he was going to throw up. He was told no. So he threw up all over the floor, and they still tried to keep him working. Reason #58708 that I no longer eat at Chick-Fil-A.
Genevieve:
When I was a senior in high school I worked at Ben & Jerrys. I had been there about 2 weeks when I came down with a cold or the flu, I don't remember exactly but I was definitely sick. I called to say I couldn't come in because I was sick but they said, if you don't come in then don't come back at all. So I came in but hardly said anything & tried to stick to cleaning so I wouldn't have to deal with customers or food. Next day I got fired. The 2 adult managers said I had acted too stuck up the previous day. And then they said I needed to bring in my B&J shirts or they would take it out of my paycheck. Being 17 I didn't realize all of this was illegal. To this day I still hate Ben & Jerrys. A bunch of fake hippies.
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heart_of_pyrite:
I work in food service. I am uninsured. I have gone to work while vomiting. I have gone to work with two torn eardrums. I have gone to work after being up all night shitting blood.And I took care to wash my hands like a fiend, wear double gloves the entire time and change them constantly, etc (which I know doesn't make everything entirely safe, I KNOW, I was TRYING). I am typically the only person on my shift, meaning if I call in sick at the last minute, the place either literally doesn't operate for a day—it's an inn—or a groggy co-worker comes in well after my shift is supposed to start and breakfast is an hour late. Which has never happened. Because I don't have sick leave, and no matter how many times other commenters have to chime in just to tell me how gross/irresponsible/horrible I am for it, I have gone to work sick because I couldn't afford the day off. Thankfully I'm not in that financial situation anymore (I can afford to take a day off here or there if needed), but seriously. It's like the words "can't afford" go right in and right back out of their righteous, angry little ears. Yes, I understand that you catch everything. Yes, I understand that I am endangering the elderly. Sorry. I really am. When I was shitting my life out, I really wanted to stay home, believe me, but rent is rent and it had to get paid. Take it up with your state legislator, not me.
LadySparrow:
I came into my food service job one morning sick as all hell. Puking every few minutes, barely able to stand. Our bathroom was upstairs, and i could barely drag myself up there. I told my sous chef I really needed to go home before I threw up all over the kitchen and/or got someone sick. Seemed reasonable. He told me to pull a trash can up to my station. I've never felt the same about eating in a restaurant since.
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brick frog:
I tried to call in sick because I had gone into anaphylactic shock the night before and was still reeling and puffy. My boss actually thought "Anaphylactic Shock" was a nightclub. She fired me later that day.
Pele:
Not gonna lie one of my best memories is of a girl at my old job begging to go home because of stomach bug of course being told no way once she got a whiff of the tuna she puked on the line and then sat down on the floor and puked violently in a trash can for like 20min. All during the lunch rush, asshole manager had to give out a shit ton of gift cards, send the girl home, and face down the 15/20 lawyers that basically loved her.
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musicmom2x:
insubordination sounds suspiciously like 'performance issues' something I suddenly had less than 4weeks after my boss discovering I was pregnant.... I honestly don't know how these people sleep at night but I know they have the presidential suite reserved in hell....
liddyg:
My husband works in the restaurant industry and worked for 2montbs straight without a day off, so sick he could not function. We skipped my family Christmas dinner so I could take him to the emergency room where we found out he'd been working with walking pneumonia and strep. Because Christmas was literally the only day he'd had off since November. Food service labor policies are beyond fucked up.
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ewitatutie:
I had to go in to work at Chipotle (7am) to try and find someone to cover my shift (at 10am) WHEN I HAD PNEUMONIA - instead of going to the doctor to get meds for pneumonia. I ended up looking at my manager after not finding someone, saying "sorry" and I walked out. I was back less than two hours later with a doctors note saying I couldn't work for 1 week. He shoved me out the door and said "we have to decontaminate everything! Why did you come in this morning?" Well, motherfucker, because of corporate policy stating that I had to cover my shift or work it myself unless I had a doctors note. And seriously? He almost fired me for not finding someone to cover my shift anyway.
gogogadgetlantern:
I can tell everyone who's using that "forbidden by law to work" thing to make themselves feel better that's it's a CROCK OF SHIT, and sick people are making and serving your food all the time in order to keep their jobs. Keep that in mind next time you pretend food service employees are treated so well. I had a friend work with a raging staph infection because he would have been fired for not coming in, and he handled a lot of cash and beverages. It's not up to the employee to choose the customers over their livelihood, it's up to the managers and owners to make that a reasonable decision. *Edited to say- I've worked a lot of food service/customer service jobs and I get it- nobody wants paid sick leave for their grunts. Whatever, I don't even expect that. Just don't FUCKING FIRE PEOPLE because they're in the hospital.
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KalasinMeatha:
When I worked for the Root Bear [in Canada], I had a manager that flat-out refused to accept my sick call and made me come in to work. What was I sick with? Strep throat. I could not even talk, and I had to spend the next 8 hours running a drive-thru.
None of these are isolated incidents; this is a clear trend. This is what happens when employees are forced to work when sick or face losing their job. These are the people who handle your food and your retail products, and they have no choice but to work while ill. If you're looking for someone to blame, it's pretty clear that the companies, managers, and owners who don't give a crap whether they make their customers sick are to blame. If you're going to get mad, I can't see a better place to start than there.
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Do you have a crazy restaurant story you'd like to see appear in Behind Closed Ovens? Please e-mail [email protected] with "Behind Closed Ovens" in the subject line (or you can find me on Twitter @EyePatchGuy).
Image via Halfpoint/Shutterstock.A brutal cold weather front bringing freezing temperatures across Eastern and Central Europe -- one which has resulted in dozens of deaths so far -- hardly seems like ideal marketing material. But one advertising agency has risked a frosty reception from its client by linking their product to the current high pressure weather system causing the frigid conditions. The weather system has been dubbed Cooper, named after the Mini Cooper, a car made by Mini Deutschland.
And there's more to come -- at some point in the future, a low pressure front will be dubbed Minnie. But only after Julia, Katarzyna and Lucina, of course.
The names were requested by the Sassenbach advertising agency in Munich, where Mini's parent company BMW is based, according to Paul Heger from the Institute for Meteorology at the Free University (FU) in Berlin. The institute runs an "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme, whereby the public can become "weather Godfathers" by giving a name to high and low pressure systems.
It's a simple process -- you can go online and sponsor a high for 299 ($394) or a low for 199 ($262), with the difference in price due to the fact that high pressure systems stay on the weather map for longer. The sponsor puts forward a name which must be acknowledged by the German registry office as an acceptable first name. Hyphenated names and special characters (barring German umlauts) are banned. That means company or product names are only accepted if they are also first names, as is the case with Minnie and Cooper. The sponsor also receives detailed material, including weather maps, charting the "life story" of the weather system.
Adopt-a-Vertex has been running since 2002, and the money raised helps fund weather monitoring carried out by meteorology students at the FU. The institute is the only one outside the US which names weather systems, and has been doing so since 1954.
A "Wind- and Weather-Proof Idea"
Highs are given male names and lows female names in even years, and vice versa in odd years. Each year |
King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud wrote a four-page letter calling on the royal family to hold an emergency meeting to address concerns that the House of Saud may be losing its grip on power.
“We [have] got closer and closer to the fall of the state and the loss of power,” the letter read.
“We appeal to all the sons of King Abdulaziz – from the eldest Prince Bandar to the youngest Prince Muqrin – to summon an emergency meeting with all the family to discuss the situation and do everything that is need to save the country.”
The letter was signed “a descendant of the King Abdulaziz of the House of Saud”. MEE spoke to the letter’s author, who confirmed he is a grandson of Abdulaziz, but asked not to be named for fear of negative repercussions.
The document has been carefully circulated among princes, using secure means of mobile communication, because royal family members are under surveillance by those in power, the letter’s author said.
Generational change and power politics
King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud established the modern state of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Since his death in 1953, the country has been ruled by his sons but this is expected to change when the incumbent King Salman’s rule ends, as the heir to the throne Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is a grandson of Abdulaziz.
This generational shift in Saudi Arabia – despite 13 of Abdulaziz’s sons still being alive – is likely to have been the source of much debate among royals, leading to the letter being written, a regional expert told MEE.
“The most important recent development in Saudi Arabia has been the transition occurring within al-Saud itself in terms of moving from the sons of Abdulaziz to the grandsons,” said Christian Koch, director of the Saudi-funded Gulf Research Centre.
“It is not at all surprising that in light of these changes there is debate going on in the royal family about its future direction.”
The letter partly represents a generational conflict within al-Saud and comes after powerful wings of the family battled for supremacy in the aftermath of the late King Abdullah’s death this January.
The zero-sum game of Saudi politics was exemplified then by the newly anointed King Salman replacing his predecessor’s men with his own people – including the powerful head of the royal court Khalid al-Tuwaijri who was switched for his Salman's inexperienced 30-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman.
It later emerged that during Abdullah’s final hours, Tuwaijri tried to secure his own position and the second generation of Saudi’s rulers by contriving to have Abdullah’s son Prince Meteb made deputy crown prince – the position now enjoyed by Salman’s son Mohammed. This attempt failed, but not before Tuwaijri also tried to have Salman declared mentally unfit to rule.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz (AFP)
Foreign policy and financial crises
The letter, which is set in this context of internal House of Saud power struggles, claims problems began 10 years ago under Abdullah. It argues the need to bring back older members of the Saud dynasty by criticising “totally miscalculated” military decisions in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, claiming that these choices have "weakened the trust of our people and [incited] other peoples against us".
There have been a series of sharp changes in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy since Salman took over from Abdullah. Under the late king, Riyadh was understood to view the Muslim Brotherhood and its various offshoots as being enemy number one in the region.
This policy led to Saudi advisors reportedly being in touch with Houthi militiamen in Yemen, who they viewed as a being a bulwark against the local Brotherhood affiliate al-Islah. Under Salman, however, countering Iranian influence is viewed as a key policy priority, and, as such, his defence minister son in March launched a regional coalition against the Houthis, a group viewed by Arab Gulf states as being backed by regional rival Iran.
The war in Yemen, whilst gaining some achievements in pushing the Houthis out of southern areas of the country, has not been a shining success for Saudi Arabia. Dozens of Saudi soldiers have been killed amid an ongoing air and ground campaign, and the Houthis remain in control of the capital Sanaa, while there are reports of skirmishes inside Saudi Arabia by invading Houthis.
Meanwhile in Syria and Iraq, Riyadh joined the US-led coalition to bomb the Islamic State (IS) group in September last year, under the leadership of Abdullah. Since then the kingdom has seen IS claim deadly attacks on the minority Shia community and the government has claimed to have arrested hundreds of the group's supporters across the country.
Also in Syria the Saudi leadership has actively supported rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad, in a civil war where more than 220,000 people have been killed.
As with Yemen, there is currently little to suggest that in Syria Saudi Arabia is close to achieving its military goals. Assad still retains control over swathes of the country, with the international community increasingly distracted by tackling IS, which appears to be no weaker than when the US-led coalition started bombing the group last year.
The royal letter penned by a grandson of Abdulaziz also pointed to financial challenges facing al-Saud, referencing a collapse in oil prices that over the past 12 months has seen the price of a barrel plummet from $120 to less than $50. The impact on the Gulf state, which relies on oil revenues for 90 percent of its income, has been stark – a Citibank analyst recently told MEE that this year the government would have a 20-percent gap between revenue and planned spending, leaving it with one of the largest fiscal deficits in the world.
This deficit has led to Riyadh plundering its sizable currency reserves to prop up spending. In the first half of 2015 the government spent $82bn of reserves, reducing savings to around $650bn, according to Saudi investment company Jadwa. With over 10 percent of currency reserves spent in six months the Citibank analyst warned that, without borrowing, the country’s savings could run dry within two or three years.
The scale of the country’s problems – both militarily and financially – led to the grandson of the country’s founder writing that change at the top may be necessary to protect al-Saud’s future as rulers.
“We will not be able to stop the draining of money, the political adolescence, and the military risks unless we change the methods of decision making, even if that implied changing the king himself,” the letter read.
A well-connected Saudi dissident who lives in London told MEE that the letter is evidence of the royal family recognising the seriousness of the crises ahead.
“There is an awareness in the mind of al-Saud that there is something going wrong and that it needs to be faced,” the dissident, who is in regular contact with royal family members, said on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.
“This is a wakeup call to stop the collapse.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (AFP)
Plotting a change at the top
The source said the royal family broadly falls into two camps when considering how to deal with their problems. On one side there are those who do not wish to raise any problems as they fear open disagreement may weaken themselves in the eyes of the public. On the other side there are royals who believe silence will lead to total collapse.
The letter suggested a solution for al-Saud to strengthen their position by returning power to older members of the family who have been side-lined under King Salman. The new ruler has favoured new, younger members of the family close to him – with Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef replacing the youngest of Abdulaziz’s sons Muqrin as crown prince, and his own son Mohammed becoming deputy crown prince.
“[We have neglected] the marginalisation of the elders and the carriers of experience, as well as the surrender of command to the new generations of foolish dreamers who are acting behind the façade of an incapable king,” the letter read.
“How could we accept the marginalisation of King Abdulaziz’s sons both in power and in the processes of policy making?”
Mohammed bin Salman has been roundly criticised for his role in leading the country’s troublesome war in Yemen. The London-based Saudi dissident said that the letter is part of an effort to side-line Mohammed, who is criticised in the text as being a “rotten thief,” and push forward a replacement king.
“The real story behind this letter is that it is preparation for [King Salman's brother] Ahmed bin Abdulaziz to be pushed towards power,” the source said.
Seventy-three-year-old Prince Ahmed is the youngest member of the powerful Sudairi brothers – an alliance of seven sons of Abdulaziz born to the late king’s favourite wife Hassa bin Ahmed al-Sudairi. He served as deputy interior minister for nearly 30 years from 1975.
In 2012 he was made interior minister, in a move widely viewed as priming him to be a future ruler. However, he was dismissed just five months later in favour of the incumbent Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also the serving crown prince. And in 2014, when Abdullah appointed his brother Muqrin as crown prince, Ahmed was seen as having missed out on the chance to ever be king.
Despite this, the London-based dissident said the prince is viewed favourably among his peers.
“Ahmed is the healthiest and most honest of the senior royals. He doesn’t drink. He’s not a womaniser. He’s the least corrupt," the source said.
“Everybody thought that he was the natural person to be appointed by Salman as crown prince. He is the real heir apparent in the minds of many people.”
The London-based dissident said that Ahmed is keen on the idea of being promoted but he is reluctant to make the move himself. The prince, while ambitious, is conscious of not appearing to be in conflict with his brother Salman and his son Mohammed.
“He wants others to push him forward for the throne,” the source said.
The grandson of Abdulaziz said in his letter that he will support royal family members being promoted “with meritocracy” by collecting signatures from princes to implement changes for the “common good”.
The letter also said that it is the responsibility of princes including Ahmed bin Abdulaziz “to collect the views and gather the ranks” of the royal family.
“They should isolate the incapable King Salman, the extravagant and vain Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and the rotten thief Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been devastating for the state, so that the greatest and most pious assume the control of the affairs of the state and of its people.”
“We also ask for a new king and a new crown prince to be invested and take over everyone and for the abolition of the peculiar office of the deputy crown prince.”
Another regional expert said it was highly likely family members will gather to discuss changes but expressed doubt Mohammed bin Salman will be side-lined in the near future.
“I would imagine the demand for an emergency meeting is inevitable – if it hasn’t already taken place,” said Christopher Davidson, author of After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies and reader in Middle East politics at Durham University.
“But the demand for removing the deputy crown prince seems unobtainable.”
The London-based Saudi source said that they had not been able to confirm whether the royal family had held an emergency meeting. However, they claimed to be “aware of discord and discussion about the letter”.
Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud
Mohammed bin Salman seeking a promotion
The source said that there is much speculation among al-Saud family members that once this year’s annual pilgrimage ends, which is expected to be on 26 September, the deputy crown prince will move to make himself heir to the throne.
“Some royal family members believe that once hajj is over Mohammed bin Salman will remove Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince – by orders of his father – and appoint himself,” the source said.
“They [the royal family members] are bracing themselves for this development because they see it as very dangerous. They think it will bring revolt and make it much more likely for action to be taken to push Ahmed [bin Abdulaziz] towards taking power.”
Mohammed bin Salman is increasingly being viewed as possessing much of the power behind the throne, especially amid unconfirmed rumours his 79-year-old father is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The deputy crown prince recently accompanied the king on a trip to meet with US President Barack Obama where it is believed the 30-year-old played a key role in strategic discussions.
After the visit, an unnamed Arab official told the Washington Post that it is possible King Salman could alter the succession process to name his son as heir.
“Let’s face reality,” the official said. “He’s the son of the king. There’s a strong chance he will be the next king. The longer Salman survives, the larger the chance that MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) is next.”
The impression that Mohammed may be plotting a route to be Saudi Arabia’s next king likely explains the strong feeling among both the grandson of Abdulaziz and the London-based dissident that royal family members are urgently seeking an emergency meeting.
However, the Gulf Research Centre’s Koch played down talk that Mohammed is plotting a way to remove the current crown prince and promote himself to be first in line to the throne.
“One thing to remember is that the ruling family is large and anyone who wants to assert authority will need to be able to put together a broad consensus from within,” he said. “As such, suggestions, as currently circulating, that Mohammed bin Salman in preparing for a coup are quite fanciful if you ask me.”
A prominent Saudi journalist also poured scorn on the idea that a power struggle may be emerging in the country and questioned the authenticity of the letter calling for change at the top.
“I know a prince who is always exchanging with me documents and articles,” Jamal Khashoggi, General Manager of Al Arab television, told MEE. “This letter hasn’t circulated. I still have my doubts [about its authenticity].”
“The succession issue is settled for now in Saudi Arabia.”Banks and multinational firms successfully lobbied the Government for a range of taxation and legal incentives to be introduced in the 2013 budget.
Lobbying documents obtained by The Irish Times indicate that the Clearing House Group – a controversial gathering of financial industry executives, accountants and senior civil servants – helped to secure at least a dozen separate measures in the Finance Act for 2013. This is the legislation which enacts budget measures.
Proposals sought by the industry group which ended up in legislation included:
- Improvements to the foreign tax credit regime;
- Changing the tax treatment of certain investment funds;
- Exemptions to capital acquisitions tax for foreign firms;
- Changes to the taxation of foreign dividends for certain firms with branches abroad
- More generous incentives for research and development.
While Government and the financial industry argue that the resulting measures were aimed at creating badly needed jobs, critics say the group is too secretive and wields a disproportionate amount of influence on the Government.
Other changes to the finance legislation sought by the group included technical amendments to legislation aimed at enhancing the type of tax relief available to some categories of firms.
In some cases, sections of proposed legislation were drafted by the industry and then put to the Department of Finance for consideration.
Driving policies
Tax equity campaigners and public representatives such as MEP Nessa Childers say the influence of the group is unhealthy and indicates that the industry is driving policies in its own interests.
However, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted the Government dictates public policies and that the Clearing House Group is a forum in which to share ideas and research. Since the group was established in 1987, for example, he says the IFSC has grown to employ 33,000 people and to contribute more than €1 billion annually in corporation tax and payroll taxes.
‘No secrecy’
“Clearly, this is an important and potentially expanding area of financial services with great possibilities for future employment,” he told the Dáil recently. “The fact that the minutes are published means there is no secrecy about it, because the issues are there for people to tease out.”
The Clearing House Group, which meets monthly, is chaired by Martin Fraser, the State’s most senior civil servant.
It includes other senior public servants from the Department of Finance and the Central Bank, the financial industry’s regulator, along with firms such as Citi, Bank of Ireland, KPMG and PwC.
Following claims that it was too secretive and gave the financial services industry unprecedented access to Government, the Government began publishing minutes of its meetings last year, but the work of its sub-groups continues to be done behind closed doors.
Labour TD Kevin Humphreys has argued that sub-groups linked to the Clearing House – which focus on areas such as asset management, banking, funds and insurance – wield more influence than the overall organisation.
Documents for these sub-groups – seen by The Irish Times – show the extent to which many of the measures sought were contained in the most recent finance Bill.
A number of proposals put forward ended up being rejected by the Government.In 1952, Project Blue Book was launched by the United States Air Force. Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the U.S. military.
The project was the revival of two similar projects. The first being Project Sign, which was active for most of 1948 when it was dissolved and replaced with Project Grudge. Grudge was another short-lived U.S. Air Force study to investigate UFOs. Grudge continued until 1951. (1)
Similar to its predecessors, Project Blue Book had two goals: To scientifically analyze UFO-related data and to determine if UFO’s were a threat to national security. (2)
Despite having collected 12,618 UFO reports, in 1969 Project Blue Book was ordered to shut down. According to the National Reconnaissance Office, a number of the reports could be explained by flights of the formerly secret reconnaissance planes, such as the U-2 and A-12. (3)
The Condon Report and the “New” Project Blue Book
According to a document released by the Department of the Air Control Force that has been archived on the FBI’s Vault section of its website, the decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects.”
The controversial paper – known as the “Condon Report” – stated that the conclusions of Project Blue Book are:
“No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security, there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as “unidentified” represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present day scientific knowledge, and there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” are extraterrestrial vehicles.” (4)
All of that is standard Ufology history for anyone interested in the subject. However, what many people don’t realize is that in 1989, an organisation that went by the name, “The New Project Blue Book” contacted the FBI.
In a letter to William Sessions, Director of the FBI, dated July 24 1989, the New Project Blue Book said it wished to issue a “challenge” to the FBI, pertaining to UFOs.PHILADELPHIA -- The state's top prosecutor on Friday charged a speeding Amtrak engineer with causing a catastrophe, involuntary manslaughter and other crimes in a deadly 2015 derailment that came after he accelerated to 106 mph on a 50 mph curve.
Prosecutors said they were in talks with engineer Brandon Bostian's attorney to have him surrender on the charges.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office had announced Tuesday, as the two-year deadline to bring charges loomed Friday, that it couldn't prove Bostian acted with "conscious disregard" when he accelerated the train to 106 mph on a 50 mph curve, CBS Philadelphia reports.
LinkedIn profile picture for Amtrak Engineer Brandon Bostian
That judgment call prompted civil lawyers representing the family of a technology executive killed to seek a private citizen's complaint. They believe Bostian should be held accountable.
Otherwise, veteran lawyer Richard Sprague said, "it's almost like inviting drivers of vehicles and cars to drive recklessly."
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro expanded on charges a Philadelphia judge approved a day earlier. The judge had signed off on two misdemeanor charges over Rachel Jacobs' death in the May 12, 2015, derailment. Shapiro approved a felony charge of risking or causing a catastrophe and a string of misdemeanors, including eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
Lawyer Thomas R. Kline, who had sought the private complaint on the Jacobs family's behalf, said the charges wouldn't have happened "had a courageous family, the Jacobs family, not stood up against the decision of a local prosecutor not to press charges."
"That was clearly wrong, as evidenced by the attorney general not only reversing course but adding charges," he said.
The crash killed eight people and injured about 200 others.
The criminal case is sure to bring new scrutiny to the National Transportation Safety Board finding that Bostian had lost "situational awareness" on the curve in North Philadelphia. The speed limit climbs from 50 mph to 110 mph about a mile and a half after the curve.
The NTSB said it found no evidence that Bostian was impaired or using a cellphone during the Washington-to-New York run.
Bostian, in a lawsuit against Amtrak, said he was left disoriented or unconscious when something struck his train before it derailed. He had heard through radio traffic that a nearby commuter train had been struck by a rock. However, the NTSB concluded that nothing struck his locomotive.
"The best we could come up with was that he was distracted from this radio conversation about the damaged train and forgot where he was," NTSB chairman Christopher Hart said at a May 2016 hearing.
Victims' lawyers have questioned why Bostian would have sped up, rather than slow down, if he had been startled by something striking the train.
Amtrak CEO on new leadership's improvement efforts
"One thing he has never recollected is how or why he accelerated before the curve," said lawyer Robert Mongeluzzi, who with Kline represents about three dozen victims.
Other lawyers have called last year's NTSB report on the crash a "whitewash" and a "quantum leap."
Philadelphia prosecutors concluded this week that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Bostian acted with intent or "conscious disregard" for the passengers' safety. But Mongeluzzi said that should be an issue for a jury.
Court records list addresses for Bostian in New York City and in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston. Bostian's lawyer has rarely commented and did not return messages seeking comment this week.
Amtrak has taken responsibility for the crash and agreed to pay $265 million to settle claims filed by victims and their families. Kline and Mongeluzzi, prominent Philadelphia plaintiffs' lawyers, helped negotiate the settlement.
Jacobs, a technology executive, was a 39-year-old wife and mother. Her father, a Michigan lawyer, had urged Williams to press charges, according to CBS Philadelphia.
"I just feel that my daughter's death needs to be vindicated. Here is a woman who died and nobody's being punished," the father, John Jacobs, told The Associated Press this week. "Somebody should be held responsible."
The other people killed included Justin Zemser, a Naval Academy midshipman; Jim Gaines, an Associated Press software architect; and Derrick Griffith, a college dean.ADVERTISEMENT
This Tuesday, the organizers of a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in California had their petitions certified, meaning Californians will vote in November on the question. Even though a legalization measure failed at the ballot in 2010, this one is almost sure to succeed (polls have shown support at around 60 percent), adding 39 million Americans to the still-modest number who live in states where pot is legal. The difference is not just the passage of six years, but the fact that this is a presidential year, which means a much different electorate going to the polls — in particular, a lot more young people.
California is just the beginning: Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine will also have initiatives allowing recreational use, and Florida will have a medical marijuana measure on the ballot. Other states where marijuana initiatives are in the process of collecting signatures include Arkansas, Arizona, Michigan, Montana, and North Dakota. In all likelihood some of them will succeed and others won't, but this much we can say: With each passing year, on this issue as on so many others, Blue America and Red America are separating from each other. And in some ways, we can see it as a separation between old America and young America.
The divisions by age are perhaps the most striking thing about polling on marijuana use; while all age groups have gotten more supportive of legalization over the decades, what really matters is whether you came of age before the 1960s or after. Today legalization is supported by majorities of all age groups except senior citizens. To take one example, in this Pew Research Center poll from last year, those under 35 and those over 70 were mirror images of each other: 68 percent of the millennials supported legalization while 29 percent opposed it, and among the Silent Generation, 29 percent supported it and 68 percent opposed it.
So the places where liberals dominate, particularly the West and Northeast, will increasingly reflect the desires and perspectives of young people, and not just on marijuana. The young are more tolerant of diversity, less likely to own guns, more in favor of full civil rights for gay people, and more concerned about climate change — all of which will be expressed in the laws of the states where they live. Of course, there are outposts of youthful liberalism even in red states, like Austin or Chapel Hill, and it's no coincidence that they're often found where the big state university is. But you still won't be able to smoke pot there legally.
It's possible that marijuana legalization will follow the trend of other kinds of social change and start in the more liberal states before moving slowly to the more conservative ones. It might accelerate once the older generations that had almost no personal experience with it are gone. Twenty years from now, the pre-boomers born before 1940 will be in their mid-90s and up, and will be rapidly dying off. At that point, you'll probably be able to pass marijuana legalization almost anywhere.
For now though, one of our two great parties isn't just against marijuana legalization, it's about to nominate a candidate whose campaign is explicitly centered on a promise to turn back the clock to an earlier, supposedly greater age. One of Donald Trump's key messages to the electorate is that in an alienating and confusing world, he can make America like it was when you were younger and everything made sense. People speaking Spanish, technology you don't understand, the kids with their loud music and pants drooping down — Trump will take care of it all.
Not that Hillary Clinton — at 68, just a year and a half younger than Trump — is some kind of fresh-faced character. But her party is the default choice of young people, particularly after the presidency of Barack Obama, who won voters under 30 by 34 points in 2008 and 23 points in 2012.
Though the California Democratic Party has endorsed the state's legalization initiative, national Democrats, including Clinton, aren't quite ready to go that far. The 2016 Democratic platform will include a plank expressing support for states that have decriminalized marijuana, but it won't advocate federal legalization, which is a pretty fair approximation of where the national party and its presidential nominee are on this issue. Clinton says that she supports medical marijuana but wants to wait and see how state experiments with legalization turn out before supporting legalization at the federal level (her more youth-oriented primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, supported federal legalization).
As happened on gay marriage, national Democratic politicians seem to be tentatively following public opinion, still worried about alienating voters that haven't come along as public opinion has changed. But on the state level, change is happening faster than ever — and the citizens most comfortable with change will find certain places more to their liking and other places more like an older America they'd like to leave behind.Palin cuts spot for Rand Paul
Rand Paul’s latest ad in the Kentucky GOP Senate primary touts the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is bucking the GOP establishment to weigh in on his behalf.
Paul first received Palin’s endorsement in February over Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who is viewed as the choice of national Republicans in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Jim Bunning. But Paul, a tea party movement favorite, has led Grayson in recent public polls and even picked up the surprise endorsement of Bunning last week.
Story Continued Below
The 30-second television spot, which began airing in the state’s major media markets Monday, features a clip of the 2008 vice presidential nominee praising Paul’s conservatism. It comes on the heels of Grayson’s comments last week when he told the Louisville Courier Journal that he didn’t believe the former governor was qualified to be president—a clip that was widely circulated by Paul’s campaign.
“He wants limited government. I respect that, and I’m proud to support him,” Palin says in the ad.
GOP presidential nominee John McCain and Palin easily carried Kentucky in 2008 with 57 percent of the vote.
Paul campaign manager David Adams declined to specify the size of the Palin ad buy, but told POLITICO it is only one of a several ads the campaign will cycle through in the weeks leading up to the May 18 primary that prominently feature other Paul backers—including a planned spot featuring Bunning’s endorsement.
Here's the Paul ad:Montreal RCMP officers are investigating a former Conservative Senate staffer who was a onetime political candidate, after a three-year corruption probe into a Parliament Hill renovation project.
Hubert Pichet, a former aide to Brian Mulroney, who ran for the Conservatives in the Montreal-area riding of La Pointe-de-l’Ile in 2008, worked in the office of Senator Pierre Claude Nolin until last year.
Until now, federal politicians have mostly avoided the fallout from Quebec corruption investigations that have seen municipal and provincial politicians and officials charged.
Pichet has been linked to the $9-million renovation of the north tower of the West Block of Parliament Hill, through Gilles Varin, a colourful Quebec Tory-linked lobbyist who died in 2011.
The investigation is being conducted by Montreal’s commercial crime division, which, an RCMP source says, is now evaluating the evidence.
In testimony to a Commons committee looking into the matter in 2010, Paul Sauve, the Montreal contractor who won the contract, testified that Varin introduced him to Pichet at Le Mas des Oliviers, a Montreal restaurant where Conservatives hang out. Pichet was wearing his parliamentary pass, Sauve said.
Sauve said he paid Varin $140,000 to win the contract on the understanding he would share the money with people in Ottawa who could help him land the contract.
“Because we paid, we received,” he testified.
Sauve won the contract in May 2008 after Public Works changed the requirements for qualification. He underbid the other contractors by $2 million but was unable to handle the job, and was expelled from the site in 2009. The job was taken over by the underwriter, who hired Verreault Construction, part of the Dessau Group, to complete the job. It went $3 million over budget amid delays.
Dessau has acknowledged participating in collusion in Montreal construction projects.
According to a report in Le Journal de Montreal last week, Quebec provincial police gathered key evidence about the contract from surveillance of Varin. Varin was under surveillance because of his links to Hells Angels boss Normand Marvin (Casper) Ouimet, who is facing charges in connection with 22 murders. Varin’s phone was tapped and his computer and personal agenda were seized by the police, Le Journal reported.
In his 2010,testimony, Sauve said that he discussed the contract with Pichet and also with Bernard Côté, who worked in the office of then-public works minister Senator Michael Fortier.
Sauve donated $1,000 to the 2008 campaign of Pichet, and later organized a fundraising cocktail for the Conservative association in Bourassa, which was attended by Christian Paradis, then the public works minister, in 2010.
Sauve testified that Varin, who boasted that he walked around Parliament Hill in “felt boots,” didn’t say exactly how he could help him get the contract.
“What he said was that he had very close ties to Hubert Pichet and Senator Nolin,” Sauve testified.
Pichet declined to comment when contacted last week and again on Monday. In 2012, he told The Globe and Mail that he had nothing to do with the West Block contract. “I have no direct or indirect link to the so-called awarding of this contract,” he said.
Nolin declined to say whether he has spoken to the RCMP about its investigation but he said in an email last week that he had nothing to do with the contract.
“In regards to the specific contract that you are referring to, I was never involved in any way and was never asked to be involved in any way with the contracting process,” he said.
Côté, an old friend of Pichet, expressed surprise last week that his friend was the focus of an investigation. He said he can’t recall if he discussed the contract with him at the time.
Côté said he himself may have been slightly involved in the file because he was concerned about Ottawa contractors blocking Montrealers from bidding for work on the Hill.
“Maybe I made a comment but that’s the extent of it,” he said.
“As with everything, when a new player comes into town, sometimes the existing players are not happy. And I guess the Ottawa masons were not exactly happy to see a newcomer wanting a piece of the cake.”
A spokesman for the Public Works Department would not say whether the department has helped the RCMP with its investigation.
Opposition politicians have raised questions about how Sauve’s Montreal-based company was able to overcome stiff resistance to win the contract.
Company president Paul Sauve passed a federal security check, although he had sought the assistance of the Montreal police in 2007 to protect him from his former partner, Ouimet.
Sauve’s firm was much smaller than the other firms in the running. When officials lowered the requirements a week before the deadline for submissions, he was able to pre-qualify to bid.
A few months before the contracting process started in July 2007, Sauve sought protection from creditors, stating in a news release that the firm was in a “precarious financial situation.”
Public Works officials were told that the architect supervising the renovation – Julia Gersovitz – was “aghast” that Sauve might get the job because of the firm’s work on other projects, according to emails obtained by Postmedia Newa. Officials who raised similar doubts were overruled.
The firm’s bid was so low that officials doubted Sauve’s ability to complete the job as promised, and had the bid reviewed by experts. Officials ultimately decided that the insurer’s guarantee took them off the hook.
In spite of those difficulties, Sauve was awarded the contract in May 2008. After problems on the site, Public Works ordered Sauve off the job in April 2009.
News about the investigation of Pichet comes as Quebec anti-corruption police arrested Saulie Zajdel, a Conservative candidate in Montreal in 2011, who was later employed by Heritage Minister James Moore as a political operative. Zajdel’s arrest Monday was part of an ever-widening investigation of corruption in Quebec that has enveloped municipal and provincial officials.
Related articlesPosted on: July 18, 2014 2:53 PM
From the Diocese of Europe website
Canon Mark Collinson, Chaplain of Christ Church, Amsterdam, and Area Dean for The Netherlands is encouraging the prayers of the people of this diocese, following the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17. He says:
“As people all over the Netherlands hear of those they know who were on the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, ministers of the Schiphol Airport Chaplaincy organise support for bereaved family members. I hear of one whole family, whose daughter went to my son’s school, were amongst the 154 Dutch people on the aircraft. King Willem-Alexander is ‘deeply affected’ by the news, and expresses concern for those who are bereaved, and those who don’t yet know whether their loved ones were on the flight.
“Protestant, Anglican, Old Catholic and Roman Catholic ministers are meeting with grief stricken family members at Schiphol together with other professional support services. Revd Nico Sarot, the Old Catholic Anglican priest who is one of the full-time ministers at the airport, is also there. Volunteers who normally provide support in the chapel/meditation centre are being drafted in to provide extra resources, so that there are at least two people available per family.
“Please pray for those who are bereaved, together with all those who provide support for them, and for our mission partner the Anglican Old Catholic Airport Ministry, as people in this nation come to terms with this tragedy.”
Gracious God, look in mercy on all to whom great sorrow has come. Console and protect those who have lost loved ones. Strengthen those who minister to the grieving. Give your light in darkness to all who are near to despair, and assure them that you hold all souls in life.NEWARK -- Up until about an hour before Nico Hischier became the face of the Devils franchise, general manager Ray Shero didn't tell a soul who he'd be taking with the No. 1 pick.
When word got around the organization it would be the baby-faced 18-year-old out of Switzerland, coach John Hynes and his staff naturally started playing around with line combinations.
Life in North America for Devils' No. 1 pick
The most attractive option is to put the flashy center with star left-winger Taylor Hall and hope the goals pour in, reminiscent of the days of former Devils Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk and the A-Line of the early 2000s.
Hischier and Hall play a similar style of hockey: They push the pace offensively and love to have the puck on their sticks, making them an intriguing pair.
But at least for training camp and the preseason, Hynes' top priority is to make sure Hischier has a calming presence by his side.
"That's a real important thing for a young guy, when you come back to the bench after a shift that you're with someone that has presence, that's been there before," Hynes said at Hischier's introductory press conference Monday.
No player might be better suited for that role than Hall, a former No. 1 pick himself, whose draft year was eerily similar to Hischier's.
"Taylor's a big part of our team and he's a guy that we're looking to take hold of the team more off the ice and that's something that I know Taylor is planning on doing and will do," Hynes said, adding that the Hall and Hischier have already connected over the phone |
100 whom nobody else is considering. It’s even tougher given how many sleeper candidates fit the same archetypes. The vast majority of sleepers are young, often in their first or second year as a pro. Many of the others have switched teams, schemes, or both. If it’s a player whose role seems likely to open up as the season goes along, like Carlos Hyde last season, virtually everybody in your league is going to be aware that’s the case, most notably the person who drafted the incumbent (in this case Frank Gore) a few rounds earlier.
5. The real sleepers are the guys who are going to go undrafted. I don’t doubt that fantasy football writers know more about third- and fourth-string running backs than the typical fantasy football owner, and in the right context, that information can be useful. The problem is that those players become relevant only during the season. The vast majority of them aren’t going to be drafted in August, because the things that need to happen to make them valuable happen only during a season. Nick Foles was a great sleeper in 2013, but he came into the season as a backup quarterback; there was no way anybody would have included him as a “sleeper” pick because it looked like meaningless information.
As a result, sleeper picks and lists from fantasy football writers often look very similar, hitting many of the same archetypes. The rookie running back. The second-year wideout. The athletic tight end who showed flashes in a limited role. The nature of trying to write useful, relevant columns for readers combined with the realities of fantasy drafts dictate that many of the same names pop up over and over again.
The 2014 Sleepers in Review
To get an idea of how last year’s sleepers fared, I compiled 20 lists of 2014 fantasy football sleepers from notable websites. That includes ESPN’s fantasy site, of course, along with other large football sites, fantasy-football-specific sites, and a few nationally distributed newspaper pieces.
I tried to be as fair as possible. I aimed for sleeper columns written close to the beginning of the season, since they were most likely to affect the largest number of fantasy drafts. I didn’t include lists for PPR leagues, dynasty leagues, or lists of “deep” sleepers. I went exclusively with lists of 20 players or fewer to try to avoid sleeper lists that included half the league. And I didn’t include pay sites, because I’m cheap. The idea was to emulate what a casual-to-average-intensity fantasy football participant would have seen if they went looking for 2014 fantasy football sleepers on Google at the end of August, just before their draft.
The lists named 110 players a combined 275 times, ranging in notability from Tom Brady to Lache Seastrunk. There were 15 players who were named on five or more lists. Let’s run through those 15 sleeper candidates and see how they fared. And let’s start with the sleeper who appeared on more lists than anybody else:
Justin Hunter, WR, Titans
Lists: 9
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 40
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 69
That’s not pretty. Hunter had exhibited flashes of big-play ability during his rookie season in 2013, including a pair of 100-yard games late in the season. He then had a monster preseason, finishing second in the league to Allen Hurns with 217 receiving yards. With a bigger role in Tennessee’s offense and the presence of coach Ken Whisenhunt, it was easy to get on the Hunter bandwagon.
It just didn’t work. Hunter, who caught 42.9 percent of his targets as a rookie, didn’t see that figure rise whatsoever — it actually fell to 41.8 percent. The Titans cycled through mediocre options at quarterback, and while Hunter still put up the occasional big play, he didn’t see enough volume to justify the hype. He had just 28 catches for 498 yards and three scores before suffering a lacerated spleen in Week 13 that ended his season prematurely.
Markus Wheaton, WR, Steelers
Lists: 8
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 48
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 60
Despite catching just six passes in 12 games as a rookie, Wheaton’s hype grew as the preseason went along by virtue of his seemingly guaranteed role in the Steelers offense. With Emmanuel Sanders gone and the depth chart thin after Antonio Brown, Wheaton seemed like a lock to be the team’s second starting wideout, a role that had generated steady work for the likes of Sanders and Mike Wallace in years past.
Again, though, things went awry. Ben Roethlisberger and the coaching staff seemed to lose trust in Wheaton after a sluggish, inconsistent start to the season, and when Martavis Bryant burst onto the scene, Wheaton and the rookie began to split snaps and touches. Wheaton’s 53-644-2 line wasn’t worth the preseason attention, and he’ll be splitting time with Bryant again in 2015. Roethlisberger said Wheaton is going to break out in 2015, but then again, he also said Wheaton was going to surprise people last year.
Kyle Rudolph, TE, Vikings
Lists: 8
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 7
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 37
It’s hard to fault analysts for expecting that the talented Vikings tight end would be healthier and a meaningful part of a Norv Turner passing attack that always seems to reward tight ends, but Rudolph missed seven games with various injuries, including a sports hernia. He finished with 24 catches for 231 yards and two scores.
Devonta Freeman, RB, Falcons
Lists: 8
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 42
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 68
Again, it’s easy to understand the logic: The Falcons were likely to be better in 2014, and with Steven Jackson collecting Social Security, it was only going to be a matter of time before Freeman took over as the starter. And again, it just didn’t happen; Jackson held on to his job, and with the Falcons concerned about Freeman’s ability as a pass-protector, he spent the season rotating with Antone Smith and Jacquizz Rodgers. Freeman finished with 473 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. He’s in line for a much larger role this season, but that’s a little too late for 2014 owners.
Bernard Pierce, RB, Ravens
Lists: 6
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 38
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 69
I’m as shocked as anybody this one didn’t work out. Preseason speculation wondered whether Ray Rice would struggle with the lingering effects of his 2014 hip ailment while expecting Pierce to return to the form of his promising rookie campaign in 2013. Rice never played after the video of his domestic assault hit the Internet, and Pierce had an effective 22-carry, 96-yard performance in a Week 2 win over the Steelers, but his prospects quickly faded. Pierce missed the next two games with a strained quad, which gave Justin Forsett a chance to break out; Forsett dramatically outplayed him afterward, costing Pierce his fantasy relevance. He finished the year with just 366 rushing yards and two scores before being cut after a March DUI.
DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Texans
Lists: 6
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 47
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 15
Finally, a breakout! Hopkins was being taken 17 picks after Hunter in fantasy drafts, which seems crazy given that he received nearly three times as many targets during their rookie seasons of 2013. His role in the offense continued to rise last year, and while Hopkins was inconsistent, he did enough in his big games (like the 238-yard, two-score performance against Hunter’s Titans) to justify the preseason projections.
Zach Ertz, TE, Eagles
Lists: 6
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 11
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 14
If I make it seem like I was ahead of the curve and knew that players like Hunter or Wheaton weren’t going to break out, please let me say that’s not the case here. I was all in on the Ertz bandwagon, drafting him for both of my fantasy football teams. What I ended up getting was an uninspiring season; Ertz was just good enough to keep on the roster but never good enough to be more than a fantasy disappointment. His role expanded, but nowhere near as much as it seemed it would in the preseason; he finished with 58 catches for 702 yards and three scores, with much of that coming in a 15-catch, 115-yard Week 16 loss to Washington.
Carlos Hyde, RB, 49ers
Lists: 6
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 37
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 57
The Hyde breakout never took, in part because the 49ers weren’t the team most people expected. They weren’t winning anywhere near as frequently as they had been in years past, which meant fewer carries to go around. Gore stayed healthy and took the bulk of those touches, leaving Hyde with steady backup work. He failed to post more than 11 carries in a game, and his role decreased as the season went along. Hyde averaged just over six carries per game during the second half of the season before suffering an ankle injury in Week 15 that ended his campaign.
Khiry Robinson, RB, Saints
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 48
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 60
Robinson, who was being taken 12 picks before Chris Ivory according to that late-August ADP, had shown some flashes of brilliance during a 54-carry rookie season. It seemed like Robinson would take over for the departed Ivory in New Orleans’s rotation, but Mark Ingram (whose ADP was 40) finally exhibited signs of life during the preseason and took the job himself. When Ingram went down with an injury, Robinson assumed those duties, but he then lost playing time after a fumble against the Lions and went down with a forearm injury that cost him nearly two months. By then, Ingram was entrenched as the feature back, and with both the former first-rounder and C.J. Spiller signed to contract extensions, Robinson’s buried on the depth chart.
Emmanuel Sanders, WR, Broncos
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 16
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 6
The highest-ranked “sleeper” on this list during drafts, Sanders was very clearly a bargain who outplayed even the rosiest of draft projections. He posted seven 100-yard games in 11 weeks before his output slowed, which likely owed to Denver’s move toward a run-first approach and Peyton Manning’s infamous injury. Some would say he didn’t fit on a list with the Freemans and Robinsons of the fantasy world, but Sanders greatly exceeded expectations.
Kenny Stills, WR, Saints
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: undrafted
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 37
Stills wasn’t listed among the 57 wide receivers who were coming off the board in 12-team leagues, but by the end of the year, he was worth a roster spot. He posted a catch rate of nearly 76 percent despite serving as a deep threat, finishing with the highest percentage gap between his expected catch rate and actual catch rate per receiving plus-minus. Led by the 162-yard torching he laid on the brutal Steelers secondary in November, Stills finished with 931 receiving yards and three scores. He’ll be a candidate for sleeper lists again in 2015, albeit now as a member of the Dolphins.
Ladarius Green, TE, Chargers
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 13
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 52
Our cautionary tale. Green was actually being taken five picks ahead of teammate Antonio Gates in fantasy drafts, with owners breathlessly falling for the third-year tight end’s field-stretching speed. Gates promptly outgained Green by 595 yards and 12 touchdowns, as the anonymous Green never became a meaningful part of the offense and ended up producing just 22 fantasy points all season. Gates beat that against the Seahawks in Week 2, when he scored 27 points on three touchdowns and 96 receiving yards.
I’d also be skeptical of Green if I was a fantasy owner this time around. His role promises to grow with Gates suspended for the first four games, but the reality is that Green simply isn’t the same sort of player. He’s a monstrously tall target who can run fast downfield and stretch defenses. That doesn’t fit into the quicker throws Philip Rivers makes in this offensive scheme, and it doesn’t match up with Gates, who mostly torments defenses these days by poking holes in their zones across the middle of the field. Fans wanted Green to be the next Gates last year; he looks more like the next Jared Cook right now.
Travis Kelce, TE, Chiefs
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 18
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 8
Hey, we’ll take it. Kelce wasn’t able to ramp up his snap count to a typical starter’s share as he recovered from microfracture surgery, but he was wildly efficient as a receiver when he did make it onto the field, catching more than 77 percent of his targets. He was the most traditional definition of a sleeper: a guy who was only borderline draftable but ended up as a solid starter.
Kelvin Benjamin, WR, Panthers
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 35
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 17
And likewise, Benjamin was able to justify the August chatter with an effective debut season. He hit hardest during September and faded some as the year went along, but the overall totals — 1,008 receiving yards and nine touchdowns — were a pleasant return for a guy who was being taken just after the Seattle defense in fantasy drafts.
Toby Gerhart, RB, Jaguars
Lists: 5
Pre-Draft Positional ADP: 19
Actual Positional Rank, 2014: 61
Sadly, the list ends with the sound of a sputtering engine. Gerhart seemed assured a heavy workload in Jacksonville, but he was alternately abysmal and injured, averaging just 3.2 yards per carry and gaining just 512 yards from scrimmage during a wildly disappointing season. He lost his starting job to converted quarterback Denard Robinson, and after the Jags picked T.J. Yeldon in the second round of this year’s draft, Gerhart’s roster spot for 2015 isn’t even guaranteed.
The Real Sleepers
OK. So most of those guys were a waste of time. It happens. Let’s approach it the other way. Where were the actual sleepers hiding last year? Could we have had any clue whom to pick with those late-round picks last August? I went through and put together a quick team of real sleepers. I’ll also note if they were on any of the sleeper lists I referenced for this piece.
Pos Player Lists Preseason ADP Rank Pos Rk QB Ben Roethlisberger 2 17 5 QB Eli Manning 0 undrafted (>18) 10 RB Justin Forsett 0 undrafted (>56) 8 RB C.J. Anderson 0 undrafted (>56) 11 RB Jeremy Hill 3 41 10 WR Odell Beckham 0 undrafted (>57) 5 WR Mike Evans 0 41 11 WR DeAndre Hopkins 6 47 15 TE Antonio Gates 0 14 2 TE Coby Fleener 0 undrafted (>18) 6
The undrafted notation means five of the 10 players on this team weren’t being selected in the average 12-team fantasy draft at the end of August; Eli Manning, for example, wasn’t among the 18 quarterbacks who were being selected in typical drafts last year. He was a waiver-wire pickup in most leagues, and while he wouldn’t have been a superstar, he ended up as a starting-caliber quarterback.
Much of that had to do with his stud wide receiver, who was one of the most important players in fantasy football. Odell Beckham was struggling with a hamstring injury for much of the summer, and with his return to action unclear at the end of August, he was basically off the fantasy radar altogether. Despite being taken with the 12th overall pick in the NFL draft, he wasn’t mentioned on a single sleeper list. Miles Austin, Aaron Dobson, and even Hakeem Nicks (mentioned on three sleeper lists!) were all being taken ahead of him. Both he and Mike Evans, who didn’t have the same preseason injury concerns, were grossly undervalued.
Among running backs, only Jeremy Hill fit the traditional sleeper mold, and if you were going to target a second-round rookie back, most probably would have gone for Hyde or Bishop Sankey before Hill, given how high folks were on Gio Bernard this time last year. Indeed, they each had a higher ADP than Hill did in August.
Other players simply couldn’t have been highlighted. Veterans like Ben Roethlisberger, Manning, and Gates don’t fit our traditional definitions of a sleeper. The more anonymous stars were sleepers who could never have credibly made a pre-draft sleeper list. Forsett was fourth on the Ravens depth chart at running back in August and atop it by early October. C.J. Anderson was third on Denver’s and needed both Montee Ball and Ronnie Hillman (and arguably Manning) to get hurt to claim his spot.
Go to Sleep
It’s tempting to take all of this and use it as evidence that fantasy football writers don’t really know what they’re talking about. That’s not the point, and I don’t think it’s accurate. If there’s anything I learned from looking into sleepers, it’s how the construct simply doesn’t fit the way it might have 20 years ago. There are players who outperform expectations, but it’s exceedingly difficult to identify them beforehand, even after you’ve narrowed the idea down to a player type or a vulnerable spot on a specific team.
The evidence suggests we should be less concerned with finding sleepers on draft day and more about finding those same underappreciated talents on a week-to-week basis during the season. Beckham was an afterthought on the waiver wire in September and maybe the best receiver in fantasy football by the end of November. Anderson was totally irrelevant until mid-November, after which point he suddenly averaged nearly 21 fantasy points per game.
Even if you don’t have some preternatural ability to see stars showing up out of nowhere, you do have the ability to pay attention. There was a two-week window at the beginning of Beckham’s season when he picked up 72 yards and a touchdown that also coincided with Victor Cruz’s nasty season-ending injury; even if he wasn’t the phenom he would eventually become, a heads-up owner could have seen more opportunity coming and made Beckham something of a priority in free agency or trades.
That’s where the sleepers lie in fantasy football. It’s not some magical player you’re going to draw out of a hat in August who nobody else has ever heard of, and it’s probably not even some player you’re significantly higher on than anybody else, because nobody’s instincts are that great and everybody’s looking at the same guys at the same time.
Your best shot at finding a sleeper is in September, October, and November, when you can outwork and outprepare the rest of the people in your league in a way that you can’t in August. Playing situations are more fluid, and without a magazine or website literally ranking players in order of their expected value over the remainder of the season, less-prepared owners are more likely to make mistakes. And because you can always dump a player on the bottom of your roster after a week, thinking about sleepers as a midseason acquisition makes it more likely you’ll eventually stumble upon that player who creates value for your team. The old fantasy sleeper is dead. Long live the new one.Woman clings to life after being shot at least six times
Police and crime scene tape in West Palm Beach as investigators comb for clues in a domestic dispute that came to a tragic end.
The victim, identified by police as Guerdalyne Jean-Baptist, was shot at least six times and managed to escape and shout for help after the gunman took his own life. He's been identified by police as Jean C. Michel.
“That was horrible!” said Erika Luna, a resident of the apartment complex.
Luna and her boyfriend David Tharp can’t believe it.
Police say their neighbor killed himself after opening fire on a woman at least six times in the legs and stomach area.
The incident, which police call “a domestic situation” happened at about 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon at Parc 500 Apartment Homes in the 500 block of North Congress, south of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.
“I just think it’s crazy. I mean we live here, we’re supposed to be safe. It’s been pretty peaceful I mean as long as we’ve lived here. Nothings really happened, it’s quiet. I’m just appalled, I’m shocked!” Tharp said.
Police say after being shot at least 6 times, the woman had enough strength to run out of the apartment, and yell for help before collapsing on the ground.
“Horrible!” said Yinet Gonzalez, another apartment complex resident.
“What do you mean?” we asked.
“It shouldn’t happen anywhere,” she said.
Right now, Detectives are trying to figure out a motive.
“I think he probably had some real mental issues, definitely mental. I mean why would you resort to that?” Luna said.
Neighbors tell us the shooting happened in Building L, and they say it’s fortunate no one else got hurt.
“It’s sad and unfortunately our society doesn’t take domestic violence seriously,” said Natalie Gonzalez, who also lives in the same apartment complex where the shooting happened.
Jean-Baptist is at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach in critical condition.
Police have not released information on the relationship between the man and the woman or what led to the shooting.Get the biggest Sport stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
THE last time Hearts defeated Hibs in a Scottish Cup Final they prepared for three weeks in a hotel that now houses a funeral parlour.
Paulo Sergio will be hoping the historical omens stretch only as far as the outcome of the big match back in 1896 when the Jambos won 3-1 on a ground at Logie Green in Edinburgh that has long since been swallowed by a supermarket car park.
Hibs and Hearts are two of the biggest clubs in Scotland and yet, astonishingly, their head to head 116 years ago was the last time they met in a major final and also the last time the showpiece was held outside Glasgow.
Attention to detail is not peculiar to 21st century football as Tynecastle’s Victorian forebears proved with their preparations aimed at maintaining dominance of their Edinburgh rivals.
The 1890s were salad days for Hearts, who won the league twice and finished runners-up twice, while their 1896 success in the Cup added to a previous victory in 1891.
Hibs, on the other hand, had been on their uppers for almost a decade as newly-formed Celtic raided Leith for players, often with the promise of pubs and substantial paychecks – the Parkhead club were not alone among Scottish clubs in riding roughshod over rules forbidding professionalism in the game.
However, the tide was beginning to turn in 1896 – and Hearts knew they had to act to preserve their status as the top side in the capital, with Edinburgh also boasting a successful club in St Bernard’s, who leased their ground to the SFA for the final as Scotland were playing England in a rugby international at Hampden that day.
Hearts historian David Speed said: “Hibs went into decline following the formation of Celtic, losing many of their finest players to the new club and also their ground at the bottom of Easter Road to housing developers.
“As a result, they failed to play in the first Scottish League season in 1890 and Hearts were dominant but a challenge had emerged by the mid-1890s. Hibs had won the old Second Division twice, in 1894 and 1895, and when they were invited to play in the First Division – the same season they reached the final – they finished third, one place ahead of Hearts.
“The pressure was all on Hearts going into the 1896 final, they had to win it. Their rivals were back and making a serious challenge to be considered the top club in the city again.
“The Hearts committee made every effort to have their players in peak physical condition for the final, so they moved them all into the Union Hotel on Lothian Road for three weeks.
“It made sense because players frequently picked up injuries grafting in hard, manual industries – and the Hearts team at that time included miners, printworkers, a blacksmith, a dairyman and a plumber. They lived in miners’ rows with no bathrooms or inside toilets, their diet wasn’t particularly healthy and footballers at the time also enjoyed a pint or two.
“The Union hotel was owned by a Hearts fan, Tom Kay, who undoubtedly gave the club preferential rates. There was no way this was a prison camp for players. A soft bed and good food? It would have been treated like a holiday.”
Logie Green boasted a capacity of 23,000 and 17,000 turned up on a March afternoon, which was a great attendance in comparison to previous finals. It would have been more but football fans who believe legal wrangling between clubs and the SFA is a recent development should think again.
Speed added: “The attendance was good but could have been more. It snowed in the week leading up to the final, which put a few people off. Others felt the ground wasn’t big enough to host a sizeable crowd and were scared off attending for fear of being crushed.
“Amazingly, the game was only given the go-ahead the day before after Renton failed to secure an interdict at the Court of Session. They claimed a Hibs player, Tom Robertson, should have been ineligible in the semi-final, which they lost 2-1.
“Robertson and Hibs argued his appearance the previous summer in a match for Kirkmuirhill against the wonderfully named Larkhall Unknowns didn’t mean he was committed to another club. Robertson argued he only joined in the equivalent of a bounce match when he spotted it being played during a walk in the country. The law lords found in his favour.”
As it was, Hibs may have been better off without the hapless Robertson, who handled three minutes into the final, allowing Hearts to open the scoring from a penalty by Davie Baird. Alex King and Willie Michael were also on target before Jo O’Neill’s consolation.
Speed said: “One newspaper reported at the time that Hibs seemed to suffer anxiety as Hearts won comfortably but defeat was taken in a sporting manner. For sure, the hotel preparations put in place were significant.
“Hearts held off Hibs’ challenge and still proved to be dominant for the next few years but this was a strong time for the game in the capital as Hibs won the Cup in 1902 and the title the season after.
“The Cup-winning team of 1896 had four players who won the competition in 1891 so they were experienced and not overawed. Current players such as Andy Webster, Marius Zaliukas and Rudi Skacel are carrying a level of experience at international level Hibs can’t match, so here’s hoping it proves the difference again in 2012."The Eagles have two major free agent wide receiver set to hit the market in Riley Cooper and Jeremy Maclin. While there is a good chance that at least one will return to Philadelphia, it is not a sure thing either will be back. With that in mind, the Eagles may have completely rebuild their wide receiver unit with younger players. Along with Cooper and Maclin possibly leaving, Jason Avant, Damaris Johnson and Jeff Maehl all proved to be easily upgradable last season. With those five players either possibly gone or upgradable, only Pro Bowl pass catcher DeSean Jackson remains a lock for next season.
A major sticking point for the Eagles and their fans has been adding a receiver with size and speed that will allow Jackson to flourish even more in Chip Kelly's offense. Maclin is fast and Cooper is tall, but ideally the Eagles would like to have one of those guys and another that is a combination of the two. They will likely have plenty of options in this deep wide receiver class that includes 6-foot-5 speedster Kelvin Benjamin of the BSC Champion, Florida State Seminoles.
College Career
Benjamin was just three-year player at high school powerhouse Glades Central in Belle Glade, Florida when he was considered a four-star recruit. Benjamin decided to commit to Florida State despite several scholarship offers. He redshirted as a freshman in 2011, but played a key role on the field in 2012. As a redshirt freshman, Benjamin caught 30 passes from current Bills starting quarterback E.J. Manuel that went for 495 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
In 2013, Benjamin was Jameis Winston's top target on their BSC Championship team. He was named a first team All-American by SI.com and an All-ACC Third Team selection for his conference-leading 15 touchdown performance. Along with the 15 receiving scores, Benjamin caught 54 passes for 1011 receiving yards with a 18.7 yards per reception average. In the BSC Championship game against Auburn, Benjamin had receptions for 54 yards and the game-winning touchdown.
Strengths
Obviously, Benjamin's biggest asset is his height. At 6-foot-5 and 234-pounds, Benjamin plays to size and is an excellent redzone target. He has the ability to beat double teams and break tackles relatively easy. He also displays very good leaping ability when dealing with larger defenders.
Benjamin is a serious athlete with excellent speed for his size. He has a 4.52 forty time (according to NFL.com) and gets open with ease. He has surefire YAC ability and is very hard to defend with the ball in the air. A decent and willing blocker, he sometimes can land a nasty shot or two on defenders.
A relatively new player to game, he has very little mileage on his tires.
Weaknesses
Benjamin is still a bit raw with a combined five years of college and high school ball under his belt. His inexperience shows in his route running. He has solid hands, but he also tends to sometimes lose concentration or run before the catch, which leads to drops. There were also times with Manuel and Winston that Benjamin had communication issues on routes. However, a lot of this stuff is very coachable.
Eagles Outlook
Kelly loves big players and a play-makers. Those are two of his favorite things and conveniently describe Benjamin. Even if the Eagles signed Maclin and Cooper to new contracts, they could still afford to upgrade the position. If anything, re-signing both guys would make Benjamin even more appealing, as they could ease him into action, similar to Alshon Jeffery in Chicago over the last two seasons.
Benjamin's combination of speed, size, age and willingness to block may make him more appealing than any free agent or player on the Eagles current roster. The only kicker is that he is a pretty obvious first round pick and could force the Eagles to sidestep both pass rushers and safeties on Day 1. For an offensive genius like Kelly, Benjamin may be worth picking him over any defender.
Trust Your Own EyesThe number of people turning to food banks is surging across Alberta and inching up in other parts of the country.
With so many rumblings of a recession, those on the front lines believe the upswing could be a sign of tough times ahead for much of Canada.
When the economy's in trouble, they say, the early signs appear at the food bank. It's where people turn when their employment insurance runs out or their savings account runs dry.
"It's where they go when they hit the wall," Gail Nyberg with Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank told CBC News. "It's actually gauging those most vulnerable."
Bad signs in Alberta
Due to a slow down in the oil patch, food banks across Alberta are suddenly overrun with demand. Today, Alberta Food Banks is issuing a news release with an urgent call for donations, saying "the shelves are bare" at many locations.
"I've personally talked to a dozen food banks in the last two to three months and I can't think of one that has said their numbers haven't increased," executive director Stephanie Rigby said. "We know that there may be more to come, and I know the food banks are bracing."
Many newcomers, such as Pamela in Edmonton, are first-time users. "I never thought it would come to this," she said about seeking donated food.
It's hard, it's beyond hard right now - Tamisan Bencz-Knight, Edmonton's Food Bank
Until she was laid off at Christmas, Pamela was earning $38 an hour working in the oil industry. We are withholding her last name because she worries publishing it will hurt her chances of landing another job.
Pamela says she and her husband, who's off work due to an injury, finally decided to turn to the food bank because they're running out of cash. They can barely keep up with their bills and are struggling to make the minimum payments on $17,000 in credit-card debt they've racked up to cover costs.
"We've fallen upon hard times," Pamela said, adding that it's "a common experience" in oil country.
The shelves are running bare at Fort McMurray's Wood Buffalo Food Bank. The number of food bank users is spiking across the province. (Alberta Food Banks)
Tamisan Bencz-Knight with Edmonton's Food Bank reports its numbers are surging. The number of people collecting monthly hampers has risen 12.5 per cent compared with this time last year.
"You see a lot of tears, a lot of people broken down a little bit," she said. "It's hard — it's beyond hard right now."
The Wood Buffalo Food Bank Association, which serves Fort McMurray, the heart of the oil industry, is also seeing a lot of new faces. The association reports a staggering 57 per cent jump in usage in the first half of 2015 compared with last year.
"We've not really seen anything like we've seen this year. It's been a little bit scary," said Arianna Johnson, Wood Buffalo's executive director.
Canary in the coal mine
As Canada's economy continues to sputter, Nyberg with Toronto's food bank sees the growing numbers in Alberta as a bad sign. She suspects it's "the canary in the coal mine this time."
The last time, she says, Ontario took the lead. Months before the 2008 recession, Toronto and surrounding regions saw the signs first — a sudden spike in people turning to food banks.
"It was like, 'holy moly, what's going on?' I was kind of thinking, how come the [financial] banks don't see what's happening and nobody's saying we're in a recession," Nyberg said.
Ontario was first to feel the pain during the last recession because of the downturn in manufacturing, Nyberg said.
Now, with a downturn in the oil sector, she suspects Alberta's food banks are a harbinger of harder economic times.
Still waiting for recovery
Other regions are also showing signs of trouble as Canada's economy continues to sputter.
Thunder Bay's Regional Food Distribution Association is reporting a jump of six to 10 per cent, and Winnipeg's Harvest food bank has reported a 3.6 per cent increase in users.
Vancouver and Toronto report that their numbers are holding steady, but Nyberg warns that's no reason to celebrate.
"We're remaining pretty stable so that is the good news," she said. "But the bad news is, stable from the hit we took during the recession."
Just like the economy, Canada's food banks still haven't recovered from the last recession.
Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank reports that the number of visits to locations across the region was more than a million in 2014, a number first reached when the bad times hit in 2008.
'Not a good feeling'
Fort McMurray's food bank finds itself struggling with its growing clientele. To cope, it's had to cut back the amount of food it gives to clients.
"It's not a good feeling," Johnson said, adding she also believes Canada may be "teetering on the edge of a recession" with Alberta in the driver's seat.
However, she pointed out, the province's oil sector helped Canada weather the past economic downturn, and an eventual rebound in that sector could help the country out of its current slump.
Pamela, the recently laid-off oil worker, is trying to remain hopeful, but she says she's doing it by exploring other career options.
"We are looking at different things," she said about herself and her husband. "We're not just sitting around for the oil industry to pick up because we understand that it may never pick up."CLOSE An undocumented woman was detained by two agents as she exited a courtroom after asking for a protective order. Federal officials have said they took her into custody outside the courthouse. Courtesy of El Paso County
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent (Photo: LM Otero/Associated Press file) Story Highlights See criminal complaint below
AUSTIN — Federal immigration agents went to the El Paso County Courthouse last week and arrested an undocumented woman who had just received a protective order alleging that she was a victim of domestic violence.
The agents apparently detained the woman Feb. 9 after receiving a tip, possibly from her alleged abuser, whom they already had in custody, El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal said.
The detention has alarmed Bernal and other county officials who fear that the arrest will scare undocumented victims of domestic abuse into staying with their abusers for fear of being deported and separated from their children or other family members.
However, a criminal complaint on file with the U.S. District Court in El Paso indicates that a person of the same name as the alleged victim might have a history of deportation and domestic violence.
Bernal was not aware of the complaint, filed by U.S. immigration officials, when she spoke about the arrest earlier in the day. She said, however, that her office cooperates with federal authorities when serious crimes are alleged.
“Our clients come to us at the lowest point in their lives. Many of them are so frightened of coming to us because of possible immigration concerns.” El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne |
Jews in organizations as diverse as the NAACP and the Communist Party tried to turn the Negro into a revolutionary. They created a monster instead. This is precisely what Tom Watson predicted in the aftermath of the Leo Frank trial:
“The National Pencil Factory, owned by Frank’s people, fought our Child Labor bill fiercely and helped to kill it—and in God’s mysterious way, it cost the Superintendent his life.”[7] In closing ranks behind Frank, the nation’s wealthy Jews had “blown the breath of life into the Monster of Race Hatred; and this Frankenstein, whom you created at such enormous expense, WILL HUNT YOU DOWN![8]
In the aftermath of Ferguson, it looked as if Tom Watson’s warning was coming true. As a result of the Frank case, the Jews declared war on the South. The same influential Jews who had taken up the banner of Leo Frank went on to create the Anti-Defamation League.
But more importantly for our purposes they infected the Negro with the virus of revolution. The Negroes of the South Side of Chicago now act the way they do because of an idea that was planted in their mind by Jewish revolutionaries.
The main vehicle for this transformation in the black mind (from rural sharecropper to urban revolutionary) was the civil rights movement, which was the most successful part of the Black-Jewish Alliance, which was the 60-year-long attempt on the part of Jews at organizations like the NAACP and the Communist Party to turn Negroes into revolutionaries.
After months of preliminary work, Martin Luther King arrived in Chicago to kick off his housing drive in June 1966. Chicago had been a racial battlefield since the Chicago Housing Authority, the Quakers, B’nai B’rith/ADL and Louis Wirth redoubled their efforts at to complete the social engineering of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods that had begun during World War II.
But things started to go wrong from the beginning, and they never ended up going right. When King stepped out of his car to lead a march through “segregated” Marquette Park, he was greeted by a hail of rocks and bottles, one of which hit him on the head and staggered him to his knees.
The Lithuanians who would later set fire to the marchers’ cars and chase Jesse Jackson down 63rd St. were outraged by the fact that people from another part of the country would come into their neighborhood and tell them to sell their homes.
That wasn’t precisely King’s message, but the simple fact of the matter was that no one, not even the Chicago Tribune, knew exactly what King’s message was. According to an editorial in the Chicago Tribune, the message of the “paid professional agitators” who made up the march was “give up your homes and get out so that we can take over.”[9]
King was befuddled, as Mayor Daley indicated, because he didn’t understand Chicago. Dorothy Tillman, one of King’s lieutenants, only strengthened this suspicion when she said, in effect, Chicago was different than what they had expected. “Down South,” the SCLC’s Dorothy Tillman opined, “you were black or white. You wasn’t Irish or Polish or all of this.”[10]
The regime had promoted revolution when it suited them. In 1967 Sargent Shriver, as head of the Office of Economic Opportunity, had given the Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago gang which was one of the predecessors of the Gangster Disciples, a grant for over $900,000 to engage in, well, gang-related activity, which is to say criminal behavior, which at the time was a convenient way of driving Catholics out of the ethnic neighborhoods they had established on the South Side of Chicago.
When the regime realized that the civil rights movement had morphed into a monster, the FBI was sent in to kill the Black Panthers. They created a COINTELPRO operation to take out the Chicago branch, then headed by Fred Hampton.
The image that succeeded the Black Panther as revolutionary in the Negro mind was the pimp. In his article “The Myth of the Great Black Pimp,” (8/21/01) Adissa Banjoko sees a connection between the revolutionary Black Panthers of the ‘60s and the pimps of the ‘70s. The latter succeeded the former as ghetto role model. When the Negro got scared, he became a pimp, or, as Banjoko put it,
“Black America was tired of fighting with their white oppressors and on top of that were SCARED to fight back. The F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO orchestrated assassination and imprisonment of our most courageous soldiers like Bobby Hutton, Fred Hampton, Geronimo Pratt and others left us ‘shook’ as a people.”
The pimp is a classic example of one of the groups which make up what Karl Marx termed the Lumpenproletariat, a group of people who are good for nothing but making trouble. The Lumpenproletariat was incapable of becoming what Marx considered true revolutionaries because they lacked the necessary discipline.
By the late ‘60s, when the Jews had backed out of the Black-Jewish alliance and when the threat of Black Revolution had become too real for the regime which had promoted it to destroy the South and Catholic neighborhoods in places like Chicago, the FBI was called in to destroy the Black Panthers. After that, Hollywood was called in to ratchet the revolution back to its Lumpenproletariat origins and promote the pimp as the ideal Negro.
When the pimp as a cultural phenomenon appeared in the ‘70s it was a tacit, if cryptic, admission that the revolution had failed. When the Black Panthers got shut down in 1969, Gordon Parks noted their demise from his vantage point as a famous Negro photographer and reporter for Time/Life on Black issues.
In Chicago before dawn came the most celebrated shoot-up of the ongoing warfare. In December 1969, 14 cops shot up a Black Panther’s apartment. When the melee ended, the Chicago’s party leader, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark had been gunned to death. Hampton, asleep when the attack came, never got out of his blood drenched bed.... To more and more young blacks, the romantic appeal of their bold image was becoming irresistible. The Panthers had dared to use the word “revolution” because they wanted the system destroyed, not repaired. And they had lost faith in the ability of the system to repair itself.[11]
In 1970 Gordon Parks left Life to become the director of Shaft. In his memoir, Parks hints that his access to Hollywood was dependent on his article on the Black Panthers: “Before I could pursue my newfound interest in the movies, I was called back by Life to cover the Black Panthers.”[12] Betray the Black Panthers is what Parks meant to say.
The creation of the pimp as black cultural hero coincided with the eradication of the Black Panthers in late ’69 early ’70. The real change came in 1971 when Parks launched the film genre known as Blaxpoitation.
Parks was a photographer with Life Magazine, who had worked for the OWI during the war. After the war, Time/Life became a CIA front. The CIA liaison at Time/Life was a man by the name of C.D. Jackson. Gordon Parks was the man Time/Life and the CIA used to “penetrate” black organizations which the regime considered subversive, something he brings up in his memoir A Hungry Heart.
Shortly after leaving Time/Life, Parks met with, Jim Aubrey, whom he describes as “the tough inflexible boss at MGM Studio,” who “handed me my second Hollywood film. Titled Shaft, it was the story of a virile, suave, black Harlem detective.”
GeneYoung, Parks’ third wife, sums up Parks’ career as a Hollywood director by saying, “He did what people paid him to do.” When I mention Jim Aubrey’s name, Gene Young blurts out that he was probably a CIA agent. Parks makes clear in his memoir that the point of the film was to provide Black youth with a role model:
“It was a film that could give black youth their first cinematic hero comparable to James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart, but not the least of the persuasion was the salary I was to receive.”
Parks leaves unmentioned the type of behavior which Shaft and Superfly were to inspire as the new role models for “black youth.” He also never mentions the disruption this behavior was to cause in the black community by further weakening the already weak black family. He also never mentions the effect that emulation of these cinematic heroes is going to have on the black women, who were on the receiving end of the pimp culture he was paid to promote.
If Parks were willing to betray black organizations like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, why not the black community as a whole? Why not steer it down the path of self-destruction, as long as he was paid well to do it?
Shaft was a big success. According to Parks’ account, it
“opened on July 2, 1971, to lines around the block and audiences who stood up screaming at its conclusion. It was a particular hit with young Blacks, who for the first time, had a Black hero to identify with. On reviewer called Shaft, “the ultimate in suave Black detectives.”[13]
Shaft was breaking attendance records all over the country, but it was especially popular in Chicago, where one theater, the Roosevelt, took in a million dollars during its run there.
Needless to say, the Hollywood moguls were pleased that social engineering was proving to be so lucrative. “Joel,” Parks tells us, was “all happiness” when he “came to my office.... Now Hollywood had the green light for black suspense films....”[14]
Jim Aubrey was happy too. Parks went on to collaborate with Aubrey on two more films—The Super Cops and Shaft’s Big Score—but for some reason not on the other Ernest Tidyman novel in the Shaft series, Shaft among the Jews.
Aubrey then upped the ante by handing Parks the screenplay for Superfly, a film in which the new role model for young blacks is the pimp not the detective. In the end, Parks did not direct Superfly.
During the summer of 1971, when Shaft was becoming a box office hit throughout the world, Parks passed the baton to his son, Gordon Parks, Jr. “I was on a week’s leave from Hollywood when he [Aubrey] handed me a screenplay titled ‘Superfly.’”
For some reason Parks could not bring himself to direct this film, but for some reason he couldn’t quite pass up the opportunity either. So rather than turn down the film project altogether, Parks “took a deep breath” and “wrote out a big check and thrust it into his [son’s] pocket.”[15]
Superfly became the Blaxpoitation hit of 1972. Before Shaft and Superfly, the ideal Negro was a revolutionary, of the sort symbolized best by the Black Panthers. After Blaxploitation, the ideal Negro was a pimp.
Blaxploitation was Jewish revenge against the anti-Jewish resentment which had spread throughout the civil rights movement during the late ‘60s and found its culmination when Stokely Carmichael expelled the Jews from SNCC.
Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville teacher strike, which broke out in 1967, were two more reasons for Jewish resentment against the ungrateful shvartzas who had received so much Jewish money when Martin Luther King had been running the civil rights movement.
In many respects, the rise of the Black Panther as the premier black power organization came about because the Panthers were willing, if not avid, to accept Jewish/Hollywood money. One of their biggest sources of funds, as David Horowitz has pointed out, was Bert Schneider, the producer of Easy Rider.
For over 60 years, the Jews in this country, through organizations and institutions like the NAACP, the Communist Party, the Civil Rights Movement, and the entertainment industry, have tried to turn blacks into revolutionaries.
In order to do that, they had to undermine their faith and corrupt their morals. When the revolution failed and the black-Jewish alliance fell apart in the late ‘60s, those revolutionaries eventually turned into the “gangstas” celebrated by rap music, thugs who prey on their own people because they are still carrying the revolutionary image they acquired at the feet of the Jews around in their minds.
No one can hope to understand the anomalous nature of the disturbances in Ferguson and Baltimore without an understanding of the Black/Jewish alliance as a psy op gone bad. The Jews did to the blacks what the Americans and the Saudis did to the mujahideen in Afghanistan during the ’80s. They turned them into proxy warriors who, like the mujahideen, then got totally out of control and, as Tom Watson predicted at the time of the Leo Frank case, the black proxy warriors became a Frankenstein monster.
The untold story behind Ferguson involves what one reporter described as the “encyclopedia of grievance” which these Jewish campaigns have created in the minds of this nation’s black population. The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit has created a nation full of psychic time bombs, which can go off at any moment, like the unexploded ordinance in the fields of Europe left behind by the bombing campaigns of World War II.
Ever since John Brown, someone in this country has been paging through the “encyclopedia of grievances” trying to stir up a slave rebellion. Ever since Leo Frank got lynched, the Jews have been the main party involved in promoting slave rebellions under their various guises, whether it was the NAACP, which set out to destroy Marcus Garvey, the Communist Party, who tried to use the Scottsboro Boys as the pretext for their uprising, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which according to Murray Friedman, succeeded in launching a “true revolution” in the South, or David Horowitz and Burt Schneider, who created the Black Panthers.
Now we have George Soros and his Open Society Foundation promoting a slave rebellion in Ferguson. According to the article in the Washington Times which you cited, “Mr. Soros gave $33 million in the most recent filing year to promoting racial turmoil. Soros-funded groups have “transformed a one-day criminal event in Missouri into a 24-hour-a-day national cause celebre.”[16]
What began as “spontaneous protests” on a local level, soon got instrumentalized as revolutionary uprisings, with street demonstrations swollen by nearby recipients of Soros money.
In 2014 there were 432 homicides in the city of Chicago. During the week beginning October 18, 2015, four people were shot and killed in the city of Chicago and 34 people were shot and wounded. During the month of October 2015, as of October 24, 21 people have been shot and killed and 136 people have been shot and wounded.
In 1974, two years after blacks on the south side of Chicago lined up around the block to see Superfly, Hollywood’s glorification of the black pimp, there were 970 homicides in the city of Chicago, an all-time record. Eighty percent of those victims were black.
If “black lives matter,” why aren’t we talking about these murders? The answer to that question is very simple. It’s because George Soros isn’t paying anyone to talk about them, and even if some other rich Jew were to come up with the money, the Jewish controlled media wouldn’t run the story because they would prefer that we remain in ignorance of the Black/Jewish alliance.
George Soros is to Ferguson what the Spingarn brothers were to the NAACP, what the Communist Party was to the Scottsboro Boys, what Stanley Levinson was to Martin Luther King and what Burt Schneider and David Horowitz were to the Black Panthers. He is one more rich Jew who is trying to turn a local incident into a slave rebellion by turning Blacks into Jewish revolutionaries.
At this point we need to ask ourselves: Do we want another Jewish-led slave rebellion? Is there an alternative to the Jewish Revolutionary Spirit as the engine pulling the train of human history? In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI indicates that revolution is not the Christian way:
“Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much bloodshed. Jesus was not Spartacus; he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like Barabbas or Bar-Kochba.
“Jesus himself, who died on the Cross, brought something totally different: an encounter with a hope stronger than the suffering of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within.”
Just as Cyrus, King of Persia, set captive Israel free without a Jewish Revolution, so the three Persians whom we call the Magi showed us that Logos, not revolution, is the source of our liberation. It is to these three Iranians that we should turn to find an alternative to the Jewish Revolutionary Spirit which has caused so much havoc in the world.
Our model in this regard should be these three Persians, whom we call wise because they studied the logos that God has made apparent in the sky. The three Magi from the East were different than the decadent philosophers from the West, who, St. Paul tells us, have been schooled to “keep truth imprisoned in their wickedness.”
Like Michel Foucault, who was raised a Catholic and can stand as a symbol of the decadent state of philosophy in the West, “they knew God and yet refused to honor him as God or to thank him; instead they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened. The more they called themselves philosophers,” St. Paul continues, “the more stupid they grew.”
With the homosexual Foucault as their guide, the West has “turned from natural intercourse to unnatural practices.... their menfolk have given up natural intercourse to be consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameless things with men and getting an appropriate reward for their perversion.”
Michel Foucault, most of you may know, died of AIDS in 1984, after a decade of degrading himself in the bathhouses of San Francisco.
Michel Foucault is the patron saint of the decadent West. That is why “The West,” as Denethor said in The Lord of the Rings, has failed. We have come to modern day Persia with different saints in mind. We take as our model the three Persians who followed a star. Why are they our model?
1) Because of their Intellect. They were able to discern logos in the sky by studying God’s creation.
2) Because of their will. The magi are worthy of imitation because when the star appeared in the sky they had the courage to follow it wherever it led them. Do we have the same courage? If we don’t, we will achieve nothing.
And finally, 3) Because of their cunning. They were smart enough to understand that they could not accept political discourse and political categories. After being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they “returned to their own country by a different way” (Matt 2:12).
Like the Magi, we are being called to return to our own country by a different way. We are being called to avoid Herod and not become accomplices in his plans to slaughter the innocent. We are being called to abandon Herod’s obsolete political categories, which have caused so much mayhem in the world. We are being called not only to eschew the Jewish Revolutionary Spirit but to oppose it openly and actively.
The alternative to becoming a wise man is now clear. As one of the bishops at the recently held synod on the family in Rome made clear, it is the two beasts of the Apocalypse: the homosexual agenda of the Great Satan and the Takfiri in Syria and Iraq otherwise known as DAESH or Isis.
What do homosexual revolutionaries like Michel Foucault have in common with the liver-eating Takfiri? They believe that will is superior to reason. We are wise men because we believe in the opposite; we believe in subordinating our will to the Logos. We believe in following the Star which symbolizes the Logos which is God. As the Gospel of St. John reminds us: “Verbum erat Deus.”
With the Magi as our role models in mind, we ask for the courage to follow that star wherever it leads us.
[1] Kelly Riddell, “George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action,” Washington Times, January 14, 2015.
[2] Kieran Corcoran, “Billionaire George Soros spent $33MILLION bankrolling Ferguson demonstrators to create ‘echo chamber’ and drive national protests,” Daily Mail, January 16, 2015.
[3] “George Soros Support for Human Rights Watch Advances Subversive Agenda,” Sputnik News, January 28, 2016.
[4] “It’s Been Fund: Russia Sends Soros Speculating His Way Out the Door,” Sputnik News, November 30, 2015; “Russia Rules Out Expansion of List of Undesirable Foreign-Funded NGOs,” Sputnik News, December 24, 2015.
[5] Quoted in Robert Bridge, “Soros (seriously) underestimates his audience by blaming Putin for EU refugee crisis,” Russia Today, February 16, 2016.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Steve Oney, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003), 599.
[8] Ibid.
[9] David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1986), 500.
[10] John McGreevy, Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 197.
[11] Gordon Parks, A Hungry Heart: A Memoir (New York: Washington Square Press, 2005), 290, 293.
[12] Ibid., 297.
[13] Ibid., 317.
[14] Ibid., 308.
[15] Ibid., 318.
[16] Kelly Riddell, “George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action,” Washington Times, January 14, 2015.PASADENA, Calif., (NASA) – A decade ago today, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew past Earth at a distance of 1,171 kilometers (727 miles) on its way to an appointment with the solar system’s second largest occupant – Saturn.
Launched in October of 1997, Cassini required a grand total of four planetary flybys to provide the gravity boost it needed to get to the ringed world. A gravity boost uses a planet’s mass and orbital speed to “boost” a spacecraft’s velocity as it flies past.
Prior to its Earth encounter, Cassini had flown past Venus on two occasions (April 26, 1998 and June 24, 1999). The Earth flyby on Aug. 18, 1999 gave Cassini a 5.5-kilometer-per-second (about 12,000-mile-per-hour) boost in velocity, speeding Cassini toward its final gravity boost target of Jupiter in December of the following year. The total effect of the probe’s four planetary flybys — two Venus, one Earth and one Jupiter – was an extra 21.44 kilometers (13.64 miles) per second of velocity for the spacecraft.
Cassini arrived at Saturn and was captured into orbit on June 30, 2004. Since then, it has been returning a wealth of data about the planet, its rings and its moons.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. JPL manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.Our products are a great way to get your natural plant proteins
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So I decided to try something: instead of making it equal parts a Superman movie and Batman movie rolled into one, I’d simply make it a Batman movie with Superman as a side character or even as a secondary antagonist of sorts. It’s cut with the simple philosophy that it’s Batman’s story. Only things necessary to the movie making sense from that philosophy were included.
I cut the 3-hour Ultimate Edition down to under 2 hours if you don’t watch the credits. Instead of the fight starting at 2 hours 3 minutes, it starts at 1 hour 8 minutes.
Here are a few notes about it and choice cuts:
-I assumed that you saw Man Of Steel before this
-I removed the section of the opening credits where Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed. In this regard, I assumed you have a basic understanding of Batman’s origin story
-I removed every part of Superman’s/Clark’s story that I could that still made it make sense
-I removed every mention of the incident in the desert. Instead, I tried to make it appear and sound like the committee was meeting about and discussing Superman’s fault for the attack in Metropolis
-I tried to shorten the nightmare scene. I generally do not like dream sequences, and I originally tried to removed it entirely, but it severely messed with the pacing
-I removed as much Lex Luther as possible. Sorry, not much I could do about that
-I removed Superman’s funeral, and kept only Clark’s
-I do not dislike Superman or even Zack Snyder’s take on Superman. I mainly felt that this movie was over crowded, too convoluted in plot, and too long. This edit was simply an attempt to simplify the story and amplify the film’s strongest aspects
-I am not a professional editor. I apologize for the low quality of the export and for any technical issues you find with the file
I cannot stress this enough. This is not a replacement for your original copy. I purchased a copy and if you download this, I would hope that you did too.
Enjoy!
Download here: https://mega.nz/#!qAVHnTSJ!wHEfAF9qwTm1CxgYSiUHViLEgNn3GNLJly6GXdCoaQQIreland has become the first country in the world to approve gay marriage by referendum with an overwhelming 62 percent "Yes" vote, further denting the once all-powerful Irish Catholic Church.
Supporters packed into the grounds of Dublin Castle hugged, kissed and waved rainbow flags in a festival atmosphere as the result was announced, and parties in the capital's gay bars went on into the night.
The constitutional change allowing same-sex marriage was passed with only 38 percent voting against it. All of Ireland's 43 constituencies except one voted in favour of the measure.
"Today Ireland has made history - the first country in the world to vote for equal marriage," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told reporters.
"With today's vote we have disclosed who we are: a generous, compassionate, bold and joyful people. Yes to inclusion, yes to generosity, yes to love, yes to equal marriage," he said.
The voter turnout was 60 percent - much higher than in other recent referendums.
As she swept into the castle party in high heels, Rory O'Neill or "Panti Bliss", Ireland's foremost drag queen and a leading "Yes" campaigner, declared: "It's an amazing day to be Irish!"
Outside the main counting centre in Dublin, Grainne O'Grady, 44, and Pauline Tracey, 53, said the plan was to "celebrate, celebrate, celebrate".
"I'm just so happy I could burst. We were voting on whether we were equal in our own country," said O'Grady, wearing a "Yes Equality" T-shirt.
Celebrities and political leaders tweeted congratulations and US Vice President Joe Biden, who is of Irish descent, wrote: "We welcome Ireland's support for equality. #LoveWins."
The referendum asked voters whether or not they approved the statement: "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex."
Legalising gay marriage is a seismic change in Ireland, where the Roman Catholic Church has traditionally been a powerful force.
Homosexuality was illegal until 1993 and abortion is still banned except where the mother's life is in danger.
'Reality check' for church
Al Jazeera's Tim Friend, reporting from London, said this was a significant vote considering the power and reach of the Irish Catholic Church.
"Church leaders across the world will be looking closely at the results of Ireland's referendum," he said.
The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin told national broadcaster RTE that the Catholic Church now needed a "reality check".
"I think the Church needs to do a reality check right across the board... Have we drifted away completely from young people?" he said.
"It's a social revolution," said the archbishop, who had called for a "No" vote arguing that gay rights should be respected "without changing the definition of marriage".
The Catholic Church campaigned strongly for a "No" vote, insisting marriage can only involve a man and woman, drawing support from many older voters.
The majority of Irish people identify themselves as Catholic, but the church's influence has waned in recent years amid growing secularisation and after a wave of child sex abuse scandals.
All Ireland's main political parties supported amending the constitutional definition of marriage.
A string of Irish celebrities had also backed the "Yes" campaign including singer Sinead O'Connor, actor Colin Farrell and rock band U2, who posted a photo on Instagram with the words "In the name of love..." - one of their most famous songs.
The issue has drawn intense interest on social media under the hashtag #MarRef and was one of the most popular trending subjects worldwide on Twitter Saturday.
Many young Irish voters posted selfies of themselves returning from overseas by plane and ferry to vote in favour of gay marriage in Friday's referendum.Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player game, but that hasn't stopped Electronic Arts from cramming an online pass into the game. We knew the pass was going to hide the game's Mass Effect tie-in armor, but now we know that it's holding seven full quests to ransom, too.
This is what greeted me when I opened my review copy, anyway. No manual or anything, just an online pass. Also, the code on my pass is currently invalid, so I cannot get to the content and see what it's like. The sheet tells me I'll get an entire quest line though, made up of seven individual quests.
It's pretty sad that single-player games are starting to chuck online passes around. You know what that says to me? That a publisher is not confident that its game is worth keeping. That's really not the kind of message you want to send your consumers before they even put the disc in.
It's a shame, because Amalur might actually be worth keeping... but EA clearly doesn't think so.
You are logged out. Login | Sign upThe United States has accelerated the deployment of troops to Poland, the Baltic states and Romania as part of raising security in the region, officials said.
Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz made the announcement on Wednesday following talks with the commander of US land troops in Europe, Lieutenant-General Ben Hodges.
American troops will be deployed in early January - instead of late in the month - to Poland, the Baltic states, and Romania, Hodges said.
"I am very happy that a decision has been taken by the US side for an earlier deployment," Macierewicz said.
An armoured brigade combat team from Fort Carson, Colorado will be based in Zagan, western Poland, while another US force, a battalion, will be deployed on April 1 to Orzysz, in the northeast.
"I'm confident in the very powerful signal, the message it will send [that] the United States, along with the rest of NATO, is committed to deterrence," Hodges said.
"I'm excited about what my country is doing and I'm excited about continuing to work with our ally, Poland."
A deterrent
Poland and the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have been uneasy about increased Russian military operations in the region, especially after its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and have requested US and NATO troops' presence on their territory as a deterrent.
The alliance and the US insist the troop presence is not aimed against anyone, but Russia has threatened measures in response.
"We must clearly grasp what is happening around our borders, why NATO is building up arms and infrastructure. It deploys four additional battalions to alliance member states in Eastern Europe. Why are they doing it?" asked Nikolay Bordyuzha, secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) - a Russian-led military bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
"We cannot remain silent and do nothing, looking at how countries around us are being crammed with weapons, and troops being moved," he told the Russian newspaper Izvestia on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Russia moves nuclear-capable missiles to NATO doorstep
He also said the leaders of the CSTO member states would gather on December 26 in St Petersburg, to discuss possible responses to NATO's latest moves.
In November, Russia said it was installing S-400 surface-to-air missiles and nuclear-capable Iskander systems in the exclave of Kaliningrad that borders Poland and Lithuania in retaliation for the NATO deployment of its so-called defence shield in Eastern Europe.
The Kremlin says the shield's aim is to neutralise Moscow's nuclear arsenal long enough for the United States to strike Russia in the event of war. Washington and NATO deny that.Photo illustration by Juliana Jiménez. Photo by Thinkstock
People who rescue animals can be reluctant to believe anyone deserves the furry creatures. Some rescue groups think potential owners shouldn’t have full-time jobs. Others reject families with children. Some rescuers think apartment dwelling is OK for humans but not for dogs, or object to a cat’s litter box being placed in a basement. Some say no to people who would let a dog run around the fenced backyard “unsupervised,” or allow a cat outside, ever.
It used to be that people who wanted to get an abandoned or abused animal went to the local pound, saw one they liked, paid a small fee, and drove home with a new pet. Since the 1990s, however, the movement to reduce animal euthanasia and the arrival of the Internet have given rise to a new breed of rescuer. These are private groups, or even individuals, who create networks of volunteers to care for needy animals.
Before this, enormous numbers of animals who went into shelters never came out. More than 40 years ago, an average of 20 million dogs and cats were euthanized annually. Humane organizations started a campaign to spay and neuter pets, especially those coming through shelters, and today fewer than four million dogs and cats are euthanized yearly—still terrible, but a vast improvement. In addition to pet sterilization, an effort also began to find accommodations for homeless animals outside the municipal and private shelter systems, which have limited room and often short deadlines for keeping animals before moving them to death row. The new organizations take potentially adoptable pets out of the shelters and foster them, usually in private homes, until the right owner comes along. They control the fate of an increasing number of animals. In New York City, for example, almost 45 percent of the dogs and cats that come into the Animal Care & Control system are passed to one of more than 150 private rescue groups.
Groups like these have high standards for who gets to adopt. Applicants are sometimes subjected to an interrogation that would befit Michael Vick. After receiving this hostile treatment, several would-be pet owners told me, they got offended and gave up. Others push on, answering pages of questions (“As a dog ages, it often becomes incontinent and arthritic. How do you intend to handle your dog’s age-related problems?”), supplying personal and veterinary references, and submitting to home inspections. Even after going through that ordeal, you can be told that you are unworthy for pet ownership, for reasons often left mysterious. At this point, many frustrated animal lovers can commit an act they’d previously thought abhorrent: They buy a dog, cat, bird, or guinea pig from a pet store or breeder. I know because that’s what happened to me.
A few months ago during a Dear Prudence chat, I mentioned in passing how ridiculous some rescue groups were. When my family decided to get a second rescue dog, I felt it was my job to prove to the groups we contacted that I wasn’t a vivisectionist. Fed up, we decided to buy a puppy and found a lovely breeder, and our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lily, has made us all ecstatic.
After I wrote this, I expected to be skinned alive by animal lovers. Instead, dozens of people posted comments about their own humiliation and rejection at the hands |
actica” spinoff will air Jan. 4, just after the New Year. And no, it doesn’t start Jan. 4 … the final five episodes will actually air Jan. 4 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
Syfy is essentially burning off the episodes, running them in a marathon to collect whatever revenue it can from the final episodes in the series it cancelled earlier this month after a single season.
The cable channel, which made the unusual move of pulling the show off the air as soon as the plug was pulled, made no formal announcement about the scheduling, at least not through its normal channels using entertainment news outlets.
Because of that, it’s likely Syfy will invest absolutely no money in promotion of the final episodes.
Fans will get a chance to see the final episodes before they air. The DVD for “Caprica” Season 1.5 will be out in time for Christmas, which will include the unaired episodes.
The show was cancelled just before Halloween, the announcement coming just days after another one was made about the BSG universe: The upgrade of the web series “Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome” as a backdoor pilot.
“Caprica” struggled with ratings from the start, partially from the slow story pace at the start, as well as the nine-month wait viewers had between the pilot episode and the rest of the episodes in the first half of the season. Syfy had originally planned to wait until January to start showing episodes again, moving it from Fridays to Tuesdays (now that WWE wrestling is on Fridays), but abruptly changed its mind in September when it chose to pair up “Caprica” with “Stargate: Universe” on Tuesdays beginning in October.
Although the episodes have been pulled from Syfy until Jan. 4, they are airing in other markets around the world, including on Space in Canada.
In the meantime, Syfy is moving forward with a “Caprica”/”Hollywood Treasure” promotion that had been planned before the series was cancelled, making Zoe Graystone’s purple dress a charity auction item. You can see that video by clicking here.
“Caprica” starred Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Polly Walker, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Aponowicz and Sasha Roiz. It was set nearly 60 years before the events of “Battlestar Galactica,” and centered around the creation of the Cylons.Civilians in the town where Bashar al-Assad gassed 87 people to death earlier this week say the dictator is trying to wipe them out with fresh airstrikes.
Aya Fadl, 25, a mother who lives in Khan Sheikhoun with her husband and 20-month-old son, said that Assad is trying to kill everyone that survived the chemical attack.
Mrs Fadl spent Saturday sheltering in the basement of her house in Khan Sheikhoun as she claimed 24 bombing raids were carried out in just 24 hours.
The strikes were launched from Shayrat airbase, which was operational again hours after it was hit by cruise missiles launched on the orders of President Trump.
Aya Fadl, a mother from Khan Sheikhoun, the town that was gassed by Assadf earlier this week, says the dictator is trying to wipe her town out in revenge for Trump's missile strike
The 25-year-old (pictured) was lucky to survive the gas attack after inhaling a nerve agent, believed by many to be sarin gas
Mrs Fadl says she spent Friday night in the basement of her home with her husband and son (pictured), sleeping in the same room so that if a bomb hits, they will die together
In total, Mrs Fadl lost 20 members of her family during the Sarin attack, including second cousins Aya and Ahmad (pictured with father Abdul Hamid Youssef)
Mrs Fadl told Daily Mail Online : 'They bombed the city and the surrounding areas again. They will not stop. There were 24 raids on Saturday.
'I'm so scared. I can't do anything. There is no safety left here. Every time I hear these terrible sounds I feel awful and my son cries.
'He is bombing our city wildly. He will not stop. He is trying to wipe us out. We really need help. I see death everywhere and every minute.'
She believes that Assad will use chemical weapons again because 'there is no deterrent', adding: 'It will be like so many times before. No action stops him.'
While Mrs Fadl said she wants to leave the city, she feels there is no safe place left to go - and even if there was, she has no way of getting there.
Born and raised in Khan Sheikhoun, Mrs Fadl studied at the University of Aleppo before returning to her hometown, according to her social media.
The young mother lost more than 20 members of her family during the gas attack on Tuesday, and is still suffering the effects of inhaling a nerve agent, believed by many to be sarin.
Aya and Ahmad, the twins pictured being buried by their distraught father Abdul Hamid Youssef, were her second cousins.
The strikes against Khan Sheikhoum were carried out from Shayrat airbase, which was active again just hours after it was bombed on the orders of Donald Trump
Pro-Russia activists and Assad troops were keen to show off the airbase functioning on social media just hours after it was hit by Tomahawk missiles
Distressing pictures taken on the day of the attack show Mrs Fadl laid out on a bed with a gas mask strapped to her face.
When she heard of Trump's strike on Friday, in which 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at the airbase used to carry out the chemical attack, Mrs Fadl said at first she was happy.
But joy soon turned to fear after she realised Assad would seek revenge against the only people he has the power to strike - the innocents living in her town.
By Friday afternoon the Shayrat airbase was operational again, according to videos posted by pro-Russia and pro-Assad groups on social media.
Footage shows Sukhoi jets taking off from the runway, destined for bombing missions across Idlib province, including in Mrs Fadl's neighbourhood.
The bombing came a day after the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Assad can 'no longer get away' with killing civilians.
Destruction: This image shows a bombed cereals silo, just 50 meters from the residential area in Khan Shaykhun
Damage: Assad's warplanes hit the silo just on the outskirts of the small town last night
Syrian opposition activists say the warplanes struck the eastern side of Khan Sheikhoun, killing a woman and wounding another person.
The United States has vowed to keep up the pressure on Syria after a wave of missile strikes despite the prospect of escalating Russian dissatisfaction that could further inflame the conflict.
The US signalled new sanctions would follow and the Pentagon was probing whether Russia was involved in the chemical weapons assault that compelled US president Donald Trump to action.
The attack against a Syrian air base was the first US assault against the government of President Bashar Assad.
Much of the international community rallied behind Mr Trump's decision in reaction to this week's chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria.
But a spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin warned the strikes dealt 'a significant blow' to relations between Moscow and Washington.
President Assad ordered a gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun which killed 87
This map shows where the town of Khan Sheikhoun is in relation to Shayrat airfield
A key test comes next week when secretary of state Rex Tillerson becomes the first Trump Cabinet member to visit Russia.
Foreign Minister Boris Johnson had planned to visit Russia this week but decided to cancel the trip because of fast-moving events in Syria.
At the United Nations on Friday, Russia's deputy ambassador Vladimir Safronkov strongly criticized what he called the US 'flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression'.
He said its 'consequences for regional and international security could be extremely serious'.
He called the Assad government a main force against terrorism and said it deserved the presumption of innocence over the chemical weapons attack.
The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the world is waiting for the Russian government 'to act responsibly in Syria' and'reconsider its misplaced alliance with Bashar Assad'.
Speaking during an emergency Security Council session, she said the US was prepared to take further action in Syria but hoped it would not be necessary.
In Florida with the president, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said additional economic sanctions on Syria were being prepared.Palermo: 'Dybala is a Juve player'
By Football Italia staff
“Paulo Dybala is now a Juventus player,” confirmed Palermo Coach Beppe Iachini.
The Argentine was again left on the bench for today’s 1-0 win away to Cagliari, as President Maurizio Zamparini doesn’t want him to get injured.
“Dybala is now a Juventus player and this club is working towards the future,” Iachini told Sky Sport Italia.
The deal is believed to be worth €40m between cash, performance-related bonuses and player exchanges.
“The more time young players get on the field, the better their chances of showing what they can do.
“After our last defeat to Atalanta, some said Palermo were already on summer vacation, but we wanted to prove that was not the case.
“These lads want to finish the season with their heads held high.”IN THE Mumbai suburb of Vikhroli, at the office of NCR Corporation India, the country’s leading ATM deployer with a 47% market share, a 15-member team formed by the Reserve Bank of India — including ‘managed service providers’, ATM manufacturers and cash logistics firms — is at work to monitor and facilitate the recalibration and replenishment of cash machines across India.
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The average-sized conference room is a ‘One Network War Room’ — one of several points from where officials are trying to manage the cash crunch sweeping the country nearly a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement scrapping Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
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Officers on the ground report the progress to their zonal office, which sends the information to the head office. The head office collates the data and passes it on to the war room. Each team on the ground is given a route, and it works on all the ATMs on that route. Typically, each route has 15-20 ATMs.
***
Early every calendar year, before the start of the fiscal, the RBI calculates the country’s annual cash requirement — working on an econometric model that takes into account variables such as the number of notes in circulation, the number that have been destroyed, and the number needed for replacement — all keeping an eye on projected GDP growth and inflation for the coming fiscal, and on the volume of electronic transactions during the past year.
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According to an RBI official, data are collected from the central bank’s 19 regional offices, after which a decision is taken on the currency to be allocated to each office — and remittances are generally made quarterly.
The Ministry of Finance, whose Coins and Currency division oversees the exercise, is then intimated. Officials said the amount of currency to be printed in a year is a closely guarded secret between RBI and the Ministry.
***
Based on the estimate of currency needed, an indent or order is placed with the country’s four currency note printing presses, with clear instructions on denominations and numbers of notes each would print. Two presses, in Nashik and Dewas, are controlled by the government; the other two, at Mysuru and Salboni in West Midnapore district some 150 km from Kolkata, are run by the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran (P) Ltd, an RBI subsidiary. While the presses run through the year, the placing of an indent sets a particular cycle in motion.
The high-security banknote paper is designed, produced and supplied by banknote paper mills in Mysuru — which is owned by the RBI and has an installed capacity of 12,000 metric tonnes or 16 billion note pieces annually — and Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh — which can produce 6,000 metric tonnes annually. The Hoshangabad mill, which is government-run, was set up in 1967; the Mysuru mill came up in November 2015.
The design of the notes and some of the embedded security features, such as the multi-tonal, three-dimensional watermark, micro-lettering and security threads — which vary in notes of different denominations — are incorporated at the Hoshangabad and Mysuru mills. An in-house research and development team works constantly to review and improve upon the security features to stay ahead of counterfeiters.
The RBI has said that production at these two mills has ensured India meets most of its currency requirement at home. The situation has improved since 1998 — when the A B Vajpayee government brought back the Rs 1,000 note through legislation, and had to meet the gap between demand and supply by importing 3,600 million pieces of printed notes adding up to a face value of Rs 100,000 crore.
***
After the security paper has been readied, it is transported to the four note printing presses where additional security features like the optically variable ink, reflecting various colours, are added. The paper is transported in sealed containers as it is ready.
In Europe, officials said, just the designing takes up to a year — because the design itself is a security feature. In India, the design of the new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes reportedly started only about 6 months ago.
The notes are printed in sheets. Each sheet can accommodate 40 notes of the new Rs 2,000 currency. Once printed, the notes are telescopically numbered and cut. There are 100 notes in a packet, and 10 packets make a bundle. The presses can run extra shifts to meet the demand if needed.
In 2015-16, the BRBNML (Mysuru and Salboni) and Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (Nashik and Dewas) together printed 21,195 million pieces of notes against an indent of 23,900 million pieces. The 2015-16 production was 8.1% higher than that in 2014-15. An indent of 24,550 million pieces was given in 2016-17, 8% higher than in 2015-16. In 2015-16, the RBI spent Rs 34.2 billion on security printing. By end-March 2016, the value of bank notes in circulation was Rs 16,415 billion. In value terms, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were 86.45% of the currency in circulation.
***
Printed notes are despatched to vaults in over 19 offices of the RBI countrywide. For places not serviced by these offices, another 4,000 currency chests operate like vaults, guarded with state-of-the-art security systems, including CCTV cameras and concertina wire. There are also over 3,700 small coin depots at commercial banks, and co-operative and regional rural banks across the country. The RBI keeps a daily record of stock positions and transactions undertaken at the currency chests through a currency accounting system.
Railway wagons and trucks are used to transport the currency, with armed police security provided by the states. Helicopters or aircraft are sometimes requisitioned to reach currency to far corners of the country such as parts of the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir.
It is important to note that even after the money has reaches the RBI’s vaults or currency chests, it is technically just paper. For banknotes to become legal tender, the RBI must prepare a voucher — in other words, the currency has to be backed by an equivalent value of cash or securities, which are government or other sovereign bonds.
***
The next major task really, is not to reach the currency to bank branches, but to fill up ATMs — which number over 2.2 lakh currently. Some 8,800 cash vans of 7 registered cash logistics firms carry money to these ATMs.
Many banks have ‘managed service providers’ which, based on historical cash data usage at an ATM, raise an indent with the bank. The cash logistics firm then employs personnel to draw the cash from the bank’s currency chest or storage vault, and replenish the ATM.
“All cash logistics firms, ATM manufacturers and managed service providers across the country have pooled in resources to recalibrate and replenish ATMs all over the country. We have limited resources, and our people are working non-stop for the last 96 hours to reach each and every location. We are recalibrating over 13,000 ATMs on a daily basis,” the chief executive of a cash logistics firm said.
The companies are also working through local teams to get ATMs going, while coordinating with banks at all levels, officials said.
Each van transporting cash — generally a Tata Winger, Tata Sumo, or Mahindra Bolero — has 5 people: a driver, 2 armed guards, and 2 custodians. Despite the ongoing mad scramble, the number of occupants has not been changed, even though the industry has had to work at twice or more its normal capacity to get to each ATM, including making multiple trips as the machines keep drying up.
Cash van drivers are required to have police verification, and the vans themselves must meet several security requirements, and carry a ‘government duty’ label. These requirements is a reason why it hasn’t been easy to press more drivers and more vans into service.
Under normal circumstances, typically, in a remote area, because of low cash withdrawals through ATMs, cash is replenished once in 6 days — while an ATM in a metro may be filled up thrice a day.
***
Inside each ATM are 4 containers known as cassettes each of which can hold 2,500 individual notes. Thus, at any time, an ATM can take in only 10,000 notes. Each cassette holds only one denomination. Typically, 2 cassettes were calibrated to hold Rs 100 notes, and one each for Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Rituraj Sinha, president of the Cash Logistics Association of India, said, “In the absence of the new Rs 500 notes and Rs 1,000 notes, only two cassettes of Rs 100 notes are being filled at most ATMs right now. This means the maximum cash in an ATM is Rs 5 lakh, which goes dry in a couple of hours. With recalibration and higher new-value notes, a full-fledged ATM can load Rs 60 lakh, which can serve 3,000 customers taking into account current withdrawal limits.
“There are 2.2 lakh ATMs in the country and the entire industry (manufacturers, managed service providers and cash logistics) together has 60,000 staffers, who are working almost non-stop in two shifts, 7 am to 4.30 pm and 6 pm to 1 am,” Sinha said.
The 60,000 staffers have been divided into an ATM recalibration group and an ATM replenishment group. More guards have been hired to manage the crowds at the ATMs.
It takes 20 minutes on average to load cash in an ATM. “Recalibration is a time-consuming task. As of November 17, over 20,000 ATMs had been recalibrated. It will take another 20-22 days for all ATMs to be recalibrated. Recalibration started on a war footing with the formation of a task force on November 15, but given the vastness of our country, it will be some time before ATMs function normally,” Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, Managing Director, Fidelity Information Services, a banking and payments technology provider, said.
It takes 30-60 minutes to recalibrate an ATM, depending on the number of cassettes that need to be recalibrated. As of now, cash is being loaded into an ATM only the day after it is recalibrated.
Recalibration basically means configuring the cassettes to fit the new currency notes. “It (a cassette) functions like a printer. For an A3-size print, you need a container that can hold A3 sheets,” said a senior official of a payment technology provider.
“As of now, Rs 2,000 notes are available mostly only in urban centres. The idea is to recalibrate the ATMs first so that by the time Rs 2,000 denomination notes percolate downstream, the ATMs are ready to dispense them. Typically, banks are also informed about the recalibration of an ATM in a certain area to ensure that they keep supply of cash ready for that particular ATM the next day,” Venkatachalam said.
When an ATM runs out of cash, a switch in the machine alerts the managed service provider who, in turn, reaches out to the cash logistics firm.
***
Producing 2,300 crore pieces to replace the scrapped currency may take up to 6 months, estimates say. According to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the capacity of all note printing presses together is 300 crore notes per month. “Even if you print note for note, it will take seven months. If you print smaller denomination notes like Rs 100 for Rs 500, it will take 5 times more. There is only Rs 400 crore of counterfeit currency, 0.028% in a total circulation of Rs 16.24 lakh crore,” he said.
Former RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty agreed it could take 6 months to replace the demonetised notes, going by the capacity of the presses 2 years ago.
The Beginning
Before the beginning of each financial year, RBI makes a projection of the requirement of currency notes, taking into account circulation of notes, GDP growth, use of electronic payments, etc. This is discussed with the government and orders placed with the presses.
Preparing The Paper
The high-security banknote paper is designed, produced and supplied by currency paper mills in Mysuru and Hoshangabad, which can together produce 18,000 metric tonnes of note paper annually. Banknote paper can also be imported.
Security Features
Some embedded security features, such as the multi-tonal, three-dimensional watermark, micro-lettering and security threads are incorporated in Mysuru and Hoshangabad. An R&D team works constantly to review and improve security features.
The printing…
Once the security paper is ready, it is sent to the 4 note printing presses at Mysuru, Salboni, Dewas and Nashik, where additional security features are added.
…And Cutting
Notes are printed in sheets before being telescopically numbered and cut. There are 100 notes in a packet; 10 packets in a bundle. There are 40 Rs-2,000 notes in each sheet.
The Transfer
Once printed, the notes are moved to the currency chests of the RBI and to currency chests maintained by commercial banks, with security arranged by state governments/police.
The ATM Loading
8,800 vans of 7 registered cash logistics firms carry cash to ATMs. The machines have four cassettes for notes of different denominations, which are currently being recalibrated for the new currency sizes.
Sometimes Cash Flies
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To ferry cash to particularly remote areas such as some places in the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir, helicopters or fixed wing aircraft may be used. Typically, in a remote area, an ATM needs to be loaded only once in 6 days.Bolton Wanderers captain Kevin Davies says the players are unfazed by reports linking manager Owen Coyle with Liverpool.
The striker insists the players expect Coyle to be the subject of such speculation.
Davies said: "The speculation doesn't distract us one little bit because it happens with managers like it happens with players.
"Owen Coyle has been very successful in his managerial career so far, and I am sure that there will be clubs looking at him, because he's very good at what he does.
"But I think he's really happy here, he knows he's got a good set of players and he enjoys working with them.
"Hopefully we can hold on to him for a while. He can have some success with this team. He is such a positive person, so competitive, a real winner.
"He wants to win at table tennis, head tennis, all the little competitions we have during the week. That rubs off on players. He wants us to be winners."
It's all kicking off again! Click here for the No1 coverage of Bolton Wanderers' winter market transfer news.Search Terms: Highlight Matches
Understanding the Nature of Women. My Thoughts and Experience.
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05/01/2017 11:53 AM
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Report Copyright Violation Understanding the Nature of Women. My Thoughts and Experience. I have decades of experience with women. From dating to marriage. From managing women in the work place to raising daughters. Here are my thoughts based on their biological traits and their psychology.
Women:
Rule #1
You cannot judge women by your own standards. Women do not exercise logic and linear thinking. They interpret reality through intuition and emotion. As an example women do not have any intention of showing up exactly when expected, but they will show up 'fashionably late' because it feels more socially acceptable to them and helps them paint a better picture of themselves to others. How their image appears to others, trumps everything. It is their form of politics.
Rule #2
Women always appear to lie because their reality isn't based on what happened via the primary senses which are visual and audial, they use feelings, which can fluctuate. Women are all mildly narcissistic, so their reality is catered towards maintaining an outside image of themselves as opposed to what actually and honestly took place and who they actually are. Laying it all on the table, so to speak, for a woman, is unthinkable. Putting her true natural self, honestly on display for all the world to see, is not possible for most women. They work ceaselessly throughout their lives to manipulate how others view them. They live in constant fear of being 'outed'. They will alter the story to suit their image, to make themselves appear better, prettier, richer, and more powerful, as if they have the superior vagina.
Rule #3
The definition of love changes for a woman based on the state of her fertility cycle. In her teens and twenties, love for a woman is different for her than it is in her thirties after she has had children. The actual definition of love according to M. Scott Peck M.D. Is thus: The ability for and conscious choice to seek the better health, welfare, and spiritual advancement of another. For a woman, again, the definition and interpretation of love is based on emotion. It is how a woman can "fall out of love" even though that should be impossible if one has made the conscious choice and the commitment to love someone. Her feelings (love) change with her fertility cycle and basically how hot in the ass she gets. Love is not an emotion or a feeling, but women think it is. This is why they are not loyal to men. Their loyalty is based on silly emotions, not on a steadfast conscious choice to love forever.
Rule #4
Sexual attraction and the feeling of love for a woman criss cross in erratic patters over time. During high fertility they (feelings of love&sex) usually combine to form a powerful appearance of True love and loyalty as women are nesting and seeking to procreate. They have something to obtain. Later, after the fertility has lessened, those loyalties can change based upon her perceived needs. Most of the time, what turns a woman on sexually is NOT what she desires emotionally. For the most part, these two instances are separate. It is why women, when they are young, almost always go for the bad boy, the testosterone laden male who is capable of injuring her during copulation. That is what turns her on, biologically speaking. But this is not usually what she 'wants' in a mate during her life fantasies. As a girl she will daydream about a handsome Prince Charming who elicits political and financial power. This is why a woman can marry a billionaire geek, but in the depths of her mind she gets wet over the frightening UFC type covered in tattoos. If you understand female biology and psychology, you can switch personas between asshole and gentleman frequently enough to maintain a successful marriage. If she's worth it. While her waning fertility cycle fluctuates you must determine when she needs gentle cuddling as opposed to dominating brutality.
Rule #5
Women think about sex far more frequently than males. When a man's nuts get full, he looks to empty them. Simple and straight forward. For a woman however, attracting a mate is a constant, nagging thought process. She wakes up and instantly starts judging herself based on acquiring a mate. Is her hair presentable, her nails done, her ass clean, her breath nice, her fashion acceptable, her ass not fat, etc...etc...etc... ad nauseum. Every waking thought and action for a woman is solely catered towards ultimately getting pregnant. Getting the money load inside the womb.
Rule #6
The desire to become pregnant at high fertility levels overrides all conscious thinking and planning. If you are a suitable mate who encounters a woman at a high fertility level in her 20's, she will willingly and unconsciously allow herself to get pregnant, even on the first date. There will be little or no forethought involved in these actions. The primary goal is to have a baby. If she is conditioned thoroughly enough though, she will use birth control and seek out the most alpha type male she is capable of securing. But it is a race for women to snatch up the best male. The establishment has abused this biological drive to create a nation of promiscuous, disease-acquiring whores who do not understand their true nature or what they are doing.
Rule #7
A woman's 'love' is largely based on her olfactory senses. How the man smells to her. She is judging his DNA based on pheromones and determining if his offspring will be acceptable. It is deeply ingrained biology that she is not conscious of. It is also why women are far more likely to give fallacio during courtship as the taste of semen also allows her to determine DNA status. Unfortunately birth control pills using hormones change how a woman senses smell and taste. The man she falls in love with while on the pill is NOT the man she will be in love with after she has gotten off the pill and had children. This is a huge cause for divorce. If you are looking to marry a woman and start a family it is critical that she not be taking any hormone altering drugs for at least one year prior to marriage. If she falls in love with you while she is physically natural, then your chances of a successful long term relationship increase exponentially. If her hormones are synthetically unbalanced during courtship and don't mesh with your pheromones later on, she will begin to resent you and hold you in contempt, ultimately leading to separation. And she won't know why.
Rule #8
Female depth perception and interpretation of speed and distance. Men are biologically designed to chase and kill animals. To do labor. Women are designed to sire offspring and maintain a family. We are two different creatures of the same being. This simple fact accounts for most of our blatant differences. While our creator is magnificent, he made women with 7 (seven) TIMES less grey brain matter. At puberty, women stop producing grey brain matter and continue producing white brain matter. Grey brain matter is the 'intellectual' and. 'Mathematical' brain matter. White brain matter is for communication. Women need that for raising babies. Men need grey brain matter to engineer satellites and put them into outer space.
Anonymous Coward
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05/01/2017 12:52 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: Understanding the Nature of Women. My Thoughts and Experience. Very interesting post. I agree with all of it. The birth control thing is very true, my wife was crazy about me when we met then once she got off birth control the feelings were gone.
One thing I will add though is that don't assume these women of the last 100 years are normal throughout history. Women of the last century are very broken beings hotmonally and physically. Women prior to a hundred years ago were not so broken down by all the estrogen they get from the environment, why do you think so many women have thyroid issues? Estrogen is toxic to thyroid. And yet women are proud of their out of control hormones as they still label estrogen as "the female hormone", when that couldn't be further from the truth.
200 years ago women worked jobs that were more physically intensive than men did, women had to carry gallons of water for miles, handle large strong animals, scrub clothes with bars of soap for hours. Traditional women had forearms that would put modern construction workers to shame.
My point is women were physically active like men, they were physically strong like men and that gave them a normal hormonal profile which was suitable for long term marriage and family. But a few hundred years ago technology sprout up that made it so the homemaker did not need physical work to keep the house running, and women were brainwashed into thinking women had to be physically weak to be attractive. Look at all the renaissance and further back paintings of women, women were as muscular as the men.
If you have dated a lot of different types of women you will note that tomboy type women make the best partners long term. They will go mountain biking with you, play some video games, help you with the car problems, don't have all the estrogen in their system making their attractions so wishy washy.
The highly feminine woman we have seen the past hundred or two hundred years is not normal, she is a monstrousity that has been created by physical laziness and the hormonal system that results from this kind of lifestyle.
Anonymous Coward
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05/01/2017 12:55 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: Understanding the Nature of Women. My Thoughts and Experience. Very interesting post. I agree with all of it. The birth control thing is very true, my wife was crazy about me when we met then once she got off birth control the feelings were gone.
One thing I will add though is that don't assume these women of the last 100 years are normal throughout history. Women of the last century are very broken beings hotmonally and physically. Women prior to a hundred years ago were not so broken down by all the estrogen they get from the environment, why do you think so many women have thyroid issues? Estrogen is toxic to thyroid. And yet women are proud of their out of control hormones as they still label estrogen as "the female hormone", when that couldn't be further from the truth.
200 years ago women worked jobs that were more physically intensive than men did, women had to carry gallons of water for miles, handle large strong animals, scrub clothes with bars of soap for hours. Traditional women had forearms that would put modern construction workers to shame.
My point is women were physically active like men, they were physically strong like men and that gave them a normal hormonal profile which was suitable for long term marriage and family. But a few hundred years ago technology sprout up that made it so the homemaker did not need physical work to keep the house running, and women were brainwashed into thinking women had to be physically weak to be attractive. Look at all the renaissance and further back paintings of women, women were as muscular as the men.
If you have dated a lot of different types of women you will note that tomboy type women make the best partners long term. They will go mountain biking with you, play some video games, help you with the car problems, don't have all the estrogen in their system making their attractions so wishy washy.
The highly feminine woman we have seen the past hundred or two hundred years is not normal, she is a monstrousity that has been created by physical laziness and the hormonal system that results from this kind of lifestyle.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 68739239
Good points. And true. Good points. And true.
Anonymous Coward
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05/01/2017 12:55 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: Understanding the Nature of Women. My Thoughts and Experience. Rule #6
The desire to become pregnant at high fertility levels overrides all conscious thinking and planning. If you are a suitable mate who encounters a woman at a high fertility level in her 20's, she will willingly and unconsciously allow herself to get pregnant, even on the first date. There will be little or no forethought involved in these actions. The primary goal is to have a baby. If she is conditioned thoroughly enough though, she will use birth control and seek out the most alpha type male she is capable of securing. But it is a race for women to snatch up the best male. The establishment has abused this biological drive to create a nation of promiscuous, disease-acquiring whores who do not understand their true nature or what they are doing.
Rule #7
A woman's 'love' is largely based on her olfactory senses. How the man smells to her. She is judging his DNA based on pheromones and determining if his offspring will be acceptable. It is deeply ingrained biology that she is not conscious of. It is also why women are far more likely to give fallacio during courtship as the taste of semen also allows her to determine DNA status. Unfortunately birth control pills using hormones change how a woman senses smell and taste. The man she falls in love with while on the pill is NOT the man she will be in love with after she has gotten off the pill and had children. This is a huge cause for divorce. If you are looking to marry a woman and start a family it is critical that she not be taking any hormone altering drugs for at least one year prior to marriage. If she falls in love with you while she is physically natural, then your chances of a successful long term relationship increase exponentially. If her hormones are synthetically unbalanced during courtship and don't mesh with your pheromones later on, she will begin to resent you and hold you in contempt, ultimately leading to separation. And she won't know why.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 30467123
These are big problems in western countries today. Promiscuous women use birth control, get sexual diseases which make them unfertile and select wrong mates because hormonal contraception. These are big problems in western countries today. Promiscuous women use birth control, get sexual diseases which make them unfertile and select wrong mates because hormonal contraception.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 74783483
Finland
05/01/201 |
intimidating.
What to Expect: The words Appellation Bordeaux Contrlôlée Mis En Bouteille a La Propriété should tell you everything you need to know. It’s the fancy stuff, and it will taste sort of like dirt, but in a good way.
French Subclass: Diluted French
Take the French label and remove a lot of the words. Voilà! These give the feeling of a French label — tradition, upper class — but without all the confusing detail. You usually get the grape name, the region, and they usually try to shoehorn the word “chateau” in there somewhere. Also, there is often a pen and ink drawing of a house that we are meant to believe is the aforementioned chateau.
What to Expect: The winemaker often isn’t actually French, but is instead an American making wine in the French style. That means it will taste sort of like dirt and fruit. You know how people say, “I don’t know, tastes like red wine to me”? This is what they are talking about.
Animals Doing Things
A close cousin of Diluted French, these labels often contain exactly the same information as the D.F., but instead of featuring a chateau, they are named for an animal, which is often doing something. That “something” is usually leaping.
What to Expect: The Animal label began as a solidly American genre, but those Australians sure have taken to it, though with way more marsupials. They’re often from big producers, but these wines tend to stick their landings. (Yes, that is a gymnastics reference.)
The Graphic Design Student
This class description is not meant as derogatory; rather, they are simply very design-y. I find a lot of these labels to be focused on their attitude, a sort of “we don’t have to adhere to your chateau and scripted-font tradition.”
What to Expect: Wine from a small-ish non-European producer (or a small-ish subsidiary of a large producer), the wines themselves can vary a lot, depending on the subclass of the label design.
Graphic Design Subclass: Letterpress
Have you seen those greeting cards where there is some nice serif font that says something like “Thank You” and then there is an equally nice image of a dandelion on it? And also a lot of white space, and it sort of looks like a wedding invitation? That’s what these wine bottles look like.
What to Expect: Smooth wines usually, not super-tannic (i.e, cotton-mouthy), not super-fruity or earthy. Defined more by what they are not. Which is not a bad thing, I don’t think.
Graphic Design Subclass: Poster Art
These labels want you to recognize that they are not like those other labels. Instead, they look like a poster from some other era of graphic design — usually a cowboy or hippie poster for some reason.
What to Expect: Interestingly, while the design itself tends to hit you over the head ("Get it?! It looks like a wanted poster from the old west!"), you can expect wines with a bit more reserve and class. I should say: The labels are well designed usually. Perhaps the wines follow suit.
Graphic Design Subclass: Pottery Barn Catalogue
Totally innocuous with respect to design, these labels looks like those leather-bound books you see in catalogues. That is their whole purpose: looking good next to a bowl of Granny Smith apples on a butcher block counter.
What to Expect: American wine that tastes like the vanilla-scented candle they always put in those catalogue rooms.
Graphic Design Subclass: Indie Designer
These can also vary wildly in style, but again: You will know it when you see it, especially if you are someone who reads Print magazine. Some of my favorite tricks in this genre: huge black text on white; a black and white photograph of people in the Dust Bowl or the Gulag; custom R. Crumb–style illustrations.
What to Expect: Syrah. Or a blend with Syrah in it.
Nostalgic Small-Town Vacation
“Do you like vacations? What about sand dollars and/or the beach? Yeah, we like those things too.” That’s me doing an imitation of the Nostalgic Vacation label. These wine labels are sort of ingenious in that they skip over the wine entirely — “Who cares what grape it is! There’s a flip-flop on the label!” — and go straight to the lifestyle you imagine yourself having while you drink it. Shells, sand dollars, anything beach related, really — but there’s a subgenre here: labels with nostalgic Coca-Cola style drawings of red trucks, front porches, or anything a person might associate with small-town America.
What to Expect: I have had enough hangovers to know with full certainty that these are cheap wines that taste like hangovers. Often very sweet, they aim for smoothness über alles, but this gives them basically no structure.
Clever
Clever labels attempt to make you smile as you walk by. The hope is that you might appreciate a little joke, a little fun, after looking at all those chateau drawings. I identified a couple of mini-classes of the clever label.
Gimmicky: “I sure do love my local professional sports team. So much so that I cannot pass up this wine with Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Josh Beckett.”
What to Expect: Young, young wine that’s bought in bulk by somebody like Charles Shaw and then sold for cheap. These are often one-liners. And while that one line might be Steven Wright quality, most are Rodney Dangerfield level.
Ironic: “Ha! I’m looking for a cheap red wine and look: That one is called Cheap Red Wine. Perfect.”
What to Expect: See above. In fact, all of the wines in these categories might be from one huge batch. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
Fun: “Honey, look — you know how I love moose, right? Well, look at these crazy moose! They are wearing sunglasses!”
What to Expect: Ah, forget it. All this wine is the same. Have you had Yellow Tail or Carlo Rossi? That’s what this stuff is like. Thin fruit, sometimes jammy, but never more than one note.
Word Play: “Pinot Evil? Ah … cute. Look at those monkeys!”
What to Expect: Would it blow your mind if I told you that these wines were incredible? Well … they aren’t. They’re the same crap as all the stuff above.
Painting
Whereas most labels will have some sort of image that supports the words on the label, the Painting labels just throw a painting of whatever on there. And it’s very specifically a painting — lots of colors and obvious brushstrokes. You will not confuse this with a pen drawing of a chateau or a leaping animal. No, it’s like they licensed some of the lesser impressionists and are just going through them.
What to Expect: For some reason, you see a lot of these types of labels on Italian wine. But note that Italian wines generally have to follow similar rules that the French do, label-wise — a lot of words telling you things you don’t understand — so anytime they’re throwing a painting on there, I’m always a little suspicious. In other words, if you buy one of these, you’d better know what you’re doing.
Euro-Trash A-hole
A rare sighting, the A-Hole label is usually more than a label. Often, the whole bottle is some unique shape. Look! I’m a wine bottle in the shape of a shampoo bottle! Deal with it! Whatever.
What to Expect: I wouldn’t know, for I do not condone this sort of behavior. And neither should you.
Obviously, I have not tasted every single wine in the world that has a label. I have simply tasted most of them, and I actually do find a relationship between label and wine. If I like the graphic design, I tend to like the wine. I chalk this up to two things:
1. We are a suggestive people. If I like how you look, I will tend to like you, or at least, I am inclined to like you. (But if I don’t like how you look, watch out.)
2. I make the assumption that the crew who makes the wine also chooses the label, at least at some level, right? So, when a label appeals to me, I think: "Well, I like their font choices. I probably like their wine choices, too."
But maybe you disagree? Have you ever loved a label and hated the wine? Or vice versa? This is what the comments are for, people.
Matthew Latkiewicz works for the Internet; he writes and podcasts about drinking and other subjects at You Will Not Believe. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Wired, Time.com, Boing Boing, and Gastronomica. Tragically, his wifelike girlfriend is allergic to wine.Regular readers of this blog will know I have a lot of time for ukulele punk outfit The pUKEs, so was thrilled to get my hands on their new full album 'Too Drunk To Pluck'.
The pUKEs are a pretty massive gaggle / collective of punk fans who also have their soft spots for the ukulele. Founded by Clara Wiseman (who herself had a previous music career with acts like the UK Subs) there is real punk heritage across the board too and the album itself was recorded and produced by Patrick Collier of the Vibrators.
They are an outfit I've kept an eye on for several years now and have watched them get increasingly impressive gig bookings (including touring with Bad Manners), get Arts Council funding for their excellent ukulele punk workshops across the UK, and also writing their own stuff, complete with always brilliant videos. Can they translate that success into a full album?The first thing that pleased me was to see that this was not just a covers album. Its actually a pretty even mix of covers and pUKEs originals. Performed with lead vocals from Clara and Debs, each track comes with great gang vocals from the rest of the band in true collective style that works really well.It kicks off how it means to go on with a cover of the Ramones 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' at full tilt before moving straight into the pUKEs original 'Fight Song', which I recently shared the video for on this blog. In fact the video for that shows you exactly what the pUKEs are about!We race through Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys, through to Banned From The Pubs by Peter and The Test Tube Babies before we come back to one of the first professional videos I saw by the pUKEs - another original written by Clara Wiseman 'Will I Learn'. I still adore this song.Dismedley by Discharge gives over to another original written by Cil Wong called '453' which is another high point on the album for me.By this point you should have the real feel of the album and that is one of classic punk, with a ukulele flavour (well, naturally eh?). But this is anything but a 'ukulele album'. Sure the ukes are there, clearly, but the album is very well put together and full force in sound with great driving drums and bass throughout. Hey - its punk - what do you expect? George Formby?? (no, please don't tell me you were expecting Formby....)12XU by Wire is covered, then another Wong original called Turn It Off, before we come to another song that the pUKEs put out on video to a great response - Because You're Young by East London punk outfit Cock Sparrer.And after all that.. we calm down a touch for the close and a great cover of Baby Baby by the Vibrators. I thought this one was really nicely delivered and makes for a calm closer and shows they are not a one trick pony. Minimal punk strumming here, but more picking and great harmonies on the voices. Throughout the album, they sound like they are having an absolute ball, as the videos show. There is clever songwriting on display here (yes, in a punk band...) with a nice balance of humour and angst, but a band who have clearly put the work in to get their sound tight and biting is also clearly evident.And with that, the exquisite punk styled CD packaging and a typical punk running time of just under 30 minutes it ticks all the boxes for current or lapsed (like me) punk fans out there. But I take my hat of to them all for another important reason. At the present time, the ukulele world is becoming quite polarised between the 'traditional', the 'You Can't Do That' brigade' (aka 'The Ukulele Police') and those who are trying to push out in different directions. The pUKEs sit firmly in the latter camp. And if the album sends a big middle finger to those that think the ukulele can only be for one style and one style only - well.... if that isn't punk I don't know what is. Good on them I say.Recommended.( Too Drunk To Pluck is released on 4 August and can be obtained from pUKEs central at http://thepukes.co.uk/drunk-pluck/ on both CD and limited green vinyl. It will also release on iTunes on the same day)1. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker2. Fight Song3. Holiday In Cambodia4. The Ballad Of Mickey Fitz5. Banned From The Pubs6. Will I Learn7. Dismedley8. 4539. 12XU10. Turn It Off11. Because You're Young12. Baby BabyBook News: TV Pitchman Kevin Trudeau Jailed For Diet-Book Lies : The Two-Way Also: Stephen King reveals his greatest fear; Margaret Atwood on Dave Eggers; Casey N. Cep on Flannery O'Connor.
The Two-Way Breaking News From NPR Book News: TV Pitchman Kevin Trudeau Jailed For Diet-Book Lies Books Book News: TV Pitchman Kevin Trudeau Jailed For Diet-Book Lies Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. Jurors in Chicago found author and infomercial host Kevin Trudeau guilty of criminal contempt Tuesday for making false claims about his book, The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About. In a series of infomercials, Trudeau claimed the book revealed a "miracle substance" discovered in the 1950s and kept secret by food companies and the government that allows people to eat anything, not exercise and not gain weight. In fact, the book prescribed daily exercise and a 500-calorie-a-day diet. Trudeau was charged with violating a 2004 court order prohibiting him from making false claims regarding his book. In an unexpected move, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman had Trudeau taken into custody immediately after determining that the author, who prosecutors think has millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts, was a flight risk.
Margaret Atwood writes about Dave Eggers' The Circle and the "prison" of living in public: "Publication on social media is in part a performance, as is everything'social' that human beings do; but what happens when that brightly lit arena expands so much that there is no green room in which the mascara can be removed, no cluttered, imperfect back stage where we can be 'ourselves'? What happens to us if we must be 'on' all the time? Then we're in the twenty-four-hour glare of the supervised prison. To live entirely in public is a form of solitary confinement."
Master of horror Stephen King tells Agence France-Presse what he is most scared of: "I'm afraid of Alzheimer's. Declining mental ability, that scares the heck out of me."
Casey N. Cep considers Flannery O'Connor's A Prayer Journal: "The journal is chiefly an interior one, a record of a Christian who hoped the rightful orientation of her own life would contribute to righting the orientation of the world. O'Connor yearns for prayer to come effortlessly, even while exerting great intellectual effort to understand and induce it. 'Prayer should be composed I understand of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication and I would like to see what I can do with each without an exegesis.' Confessing that her mind 'is a prey to all sorts of intellectual quackery,' she asks for a faith motivated by love, not fear: 'Give me the grace, dear God, to adore You, for even this I cannot do for myself.' "
Daniel Mendelsohn, writing with Francine Prose on authors who use pseudonyms, argues that literary critics should consider an author's reputation and entire oeuvre, not just the book in front of them: "The critical urge to see family resemblances in an author's work arises from a psychological insight: The creative mind is, like all minds, coherent, even if its coherences aren't apparent. Like a psychotherapist, the critic looks for patterns, themes and repetitions not only within a work but across an artist's career in order to uncover the hidden unities." The Two-Way Breaking News From NPR NPR thanks our sponsors Become an NPR sponsorWritten by: Joe Ryan
Twitter: @joeryan1621
Twitter: @wingspansports
No, this is not a sports article. I know here at Wingspan we are strictly a sports website that brings you daily sports blogs, some serious, some humor, some trashing our favorite teams and some of our stupid predications. We do it because it is fun to talk sports in this great country of ours. Sports brings people together and having Wingspan allows us to have a platform to share our sports opinions and have people debate with us or agree with us.
But, this is not a sports article. And I will not make this a sports article.
For most of us sports are one of the most important things in our lives. It is our #1. It is our life. We love everything about the joy, the pureness, the competitiveness, the love for the game, but we must remember that it is a game. Sometimes that game we love so much must take a backseat. Especially now. Especially today.
What is going on in this country is sad, it is horrific, it is evil, it is embarrassing, it is downright wrong. And it must end. We cannot keep living like this.
The United State of America is the greatest country in the world. There is no debating that. This Country was built off the backs of our founding fathers and everybody who worked tirelessly to stand up for what they believe in and take a stand. This country exists because people from our past were brave, smart, strong and stuck together. Back then there wasn’t liberals, or conservatives, or ‘fake news’ media. The people back then worked together, they stood with each other. Was there hate? Sure. Did every person agree with everyone? Absolutely not. But you know what? When it came to the nitty and gritty these people were smart enough to put the B.S. aside because that’s what they had to do to make this country the free, independent, strong country it is today.
Why as a nation are we reverting from that? Why are we turning on each other? Why do people blame each other for something that neither of them did? So, what that people are liberals, or conservatives, or white, or black, or gay, or straight? Whatever you are, who cares? This country was built on the backs of minorities. That’s why this country is the best. You can be whatever the hell you want to be. You want to try and reach your dreams without restrictions? Go for it. No one is stopping you from doing it. But guess what? Even if you are a liberal, or conservatives, or white, or black, or gay, or straight guess what you all are?
Everyone who lives here is an American.
We are damn Americans. And that is one damn good thing to be proud of. ‘
After the unfortunate, devastating events that occurred in Las Vegas on the morning of October 2nd, 2017, people starting blaming each other. Liberals started blaming Conservatives, Conservatives blamed Liberals, the media was taking sides. It’s damn shameful. It is a damn, damn shame how we are blaming other people for what happened. How can we be taking sides? It’s incredibly sad to think about. People are on Twitter and Facebook make this a political issue? Over 50 people died that morning, over hundreds were injured and politics are coming into play? You know who deserves the blame? The F**king coward who decided to shoot up a Country music concert with thousands of people there. I won’t even type his name because he doesn’t deserve that. He is a COWARD. We need to come together, as a nation, and blame the coward. He is the one to blame. If you’re a liberal, or conservatives, or white, or black, or gay, or straight, this is not your fault. We can’t blame a group of people because some coward decided to do this malicious act.
This is not about gun control, or the amendments or anything like that. I’m sick and tired of hearing all about that. The coward decided to do this and he got those guns illegally. This is his fault and only his fault. This coward decided to pull the trigger, killing all those people, but really, affecting an entire country. He did that. We did not do it. It is no one else’s fault but his.
I am 20 years old. I am a junior in college. I’m supposed to enjoy my youth. I am supposed to go out with my friends, and go to concerts, go to a ballgame with my dad, be a little reckless, sit and enjoy my life. And don’t get me wrong, I do because we live in the best country in the world. But I shouldn’t have to worry about getting shot up if I go to a place with a large crowd, and I shouldn’t have to worry about people blaming each other after this unforeseen events take place.
In my 20 years, I have seen the shooting in Virginia Tech, the Colorado movie theater shooting, Sandy Hook, the Orlando night club and now Las Vegas. It is the same headline all the time, “A new record for the largest mass shooting in United States history.” I’m getting sick and tired of hearing about it. Let’s make it stop.
Everyone who lives in this country, we play on the same team. We’re all teammates. It doesn’t matter about our political views or sexual orientation or the color of our skin. We are AMERICANS. That is all that matters. We are on the same team, and the only way a team wins if everyone is working together. Currently, we are not working together and we all need to get on the same page.
You want to fix this? Stand for the National Anthem when it is playing because that represents our freedom and gives respect for the people who are overseas risking their LIVES for us to be free. Respect the Police Officers, some are wrong sure, they’re human beings, but to hate them based off inaccurate stats? That’s damn shameful. They are our military on the Homefront, protecting the country on the inside. The police force is out her to protect us and protect our lives, not take them. You don’t like the President? Fine, that is your right. But you better respect him because like it or not President Trump is our president and he is doing everything he can to do what is right by this country. And guess what in 4 years if you don’t like it you have the POWER to elect someone different. That is the beauty of this country.
For once in a long time, I don’t care where you’re from, look at the mountains, look at the waves crashing in the ocean, look at the city lights, look at the land. That is your home. We need to protect this country with everything we have. We cannot crumble. We need to stand together and unite, especially after events like today. We need to get back to what made this country strong, powerful, and amazing….
Unity.
If what I wrote is not enough, listen to the song “Home” by Dierks Bentley. If that doesn’t put it into perspective for you, then you are the reason we are not united and you need to figure it out.
This is our Home. Together. The United States of America is our Home. Let’s unite and protect this beautiful land. Let’s get back to the land of the free home of the brave.
God Bless you and God Bless America.Want to end Corruption? End Cronyism
Several employees of the Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) where recently suspended for accepting bribes from recipients of Eximbank funding. Supporters of Eximbank will say that the action of these "bad actors" does not discredit the program. But these cases are far from isolated incidents. In fact, according to Diane Katz of the Heritage Foundation: “There have been at least 74 cases since April 2009 in which bank officials were forced to act on the basis of ‘integrity’ investigations by the Office of Inspector General..."
This should not be surprising since, as Veronique de Rugy points out, corruption is inevitable when business success depends on staying in the good graces of politicians and bureaucrats, instead of pleasing consumers:
Corruption: Political allocation of capital incentivizes both the politicians/bureaucrats and the company hoping for a handout to engage in corruption. First, a company may try to secure funding by offering politicians and bureaucrats something they may want in exchange for being picked for a handout. But policymakers and bureaucrats may also be tempted to use their position of power to direct funding in ways that are contrary to the standard set for the allocation in the first place — instead, based on friendship, political connections, or bribes.
Eximbank is far from the only example of crony capitalism and corporate welfare leading to corruption. As I wrote last year, Virginia’s economic development programs played a role in the scandal plaguing former Virginia Governor 'Tax Hike" Bob McDonnell:
Governor McDonnell’s defense is that promoting Virginia businesses is simply part of his job. In fact, the Virginia legislature has created a raft of taxpayer-funded programs designed to “encourage” Virginia businesses. Many of these programs, such as the Governor’s Opportunity Fund and the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, distribute funds “at the discretion of the Governor.” And what businesses is the governor likely to “discreetly” support? Businesses which never support him that are run by complete strangers or businesses run by big donors and/or close friends? To paraphrase writer Michael Kinsley, what is really outrageous about the corporate state is not what is done illegally but what is perfectly legal.
Campaign for Liberty continues to work to repeal Eximbank and all forms of corporate welfare and crony capitalism.
Tags: Export-Import BankSaudia (SV, Jeddah) has terminated a lease contract with Hi Fly (5K, Lisbon) after one of the Portuguese ACMI/charter specialist's A330-300s, CS-TMT (cn 96), was recently spotted in Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Israel. The aircraft was still sporting the Saudi Arabian carrier's livery and logo when it landed in the Israeli city.
Israeli media reports state the A330 had arrived in Tel Aviv from Brussels National and was undergoing routine maintenance with Israel Aerospace Industries MRO wing Bedek as per their contract with Hi Fly.
However, according to Arab News, even though the aircraft was not operating a commercial service for Saudia at the time, the Saudis claimed the Portuguese had violated the terms of their contract by deploying the jet to a country with which Saudi Arabia has no official diplomatic ties.
“Such landing or operation process should take place in a country that shares diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to enable Saudia staff and the Civil Aviation authority to conduct inspection and follow up on the maintenance operation at any time,” Arab News quoted Hi Fly’s contract with the Saudi carrier.
Though they reportedly maintain relatively warm relations unofficially, officially Saudi Arabia, as with the majority of Arab states, does not recognize Israel.
In the wake of the incident, it has since emerged that Hi Fly's A330-200 CS-TQW (cn 262), which was also on wet-lease to Saudia, was repositioned to Brussels as of May 10.In the week leading up the two-year anniversary of the SOPA blackout protests, EFF and others are talking about key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day, we'll take on a different piece, exploring what’s at stake and and what we need to do to make sure the law promotes creativity and innovation. We've put together a page where you can read and endorse the principles yourself. Let's send a message to DC, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Brussels, and wherever else folks are making new copyright rules: We're from the Internet, and we're here to help.
Here's what makes a new product or service exciting: it enables you to do something you hadn't even thought possible. But with products that build on or incorporate digital technologies and the Internet—both of which dramatically lower the cost of making copies—some of those exciting surprises inevitably rile up people who control copyrights. If the law were to reflect only the interests of those existing rightsholders, they’d have a veto right on all sorts of new technologies.
Instead, we've got a concept called "fair use" that provides innovators and artists with the breathing space use copyrighted works in a variety of ways, without getting permission. It's a versatile doctrine, one we depend on every time we do research using the Google Books database or the Internet Archive, post a screenshot from a favorite video to Tumblr, share news and information on our favorite forums, or watch a TV show recorded to a DVR. Without fair use, some of our favorite technologies simply wouldn't exist.
How do we know? Because for at least a century, these technologies have been threatened and attacked by large rightsholders. Every time, fair use stands in their way, and essential shield for innovation and the public interest. It’s the key to having an innovation culture, as opposed to a permissions culture.
A Supreme Victory
The fair use doctrine is deeply rooted in US law, but one of its watershed moments for innovation occurred thirty years ago today, in the case of Sony v. Universal (or more commonly, the Betamax case). Hollywood was doing its level best to sue the videocassette recorder out of existence, but the Supreme Court rejected the movie industry's arguments that consumers recording movies and TV shows at home were engaging in massive copyright infringement. Such personal use as time-shifting (recording a show to watch it later, something we take for granted now) were obvious fair uses, said the court, and providing technology to make it happen was not illegal.
Despite all the heavy-handed doom-and-gloom rhetoric from the movie industry—then-MPAA-head Jack Valenti famously claimed to Congress that "the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone"—the home video market that the case opened up turned out to be good for everybody, quickly providing a major portion of the studios' revenues.
All This Cool Stuff
The VCR is just one notable entry in a long line of great developments that rely on fair use. Take, for example:
iPods and other portable music players When the first mp3 players came out, they came with an incredible value: unlike upgrading to tapes or CDs, you wouldn't have to re-buy all your music. Instead, you could make fair use copies of already purchased music, and fill it up that way. Dedicated music players aren't so common any more, but their popularity paved the way for the smartphones that so many people carry now.
When the first mp3 players came out, they came with an incredible value: unlike upgrading to tapes or CDs, you wouldn't have to re-buy all your music. Instead, you could make fair use copies of already purchased music, and fill it up that way. Dedicated music players aren't so common any more, but their popularity paved the way for the smartphones that so many people carry now. Search engines Any company that's building a search engine has to first make an index—basically a copy of all the material users are going to search. When it comes to the Web, it seems obvious that search companies don't need to ask permission to add a site to the index. But rightholders have repeatedly challenged these databases. For example, a company called Perfect 10 insisted that Google Images violated its copyrights by indecxing images on “unauthorized” websites, and the Authors’ Guild challenged Google Book Search service for digitizing and indexing printed books. In both instances, court have recognized that these uses were fair uses, in large part because of the tremendous public benefit their provide.
Any company that's building a search engine has to first make an index—basically a copy of all the material users are going to search. When it comes to the Web, it seems obvious that search companies don't need to ask permission to add a site to the index. But rightholders have repeatedly challenged these databases. For example, a company called Perfect 10 insisted that Google Images violated its copyrights by indecxing images on “unauthorized” websites, and the Authors’ Guild challenged Google Book Search service for digitizing and indexing printed books. In both instances, court have recognized that these uses were fair uses, in large part because of the tremendous public benefit their provide. DVRs, Aereo, and ad-skippers You'd think that after the experience with the VCR, studios might stop throwing substantial time and resources into fighting technologies that allow users to watch video content in whatever time and place they choose. You'd be wrong. Like clockwork, whenever somebody introduces such a product to the market, big content owners up to file lawsuits. For example, broadcasters are currently doing their best to shut down Dish Networks’ Hopper service, which allows viewers to record shows and then skip the commercials when they play them back. After the appeals court rejected that theory, they’ve turned to another; we expect they’ll see the same result.
Danger Ahead
You might notice that many of these products followed a common story. First, there’s a a great new technology that takes advantage of non-infringing copying in an exciting way. Then rightsholders try to challenge that copying, saying that it is in fact infringing. Then the courts explain that the technology isn't infringing after all.
The danger we face now is that, more and more, the established industries are finding ways to keep that story from ever playing out. Fair use is a powerful and versatile doctrine, but it relies on human judgment. So when we let algorithmic copyright cops like YouTube's Content ID block material because it detects a copy, that preempts the possibility of arguing fair use.
Similarly, when media or devices are wrapped in digital rights management software designed to restrict copying, the law says that circumventing that software is illegal even if the reason you're circumventing it is otherwise lawful. That in turn can short-circuit fair use and lead to chilling effects on products that require reverse engineering.
It's not all bad news, though. For one thing, courts continue to recognize the value and importance of fair use, and Congress plans to discuss it in an upcoming hearing. We'll continue to push for a strong and robust fair use doctrine. Join us by endorsing the Copyright Week principles today.There was a loser in CNN's Republican debate held on September 16 and that loser was the Republican establishment. Jeb Bush entered the race last summer as the hundred-million-dollar man. His campaign was -- and remains -- heavily supported by the nation's financial elites. It helps, after all, to be born to privilege and to be the son and brother of former presidents.
But those financial elites must be secretly very worried after last night's effort. I have previously described Bush as resembling Aethelred the Unready in his fitness for office, but really any late dynastic place-holder will do -- Romulus Augustulus perhaps, or one of the supinely indifferent late Merovingians.
Yes, Bush got off a wisecrack about wanting his Secret Service nickname to be "Ever-Ready," to convey a sense of high energy. But if there was a lasting Bushian moment from the debate, it occurred when he sheepishly raised his hand and acknowledged that, yes, he was the privileged white kid who smoked marijuana in high school and now wished to enforce strict drug laws.
Carly Fiorina, on the other hand, turned in an authentically energetic performance. She has clearly memorized all of her talking points and has mastered the art of speaking in complete sentences. These observations would be unremarkable were it not for the manifest inability of some of the other candidates to display comparable skills.
But the substance of her remarks was frightening. If she belonged to a different time and culture, she would quickly be denounced for her deranged, destabilizing militarism. Just consider: she promised to shred the agreement on nuclear inspections with Iran and announced herself ready for whatever the consequences might be. She rejected even the possibility of talking with Vladimir Putin. At the height of the Cold War, American presidents made sure to communicate with Soviet leaders, at least after the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated how dangerous it was not to keep those lines of communication open. She called for the rapid build-up of the American military. Her bellicosity simply does not reflect America of the early twenty-first century. The fever swamps of 1950's Cold War politics, maybe, but not today's world.
Ben Carson's performance, on the other hand, carefully reflected that major premise of the Hippocratic Oath -- "first, do no harm." He was genial, he appeared warm, reassuring even, and he looked very much like a doctor with a good bedside manner. On the other hand, he offered little of substance. And what he did propose should give us pause. He repeated his desire to repeal the federal income tax and replace it with a biblically-grounded system of tithing. (It would be churlish, but someone must ask him whether he favors the return of other biblical principles, like stoning as a form of capital punishment). He half-agreed with Donald Trump's suggestion that over-vaccination might be a cause of autism. Carson would never be a viable player on a national ticket, but as a candidate for the Republican nomination, he clearly survives to fight another day.
And so also does Donald Trump. He was his typical self. He was brash, he was condescending, he boasted about the greatness of his business acumen. The man is a self-proclaimed genius -- no one can find so many ways to remind listeners that, yes, yes, he is a genius. In his more lucid moments, he spoke about the corrupting influence of big money on politics and he was altogether believable in describing how millions of dollars can translate into special favors and access.
What Trump succeeded in doing was staying true to type. He is the billionaire developer whose |
outlets, did not disclose details about the attempt early July 5 at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where the 28-year-old Manning is serving a 35-year sentence.
But the attorneys, who said they spoke to Manning by telephone Monday for the first time since the attempt, accused the U.S. Army of a “gross breach of confidentiality” for publicly revealing last week that Manning had been hospitalized. The Army at that time didn’t offer details.
Manning’s lawyers added that the soldier “knows that people have questions about how she is doing” and will remain under close observation at the lockup for several weeks.
“She would have preferred to keep her private medical information private, and instead focus on her recovery,” said her attorneys, who appeared unaware of Manning’s hospitalization until reached by reporters the next day and who criticized leaks of the information to media outlets.
“The government’s gross breach of confidentiality in disclosing her personal health information to the media has created the very real concern that they may continue their unauthorized release of information about her publicly without warning,” they said.
Messages left Monday with an Army spokesman, Wayne Hall, were not immediately returned.
“For us, hearing Chelsea’s voice after learning that she had attempted to take her life last week was incredibly emotional,” her attorneys’ statement read. “She is someone who has fought so hard for so many issues we care about and we are honored to fight for her freedom and medical care.”
Manning, arrested as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court of six Espionage Act violations and 14 other offenses for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents, plus some battlefield video. Manning, who was an intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time, later filed a transgender prisoner rights lawsuit.
Manning has appealed the criminal case, arguing that her sentence was “grossly unfair” and that her actions were those of a naive, troubled soldier who aimed to reveal the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The appeal contends Manning’s disclosures harmed no one, but prosecutors have said the leaked material damaged U.S. security and identified informants who helped U.S. forces.
© 2016, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This Story Filed Under"I thought [Johnson] was going to call the police and we were going to get arrested," Rodriguez said.
Moments before the shooting, Cruz called for his friend, "Edgar, Edgar," with fear in his voice, Rodriguez said. Then he heard the gunshots.
Rodriguez tried to scramble into the back seat, holding his hands over his head. A bullet lodged into his cellphone, which Rodriguez clutched over his head. He said it's what saved his life.
He didn't learn his friend had been killed until the next day.
Officers arrived minutes after the shooting, and Johnson told them he was a cop. He was dressed in red shorts and a T-shirt. He hadn't grabbed his phone, police radio, badge or handcuffs before leaving his apartment to chase the teens.
"If he wants to make a peaceful arrest, he didn't even grab the means to achieve that," Hermus said during opening statements. "He had already committed to shooting every one of those bullets into those kids, and he did."
Phone records show that in the days after the shooting Johnson searched the internet for information on when it's legal to kill someone to defend property and whether it's possible to see through tinted windows, Hermus said.
The windows on Cruz's Challenger were darkly tinted, and prosecutors suggested Johnson wouldn't have been able to see whether the teen was reaching for anything.
Crime scene photos of Cruz's body show his hands in his lap "palms up like they had just fallen off the steering wheel," said Addison Detective David McDonald.
Family members in the courtroom quietly sobbed as photos of Cruz's bloody body were shown.
His mother, Ana Henriquez, testified briefly Monday about her oldest son, calling him her "right arm."
The teen went to high school in the morning and worked in the afternoons. Cruz would cook for his siblings and help care for his younger brother, who has special needs.
"He killed my dreams," Henriquez said of Johnson. "I want justice for my son."Signage is displayed at an Exxon Mobil Corp. gas station stand Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. Trips to the pump that are costing less and less and job gains that have accelerated are helping Americans feel more optimistic about the economic recovery, now in its sixth year. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After years of criticism and mounting pressure, ExxonMobil has finally added workplace discrimination protections for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees.
As The Washington Blade's Chris Johnson reports, company spokesperson Scott Silvestri said both "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" have now been added to the company's ExxonMobil’s U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity and Harassment in the Workplace policies.
“ExxonMobil supports a work environment that values diversity and inclusion, and has numerous inclusive programs and policies that help make ExxonMobil a great place to work,” Silvestri told the publication.
In the past, Exxon -- the nation's leading oil and gas company -- had received a score below zero on the Human Rights Campaign's ranking of corporate policies towards LGBT employees.
HRC and another leading LGBT advocacy organization received the news skeptically, arguing that the added protections were simply a response to President Barack Obama's July 2014 executive order prohibiting federal contractors from LGBT discrimination rather than a shift in overall corporate values.
“Exxon had to include these explicit workplace protections or risk losing its federal contracts,” Deena Fidas, director of the HRC Workplace Equality Program, said in a blog post on the HRC website.
Tico Almeida, founder and President of Freedom to Work, felt similarly, nonetheless calling the new policy "a good step."So now we know. In Facebook's world, a beheading is OK but an exposed nipple is not. The social media behemoth has decided that a 13-year-old – for that is the permitted minimum age of a Facebook user – can watch a video of a decapitation, but must be protected from the potentially scarring effects of seeing a breastfeeding mother and child briefly pause for breath.
How else to read its latest decision to lift restrictions in place since May and allow users once again to post head-chopping videos, even as it maintains its ban on images of the most mild form of naturally occurring nudity? ("Photos that show a fully exposed breast where the child is not actively engaged in nursing do violate the Facebook terms" is how the site puts it.)
The absurdity of that position shows just how confused even the masters of the online universe become when confronted with the perennial dilemmas of free expression. The simplest, most logically consistent position would be one of absolute free speech, in which Facebook would allow everything within the law. Beheading videos would take their place alongside porn in a great, unfettered free-for-all.
But that's not what Facebook does. It knows that if it did, it would lose vast chunks of its huge, global customer base: parents especially wouldn't let their kids go anywhere near it. So it imposes rules and "community standards," meaning it allows some things and forbids others.
Once it's made that move, deciding that there are lines that should not be crossed, then Facebook is in the business of deciding where to draw those lines. In this case, it has got the decision spectacularly wrong.
The lunacy of allowing beheadings while banning nursing mothers would be bad enough. But Facebook has tied itself up in further knots of illogic by explaining that such snuff videos are OK if they are posted to "condemn" the killing rather than glorify it. But that distinction is not always so obvious. A bit of lip-service condemnation would not be hard to construct for someone whose motive was altogether less benign. Besides, isn't it possible to condemn a decapitation without actually showing it? When the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered that way in 2002, news media around the world managed to denounce it without airing the video.
Which brings us to the nub of the matter. Facebook and the other social media giants are reluctant to be thought of as akin to news organisations or even publishers. They want to be seen as something looser and vaguer, a mere arena for others. There are good reasons for that: social media are indeed different.
But there is a less noble motive behind that reluctance too. Publishers are responsible for the content they publish and Facebook and the others don't want that level of responsibility: for one thing, maintaining standards requires people, which costs money.
But it's getting harder and harder to maintain the pretence that Facebook doesn't make editorial judgments, including ones that have serious consequences. It does – and it's just made a very bad one.We’re always being told to “hurry up!” “Think fast!” “Make a decision now.” Do you realize how offensive it is to say this when it is not necessary? I find being pressured to hurry up absolutely heinous.
Think about this: time is even more important than money, because you can’t get it back once it’s passed. Now if someone you were interacting with was saying, “hurry up, give me your money!” how would you react?
Like anything else, there are times when you do need to think fast. But modern society has a need for speed on steroids, and it’s destructive and harmful. And you have every right to resist it. And well you should.
Telling somebody to quickly decide on something violates their thought process. It is a kind of mental assault. And just as you would resist physical assault, you should also resist mental assaults like this. Even if it sounds like the person hurrying you along knows what they’re talking about and seems to have some good points, ask yourself this: will my life or the life of my loved ones be threatened by not taking this decision quickly? 99% of the time, the answer is a big NO when you just take a moment to think about it. So what if you don’t buy product X right now, or commit to doing what person Y wants right away? Your bungee cords won’t snap. 🙂
One of the reasons we’re able to let people in and trust them is that we are convinced that they won’t cry wolf. We say “anytime you need somebody, call me.” This is based on a trust we have that says, “I can offer you all this because I know you won’t abuse it.” It’s the same thing with our time–time to think. How many people would you truly offer all of yourself to? These people have earned your trust. But these others who are pressuring you to be hasty… have they earned your time? Moreover, have they earned the right to take your time away from you?
Your time is a precious thing. Stop and savor it. Especially when you feel pressured to hurry up… that’s when it’s most crucial. After all, if the decision were easy and didn’t require a moment to think, you wouldn’t feel the pressure and it wouldn’t feel like hurrying up!
AdvertisementsWhen you spin up a framework such as Laravel, Symfony etc. The first thing you'll notice, is that they have their own 'feel'. I often joke that Symfony2 is like Java and Laravel is like Ruby.
But what gives an application or a framework a 'feel'? Domain specific language or 'DSL'.
Domain specific language is almost like a syntax or a language specific to your application and ecosystem. DSL is what makes your applications code unique and more usable.
One technique I've adopted is actually designing the syntax first, then abstracting the logic afterwards. For example, I was recently tasked with writing a large API in Laravel. I wanted to include proper HTTP statuses for each response type, I wanted to transform the response to obfuscate our table structure, and I wanted to convert each request to JSON.
I started out imagining what syntax I'd like to be able to write to get all of those tasks done.
<?php... class ThingController extends ResourceController { public function show($id) { $thing = Thing::find($id); return $this->setTransformer(new ThingTransformer()) ->setItem($thing) ->get(); } }
This pretty much said all I wanted to say, it was succinct, but still allowed a great deal of flexibility.
This may not seem like a lot, but previously, you might have done something like...
<?php... class ThingController extends Controller { protected $fractal; protected $transformer; public function __construct(Larasponse $fractal, Transformer $transformer) { $this->fractal = App::make('Serializer'); $this->transformer = $transformer; } public function show($id) { $thing = Thing::find($id); $data = $this->fractal->setItem($thing, $this->transformer); return response()->json($data, 200); } }
Which may only seem like a few lines longer, but this would add up over the course of a large project.
So now I went backwards into the resource controller.
<?php class ResourceController extends Controller { const HTTP_OK = 200;.... public function get() { return response()->json($this->data, self::HTTP_OK); } }
I used setters to let us customise the response, such as setting a transformer.
<?php... class ResourceController extends Controller { public function setTransform(Transformer $transformer) { $this->transformer = $transformer; return $this; } }
The return $this; allows us to 'chain' further objects or parameters to the final response.
So now, if you want to alter how your application transforms your data, or change a http status code, or even add events or additional logging, you can do all of that from one class, as opposed to updating all of your controllers for example.
So, to design usable domain specific syntax, start at the front. In other words the part you'll be writing the most, and then work backwards to abstract the logic and make it actually work.AN INTELLIGENCE-SHARING regime between UK and US security services was unlawful, a surveillance watchdog has ruled.
Judges on the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which deals with complaints against GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, found intercepted communications were provided to Britain’s listening post GCHQ under a programme that, up until December, breached human rights laws.
However, during the legal proceedings leading up to the judgment, the government revealed previously secret details of the legal framework that governs the mass interception and intelligence-sharing regime – and by doing so made it compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The complicated ruling in essence means that, prior to December, the programme was unlawful because the public were unaware of the safeguards in place – but since they were revealed by the hearings, the human rights violation has been addressed.
Human rights groups Liberty, Privacy International and Amnesty brought a legal challenge against GCHQ following disclosures made by US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden about mass surveillance programmes known as Prism and Upstream.
Yesterday’s ruling has been broadly welcomed by the groups. However, they disagree that the safeguards revealed in the course of the proceedings are sufficient to make GCHQ’s intelligence-sharing activities lawful and will challenge the decision at the European Court of Human Rights.
It is the first time the tribunal has found against the intelligence agencies in its 15-year history.
GCHQ said the judges had shown that the legal frameworks governing the bulk interception and intelligence-sharing regime were compatible with human rights and the ruling against them was in “one small respect in relation to the historic intelligence-sharing regime”.
A GCHQ spokesman said: “We are pleased that the court has once again ruled that the UK’s interception regime is fully lawful. It follows the court’s clear rejection of accusations of ‘mass surveillance’ in December.
“The IPT has, however, found against the government in one small respect in relation to the historic intelligence-sharing legal regime.
“The court has ruled that the public disclosure of two paragraphs of additional detail, voluntarily disclosed by the government during the litigation, were essential to make the public regime sufficiently foreseeable and therefore fully compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights.
“They found that, to the extent that these two paragraphs were not previously in the public domain, the intelligence-sharing regime prior to that point was in contravention of human rights law.
“But the judgment does not in any way suggest that important safeguards protecting privacy were not in place at all relevant times. It does not require GCHQ to change what it does to protect national security in any way.”
The GCHQ spokesman added: “Today’s IPT ruling reaffirms that the processes and safeguards were fully adequate at all times – it is simply about the amount of detail about those processes and safeguards in the public domain. We welcome the important role the IPT has played in ensuring that the public regime is sufficiently detailed.
“By its nature, much of GCHQ’s work must remain secret. But we are working with the rest of government to improve public understanding about what we do and the strong legal and policy framework that underpins all our work.”
The claimants argued that GCHQ’s methods breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the right to privacy, as well as Article 10, which protects freedom of expression.
But in a first written judgment in December, the IPT ruled that the legal regime overseeing GCHQ’s mass surveillance programmes was, from that point, lawful.
A panel of IPT judges said: ‘“We have been able to satisfy ourselves that, as of today, there is no contravention of Articles 8 and 10 by reference to those systems.
“We have left open for further argument the question as to whether prior hereto there has been a breach.”
But the tribunal said questions remain over whether the systems which oversee the listening post’s methods of interception were legal in the past.
These questions have now been addressed in yesterday’s second judgment. Essentially, the IPT has found that, by revealing the safeguards in place during the legal proceedings, the intelligence-sharing programme became compliant.
However, prior to this, these legal frameworks were not publicly disclosed and therefore the regime violated Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said: “We now know that, by keeping the public in the dark about their secret dealings with the National Security Agency, GCHQ acted unlawfully and violated our rights.
“That their activities are now deemed lawful is thanks only to the degree of disclosure Liberty and the other claimants were able to force from our secrecy-obsessed government. But the intelligence services retain a largely unfettered power to rifle through millions of people’s private communications – and the tribunal believes the limited safeguards revealed during last year’s proceedings are an adequate protection of our privacy.
“We disagree, and will be taking our fight to the European Court of Human Rights.”
Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: “For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law.
“Today’s decision confirms to the public what many have said all along – over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance-sharing programme that has affected millions of people around the world. We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance using secret interpretations of secret laws. The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today’s decision is a vindication of his actions.
“But more work needs to be done. The only reason why the NSA-GCHQ sharing relationship is still legal today is because of a last-minute clean-up effort by government to release previously secret ‘arrangements’.
“That is plainly not enough to fix what remains a massive loophole in the law, and we hope that the European Court decides to rule in favour of privacy rather than unchecked state power.”
Elizabeth Knight, legal director at Open Rights Group, said: “This ruling is a very welcome first step but the IPT has not gone far enough.Black bears are growing in population in Florida. (Photo11: SeventhDayPhotography, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Florida man was injured when he intervened in his dog's encounter with a bear Sunday.
The man let his dog out into the front yard where it found the bear. The dog was injured, and when the man approached, the bear swatted him. The man sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was treated and released from Gulf Breeze Hospital last night. Injuries to the dog also were not life threatening.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers and biologists are investigating the incident, collecting evidence and have initiated trapping efforts in the area of Gulf Breeze, Fla. FWC and staff will remain in the area to speak with residents and continue trapping efforts.
Florida has a robust and growing black bear population. For more information on Florida black bears, visit MyFWC.com/Bear.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jLYMJSFebruary 2, 2014
It’s easy math: having more members translates into more presence, both online and on the ground. We’re experiencing continued growth, but we’ll need another leap forward in membership to allow us to achieve our number one goal in 2014: major party status! Achieving that hurdle will remove major obstacles to promoting our message. There won’t be any more petition drives, and our candidates will automatically be eligible for the ballot. Recruiting candidates will become easier, and they will be invited to the all-important debates. When we send out press releases, they’re more likely to get some coverage because major party status will lend us immediate credibility.
So what can you do?
The tide will turn when people stop complaining about the two-party duopoly and take corrective action. We encourage you to stop reinforcing the “Big Two.” They do not have a claim on your vote. It is yours and any party’s candidate must earn it, including ours.
If you’ve had enough of the status-quo of diminishing freedom, please consider helping the LPMN and our 2014 candidates by joining as a LPMN member! Also, we know a lot of memberships come due this time of year ahead of our state convention. We want to be ahead of the curve and boost our financial resources now, so we can launch a concerted effort to get our candidates media attention and gain public recognition long before the election. When you renew ahead of time, any remaining time left on your membership is added onto the next membership period. If you’re unsure of your membership information and would like a status update (start and end dates), please send an email to LPMN Executive Director Andy Burns at [email protected].
GOAL: We’re aiming for 50 new/renewing members to join during Liberty Launch 2014 (Feb 3rd-8th). We want to hear from you. Every member counts! Help us send a clear message to the political establishment that there’s a new party in town!
Why membership?
Membership is the lifeblood of our party. Your membership dues give us the resources we need for our public outreach events, staff, promotional materials, advertising, candidate recruitment, and general operating costs. We watch every dollar we spend. We live within our means and practice the fiscal responsibility that we preach. Being frugal and libertarian go hand-in-hand.
Every donation and membership contribution helps us gain momentum. Increasingly, more people are realizing this and lending a hand to the LPMN. In 2013, we raised five times more than 2012 and our State Party’s membership rolls tripled! That’s fantastic, and we are gaining steam. But we must gain even more support to compete head-to-head with the Big Boys in the political elite.
We offer monthly or annual membership, instead of bothering our fellow libertarians with constant calls and emails for money. Become a member and you’ll significantly help expand our reach with a single action. If more libertarian voters (you?) get connected with the party and simply join, our capabilities will expand dramatically. It’s one of the best ways to move our party and message forward.
For 2014, stay tuned for our statewide and local candidate announcements in the coming weeks. We have a lot in store! We have been busy recruiting candidates and preparing them to take on the big government Democrats and Republicans. This promises to be the most active year for the state party in many years.
Let’s do the math … Are you one of the 35,098 Minnesotans who voted for Gary Johnson in 2012?
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You feel strongly about protecting the rights of others as much as the rights you cherish yourself.
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Concerned about the expansion of government control and the erosion of individual liberty? Please consider joining and becoming active with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. Libertarians support liberty on all issues, all the time! Libertarianism is a philosophical and political movement to promote personal freedom, strong civil liberties, a genuinely free marketplace, and peace.A Mexican Coachella gives new meaning to 'roots rock'
Column One A Mexican Coachella gives new meaning to 'roots rock' Mexican rock bands sing in Tzotzil, Zoque and other disappearing languages of native pueblos, part of an effort to save the ancient tongues.
Valeriano Gomez was standing on a festival stage cradling his black guitar as fans spread out before him, waiting for the count-off, the downstroke, the next electric blast.
Gomez and his group wore matching woolen ponchos, dyed jet black, that made them look like some far-out garage band from the late LBJ era, the flavor of a long-gone week at the Whisky a Go Go.
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But the scene took on a different tone when Gomez, 28, began to sing:
Mi xa na', bu likemtal la tsunubale
Albun mi x-vul ta ajol …
Gomez's group, Yibel Jme'tik Banamil, was among the featured performers at Mexico's polyglot version of Coachella, a festival of rock not en español. The language was Tzotzil, a tongue spoken by Gomez and about 300,000 other indigenous Maya in the central highlands of Chiapas, one of Mexico's poorest states.
"Do you remember?" the song went. "Where your roots are from?... Tell me if you still know the language of your ancestors."
Gomez's poncho wasn't some groovy fashion throwback, but a chuj, the traditional daily costume worn by the men in his Maya hometown, San Juan Chamula. It is a place where the church floor is strewn with pine needles, chickens are sacrificed in religious ritual, and medicine men deliver remedies that predate the arrival of the Spanish.
But television had arrived by the time Gomez was growing up, and it was there that he heard the '80s band Survivor pound out its thumping hit "Eye of the Tiger" in the movie "Rocky III," and there that he heard Los Lobos cover "La Bamba" as Lou Diamond Phillips played Ritchie Valens in the 1987 biopic. Thus began an unorthodox rock 'n' roll conversion.
"I identified a lot with Ritchie Valens," Gomez said. "He was like us — young people trying to realize a dream. In our case, it's a cultural dream, a dream of dignifying the original pueblos of Mexico."
On that chilly Saturday night in November, Gomez's group and 14 others rocked, rapped, skanked and swung in nine of Mexico's 68 indigenous languages.
This third annual "National Meeting of Tradition and New Songs" was part of a curious attempt on the part of the Mexican government to help save local languages by encouraging their integration with the pop genres that are globalization's de facto soundtrack.
The concerts are the brainchild of Juan Gregorio Regino, intercultural development director for Mexico's National Council for Culture and the Arts, a noted poet who grew up speaking the Mazatec language in his native Oaxaca.
The government, Gregorio said, is seeking to strengthen a movement that had been bubbling up naturally in Mexico's far-flung native pueblos.
Gregorio, 57, has no interest in returning to some imagined, more "authentic" past. Rather, he said, he wants the concerts to show how that culture is "amalgamated with all of these other influences — the result of an intercultural process, which is the reality that we indigenous are living."
More than a century ago, federal officials seeking to unify a vast, diverse nation prohibited indigenous languages in school. But over the ensuing decades, the concept of cultural plurality was slowly recognized as an asset. The sentiment got a boost from indigenous activists, including the Zapatista rebels who took up arms here in Chiapas in 1994 to protest their repression.
Experts say Mexico's non-Spanish languages continue to be threatened by urbanization, the homogenizing power of global mass media, and a government that still struggles to live up to its promise to provide bilingual education.
We want to share this world with other people." — Juan Javier Perez Perez, drummer Share this quote
More pernicious is the lingering perception in some quarters that indigenous culture is something less than civilized. The day before the bands arrived in Chiapas, a K'iche Maya doctoral candidate from Guatemala said she had been kicked out of a French bakery in the Chiapas city of San Cristobal de las Casas because she was wearing traditional clothing. She complained to Mexico's human rights commission. The incident made national headlines.
Government statistics show that 6% of Mexicans speak an indigenous language, a proportion that has held steady since the mid-1990s. Scores of languages, however, have vanished.
The members of Yibel Jme'tik Banamil, all in their 20s, grew up in villages where Tzotzil is still the language of the street and the dinner table. But they have seen the kids who go off to the big cities and come back changed.
"You don't see them in their traditional clothes, or they don't want to speak the language anymore," drummer Juan Javier Perez Perez said.
The band's decision to sing in Tzotzil was an "existential" one, he said. "We want to live in this world. And we want to share this world with other people."
The 15 bands arrived in this fog-shrouded Maya village from 11 states. For three days, the musicians attended "creative clinics" in a civic building, overseen by seasoned Mexican pop and rock musicians who coached them on the finer points of voice, instrumentation and stagecraft.
Yibel Jme'tik Banamil performed its song about language and roots for the pros. It was a moody, minor-key, mid-tempo number, and the band delivered it with both polish and restraint. The experts, led by a silver-haired piano player named Guillermo Briseño, praised the group, then got down to a tough-love critique, much like judges on an "Idol" -esque show: The two guitars were playing the same rhythm. The second guitarist needed more nuance. The singing lacked passion.
"Convince us of what you're saying," one said. "To sing and speak aren't the same thing."
It was a few hours before the show now. Zinacantan was bathed in the quiet of a small-town Saturday afternoon. Except for the rappers in a group called Mayan Poetry, who were rehearsing on the town's open-air basketball court. They were flawlessly running through their song "I Am Not Afraid" to a bright and poppy backing track, their voices rolling out verses in Yucatec Mayan, full of thick, percussive glottal consonants:
Ma ch'a'ik saajkili
Wu loj ik laak'ilo'or, tsu'uyta lik beetik …
Roughly: "Don't be afraid, we are all brothers, we make ourselves stronger."
They were Carlos Javier Caamal Tun, 23, and Joel Tuz Kauil, 26, both from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, in the state of Quintana Roo. In their ball caps and baggy hip-hop gear, they could have been space aliens among the Chiapan highlanders.
They begin to lose the Mayan language. They lose their connection to the earth, the culture, the mystic element." — Joel Tuz Kauil, rapper Share this quote
The pair grew up listening to Tupac Shakur, Eminem and Control Machete, Spanish-language rappers from northern Mexico. But they dream in the language they learned from their parents.
Tuz said the vast majority of people in his city still speak the indigenous language. But he wonders how long it will last.
"The Maya go to work in the hotels, and they begin to lose the Mayan language," he said. "They lose their connection to the earth, the culture, the mystic element."
Caamal said that for the indigenous, there is often self-censoring rooted in self-preservation. "They think, 'Maybe if I speak my native language, they're going to discriminate against me, and I don't want that to happen.' So there's a fear of even wanting to speak."
Now this cultural import — this music born in the South Bronx — was their tool to save a culture from being cast adrift in a globalizing tide. They found it neither strange nor ironic. Hip-hop, they said, was now theirs as much as it was anyone's.
This, Tuz said, "is the living Maya culture. It's what the Maya people are doing now."
The sun went down and the concert began. The streets in the center of town were abandoned to stray dogs as the venue filled with hundreds of locals and curious music fans from San Cristobal.
El Rapero de Tlapa, from Guerrero state, delivered his verses in a language called Tu'un Savi. La Sexta Vocal played ska and reggae in a southern Mexican language called Zoque.
Yibel Jme'tik Banamil opened its set flanked by traditional masked dancers in conical hats who leaped around to the loud guitars like surrealist jesters, trailing colorful ribbons, delighting the crowd. The group's number, so restrained in the morning, roared now with raw power.
The rappers in Mayan Poetry were just as confident as they had been on the basketball court a few hours earlier. They leaped and rhymed in a language that no one really understands on this side of Mexico — though for a few moments, it was hard to tell.
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Follow Richard Fausset (@RichardFausset) on Twitter
Follow @latgreatreads on TwitterImagine a heap of sand. You carefully remove one grain. Is there still a heap? The obvious answer is: yes. Removing one grain doesn’t turn a heap into no heap. That principle can be applied again as you remove another grain, and then another… After each removal, there’s still a heap, according to the principle. But there were only finitely many grains to start with, so eventually you get down to a heap with just three grains, then a heap with just two grains, a heap with just one grain, and finally a heap with no grains at all. But that’s ridiculous. There must be something wrong with the principle. Sometimes, removing one grain does turn a heap into no heap. But that seems ridiculous too. How can one grain make so much difference? That ancient puzzle is called the sorites paradox, from the Greek word for ‘heap’.
There would be no problem if we had a nice, precise definition of ‘heap’ that told us exactly how many grains you need for a heap. The trouble is that we don’t have such a definition. The word ‘heap’ is vague. There isn’t a clear boundary between heap and no heap. Mostly, that doesn’t matter. We get along well enough applying the word ‘heap’ on the basis of casual impressions. But if the local council charged you with having dumped a heap of sand in a public place, and you denied that it amounted to a heap, whether you had to pay a large fine might depend on the meaning of the word ‘heap’.
More important legal and moral issues also involve vagueness. For instance, in the process of human development from conception to birth to maturity, when is there first a person? In a process of brain death, when is there no longer a person? Such questions matter for the permissibility of medical interventions such as abortion and switching off life-support. To discuss them properly, we must be able to reason correctly with vague words such as ‘person’.
You can find aspects of vagueness in most words of English or any other language. Out loud or in our heads, we reason mostly in vague terms. Such reasoning can easily generate sorites-like paradoxes. Can you become poor by losing one cent? Can you become tall by growing one millimetre? At first, the paradoxes seem to be trivial verbal tricks. But the more rigorously philosophers have studied them, the deeper and harder they have turned out to be. They raise doubts about the most basic logical principles.
Traditionally, logic is based on the assumption that every statement is either true or false (and not both). That’s called bivalence, because it says that there are just two truth-values, truth and falsity. Fuzzy logic is an influential alternative approach to the logic of vagueness that rejects bivalence in favour of a continuum of degrees of truth and falsity, ranging from perfect truth at one end to perfect falsity at the other. In the middle, a statement can be simultaneously half-true and half-false. On this view, as you remove one grain after another, the statement ‘There is a heap’ becomes less and less true by tiny steps. No one step takes you from perfect truth to perfect falsity. Fuzzy logic rejects some key principles of classical logic, on which standard mathematics relies. For example, the traditional logician says, at every stage: ‘Either there is a heap or there isn’t’: that’s an instance of a general principle called excluded middle. The fuzzy logician replies that when ‘There is a heap’ is only half-true, then ‘Either there is a heap or there isn’t’ is only half- |
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